Review: To Sin with a Stranger by Kathryn Caskie.

Posted December 18, 2008 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins


Hero: Stirling Sinclair
Heroine: Isobel Carington
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Meet the “Seven Deadly Sins” The seven Sinclair brothers and sisters live for scandal and delight in disgrace….until their father decrees that they must reform. Propriety has never come easily, but now they have no choice. Marry in haste….or regret in poverty!

The Sinclairs of Scotland are known throughout society as the Seven Deadly Sins. Cast out by their father and denied their inheritance unless they mend their wild ways, they travel to London to seek respectability. No member of the clan is more scandalous than Sterling Sinclair, the Marquess of Blackburn. The ladies of the ton are powerless to withstand his rakish charms…until Miss Isobel Carington comes along.

Ten thousands pounds if she marries Sinclair!

Isobel is horrified to learn that’s the amount wagered at White’s Club–and now all of London is eagerly betting on her future! She’s already publicly spurned the marquess, a man she hardly knows, but she’s sure he is up to something, as he launches a bold campaign of seduction anyway. But soon she is surprised to learn there is much more to this man than reckless adventure and bad behavior…and, against her will, she begins to relish the thrill of sinning with this stranger…

This is the first book in the Seven Deadly Sins series by Katryn Caskie and yipee, I’m so going to read the rest of this series.

This was a pretty decent read for me. It didn’t take me long at all to fall into this story. I’ve got to say that the prologue for this book did a pretty fantastic job of hooking me right into the story. It did a great job of preparing me for what was to come in the rest of the book.

So we’ve got seven deadly sinners (aka the Sinclair siblings) and one pissed off Dad (Daddy Sinclair) and a whole lot of growing up to do in order to get back on Daddy’s good side. After Mommy Sinclair died, Daddy Sinclair lost himself in a bottle to cure the grief that is eating at him and he leaves his seven kids to run wild and raise themselves. Now that Daddy has come back to the world of living, he’s realized just how bad things got with his kids and he’s decided that it’s high time that he stepped up and made turned them into respectable young people to uphold the Sinclair name. So what does a parent do to get his grown up kids to drink a bottle of Act Right?

He banishes them of course!

He sends them to London to become respectable little civilians and they’ll only be able to get back into his good graces if they turn their lives around and earn their own ways in this world. This book was Stirling Sinclair, the eldest of the broods book. His deadly sin is Greed and this book was all about that particular sin. You see, the whole of this book took place around a bet that would make Stirling a very rich man which he would then share with his brothers and sisters because they needed the money and because Stirling just couldn’t stay away from a wager.

Out of all of the Sinclair brothers and sisters, it is Stirling who is doing most of the work to keep their bills paid and food in their bellies. The sisters all bitched and moaned about Stirling fighting and getting his face smashed in and his hand busted open but none of them did any complaining when Stirling brought money home to keep up the appearance that the Sinclair siblings were richer than rich. It irked me some when the siblings would all bitch and whine about how Stirling had the audacity to spend the money without alerting them first but as soon as Stirling tripled their money, they all shut the hell up and spent his money. The one that really got on my nerves with this was Ivy. I mean, she had the frickin’ nerve to steal from Stirling when she was the main one griping about everything he was doing.

Ugh, it just got on my nerves. The girls were so spoiled but they were girls so I didn’t stay mad at them for long because alls well that ends well. I’m mighty interested to see the others grow as much as Stirling grew in this book.

The romance between Stirling and Isobel felt rushed for me. It was like, one minute Isobel was jumping in between Stirling and his opponent and then the next week, they’re seeing each other from across the room and then you blink your eyes and they’re in love. It could have been drawn out a bit more to make it more believable but even with the falling in love in the blink of an eye didn’t take away too much of my enjoyment of this story. I enjoyed getting to know Isobel and I enjoyed getting to know Stirling and I’m mighty intrigued to read the rest of the series as it unfolds.

The way this story was brought together made for an easy read and I appreciated Kathryn Caskie’s efforts in writing this story because though it wasn’t the perfect romance for me, it was still an enjoyable read, one that I am sure others will enjoy as well. The book flowed well and it was entirely easy to follow and I wasn’t thinking about anything or anyone while I was reading this book, Mrs. Caskie had me absorbed in the world she created for the Sinclair’s and Isobel. It was an enjoyable tale that I’m very glad that I read.

The only thing that I hated was Isobel’s father in the beginning but even he redeems himself in the end so I really couldn’t find very many faults with this book other than the falling in love too soon, aside from that, this book was a great read.

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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2 responses to “Review: To Sin with a Stranger by Kathryn Caskie.

  1. Rowena

    Yep, I’m mighty curious to read Grant’s book, his deadly sin is lust, he’s the hottie in the family and ooh wee, I wanna get to know him more.

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