Title: Rebel Saint
Author: Adriane Leigh
Year of publication: Out today! I was kindly given a copy to read and review
The heroine: Co-ordinator Tressa Torrado
The hero: Catholic priest Bastien Castenada
The blurb: She found herself on the steps of St. Michael’s seeking shelter, what she didn’t expect was temptation so sharp and sweet concealed beneath one snow-white collar.
He rescued her from rock bottom, desperate people squeezed together by the desperate cracks of life, but their relationship was never innocent. The thinly-veiled attraction combustible, magnetism so explosive it rattles the very foundations of their belief.
But can their unholy love story withstand the fall?
Standalone or series: Standalone, but there is another book in the series coming.
The review: What an extraordinary book. What a wonderful arrangement of words to form a story that can be summed up in just one of them: sensual. Father Bastien Castaneda has offered sanctuary to a desperate Tressa Torrado, who has been abused in many forms by pretty much everyone her entire life. At St. Michael’s Catholic Church, under Father Bastien’s watchful eye, she has created a sense of community for the churchgoers, a family of sorts – the one she has always wanted, but never had.
After a few months, however, things are changing. Tressa can no longer deny the chemistry that sizzles between them when they’re together, and she can tell the priest is finding it just as hard to deny. But he is devoted to his religion, and she knows there is no future for them together… or is there? What I really liked about this book that made it different to other books about the same trope was that it seemed to be Tressa who struggled more with their relationship, rather than Bastien, who was risking more.
This is a lushly written story of a love forbidden between two people. Will Bastien forsake the calling he’s followed his entire life for the love of a woman he can’t live without? Will Tressa be able to accept a saintly man like Bastien can love a tainted woman like herself? You really must read this book and find out…
the romance shelf 