The genius and the sunshine girl. As children, we fought bitterly and often, bickering every chance we got.
But then we grew up.
Then we came back.
Delphine Dansey carries her heart on the outside of her body; she’s looking for love and chasing dreams. She’s spoiled and selfish, the kind of beautiful that’s made for money and fame. But somehow she’s ended up in my keeping: a pretty submissive I … pretty submissive I can’t seem to resist, a lover who obsesses and tempts me.
I thought I’d locked my heart away a long time ago, along with all my other weaknesses. But some doors won’t stay closed, no matter how hard I fight to keep them shut. She unravels me, just like our friends are unraveling, just like Thornchapel itself is unraveling.
All year long, we’ve been sowing lust and jealousy and pain, heedless of the consequences. But a harvest is inevitable, and so now we must reap our sorrows.
And our sighs.
Harvest of Sighs is Book Three in the Thornchapel series.
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4.75 Stars
The Thornchapel Six.
They’ve known each other since that summer they spent together at Auden’s family’s estate in England – their parents were friends…. or something.
Now, twelve years later we’re back at that house.
And that’s all I’m going to tell you about this 3rd book – well not even about the third book! That was part of my review from book #1. But I just can’t tell you anything more about this! (You definitely should NOT read this review or the book if you haven’t read the first two!!!!)
Well maybe I can tell you a tiny bit. We concentrate a lot on Rebecca and Delphine – which you might’ve guessed by looking at the cover! But our other darlings are in here a lot too. They have to – especially after that cliffy in book 2! Jeez.
After reading book #3 … this is still a
WTF-KIND-OF-AMAZING-SH*T-HAVE-I-JUST-READ-I-NEED-MORE-ASAP series. So different than all the other books out there.
It’s Beautiful. Adorable. Heartbreaking. MUCHO EROTIC. Mysterious. Queer. Kinky. Amazing. Weird. Historic. Strange. Wow. And so much more! It’s basically ALL THE ADJECTIVES!!!
Grab a gallon of tea or a pitcher of the alcoholic beverage of your choice and get ready for an amazing story …
(insert this creepy Halloween whaaahahaaaaa laugh!)
I have to say that I didn’t love-love this one as much as the last two. No idea why. Maybe it’s just that I’m not interested in girl on girl erotica. Or because it was way too religious again. It has a lot of stuff that I don’t really like, but I love ALL the characters and the story. I loved this book too, but this time the few negatives were a bit too obvious for me. Also – there are so many ten dollar words in here. Or latin phrases. I would’ve loved to have a book of footnotes to go with this! Also the POVs were a bit too challenging for me. I love a book to be in the first person and this book was all over the place with its POVs.
But now I can’t wait to get my hands on book 4!!! I need to know how this all will end! UGH!
I’m not saying that there WAS a huge cliffy, but there wasn’t NOT a huge cliffy either. Or whatever! LOL. I NEED book 4 now!
… I’m pretty sure Netflix is already waiting ’round the corner to grab this series!!! If not, then someone has to call them!!!!!
WOWZAA! Want a book that will make you scream at the end?! Well, it’s right here! I got completely sucked into the story and the epicness that is Thornchapel that I didn’t even notice I had finished the book. Addicting from beginning to end. This series is completely different. There’s so much going on that you can’t skim to get to the good parts. Guaranteed to miss something if you do. Simone nails another one and I can’t wait to see how this all ends. So many questions that I NEED answers to. So many taboo and twisted scenes that I went back and read them just to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. All the good book things!!! LOVED IT!
This is the third book in The Thornchapel series. We get more of a back story about Rebecca and Delphine and how their relationship is growing. We get more Beckett and his devotion towards God and Thornchapel. His struggle to find his balance and peace. And of course, we get more Auden, Poe, and St. Sebastian. We also find out what the parents did twelve years ago at Thornchapel. This is such a compelling story. The folklore about all the rituals is so captivating. I can’t wait to find out everyone’s ending.
Nothing I write in a review can do this masterpiece of a series justice. It is lush and provocative and mysterious and gorgeous and kinky and lovely and angsty and mystical. Each book is a joy to read and I will be devastated when it is over. Definitely will go down as one of my favorites of all time.
I’ve become a fan of this author and I was really curious about this series for a long time so I thought it was time to finally read it.
I loved the characters; they are all so different but they all complete each other. This series keeps making my brain tangled with all the secrets, mystery and development.
Well it’s Sierra, and it’s erotic and lush and spellbinding. I love that we get so much more of Rebecca and Delphine, and we get more depth from Becket, and of course more St. Sebastian, Poe, and Auden. This series is like nothing you’ve read before. Sierra will transport you to Thornchapel and she will make you feel what the characters are feeling. We are reaching critical mass with the angst and stress in this saga and I can’t wait to see what happens next! Brilliant and captivating, Harvest of Sighs gets 5 plus stars from me!
These six people are my favorite characters this year. This particular book delves into Rebecca and Delphine’s relationship, and while that one isn’t my personal favorite, there is plenty of Auden, Poe, St Sebastian, and even Father Beckett too.
Thorn Chapel continues to draw these six friends/lovers in to dangerous places, and even though they figure more and more out that should have them running for the hills and burning it all down, they keep going back for more.
I can’t wait for the last book. I’m actually scared to read it. If someone is sacrificed, I might have to throw a fit lol
Forbidden and taboo continuation of the Thornchapel series! Wow, I got so sucked in and couldn’t believe it was over. Such a complicated love story. You’re going to want the next one immediately lol but we have to wait a little.
This series just keeps surprising me!
I can’t get enough of this complicated love story between Poe, St. Sebastian, and Auden. There’s never a shortage of drama, lust, and undeniable heat where these three are concerned. Their story has me the most intrigued, by far, but it’s certainly not the only gripping storyline.
Rebecca and Delphine get more and more interesting by the page. I love their dynamic and how they seem to be learning and growing as their story unfolds. But theirs, too, is a complicated one.
I’m so enamored with Beckett! This man is a walking contradiction and I love every minute that he graces the pages of this story. He’s both complicated and complex and I can’t wait to find out more about what he’s going through.
This series is amazing so far, and I don’t want it to end! But on the same note, I can’t wait for the fourth and final book, Door of Bruises, to get here. This story is captivating and these characters are even more so. Based on what I’ve read so far, I know book four is going to be epic and I can’t wait to find out what happens!
Wow! Just wow! Harvest of Sighs was not what I was expecting at all. The book is as forbidden as the story, and it was delicious and taboo and so addictive!
Carrying on from the previous book, we get pulled back in with the group’s shenanigans, and we hear more from certain characters than others. I loved that they got the spotlight a little, their story deserved to be told. Its also just as, maybe even more forbidden than the other books. It was a delicious temptation that I should not have enjoyed, but could not stop reading. I mean, damn. It was as if the sun had set me on fire.
The book is taboo – that’s the warning. I did not breathe until I finished it. The story got too enticing to finish. My favourite trio, and their spiral of guilt, and emotion was too good to stop. And Becket – what a handsome priest he is.
This book is a lot more emotional and revealing than the others. It’s a little more graphic, but with plenty of shock factor. It feels wrong reading it, but right at the same time. It’s confusing, yes, but you’ll understand once you read it.
I have never read a series like this before, and I am in love with it, the group, the history, the taboo. I am excited but sad to see how this series ends. I don’t want to say goodbye, but I need to know what happens next.
Such a great series, not for the fainthearted, but highly recommended!
For me, reading a Thornchapel book is like a religious experience. I am not reading, I am falling into the darkness and the thorns of this story. When I’ve first read A Lesson in Thorns, not knowing anything about the series, I was a bit puzzled, not knowing if I had adored it or if it was way too fucked up for me. It is actually with Feast of Sparks that I fell utterly in love with the story and after the end of the second book, I needed to read Harvest of Sighs.
This third book is centred on Delphine and Rebecca, even though Auden, Prosperina and Saint are still a big part of the book. I always love a good lesbian representation in books and those two were so so hot! I had been waiting since the end of the first book for more scenes of these two, and I was not disappointed. Throughout the book we can see them struggle, but also love and Delphine just became my favourite character.
This book was also filled with so much conflict as we learn (SPOILER if you haven’t read the first two books) that Saint is actually Auden’s brother… And I think that we can see Sierra Simone’s talent by how conflicted we also feel. During the entire book, I was crushed by their feelings for each other, but that is the power of the Thornchapel series.
We also learn so much about the entire history of the chapel and the rituals. There are amazing flashbacks that made the entire story even more complex. The end of the book was the end of me. I just can’t wait for the next one to come out, I’m literally dying to know.
“…she lets the breath go, and the world sighs with her.”
“‘It was always God’s place,’ her mother had repeated. Pointedly. Then she’d added, ‘before the Guests, before the Romans, before the druids. When the thorn chapel was alone and the door was nothing but a shimmer in the air.'”
This book, for that matter, this series is yet another amazing literary accomplishment by Sierra Simone. From the modern tale of conflicted relationships sprinkled liberally with sizzling, kinky, albeit, loving erotica; to the folklore existing before the Druids in Britain suggesting that the ancients knew of a mystical deity before they were introduced to Christianity. They knew of this God’s providence and demands. They marked their lives with festivals and pageantry to appease the Gods and insure blessings and protection.
“But there was a moment, there must have been a moment, when I started to see. When I stood at the head of all that majestic symmetry, and I finally understood what my father was trying to explain to me about balance and about vision. About horizons, about light and dark, about transitions. About harmonies. Before me was not just an imprint of a design— tidy, ordered, controlled— but an assertion of human will over nature.”
The narrative of each main character ‘s story is fertile with any number of allegorical implications in the unfolding of the various relationships. Especially with Thornchapel calling to them and claiming them all in lusty sacred sexual rites. Or, have they used what they discovered about their parents in the library as permission to succumb to a pagan hedonism? What will these relationships ultimately manifest in their lives?
Thonchapel feels as though it is a sentient being unto itself. “Sighing” along with those it is calling home to it….a place between “here and there”…similar to but not quite “life and death”… a profound existential mystery binding our characters as they scatter…attempting to escape the confounding and consuming passions awakened by the mysteries, folklore and “fossils of love” from the past. The question that remains in my mind concerns the forces of Thornchapel. Are they benevolent or malevolent? Does this qualification even apply?
“We’re so used to being the gods of our own little world that we’ve forgotten the real one, and now we’ll have to pay for our hubris. We’ll have to reap what we’ve sown…”
A surface read of this book is enormously satisfying if pure entertainment is what you seek from your reading. However, this is not your usual romantic trope or love story even. Still it provides requisite tension and angst… believable lover’s dynamics. You begin to truly care for the characters you meet. In the gorgeous scenic descriptions and the setting of the dreamlike mood, you will be lost to the mysteries of Thornchapel just as the characters in the book are. I know I am.
Being lost has my mind exploding in all directions and sliding onto tangents. No, I’m not quite insane yet. To reap the “Harvest of Sighs”, did our lovers sow the seeds of frustration in wild abandon. Were these the “first fruits” offered as a sacrifice back to love… to the land… to the Thornchapel, to God.
How ancient the idea of taking the “first fruits” and presenting them to the Gods…giving back to the land. So that the land will renew itself and return to full abundance next year. So too if you give yourself over to what love asks of you,”sacrifice”; perhaps, you will return to yourself more whole.
“’Denial,’ Becket murmurs to me, closing his eyes, ‘is the imprint love leaves on the world. It is love’s fossil. Its sign. Sacrifice is the heart of love.'”
Does this mean…John Barleycorn must die? the Thorn King?
Did love require that these friends…lovers… scatter from Thornchapel? Love’s desires, needs and wants sacrificed for a higher purpose?
And when I read the phrase “the door was nothing but a shimmer in the air”, my mind jumps to the quantum particle/wave theory of matter. Quantum theory itself for me is such a witness for our Creator. It is also very sexy… Quantum entanglement etc.
On one hand I anticipate a glorious ending to this rich and often fantastical saga; a happy ending for all concerned. Then again, the story can go a whole other way as well. Fairies, banshees and the like are not all benevolent and kind. Similarly, the ways of God as unknowable. As is the true nature of everything…our very reality… “here and there”.
I am grateful to Sierra Simone for her creativity and follow through. The work is masterfully written, beautifully researched with inventive character development and interaction. There is power and genius in love stories set within timeless and limitless ideas. Thank you for shaking my cobwebs loose. I anticipate even more in the next book in this series, The Door of Bruises.Door of Bruises (Thornchapel, #4) by Sierra Simone
“This is the hurt I choose, Poe said that night. But what about the hurts we don’t choose? The ones that come for us anyway, the ones that chase us through time and through sins and secrets so old that they now belong more to the dead than to the living?”
Series: A Lesson in Thorns (Thornchapel, #1) by Sierra SimoneFeast of Sparks (Thornchapel, #2) by Sierra SimoneHarvest of Sighs (Thornchapel, #3) by Sierra SimoneDoor of Bruises (Thornchapel, #4) by Sierra Sim
This series is thought-provoking and a completely sensual experience. In this book, we are heading for Lammas and brings fear to some and a sense of excitement in others. Tension builds. Lust is growing by leaps and bounds. Nerves are frayed. None of the six are unaffected. All are dealing with their own pains and worries.
You will need a fan, some ice, and more than a few tissues by the time you finish this novel. And the patience of a saint to await the next one.
Sierra Simone is giving us a thrilling, sexy, and mystic ride with this series!
You know a book series owns your soul when you get a tattoo for it lol.
The books in this series just get better and better, more intense and WAY more painful, so I knew what I was getting into when I started this baby. But let me just tell you… I was still killed. MURDERED. Brutally hacked up with a machete. And now my lifeless chunks will be lying on my living room floor until Halloween when we get the finale and… wait for it…
AUDEN GUEST.
I had an inkling that Book 4 would be Auden’s book, but when I read it at the end of HOS I SCREAMED, and burst into even more hysterical tears than I was already spewing after that ending. I think I NEED Auden’s POV just as much as I need to find out how this story ends, and God – PLEASE GOD (AKA Sierra Simone) – a happily ever after!!!
Seriously I’m gonna need this stuff to be worked out, Queen. You’re really putting my heart through the ringer here! And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I’ve said it in my reviews of ALIT and FOS, but this series is unlike anything I’ve ever read – nay, experienced – before. It’s so different, and those of you who know me, know I THRIVE on different. I’ve never really been one for BDSM books, but the way Sierra writes the kink has me saying “Yes, Sir” or “Yes, Mistress” out loud while reading!!
Another thing you should know: I don’t do F/F. It’s just not my cup of tea, and never has been. Nothing against it at all, but these are just my preferences. Give me M/M all dayyyy but F/F has always been like meh for me.
Yea this book changed that perception COMPLETELY. I’ll be honest, when I first saw the cover and read the blurb I was a teeny tiny bit nervous. I just NEEDED so much more from Auden and Saint after the insane ending of FOS, and I was the slightest bit worried that HOS was going to be primarily about Rebecca and Delphine. Don’t get me wrong, I adore their characters, but I’ll admit, I went in skeptical.
And to MY QUEEN, Sierra: A THOUSAND APOLOGIES FOR DOUBTING YOU!
If anyone could make me not only love F/F scenes, but actually CRY over their characters, it would be Sierra Simone. I related to both Rebecca and Delphine in different ways, and it was HAUNTINGLY mesmerizing. I cried for Delphine, and myself, and every other thick girl who tries so hard to love her body the way it is but struggles because it’s hard. It just is, and so I cried. And I empathized, and it was so powerfully written.
And then with Rebecca, who is the epitome of an emotionally stunted control freak, I related! I felt her pain in dealing with divorce and famliy issues and never never never feeling like you’re good enough, no matter how hard you try. So I cried for her too.
I cried for Beckett, so lost and torn up. I cried for Poe, dealing with being in love with two men who cannot see eye to eye. And I cried for those two men… Auden and Saint. My babies. Cut down in the eve of what should have been their FINAL beginning.
Guys, I think I could go on and on about this series and this book forever, so please, if anyone has read it, message me and we can chat. And if you haven’t but are considering it, do it.
DON’T waste any more time, just read this series because it’s one of the greats. I don’t care what anyone else in the world says, this story and these characters are engrained in my soul forever.
Now let’s get to Halloween so I can have my Auden please!
Though I’m terrified… Because John Barleycorn must die.
Oh she definitely did it again, took our beating hearts and held it in her devious hand and crushed it over and over again!! And I loved every minute of it! Nothing compares to Sierra’s all consuming and emotionally gripping stories. This is the third book in the Thornchapel Series and it cannot be read as a standalone. This book starts off right where book two ended, Saint finding out Auden’s secret and leaving behind his perfect image of his perfect new life with his Thorn King and their Bride of Thorns. This third book while it still showcases all six characters is essentially Delphine and Rebecca’s story. They have found a comfortable arrangement for them to explore this new relationship they both are eager for. We get to see Delphine’s new desires grow and we get to see Rebecca step out of her comfort zone and take on a full-time submissive and a lover. Their relationship is intense and complicated. Nothing is easy. Just when you think they can have a happy life together, one is holding back her fears while the other is holding back her love. I really enjoyed the chapters written in Rebecca’s POV. She is impossibly smart and gifted and has many intriguing layers . Delphine is ever the happy girl who is also fighting some demands and intense fears. She was hurt the worst way a woman can be and she is trying to push past all that and live a healthy and positive life. Her and Rebecca couldn’t be more different but their lives intertwine perfectly. On the other side of things Auden tries to win back his Saint. Their future together seems impossible until Auden suggests a way to have eachother and Poe together. Nothing is simple about their arrangement and the summer is long and daunting and only brings more complications and questions as the months tick by. Beckett is struggling with something internally, almost as if something is taking over his mind and body slowly. And while the others deal with all the what ifs and mystery of Thornchapel, nobody seems to notice this change in Beckett. He is the biggest mystery to me right now. Chapter after chapter, this book brings more heartache and more love and more sex than seemly possible! I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Sierra’s words. Her writing is poetic and magical. As a reader you live and breath Thornchapel because she writes with such depth and detail. Yes this book leaves many many cliffhangers, and yes all of their stories and their endings are completely unknown. Auden is coming and I cannot wait for the Thorn King! Sierra Simone
This series gets better and better! I’m feeling emotionally wrecked now that it’s over with WAY too much time until the final story releases! The pain that EACH character was hitting during this story came to an ugly head at the end, and it’s going to take me a while to get over it.
HoS got so much deeper , on so many levels.
Some questions were answered, some where left to hang
in the balance.
No-one was left standing towards the end.
Choices were made, sides were picked(in a way), but I’ll never question the craziness of this book/series because it has soooo much depth.
Amazing world building, and out of this world characters that you just can’t help to root for..
I’m really excited about Door of Bruises, it’s gonna be epic
HOLLY HELL!!!! SOOOOO GOODDDD you guys!
Harvest of Sighs is the third book of the Thornchapel series. You absolutely cannot read Harvest of Sighs without reading Lesson in Thorns and Feast of Sparks first. And if you already read the first two, I guess you already know of a few little spoilers here
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The end of book two gave us a jaw-dropping revelation of Auden and St. Sabastian relationship (they are half-brother) YIKES! You got that right! This whole series is kinky and it’s about to get a whole lot kinkier. Auden is unperturbed by the idea that they are related. Nothing will ever change his feelings for St. Sabastian. However, St. Sabastian doesn’t share the same sentiment. He has a really hard time dealing with this new reality, his feelings for Auden and how it would affect Poe. They are supposed to be the three musketeers but that might change.
This one focuses a little more on the relationship between Delphine and Rebecca as well. Delphine is more sentimental. She is all head over heel in love, but something is holding Rebecca back and we have not quite figure that out yet. Delphine made little mistake in her moment of weakness. At the same time, Rebecca is ready to move their relationship to the next level but is it too little too late now?
Then there is Beck and his feelings for Poe. His perfect priest image is tarnished, and he is about to get in a whole lot trouble. Poor Beck and his fragile heart. What will his pennant be for his sins?
There is also a little something something going on with a couple of dads I supposed will get all the loose end in book four.
More past secret revealed about a certain mysterious door. At the end of this book, everyone had their reasons for leaving except Auden and Rebecca. They are the only two left at Thornchapel and surprised!!! They found said mysterious door opened!!! What now? We must wait for the conclusion in Door of Bruises…
I obsessed with this series. The bonds and the passionate love they all have for each other. A bit shaken now but I have no doubt Sierra Simone will bring it on home in the last book. I adore all the characters. Love all the angst, heat, passion, twists and turns, mystery, romance of all kinds (emotional, erotic, sinful, sensual) just EVERYTHING!!! Beautifully written!!! Can’t wait for the big finale and please don’t break my heart!!! :O
Reading any book by Sierra Simone is a feast of written delicacies. You can smell the cool, fragrant air off the British moors, feel the texture of the purpling heather between your fingers just as the characters do because her language is just that rich and tactile. I won’t give anything away about the plot because the story deserves to be jumped into like the deep end of a swimming pool, anticipation, excitement, and a little bit of fear in your heart as you throw yourself over to Sierra’s magic. But trust me, the Thornchapel journey is worth it!
Like all the other books in this series, Harvest of Sighs is downright ruinous. I swore I’d wait until the final book arrived to start (each book ends on a cliffhanger) but GAH. I couldn’t resist.
This book carved my heart out with a rusty spoon and made me love every minute of it. These characters are so beloved and so messy and this series is destined to be one I revisit again and again and again.