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.
more
Oh this is pure torture! I zoomed through the pages just to feel more agony of where things ended. I can’t even explain how much this story is everything and has twisted me up inside. The lust, the love, the pain, it stings and it bites at my very soul. It leaves invisible marks on my skin because I can feel the burn of these incredible words right through the pages. Sierra Simone weaves a story so phenomenal and writes characters with so much depth, that it just imprints itself forever.
Harvest of Sighs is the third installment of the Thornchapel series and one of my most anticipated books of the year. This series has captivated me and draws me in deeper and deeper as the story progresses.
In this installment we get to see more of Rebecca, who has remained a bit of a mystery up until now. This book has taken a character that for me was a little meh, to quickly making her one of my favorites of the six. She is full of depth and I love her strength and her vulnerability….when she shows it. Delphine also blossomed in this book too. She is a lesson in female empowerment. She took what tore her down and built herself a brand because of it. She turned the tables and used it as a strength rather than a weakness. I admire her for that. That doesn’t mean that she still doesn’t suffer, because she does, and it’s heartbreaking. She’s also the perfect compliment to Rebecca, who appears to be so stoic and reserved, where Delphine is boisterous and affectionate.
We also get to delve a bit more deeply in to Beckett. His internal struggles come to a head in this book and I really felt for him. The only time he seems to be truly happy is with Poe. The rest of the time he seems to struggle between the world that the six of them created and the world that he has chosen for himself, and the pull of the forbidden just only gets stronger.
We were left with quite the ending for Auden, St Sebastian, and Poe. Auden is like the devil on the shoulder of St Sebastian tempting him with all of his desires, but they set boundaries. They set limits, and brothers don’t do what St Sebastian wants to do. The tension is palpable and there is only one way it can end….with the promise that was made to Auden that Poe and St Sebastian promised to uphold.
We also get a glimpse in to the backstory of how these six are connected, and it’s just as twisted for the older generation as it is for our favorite sextet. We see how generations before fared when it came to keeping the magic alive outside of Thornchapel, and it wasn’t always pretty, and to be honest, it is quite dark. I’ve always waited to see if this group can be the one who can lay Thornchapel’s secrets to rest and live as they want to, or is Thornchapel’s hold so strong that it will ultimately destroy them. We know the ritual, we know how it is supposed to end, how it ended for Poe’s mother, and for Estamond. I can’t wait to see the final layers peeled back and all the secrets revealed in the final book.
The title alone connotes multiple characters in play in a litany of gatherings, acquiring a collection of sorts, but more so in the unraveling of, not only the place, but those who have come together in this setting, and with the group of ‘friends’ involved, it means that nothing is what it seems and everything is a menagerie of chaos, seduction, secrets, and lies, and not everything that comes out of the harvest will be sighing in a pleasurable way.
Even though book three focuses on the evolving relationship of Delphine and Rebecca, what happens between them, what they experience together, also affects the other four friends who have come to Thornchapel. And it’s how Sierra Simone crafts the tenuous relationships between the six people involved that will keep readers wondering if they will all come out whole when everything has been torn apart and stripped down to bare bones, revealing all there is to know, including a bevy of secrets that will redefine everything they know.
Sierra Simone’s lyrical prose gets me every time, pulling me in to the story line and captivating my senses by illustrating both the setting and the dynamics of all those involved in the plot. And strewn through the pages of each book in the series is highly erotic, sensual scenes that eloquently and passionately describe everything that unfolds in such a vivid way that readers will be feeling EVERY emotion felt by each one of the characters.
The one aspect of the story that I struggled with a bit was the multiple perspectives, and it’s not so much that there are too many of them, it’s that they changed between first and third person, which made it difficult to know whose point of view each section is coming from and how close to everything that’s happening each one is.
With the final book titled Door of Bruises and where Simone left this circle of friends at the end of Harvest of Sighs, I’m anticipating one hell of a finale.
4.5 Poison Apples Review
My most anticipated read of 2020. Is it still 2020? I’ve lost track.
I feel like the Thornchapel Six are my best friends. I have an invested link in their happiness. I want sunshine and butterflies and rainbows. Orgies in libraries and in gardens and in old church ruins. Every day. Every. Single. Day.
I started Harvest of Sighs with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye because of the bomb drop at the end of Feast. I was so hopeful that Sierra would play a blinder. In fact I think I told her she needed to sort it out or I would never speak to her again and the wicked, wicked girl told me I might like it. And God strike me down because I did like it.
I’m possibly going to hell but at least I would go with a smile on my face and I do like a roaring fire.
My heart is in Thornchapel. It devastates me and makes my heart throb. This series is bewitching. Beguiling. There isn’t any of The Six that I don’t love for so many different reasons. Delphine has become a new favourite because I learnt so much more about her in this book.
Please give me back my heart Sierra because I am ruined. I sacrifice myself. Now where is that door….
Each title in this Thornchapel series captures the story within so well. First there was Lesson in Thorns when we are introduced to our 6 protagonists of Proserpina (Poe), Auden, St. Sebastian, Delphine, Rebecca and Beckett. That story began with them curious and the search to uncover the mystical and at times paganistic history behind Thornchapel. In the second book, Feast of Sparks, they celebrate Beltane, a “time of fire and fertility” and a “festival of flowers, fertility, sensuality, and delight”. The focal point of the first two book surrounds the complicated relationship among the threesome of Poe, Auden and St. Sebastian. In Harvest of Sighs, we finally have the chance to see inside the chilly and reserved Rebecca, who has taken Delphine, a newly admitted submissive, under her wing. Delphine’s personality is the yin to Rebecca’s yang, as they each reveal their story through individual flashbacks and present point of view.
Aside from the complicated romantic relationships amongst these 6 in present day, their families all share a past together when they all spent a summer together at Thornchapel. The overarching storyline in the series has them trying to understand what happened that summer among their parents by trying to coax the truth out of their parents.
The author continues to take us on a roller coaster ride full of sensuous, tumultuous and rapturous interplay that has the reader wondering how this story is doing to conclude!
I f#@/ing loved it! I cannot even begin to describe the down right giddy emotions swirling through me now that I’ve finally managed to bring myself to finish it! Sensual. Real. Terrifying. Tragic. Emotional. Un-putdownable. Heartbreaking. There are not enough adjectives to describe everything this story stirred up! I fell in love with them all while they discovered each other and the secrets that surrounded Thornchapel. Whilst they reveled in their desires and the freedom they found there. Unfortunately nothing is ever just happiness and revelry. Darkness found them and a pall fell over them all. Desire and love however can only be denied so long and secrets have a way of coming out. I’m not sure October can come soon enough. It’s gonna be along wait that not many books are gonna be able to fill!
This series by Author Sierra Simone is soo well written.
Every character captures you when reading this series.
Such am emotional read filled with love, angst, sexiness and passion.
It had me crying and emotional on many levels with the depth of what the characters go through.
Another beautifully written book in this series to read.
Go One Click it!
4 popped!
*´`*•. 5 STAR REVIEW .•*´`*
To say that reading Sierra Simone’s books make you feel like you’ve willingly gone down the rabbit hole is an understatement. Ms. Simone is an amazing and masterful storyteller; she draws you into her stories filled with an incredible cast of characters, so descriptive and narrative they make you feel like you’re sitting quietly in a parlor, eavesdropping on private and extremely secretive conversations. Each discovery is shocking, and you know the outcome has the power to destroy more than one person.
“The things we pretend to forget here we’ll have to remember. The sins we’ve committed we’ll have to answer for.”
Harvest of Sighs starts by giving us a shocking glimpse of the past, and at the same time leaving us more confounded by the mystery that is Thornchapel. This book is not a standalone; it’s the third book in the Thornchapel series, and each one is more ominous than the previous ones. Oh, but they’re so sinful and delectable; you’ll enjoy each and every single book, hesitant to reach the end.
“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.”
While all the characters play an important part of this series, book three seems to center on Rebecca and Delphine’s budding D/s relationship. Trust is an issue, but the biggest obstacle seems to be past traumas that threaten their uncertain future.
Auden, St. Sebastian, and Poe are working on their own strange dynamic, reeling with the discovery of a secret that was revealed in book two and has them dealing with the aftermath.
Father Becket seems to be the odd man out, he’s deeply in love, knowing nothing can come of it; his faith is still strong, even if his actions seem to betray his position.
“He’s no longer mine to look at, because he’s no longer mine at all. He is nothing to me but forbidden now, he can never be anything more than one of the deepest and oldest sins. And he lied to me. He lied to me.”
Each and every one of them will go through something of a crisis/drama/event so profound it will threaten to destroy their strange, almost fatalistic, relationship. And what’s behind that damn door!?! More to come…
“How could a wild god be this vulnerable?”
Absolutely brilliant! Harvest of Sighs had me on the edge of my seat from the prologue. This installment of the Thornchapel series was heartbreakingly, angsty and beautiful. I don’t think I have ever felt so connected to cast of characters. I could feel everything they did, all the way to my soul.
I don’t even know where to start. This book took everything no thought I knew from the first and second books and twisted the story and me so deviously that I was wondering if I would ever get back to normal. I also realized that I don’t want to. I want to stay in this book. The characters and Thornchapel have taken a part of me that I will never get back and I willingly allowed it. This story has made me see and feel everything in this world as if it is a real place I can go visit and experience and truthfully I can be because no will be reading these books over and over again and gladly disappear there every time. I’d say this book is pure writing genius and brilliance bit those words don’t do it justice so I’ll just end with saying I am in awe and thank you Ms Simone.
I don’t know how to write this review. My heart. Oh my fucking bleeding heart.
The first book, I was all about Auden. The second book I was all about St. Sebastian. This book I’m all about Becket. My poor poor Becket. The boys of these books have my heart.
I couldn’t read fast enough and at the same time I wanted to savor it all.
I… I.. um I want it to be October so we get the conclusion. But I don’t want a conclusion. I want this to go on for decades. I want Sierra to keep writing about this group. I want all the orgies. I want all the kink. I want all the love.
I will say I didn’t have to look up as many words as I have previously. So yay go me!
Every book in this series is better than the last. This one? Completely blew me away. Once I dove in I couldn’t stop reading.
This book is the continuation of our fearless six. This book focuses on Delphine and Rebecca, but don’t fret you get a lot of everyone in this read. Sierra does the magnificent balancing act that you don’t want to ever stop watching.
This book was explosive and it brought you to the very edge of what you think you are ready for. We know Sierra likes to skirt the edge, but this book really tests your limits.
Go into it blind. Don’t read the reviews that give you all the details. GO in and experience it like I did and you will love it that much more.
Six characters came together, and now they are linked like no other.
Can they see what’s happening, and where it will end?
Wowsers wowsers wowsers!!
Outside of this series I dont think I’ve come across such depth before. The story is so rich in detail. If you close your eyes you can see it.
Thornchapel is amazing. The history, the wild god, the closing of the door. It’s all so wild and freeing.
Such an erotic tale of lust, need, desire and sin which appeals the most to you I wonder…
Sierra has amazed me from the moment I started this series, and this book continues the unforgettable journey.
Each character has a fascinating story to tell. I love them all! from the loved up priest to the Dominatrix and each one inbetween.
A read that is more than a cut above the rest. If you only read one series this month then it really does need to be this one!!
WOW! Just WOW!!!!
I have never spent so much time crying while reading a book the emotions Sierra Simone brought out in me while I was reading this was crazy. This book was dark, edgy, sexy AF, filled with so much emotion, and had so much angst I was on the edge of my seat with my stomach in my throat practically through the whole book the ending will leave you begging for more.
This is the third book in the Thornchapel series. All six people are now grown up and back in town. The delicious darkness, lust, secrets and historical context of how all the group are together keep you on the edge of your seat. What a read and series this has been, I can’t wait for the next book!
I received a copy of this book and am leaving a review.
So many twist and turns. These characters, these glorious characters and their stories will have your head spinning. Of course I have my favorite…..Saint! Oh Lord, I could just eat this beautiful man up. And with his every scene I fall more in love with him.
This story has captured me and has me craving more. It’s so messed up that I find it very enticing. I can not wait for the next book to see where these crazy and beautiful characters take us next. Outstanding writing!
*Review by Michelle
Sierra Simone returns to Thornchapel in the wake of Spring. Lives are forever changed and this group of friends, enemies, lovers, cohorts are drawn to the mysticism and magic that lurks around this strange and erotic place.
New relationships are formed out of the battered and bruised truths and others are tested and stretched to their limits.
Sierra Simone delivers a densely packed story that made my skin flush and my heart pound. Her words breathe a life of their own and we are left feeling spent from her flogging in the best ways possible. The final installment is sure to be as gorgeous and sensual as the rest.
This is a stunningly good series and Harvest of Sighs a beautifully written addition. With gorgeous use of language, Sierra Simone has crafted a book which is steeped in myth, delicious characters, and emotional complexities in human form. Each word is carefully weighed and chosen to weave a magical web around her creations in terms of people and place, as well as the reader. Beloved characters are reaching the zenith of events, caught in the cross hairs of a meticulous plot line which had me glued to the page, at times scorched by the intensity of the relationships, the open and hidden anxieties of the protagonists and, at others, filled with trepidation for the future and the final unrolling of this wonderful story. My heart worries as I love each one of the six as, it is clear from their portrayal, does Sierra Simone! Rarely do I wish to rush towards the darker days of our year, but in this case I am awaiting the last book with baited breath!! Superb story telling.
Here we are back at Thornchapel. More tales to be told, more secrets to be revealed and more relationships to be explored. We see the complex relationship between Rebecca and Delphine development and implode. We see the relationship between Poe and Becket blossom and feel the anguish of the relationship between Auden and St. Sebastian as they fight against the feelings they have for each other. All of this emotional turmoil is overshadowed by the history of Thornchapel, more of which is revealed but it’s the dream that Poe has that leaves all of them with a sense of unease. The dream that reveals the possibility of danger and the uncertainty of what lies ahead of them at Thornchapel. Sierra Simone doesn’t disappoint with another compelling tale that leaves you on the edge of your seat hoping for the very best but leaving you with no doubt things probably aren’t going to end well for The Thornchapel Six. Maybe it will. We’ll have to wait and see where she takes this tangled tale. It’s beautifully written and insanely hot in true Sierra Simone style and so we wait……
Harvest of Sighs by Sierra Simone is book three in her Thornchapel Serial. HofS is not a stand-aäolne. I strongly recommend to read the books in order, or you’ll be lost.
The previous books are A Lesson in Thorns and Feast of Sparks.
The unique story of Rebecca, Delphine, Prosperina, Auden and St. Sebastian continues.
A story full of secrets, lies, betrayal, opening old wounds. Everyone and everything gravitates around Thornchapel and the King.
It’s a complex story that left me breathless with a major bookhangover, the complicated relationships and the storyline that sucked me in whirled me around. And now I’m sitting here and can’t wait for the final installment, 5+ stars.