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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Sierra is the most intelligent writer. She opens you up and bleeds you dry and for some reason you crave it, understand it and yearn for it over and over.
Not only is this book amazing but the cover is equally exquisite.
The gang is all back, Auden, Poe, St. Sebastian, Becket, Rebecca and Delphine and the spirit and pull of Thronchapel is stronger than ever.
“Life is beautiful and busting and ripe, and sometimes it had to be given up or given back. Sometimes it had to sown back into the earth from where it came.”
Sebastian found love, accepted love and then lost love all within a hard exhale. He finally allowed himself to love Auden and Poe without restraint, only to have his world crumble under the weight of reality.
“Wasn’t it true that sometimes the most beautiful thing in life were the most destructive, the most grasping?”
Delphine’s past trauma invades her mind without warning and wreaks havoc on her mental stability while Rebecca continues to build walls around her heart. As Delphine and Rebecca continue to explore one another’s body, doubt sets in and insecurities threaten to crumble a newly blooming relationship.
“If you’re already in hell, why not be there together?”
Becket has always held strong to his faith, never wavering until Poe. He finds himself struggling to be faithful to the Lord and all that is required of him. Poe is the sin he cannot repent enough for; she is a love he has only known besides God. Will she be the transgression that leads him in a path of true discovery?
“I mean that when I look at you, the first word I think is not your name, it’s “mine.” When I say “I love you,” I means “you’re mine.“
*deep breath in… and exhale…*
Okay, this was a crazy ride. The protagonists are having some problems with their relationships. Most of them are experiencing a sense of conflict. They are trying to come to terms with their feelings and some are realising that they can’t accept certain aspects of these relationships. The reader finally gets to hear what happened in Thornchapel between the parents of our protagonists and it confirmed some ideas I had. But it also revealed more about the parents and what happened in their relationships. Things start to unravel by the end. Secrets they tried to hide are revealed. And there is this ominous feeling… like something wicked this way comes.
Once again, Sierra Simone has given us a story filled with richness, depth and emotion. There’s angst and longing with many of the characters wanting things they probably shouldn’t want. The story is also about choice. The choices we make and the path we take can have implications as well as ripple effects that we cannot see immediately. I think there is also a sense of Fate and how no matter what you do, the strings of Fate will pull you back to where you need to be. I cannot wait to see what happens to our favourite characters and what role Thornchapel will have in their fates.
Harvest of Sigh is the 3rd book in the Thornchapel series and you will be hooked until the end. As this series continues you will become more and more consumed with the story as the author has a way of completely sucking you into this world that was created. As with the previous two books this one has mystery, suspense, lies and truths, erotic scenes, love, secrets and so many twists and turns.
This novel focuses on the relationship between Delphine and Rebecca however the other characters are all there and play a big role in the story. I love the bond that all had and the connection between them.
We are given more historical information in this book about what draws all these characters to Thornchapel and the story was told from varying POV. It was angsty and magical and we learn so much more about the characters.
This story was intriguing and it will have you riveted to each page and how it ended leaves me anxious for book 4. This page-turner was well-written and layered and an excellent continuation to the series. I enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.
NO SPOILERS!
Wow, I honestly don’t know what to say. Harvest of Sighs was another sexy, forbidden, and fairly twisted installment in the Thornchapel Quartet, and it honestly left me speechless. It felt like a lot happened and yet not that much changed all at the same time. The characters (Auden, Poe, St. Sebastian, Rebecca, Delphine, and Becket) were all dealing with difficult decisions and situations, so there was a lot to take in and process. Sierra Simone definitely took me off guard with the plot, and I’m still trying to figure out how all of this will end in Door of Bruises, but I’m both nervous and excited to find out.
The 3rd book in the series and it’s definitely filled with deep emotions and some serious erotic scenes. These 6 -Auden, Proserpina, St. Sebastian, Father Becket, Delphina and Rebecca- become more embedded and enraptured to each other. The discoveries, the historical stories, the past and the present are at times twisted and convoluted yet magical and mystical. We get more answers and more historical information in this book as to what draws all these characters to Thornchapel. There were a few times when I felt there was too much information but this author’s writing style has such a beautiful quality that is very lyrical and compelling so it never deterred from the story for me.
While this book is about the evolution of the relationship between Delphina and Rebecca, it still weighs heavily on the other characters and how the big revelation at the end of book 2 is dealt with. That revelation plays a big role in this book that brings out angst, anger, hunger, dread, and carnal desires.
The bonds between the characters are strong, passionate, possessive and heartfelt. The eroticism of the relationships are very sensual but at times the passion is ferocious and wild. The ending was filled with heartache and a chilling foreboding…….I can’t wait for the last book. I hope my heart survives!!
Something is coming … There’s a storm brewing … #sendhelp This story, and especially this installment is ridiculously anticipatory. I was on the edge of something the entire time I was reading. It is also extremely sensual and erotic. Extremely. And also, quite wordy. I could have used a bit dumbing down on a good portion of the religion/history. There were times when things felt more drawn out than they needed to be but honestly, that’s just a taste thing for me as a reader and in no way made this story any less exceptional than it was.
Attempting to review this book at this stage in the game (book 3 of 4) is practically impossible. There is nothing that I can tell you right now that won’t be a spoiler for what has happened, what is happening and/or what might happen in the future so all I can really tell you is that I am still reeling, not quite sure what I’m actually reading and very much turned on. But that’s the norm for me with any Sierra book LOL
I don’t know what to say about this story. It is completely captivating. Instead of reading the story I felt lured in by the mesmerizing lyrical beauty of the words and was pulled along until there were no pages left and I was left panting for more.
“They hold his spirit, and so he can hold their bodies.
His wild and thorny heart beats for them and them alone.”
This story is sensual, haunting and mysterious. Dive in at your own risk, but the reward is more than worth it.
Harvest of Sighs is book 3 and definitely not a standalone.
“Tiptoeing around the past. Dancing around the future.”
-5 Stars!-
When I started reading I couldn’t put it down.Sierra Simone is magnifysent and amazing writer.I cannot wait to read more of there books.Keep up the great work.You should definitely read this book.Can’t wait for the next book
Sierra Simone is a master of not only writing the hot scenes- but she also writes SMART scenes. Her attention to detail and research into the background series is in depth and it shows. This book is a continuation of the series (you must read them in order) and focuses on all six main characters (the fact she has six unique main characters is a testament to her writing), but we get a lot more from Delphine and Rebecca. If you’ve been reading the series- the story line involving Poe, Auden and Saint is also explored more. And don’t worry- Becket is not ignored- although I wouldn’t mind more with him. I actually found Delphine a lot more interesting this installment and enjoyed learning more about her and Rebecca’s back stories. My only complaint is we don’t get a ton of progress on the overlying story arc regarding the rituals- but I know Sierra who is a master of these series books- will tie it all together in Book 4. And I can’t wait. Well done. Fans of this series- and of Sierra- will enjoy this book for sure.
These books, this series, they are so much more than meets the eye. They dive you into whole world that is more than you think. There are secrets, myths, truths, lies, and a whole lot of love and understanding.
I fell in love with these characters in book one, and I’m still adoring them with book 3. They have this faith and trust in each other that you don’t see a lot.
Sierra has this story that you kinda need an open mind for. When you open your mind and let this story take you to a place that seems like a whole new world, it can be all consuming. I truly hope you try these books and see what I mean.
I have been looking forward to this book since finishing feast of sparks last year and my oh my it was good to be back at Thornchapel. The book aims to steer the focus of the story towards Rebecca and Delphine and the exploration of their D/s relationship. That said of course we still see chapters from St Sebastian, Beckett, Auden and Prosepina too, after all their stories are interwoven with each other.
Sierra’s prose as ever is astute, enigmatic and almost poetic in the way her words flow across the page. I know I am reading a Sierra book when I use the dictionary function on my kindle; however the words are never superfluous or unwarranted they make sense and don’t look out of place. This is a long read, but as a lover of this world I enjoyed every second of it. I find the way Sierra describes the settings, the sights and smells, the characters emotions, their instincts and inflections make it so easy to visualise what Thornchapel is truly like, it just draws you in completely. At the Heart of Harvest of Sighs is not so much the festivals (Lammas is the celebration this time) but it really focuses on the character relationships and how they are developing, changing and drifting in so many directions.
Auden and Saint, GAH!!! These two just encapsulate the meaning of soul mates to me. Their love, longing, desire, the sacrifice and pain just emanates off the page and it is beyond stunning to read!
Beckett is a man still struggling to balance his Priestly responsibilities with his love for the reason he sins. I think we have a lot more to come from Father Beckett and I have grown to be fond of his character. Poe is probably the character that took a step back in this novel, which I was OK with because we have seen a lot of her tale thus far. Rebecca I adore, as a Domme and a person of logical/scientific mentality she always seems so black and white, closed off, lacking in emotion in many ways. Harvest of Sighs lets you see Rebecca in a new light and she really does go on a journey. Delphine, she along with Auden and Saint, really touched me as I read some of her chapters. They were very emotionally driven and gut wrenching at times. I saw her in a new way and I love her even more now, for me aspects of her story in this book really stood out!
Sierra threw in lots of little twists and turns throughout the novel when it came to plot points and character traits. That said the way this book ended blew me away, everything just changed and I don’t know how to feel other than bereft and a little lost. When I say that I mean in the best way that an excellent book can leave you, that is longing for more…….. Samhain has never felt so far away!
And now I’m dead until the next book!!! This series continues to unfold epically and beautifully and goes in different directions of anything I’ve really read before but weaves such a intense story that you are captivated and stay that way from book one! This is not a standalone and needs to be read in complete order
WOW, just WOW!!! As I read each book in this series, I am more blown away. Harvest of Sighs is the continuing story of Auden, Poe, Delphine, Rebecca, Becket and St. Sebastian. I find it utterly amazing that an author can write such a story that the Thornchapel series is, centered around SIX main characters! Mad, mad props to Sierra Simone.
I truly believe that a reader should go into each of these books blind, so I am not going to give out any details.
Harest of Sighs is angsty, twisty and twisted, magical, mysterious and hot AF. A secret or two is revealed and we learn even more about these amazing characters. The ending……OMG!!!!!
Oh my… That’s was painfully perfect.
I don’t remember the last time I had to put down a book from time to time because my emotions were all over the place. The emotions of each character were so vivid that it really felt real to me, it really was like being part of the book and experience it with them.
Their struggles, the happy, the sexy scenes were all brilliant. I don’t know what more to say, this book was perfect in all the ways that brings you to feel, that gets you to sumerge yourself in the story were you don’t feel like it’s a fiction, you live the story as it’s was yours and I really can’t wait for the next one but at the same time I don’t want this journey to end.
So enjoy this perfectly, painful and wonderful book just be aware that falling in love with Thornchapel is inevitable
One of my most anticipated books of 2020. This series is like an addiction. Unforgettable and infectious.
By now, you must know this is not for the morally squeamish and haters of kink. We are drowning in sin here 😀
The previous book ended with a cliffhanger that felt earth-shattering. And I couldn’t imagine how the characters would survive it. It feels like sacrifice is paramount in this series. Everyone sacrifices something on altars of stone and heart.
Poe and Saint and Auden are inseparable in this book despite the events that threaten to push them apart. In threes or twos, they offer amazing portrayals of lust, love, and torment. Proserpina and the priest together are heavenly, too. I have a weak spot for Becket with his ardent divinity and his unrequited love.
Delphine and Rebecca explore their passionate relationship against former animosity and social frowns, but it is their inner storm that poses a tableau of excruciating and bittersweet pain. Can they love each other freely or their inhibitions are too hopeless? I loved Delphine’s vulnerability and her need for true love. I was deeply moved by the consequences of her trauma and how they were depicted. Despite my other preferences of characters, they present a captivating beckon.
The beauty of these words is insurmountable, painful and riveting. It is also inextricably immoral and primitively sacred.
The vividness of the prose rivals the plot of twisted sensuality and ancient curses. The characters sway between craving what they cannot renounce beyond reason and denying themselves the raw, frightening need of love.
A deluge of despair marks the atmosphere of this third novel, never in detriment of the festival of carnal scenes where all characters find both torment and endless pleasure. For a while, I missed the mysticism that was so pervading in the other books. Luckily, it has a very foreboding comeback towards the last part. It is then that revelations from the past blend with ritualistic prophecies and every character’s arc explodes in the most hedonistic, hurtful, poetic way.
I felt so sorry and torn for all of them, how cruel the twists seem to hit my beloved boys and girls. Yet the outcome of the season was inevitable, and a little shortsighted for a couple of them not to see that they were welcoming the serpent into their lustful paradise. Alas, summer had to end with a fearful bang, oh my, it did.
This Wuthering Heights saturated with Saturnalia should be a dark classic.
The DuMaurier of Kink doesn’t disappoint. Even though “Harvest of Sighs” left me punch drunk and reeling, I have not a single regret. It literally let me trembling, knowing I was on the brink of something fearsome and momentous. It was beautiful and brutal and lush. The kind of mean that you crave.
The story washes over you like a glittering summer day. Hot, intoxicating and perfect. Even the prose screams “summer”. The words cascade like the first bite into an overripe peach plucked right off the tree – succulent and decadent as Thornchapel drags our lovers and friends in deeper, sucking them into the Wild God’s undertow. Rebecca and Delphine, childhood not quite enemies, find their way to each other, wrapped up in the haze of unexpected attraction and affection. Their story is like cotton candy clouds, littering an achingly blue sky. Pretty and dreamy and flawless. Until it’s not. All the while the story crackles with the push and pull of the inevitability of Auden, Poe, and St. Sebastian, despite the hundred reasons it’s forbidden. The story hums along with the energy and pacing of an impending summer storm. The storm clouds are gathering over the water, whipping up the wind, as the air crackles, pungent with the scent of ozone, blowing their languid summer interlude apart. The reckless emotion was so intense at times you could literally feel it on your skin.
Like Ariadne, Sierra is weaving a tale so beguiling, entrapping her readers in this hypnotic, dangerous labyrinth of edge play and fever dreams. But now the time for dreaming is over, and the Wild God is coming to collect his due. After all, love is sacrifice.
#TopReadof2020
#WTFdidIjustRead
#OneHandedOneClick
Harvest of Sighs is probably the most powerful writing by Sierra Simone till now. Each page holds magic. Each word is hypnotic and lethal. I have never experienced something so scary yet fascinating. It’s completely surreal to me.
The world of Thornchapel is something beyond complicated and beyond mysterious. In the background of ancient rituals and terrorizing old tales, the lives of five people goes through an intense journey. Auden , the heir to Guest empire is struggling with his feelings for St. Sebastian because it’s forbidden and immoral and deviant. He is supposed to be the dominant and the Thorn King but his power is slipping. Proserpina Markham is their queen and she binds everyone together. Even when her mind is in a dark, confused and chaotic state. A large part of this story deals with Rebecca , the architect and Delphine, the model-socialite-influencer. They have a dominant-submissive relationship. But both have lots of baggage from past that prevents them from trying a real relationship. And then there is Becket, the priest with sinful fantasies.
I really cannot explain what is going in here. But I can tell you what I felt. Or may be not. The author grabbed my hands and pulled me inside the pages. And it’s an out of the body experience. The intricacies are phenomenal. This story is a learing experience because I get to know so much amazing and mesmerising things. The history. The anthropological theory. The religious beliefs. It’s a feast of mystery and thrill and supernaturalism. Yet it felt very very real. The emotions of people were real. The angst, the pain, the guilt, the shame, the pleasure, the doubts, the ecstacy- all were more real than my own heartbeats. The passion is positively dirty and without any limits or restrictions. My heart is aching. My eyes are burning. And I don’t know how to process the overload of emotions. Sierra Simone definitely put some kind of dark magic there.
I would tell you reading reviews are irrelevant for Harvest of Sighs by Sierra Simone. Because I don’t believe any review can do justice to this literary masterpiece. I don’t think any word can capture the essence of this story. Every agonising, torturing, heartbreaking and soul numbing moment was so worth. I would say this will be once in a lifetime reading experience for you. And if you don’t read it, you will be missing something legendary and truly remarkable.
Received ARC for honest review
When Sierra Simone decides to break your heart, she does so with as much determination to affect you as when she writes a sex scene. She wants you to FEEL, whether it’s pain and anguish or heat and passion.
In other words, prepare thyself, dear reader, because she will tear you apart in this book.
I’ve long been intrigued by Rebecca, and we get to know her better here. (She is, by far, the most captivating female character. I still can’t see much of a point to Poe, aside from her dreams, and Delphine is also a little too one-dimensional for me.) Simone weaves Rebecca’s backstory in such a way that when she pierces her with an exchange intended to hurt Rebecca, you feel it deeply. Of all the pain inflicted in this book, Rebecca’s suffering is the hardest to bear.
Becket remains a little too mysterious, although Simone does shed more light on him here. He intrigues me a great deal, and I look forward to getting to know him better in the next (and last?) book.
The hearts of this novel continue to be Auden’s and St. Sebastian’s. They drive every story, even the ones they’re not directly part of. Their presence filters through the other characters, creating the image of a spider web. As you know from the end of Feast of Sparks, their relationship is in peril. Simone does her best to rip them further apart, yet there is a glimmering subplot that makes you think. Could it be? Could Sierra Simone …. ?
There is a LOT of sex in this book, as was the case with its predecessor. I am all about some hot headboard rocking, but sometimes the sex here feels almost distracting, as if it’s intended to open our minds and help us see that sexuality can be fluid. If you’ve read anything from Sierra Simone, though, you likely embrace this notion. I never thought I’d say this, but maybe not so much of the sexy times?
There are parts of this book that feel lyrical. Rebecca’s heartbreak, for instance, is stunningly written. St. Sebastian’s chapters have a visceral effect. Poe, though. Poe is problematic. She is too passive and lacking agency to be positioned as the hub of this wheel.
Sierra Simone ends this book with a scream that leaves you desperate to find out what happens next. I can’t wait.
Sierra is a master storyteller, she can make us believe in anything. Love bordering on debauchery, passion balanced on kinky and devotion akin to Submission to a dominant
It gets pretty steamy in Thornchapel, we know from previous books that Beckett carries a torch for Poe, and Auden and St.Sebastian are tied up with Poe in their midst, playing a tug of war of egos too.
On the side is Rebecca and Delphine in a D/s relationship that traces back to the childhood banter. They can’t be classified as enemies, I’d say they share sexual tension a lot.
The story that started way back when these 6 were kids visiting Thronchapel, is an evolving, thriving story still in progress.
The sins of their fathers shall be visited upon the son
I get a feeling that they will either repeat history or deviate to change the course of time and pay heavily for it.
Sierra is a skilled crafts woman, in her hands the story sneekily crosses borders into something that my mind categorizes as Occult….perhaps. There’s an otherworldly fog surrounding the present times. In it walk the ghosts of sexual assault, mental illness and sexual invisibility. (It took me a while to grasp the concept, but you will get it as you read it)
The story is equal parts tender and rough in sentiment. Some harsh truth befall upon the friends and their unquestionable support for each other completes their circle of trust.
I don’t even know how to understand, much less explain what is happening right now cause the bigger picture is still not visible to me. I’m staring at a piece at a time and my trust in Sierra is so complete, I’m living in the moment, Book by book, exploring all the complex relations she’s trying to create.
Visceral and ethereal, the narration touches the dizzying heights of Passion in a crescendo of emotions.
Touch the Adonis foot, slip between the doomed lovers, the fountain and into the tunnel to the woods that lead to Thornchapel and lay down your inhibitions and triggers
4.5 stars for Lammastide
To be honest I had a lot of trepidation going into this because I didn’t have the best of time reading Feast Of Sparks. To say I was unsure about where Harvest Of Sighs was going to go would be a massive understatement.
As one could probably tell from the cover alone, the main, but in no way sole, focus of this book is two of the side characters from the previous two books, Delphine and Rebecca.
Of course there is a lot from the other characters as well, but as ALiT and FoS tended to focus on Auden, Saint and Poe, it’s the girls who have most of the limelight here.
I can’t say much because this is the third book in the series and anything plotwise would be a spoiler, but this is such a big turn around from Feast Of Sparks.
The drama is back and there is still the fallout from the cliffhanger from book 2 to process, which pushes a lot of the plot of the characters involved.
I love these characters. I love how even though there are six major characters in this book and it has multiple POV’s, none of the characters don’t feel fleshed out or not given their time. Each of them brings something to the table. In and out of Thornchapel.
And the ending. That’s all I can say. I have feelings. I have emotions. I’m afraid for Door Of Bruises, but mostly because then it will be over. And we might get answers. Hopefully.
**An ARC was provided to me by Candi Kane PR on behalf of the author and I volunteered to leave an unbiased review**