My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Looking back at my reluctance of reading this book, I don’t understand why I acted this way.. maybe because I’ve read the blurb and found out there was some cheating involved, but you know the rule: Don’t judge!!
Sins of Sevin was an emotional experience for me, with mixed feelings involved: love, hate, anger, duty, betrayal and drama.
Sevin doesn’t find his place in the life he has. After his father sudden death, he is faced with no choice than to leave his step-family and begin a new life. He will marry without love, only from being so desperate of escaping and being accepted in a true family. He accepts an convenience marriage to Elle, a wealthy business man’s daughter, promising he will try to find a way of working things out. When heading to Elle’s house, he bumps in a very beautiful but mysterious girl, who will manage to steal his heart and mind within minutes of interacting with her. When she suddenly leaves, Sevin is left confused and surprised of his connection with that girl, but unfortunately, he has a duty to fulfill and continues his journey.
As we know in Penelope’s books, there is no such thing as coincidence, and soon Sevin will realize that the girl of his dreams is Elle’s big sister Evangeline!!
So here you have it, sock nr. 1 and believe me the list is open until the last page.
I am a huge fan of Penelope Ward and I believe all of her books are written for a reason. I don’t think she appreciates the cheating issue, but the way she defined it was admirable. I am not judgmental, I look for answers and ask myself a lot of questions and I consider that is important to put yourself in the characters position and see if you would of acted in another way.
I know this book raised a lot of issues, but despite my original opinion, after feeling and understanding this book I realize how wrong I was. Sevin and Evangeline weren’t some no shame cheaters that laughed behind everybody’s back and consumed their relationship without feeling a sole gram of remorse..
No!! They were against this feelings, fought them hard, making a lot of mistakes in the process, and if in the end they just gave up, it was because love became stronger than thinking rationally. I understood them, I cried with them and I hoped everything will turn out OK, that they will find a happy ending within all this drama.
I felt that when things were calm and I could see a ray of hope for them, something happened and the impossibility of their relationship slapped me again and again. It began to feel kind of frustrating because you feel like in the middle of a Greek tragedy when all the star aligned and nothing ends up in a happy place.
I enjoyed Sevin more than Evangeline, because I admired his evolution and considered him more mature in the second part of the book. He changed so much and some events in his life transformed him from the boy that was ready to face the world for his love, into a man that kept his word and fulfilled his duty. I suffered so much for him, but in the same time admired him for the person he became.
As for Evangeline, I consider that she did a lot of mistakes, took some hard and quick decisions that impacted the story tremendously, but in the end, the reality of her choices made me aware of similarities with our reality.
The heroes from our books were far from perfect, but I stand up for them and can truly say that they accepted their mistakes and tried to figure out a way of being happy.
That’s the message that Penelope tried to send! If you love somebody, try to find the strength to forgive them and move on. The more you are anchored in the past, the more you will get hurt. Try to find closure for yourself and for your love one and built that love again from scratch, hoping for a better future.
This book was a wonderful and genuine lesson of forgiveness and allowing yourself the second chance that your heart craves for.
Ramonisme 