These Sinful Delights

Sinner's Bay #1

by Elizabeth Bardot

*This book has been professionally edited since the date of publication

When I received the notice my divorce was final, I decided the best way to celebrate my freedom was to have one night of passion with a complete stranger, no strings attached so I choose the hottest club in town; Rapture, to find my prey.

Little did I know the person I hooked was the head of the Irish Mafia who became haunted by the memory of our night.

When I drunkenly return to Rapture with a broken heart, I find myself being drawn into the dark underground world of the Irish Mafia and the four men that rule it.

As my normal, perfectly managed life slowly unravels, these men help me to reconnect with the woman I once was and she wasn't always innocent.

But will I be able to rebuild a life I truly desire, or is it all just an illusion...

These Sinful Delights is a why choose dark mafia romance where the heroine doesn't have to choose and set in the fictional world of Sinners Bay. Please read the author notes at the beginning of the book for CW.

This is the first book in a series of interconnected standalones set in the same world.

Genres: Romance, Dark Romance, Why Choose, Audiobook, Dark, M M Romance, Contemporary

400 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2023

About the author

Hi There! I am an Australian indie author who writes why choose / reverse harem style stories with a strong focus on feminine and yet strong women who have over come difficult pasts and bad boy, troubled men who adore their women.

I write in a variety of genres but the common theme will always be the female lead not needing to choose between love interests.

When I am not busy writing the stories in my head I am lost in someone else's book and fantasy world - my life long dream of achieving a library that rivals Belles's from Beauty and the Beast is slowly coming to a reality.

You can find me over in my fb readers group Elizabeth Bardot's Book Boudoir and on all social platforms as elizabethbardotshouldbewriting

Reviews

[Kaylee Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good baseline for a story but it felt like I was reading a first draft. I think the author is on to something here but really needs to team up with someone (fellow experienced author or an editor) to clean up the typos and clunky dialogue. For now though it was just ok for me.

[coffeeinlibraries · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️.5/5
MFC: Loved Elsie!
MMC(s): Loved them too! Could’ve punched Ben a couple times though 😂
Plot: 3/5
Book cover: 5/5
Would I buy a physical copy?: Yes!

I loved this!! Elsie was the perfect MFC. Kind, snarky, confident but also vulnerable, funny and even had a bit of a dominating side! I loved watching her character grow from the sad woman she started out as to the bad ass who could wrangle in crazy mafia men.

The guys were perfect in their own way. I do feel like she had a better relationship with everyone except Ben, even though he’s the one that got everything started. While he was present, he was also kind of floating around in the background and then he was making not so smart choices, I wanted to smack him. 😂

This wasn’t terribly dark, as the authors note said, but it did have a good suspenseful vibe that I enjoyed! Lots of sweet moments and funny ones too. Especially Dante and Connor singing 😂

The spice was really good! Those dirty mouthsss! 🥵

I know this is an interconnected standalone series but I would have loved an epilogue that takes place a few years after finding out the big news! Definitely felt like I was left hanging after being a bit nervous about the outcome and then being giddy at the proposal.

The writing was great, a few mistakes here and there but the overall story was incredibly enjoyable and I look forward to reading more of this authors work!!

*Check TW!

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Errors

The errors made it hard to read. Whoever edited it did a horrible job. It was very repetitive, it feels like a lot of the book has been pulled from other authors. It reads like a fan fiction.
The fmc wasn't consistent at all one second she's about to fight and the becomes meek.

[Luna ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

»Be ours, Elsie. Say you will. If you let us, we will pull down the moon and stars and drape them across your neck in glittering jewels as symbols of our passion and devotion.«

★ ★ ★

❥ 𝑬𝒍𝒔𝒊𝒆 𝜗𝜚˚⋆
I liked her although she is kind of naive and bland. Still she has a big heart and knows how to interact with each of the men.

❥ 𝑩𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏, 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒓, 𝑨𝒍𝒇𝒊𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑫𝒆𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒏 ࣪⋆✮
All of them are tall, broody and dangerous but towards Elsie they‘re just big lap dogs. I liked them but think they could have been portrayed more dangerous. But thumbs up that all of them are different and have their own character traits.

✥ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌
I really liked the first half of the book but it get‘s a little bit downwards after that mark. All in all this is a fun, silly read and by far no literary masterpiece. It‘s smut, smut and more smut and one of these books you can (and should) switch you‘re brain of and just enjoy. The writing style is not as smooth as I wished for but it was okay. There are some grammar and spelling mistakes but that‘s not that dramatic.
Like I said the first 50% of the book were good and I enjoyed reading but after the dynamic between the characters gets kind of weird. They go from „hey, let‘s be our girl and fuck with all of us“ to „let’s try for a baby“ wayyyy to quick. They drop I love you‘s out of nowhere and in my opinion the author should have focused on BUILDING the relationship first before dropping love declarations. I know it‘s not easy to write a love story with multiple love interests but it could have been done better (because it started out really good).
Overall this was an entertaining read and I had a good time reading it.

𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤?
Yes. Only if you‘re in the mood for brainless smut and why choose. Don‘t read it if you expect a very well written book.

𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝟓 ׂㅤ𐙚 ࣪ ⭒
plot: 2/5
spice: 4/5
humor: 4/5
couple/tension: 3/5
world building: 3/5
happy end?: yes

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 ᡣ𐭩ྀི₊ ⊹
possessive and protective hero, why choose, mafia, found family, touch her and die, instant attraction, he falls first and harder, dark golden retriever, from different worlds, MM-scenes, plus size fmc

𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲
ages: Elsie (30) and Benjamin (39), Connor (37), Alfie (35), Declan (35)
cheating: no
sharing: no
kinks: breeding

𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬
#1 These Sinful Delights ★ ★ ★
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
#2 These Sinful Nights ★ ★ ★
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
#3 These Sinful Kingdoms ★ ★ ★
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Dusty Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miss Bardot, you have me for life

Well, you did it big time. I am now officially obsessed. I will st@lk you forever now. Bennie boo boo was tough for me , it's what I call my grandson, lol. Other than that, I fell in love with Alfie, Connor, Daddy, and Benjamin. You pulled me into this Irish Mafia family, and I didn't want to ever leave.
Elsie and her insecurities and fire deep inside along with her sweet nature called to me. Let's not mention those Mendez brothers. I can't wait to dive in more. Forget adding to your TBR. Get this book and start it now!!!

[Mom Reads Romance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the fmc, we feel her struggles in this book. And she has a lot. She is a broken mess. Learning to be loved. Battling mental health. Dealing w emotional abuse during her marriage. Then. Learning to trust and communicate w half a dozen new dudes🤣🤣🤣 bish has it rough I tell you rough.

I wasn’t sure I would like her but she was that sort of fmc that grows in her confidence as the book progresses and I appreciate that. She isn’t stuck as the same character the entire book. She is very flawed too. So I like she isn’t perfect-those sort of characters get old too. 😘

Everyone in this book is flawed. Btw. Everyone in this book has a broken path. Not a single person is “normal” or a superhero or perfect. And that is refreshing.

RH stories can be hard bc the guys can all sort of melt into one person. And tbh it was hard for me to separate them at first bc there were a bunch. 🤣so my tiny brain struggled. 🤦🏻‍♀️😑 But as I got to know them I could tell them apart. Although they did all fit into that RH man mold. But that’s nothing new and not a deal breaker for me. It works.

I do have to share here at the end, Alfie has to preform an oral sex act on his female abuser while being held captive w Elsie. I still flag it as OW drama. Not cheating bc it was forced and was abuse. But just a warning for folks like me that absolutely HATE any sort of cheating in their romance books. Even abuse.

There is also OW drama w Staci. Benny booo is using her to get information he needed and doesn’t let Elsie know. He doesn’t do anything w the OW but it still plays a role in the drama at the end. He should have been honest w Elsie. And this part of the story was icky to me bc again, I hate OW drama in my books.

So hopefully that helps those of you who feel like I do about Ow drama. So you can read the book knowing it happens, it gets resolved and it isn’t real cheating.

[Helené · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plot ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

[Jenn M · Rating 5 out of 5]

RH, Mafia Read at its Finest!!!

Loved, loved, loved 😍 this read! It was full of action, has amazing characters, and gave me a taste of a world I am dying to read more of! The smut is 🔥 🥵 and the boys are dark, broken, and irresistible. I loved how Elise was not perfect but was perfectly imperfect. I will be reading this entire series!

[Courtney Baytop · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were quite of few typos and grammatical errors but it didn’t take away from the storyline.

I loved every single one of the MCs. I loved Elsie’s backbone and they way she grew into her skin.

The fertility portion was handled with such grace and understanding. As someone who suffered with infertility for almost five years, it was nice to see a book that didn’t have a insta-pregnancy as so many RH books seem to do.

[Deanna F · Rating 4 out of 5]

We love men who worship their Queen!

The book was good! Had a decent amount of spice and the men were devoted to their Queen. Listen, I mean, they treated her like the curvy Queen she is! Things get hairy along the way but we end up with a happy ending we all want. Overall a good RH book. I look forward to the second book in the series.
The only reason I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the grammatical errors and because the dialogue can be a bit confusing. Confusing in the sense that there isn’t always a clear indication of who’s talking. Nevertheless, I was able to get past that and enjoy the book for the great story it was. If those 2 things don’t bother you, then definitely give the book a try.

[Kristina Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good

Storyline was good and spice level was also good. This author is a good writer, but the amount of grammatical, spelling, and paragraph structure errors were highly distracting and kept pulling me out of the book.

[Katie MacLeod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy moly - this book was good. I devoured this whole book in one day. Is this the best mafia book I’ve ever read? Not really but the mafia is not the draw to this story. The draw is the characters and their story arc development. Elsie (FMC) is a character we can all see ourselves in. She doesn’t feel comfortable in her own body after her divorce and her struggles with infertility (a big trigger in this book - not necessarily on loss but on the journey to motherhood through untraditional routes). Elsie is feisty and holds her own when it comes to these men but is also trying to heal from her own experiences that have deeply hurt her. Then we have the men in this harem: Benjamin, Connor, Alfie and Declan. Each bring their own traits to this relationship and really, all work together well. They all have a lot of independent scenes and some group scenes with a lot of conversations around boundaries which is always nice to see. These men go completely gooey for Elsie and would do anything for her. Alfie is easily my favourite and he is the most unhinged. Last thing I’m going to say on this book, other than read it right now, is that this story is so good but it could have used a final edit and you as the reader will catch things that probably should’ve been fixed. Do not let this ruin the story for you. If this bothers you, wait until the next edition if this book comes out but still keep it on your TBR!

[Sorina§ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75🌟

I'm going to start with what I liked. This was the first RH book I've read where the relationship between two MMCs is evolving concurrently with the FMC's, and it was a really interesting twist, I really enjoyed it.

This book took all the enjoyment out of reading that I had. It took me forever to finish; once I put it down, I didn't want to pick it back up. The only reason I forced myself to finish it was that there are more books in this series, and my brain thought I couldn't read the others if I didn't finish this one. Hopefully, the other ones will be better.

I hope this was the author's first RH book. The MMCs were frequently forgotten, mentioned only later, as if appearing out of nowhere. Either that, or the author played favorites, and that is even worse.

Chapter 31 was one of my hardest to read, and I would pay money to be able to forget it.

[Allison Comis · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good!! Must read if you like mafia romance. First off Elsie. She was a bad a$$ chick. I love how she met Benjamin. So much happened in this book. She was married to Sean and she filed for divorce and she went to a club and that is how she met Benjamin. She had a tough time with Sean throughout their marriage and after. He refused to let her go but she put her foot down and she had Benjamin and his boys to take care of her. Highly recommend.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mafia men who want their queen!

Great to have an older, rubenesque fmc. This is a medium to fast burn, filled with guys who just want to treat their woman like a queen. I loved the guys, especially Alfie, the quiet, teddy bear psycho. Through in a mafia war, an unknown threat and some bi awakening and you have a winner. Also loved that not all is revealed and secrets about the big bad will be in the next book with a new fmc. There had also better be a bit about Elsie!!!!!!!!
Oh and need the trigger warnings regarding infertility, it's a main plot thread in this.

[Victoria Byerly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book recommended in a fb group I’m in and I’m all for trying out new authors so I gave it a go and I absolutely loved this book! There were a few editing errors, but not enough to take away from the story. Such a great start to a new series. I can’t WAIT to read about the Mendez brothers in the next installment!

[Danielle Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Mafia must read!

I loved this book from the cover to the end! The love interest (check), plus size FMC (check), possessive filthy mouthed men (check) Jacobs ladder (check) MM scene (check, check)! Elizabeth knocked book one out of the Irish Territory! I cannot wait to see more of these characters and what the rest of this series has in store.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! Loved the fact that it was a bigger,less perfect woman in her 30’s and not some twig. Made her a more believable and relatable character. The issues with fertility was a bit hard for me as I can relate to what Elise was going through. Was sweet the way they all cared for her and each other. Just wished there was maybe an extended epilogue to see what happens with this group in the future. I know that the author said that the story isn’t over but it will continue with a different characters. Excited to see what comes next.

[Becky Klingler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love

Love this group can't wait for the next ones I see a couple of them that you you sprung in there is little possible book ideas can't wait it was an awesome read awesome characters

[Kathy Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ment to be

I loved every bit of this book I loved he men. They treated her like a queen she deserved to be treated like. I cant wait for the Mendez brothers book next. You will seriously enjoy this book. The author did amazing.

[Vicci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

Great story, fast-paced, and plenty of spice. Gave it 4 stars cause there were a lot of grammatical errors that took away from the story itself.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it from beginning to end

Think riches to riches meets den of vipers. This book was absolutely wonderful and the ending both destroyed me and put me back together

[Mandy Robitaille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall great mafia reverse harem book! Good steam and I loved that the characters were older adults! Elsie was a great FMC and I loved seeing her grow into herself!

[Saharah Vanvalkenburgh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book if I talk about this I would give spoilers.

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, but I felt like the ending was a bit rushed

[vigdodoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes,yes!🤩

[Echo]

Taking a DNF break from this one, it’s just not vibing for me. I may go back to it at some point.

[CeCe · Rating 1 out of 5]

This wasn't her first one stand. The heroine had them before she was married. Not her first rodeo. It would be different if she never had one before. Sorry, not for me.

[Meelana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Bretnie Shep · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it .

I absolutely LOVEDDDDDD this . The humor was great and I loved the fmc . She was so strong and sweet and just amazing. Alfie and Connor are def my favorites . But all of them were the best .