The Pearl by Tiffany Reisz

Everyone has a price…

When Lord Arthur Godwick learns his younger brother is up to his bollocks in debt to Regan Ferry, owner of The Pearl Hotel, he agrees to work off the tab... in her bed.

Soon the handsome but troubled Arthur discovers he's a pawn in an erotic game of revenge—and nothing, including his lover, is what it seems.

Don’t miss our reviews of other books in The Godwicks series!
For book one, The Red, click HERE.

 

 

Book 3
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆
This is the third book in the series and gives us Arthur, son of Malcolm and Mona (The Red), and brother to Lia (The Rose) and his story, with a side dose of the spare, Charlie.

Whilst this is a sexy read, I found it to be much softer and romantically erotic than many of Reisz's novels. Arthur is such a deliciously strong and yet gentle man. His youth and expectation of serving in the army make him much more thoughtful than one might have imagined. The woman whom he indentures himself to, Regan Ferry, is an enigma to us as well as him, until we discover the rather heartbreaking reason for her attitude.

I have really enjoyed the magical elements of these books, and it was really fun here too... that painting has a lot to answer for, but gives us good news too!


Erica – ☆☆☆
The Pearl is the third installment of The Godwicks series. While I do believe The Pearl could be read as a standalone title, here is some background on how the novel tied to the previous installments. Arthur is the son of the narrator in The Red, Mona, which makes him the brother of the narrator from The Rose, Lia.

As a reader of all of Tiffany Reisz's backlist, I have a good handle on the author's writing style. Sexy and original, oftentimes a little bit twisted, with an intellectual edge.

While Nora from The Original Sinners series resonated deeply with me, and Mona from The Red did as well, I struggled to connect with the story in both The Rose and The Pearl. While I devoured The Red in a single sitting, which is the first in this series, the additional installments took me several weeks each to read, to the point where I almost wish I'd just read The Red as a standalone and not read the sequels.

I cannot put into words why the story and the characters weren't resonating with me, thinking perhaps it was my mood at the time, especially since the content is generally something I seek out to read. How can something that ought to be my cup of tea, with a writing style that has always suited me, end up not grabbing my attention? As I said, I just cannot explain it.

Paranormal or not, I'm a lover of both genres, yet this series falls into a vague middle ground, where it has subtle paranormal elements, which oddly doesn't work for me. I'm a "go all in or go home" kind of reader, where I actually believe the story would have worked better without the paranormal elements.

Told in three parts, each part with a different narrator, the final part both Arthur and Regan sharing the limelight, showcasing all sides of the story.

Arthur is settling Charlie's debt, which was a mature action of selflessness on his part, protecting his younger brother and a precious family heirloom. Protecting the painting Charlie offered to settle the debt, Arthur allows himself to become the payment, as Regan wants him in her bed. This is an angsty delicious sensual yet erotic plot device that I couldn't wait to devour.

As a mature woman myself, I was quite pleased to read a novel featuring a mature woman as the lead, staring opposite a much younger man. But as I stated earlier, I'm feeling quite contrary. I was happy to have a mature woman and a younger man, yet it didn't work for me.

There was an imbalance of power, not only because Arthur was the debtor and the debt, made more imbalanced due to their age-gap. Ordinarily, I enjoy a woman taking the dominant position, same as I have no issue with large age-gaps. Regan is dominant, but the issue for me was that it came off as if she were treating Arthur as a child, which skeeved me out, as he was essentially selling himself, especially with the later revelation. Their interactions felt forced in many ways. Instead of the power-exchange between dominant and submissive, it felt more of an imbalance.

Long story short, The Pearl should have clicked all the boxes for what would make an epic escape for me personally, but none of it worked for me. Too many excellent elements that contradicted one another, none of them properly explored. Perhaps if these elements were developed over more pages, as it felt as if two books were jammed into a smaller singular novel, it would have allowed for it to all tie together organically, as opposed to feeling forced.

 

 

TIFFANY REISZ is the USA Today bestselling author of the Romance Writers of America RITA®-winning Original Sinners series from Harlequin’s Mira Books.

Her erotic fantasy The Red—the first entry in The Godwicks series, self-published under the banner 8th Circle Press—was named an NPR Best Book of the Year and a Goodreads Best Romance of the Month.

Tiffany lives in Kentucky with her husband, author Andrew Shaffer, and two cats. The cats are not writers.

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Pearl (The Godwicks #3) by Tiffany Reisz to read and review.