Book Review: Love and Other Sins

Love and Other Sins by Emilia Ares came out back in the fall and I wrote about the advanced copy and package I received back then. However, I’m just now getting around to ready and reviewing it and I loved it!

Love and Other Sins is a dual pov novel from the perspectives of Mina and Oliver. Mina is a first generation American living in Los Angeles with her mom. Her parents came from Russia for a better life, but it has been just her and her mom for years since her dad left. With money being tight, her mom has to pull her from her private school for her senior year of high school which means Mina will have to go to public school in Hollywood.

Oliver has been in foster care his whole life and after years of being bounced around from home to home and a stretch of years in one foster home filled with abuse, he has managed to educate himself on his rights, file a lawsuit, win, and also become emancipated. He has also managed to save a lot of money by hustling electronics. Wanting to start with a clean slate, in a new town away from his troubled past, Olive moves to Los Angeles.

Mina and Oliver cross paths in class on their first day of school, but it’s not until Oliver saves Mina when she is threatened at knife point in an alley after school by thugs who are after her father that they get to know each other.

Mina’s dance aspirations and close relationship with her mom become strained when she tests the limits in the midst of her trying to figure out who she is and what she wants in life. Oliver has to overcome his past traumas that have left him wary of trusting others and with anger issues. But, neither can deny their feelings for each other. Can they overcome their obstacles to be together?

I really loved this book and the characters. I found Mina and Oliver to be very likable and realistically flawed.

Warning, there is a cliff hanger! I need the sequel to be out now so I can see what happens next!

A quote I loved:

“Every day, something incredible can happen that changes your whole life; every choice can be the choice that takes you in a completely different direction. It opens an infinite number of possibilities. Like, the simplest choice I make, whether to go left or right, could change my entire life. Our entire future is constantly being bet on the next roll of the dice.”