The Last Confession by Regina EdenMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
2.5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
“I suppose there can be only two outcomes to our friendship; you will save me or I will damn you.”
After losing her mother to the gallows, Catalina Cosme is taken in by Madame Poisson, a former courtesan and is raised in the Paris countryside. When she becomes of age, she returns to Paris to stay with a friend of Poisson's, Madame Poppa, who runs a brothel. Catalina follows in their footsteps and becomes a courtesan and is given into contract for one year to Lord Guy. Catalina wants to have feelings for Guy but after one of his drinking nights, he abuses her and she runs to a church to find solace. There she meets Father Benedict Mortimer and while she treasures their friendship, she wants more.
“Welcome,” said the priest in the prolonged silence. It was a deep voice that made the delicate hairs on Catalina’s nape stand on end.
Set in 1663 Paris, The Last Confession had taboo (priest and courtesan), age-gap, and slow burn elements. In the second half, it danced into erotic but then started to throw plot points fast and furious into the story and created an ending that felt a little unsatisfying in its abruptness. Mostly told from Catalina's point-of-view, there were two or three times it switched to Father Benedict but they were very short and seemingly out of nowhere, the reader gets insight into how being raised by two courtesans has made Catalina more liberal and aware of the hypocrisy of the church but also looking for some source of comfort and understanding. With these issues, the book, obviously, touches on religious doctrine, equality, and societal issues. There were points made, some missed, but when I picked up this book, I was looking for some delicious slow burn friction and this did have moments that delivered.
And beneath all the abstinence, all the self-assurance, Father Benedict Mortimer was only a man. And no man was immune to temptation.
I liked the gradual beginning, we get to know Catalina and her situation first and see why she is open and drawn to Father Benedict for a friendship, then her attraction starts to seep in, his looks, her learning about his libertine past, and around the 30% mark she, faltering in a purposeful way, sets out to seduce him. Here is where I missed Father Benedict's point-of-view or more backstory on him. Scenes of his past, he mentions having more than one partner at a time, could have been flashed to, fulfilling more of a erotic vibe, but most importantly, I missed “seeing” his struggle and battle in not giving into Catalina. We do get a scene of Benedict's self-flagellation, which Catalina sees and gives her a crisis of conscience. As it was, though, there was only one or two scenes where I thought I could feel his turmoil, otherwise, Father wasn't even doth protesting too much. Along with not really feeling his struggle to maintain his vows, his views never seemed to match the church and there were times I felt he was more cosplaying in his liturgical garments.
"What is it you want of me, Catalina?" Benedict asked, his voice had turned cold.
"I want you,” she said.
The passages of time in the story also didn't provide a cohesive pacing feel, months go by as Catalina spends time with Benedict in Touraine, then months go by as they're apart, then we're at 50% with Catalina's contract up with Lord Guy and Benedict is entering her life again by paying to be her secret benefactor, without benefits. In the second half, around the 60% mark, is where the erotic part takes over for a while. Without Benedict's pov, I can't say there was a completely angst heated “snap” to him giving in but there was heat there. The bedroom scenes take over for awhile but after another brief year of time passage goes by, the ending zooms up with death, murder, quick forced in sense of betrayal, a trial, and a brisk wrapped up ending.
They would be shunned by society and damned by God.
The secondary characters were definitely interesting outlines of characters but they never were delved in enough for me. Lord Guy, after religious hypocrisy, is mostly the villain of the piece and is given the most background with his face scared by the Vindictae, who also murdered his brothers. His depression and anger over women being repulsed by his face have him drinking and then abusing women and while he acts ashamed in the morning over his actions, I'm glad that Catalina never tried to “heal” him. (He's also the source of most of the content warnings, physical abuse and rape) There's mention of Catalina having a brother she loved who died but there wasn't enough to feel this emotional connection, the madames who raised her needed more coloring in, and a late additive friend of Benedict's was barely formed and given a very blatant out of nowhere change of heart to give a happy ending. The time period is only really felt through brief or light mentions of The Reformation, tension between Catholics and Protestants, and real historical figures like The Sun King and Veronica Franco.
“And some of us choose a life that was not meant for us,” Catalina murmured.
A lot of the story was all in the teasing of the idea of these two together, it dances towards the line but stayed away a fair distance, there was a started confessional masturbation scene but was seemingly forgotten in its abandonment, until the later second half when bedroom scenes take over for a while; this had more of a hint of erotic than encompassing. A little more depth in some places and Father Benedict's pov would have improved this for me but the promise shown would convince me to read another of the author's books.
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