Masked Sins by Amanda Richardson is the fourth installment of the Ravaged Castle series, a series of interconnected standalones, each following one of the Ravage brothers. Each of the brothers is extraordinarily wealthy, and each brother and their love interest have their own specific brand of kink.
Orion Ravage got sober and discovered a way to channel his emotional turmoil in a new way, through kink. He’s a sadistic dominant, and in addition to the kink club he’s opening, he teaches people about kink and sexuality through his anonymous internet persona, Starboy.
His stepsister Layla, who Orion has pined after for years, stumbles across the Starboy account one day and reaches out. She’s a ballet dancer and everyone thinks she’s such a good girl, so pure and innocent, but when she messages Starboy, she reveals her dark desires. And Orion simply can’t resist. Layla finds herself caught between her stepbrother and this mysterious stranger on the internet, without knowing that they’re the same guy.
Stepbrother romances are not usually my thing, in part due to the fact that I have double cousins from a similar such relationship. Family tree projects get complicated. I also just think the whole societal sexualization of stepfamilies is a really strange phenomenon. Not that there’s anything morally wrong with falling in love with someone who is not blood-related, depending on the circumstance, but the fact that the entire home page of PornHub on any given day is largely step-something porn is, for lack of a better term, odd. But I love Amanda Richardson, and the rest of this series, so of course I was going to read it anyway. And I’m quite glad I did.
Layla is such a compelling heroine, in part because her struggles are so relatable, and in part because she’s just adorable. She’s a ballerina, obsessed with romance novels, and has a cat named after Jack Sparrow. It is impressive how this author manages to write so many characters I relate to on such a deep level, not in kinks necessarily, but in their fundamental selves. Even if you have nothing in common with Layla, it will feel like you do.
This book had its difficult moments for me because of that. I was a ballerina as a child and teenager, and nearly every woman I know who grew up in that life has struggled with food and body image. Layla embodies that issue, and it’s very well done on the page. Which means it hits home hard. She’s also a sexual assault victim. Her response to the struggles that so many women experience is part of what makes her such a great character. While it is painful to read about Layla’s struggles, it also feels validating. This is part of what makes reading so beautiful, characters that validate your own experiences and show you that they can be overcome.
Orion, on the other hand, is the best kind of dominant book hero, the kind that Richardson always manages to write so well. He’s dominant, sure, but he’s so completely head over heels for Layla. He would do anything for her. While he’s filthy rich, and just plain filthy, he still feels decidedly human and has moments of profound self-doubt in his pursuit of the girl he loves so much.
Masked Sins is a slow burn with lots of sexy tension and a payoff that is worth every single page. The Ravaged Castle series has earned its place among the best contemporary romances of the year. The final book in the series, Holy Hearts, is slated for a June 2025 release, and I’ll be sad to see this wonderful series come to an end.
Writing: 4
Spice: 4
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