The Ways She Makes Me Sin Review (A. Goswami): Worth Reading?

Updated on October 8, 2026

Verdict: An addictive, angsty age-gap romance between a 39-year-old protector and her 19-year-old step-niece, hiding from the mafia on a Montana estate — a taboo premise its fans devour and its critics cannot get past, with a mafia plot that barely matters and a cliffhanger ending.

Best for: Readers who specifically want a forbidden step-relation age gap, protector-turned-lover tension, a heroine who pushes and a hero who resists, and who will go straight on to book two.

Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — romance.io’s four readers say 3, “open door”; readers describe a long wait for explicit scenes that are worth it when they arrive)

Rating: ★★★½☆ (3.3/5 — a 4.00 Goodreads average from 372 ratings, adjusted for a divisive premise, thin plot, characters many readers find grating and a cliffhanger)

Tropes: Age gap (20 years), step-aunt and step-niece, forbidden love, protector turned lover, forced proximity, grief, mafia threat, duet opener.

The Ways She Makes Me Sin is the first book of A. Goswami’s The Ways We Burn duology, a sapphic romance self-published in January 2025. After Sophia’s parents are murdered by the mafia, her step-aunt Evelyn Lockhart — the woman Sophia worshipped as a child, who then disappeared from her life — turns up at the funeral and takes Sophia and her nine-year-old half-sister, Emmy, to her Montana estate for protection.

It has 372 Goodreads ratings averaging 4.00 and 17 written reviews, 454 Amazon ratings averaging 4.3, and a 4.00 from four romance.io readers. The written reviews are few and mostly short, which makes this the thinnest evidence base in this batch. They split cleanly between readers who found it addictive and readers who found the premise uncomfortable from the first scene.

What Is The Ways She Makes Me Sin About?

The author describes it as a dark, steamy sapphic romance with an age gap, forbidden desire and a looming mafia threat, told in dual first person. Readers give the ages: Evelyn is 39 and Sophia is 19. They are not related by blood — Evelyn’s brother was Sophia’s stepfather — but the book leans into the step-aunt framing, and Amazon’s subtitle sells it as a step-aunt and niece romance.

Romance.io readers tag it mafia, age gap, forbidden love, forced proximity, parent’s best friend, bodyguard heroine and cliffhanger, with death and grief, graphic violence and mental trauma among the content warnings. Much of the emotional weight sits with the two girls’ grief, and with Emmy in particular.

What Makes This Age-Gap Romance Work

The tension: Readers who loved it describe electric chemistry and an angst that keeps them waiting — and say the payoff is worth it.
Addictiveness: Several readers say they could not put it down and went straight to book two, including one who first picked it up for the cover.
The grief: One reader describes heartbreaking, devastating moments, and another says they are still crying over it.
The dialogue: Readers call it realistic, and one says the author’s writing is laugh-out-loud funny as well as heartfelt.
A quick read: At about 250 pages, one reader sums it up as an easy, steamy read on a thriller background.

Book Synopsis

Evelyn Lockhart made her brother a promise before he died: protect his daughters. When he and his wife are killed, she comes back into the lives of the stepdaughter who once followed her everywhere and the little girl she has barely met.

Sophia is nineteen, grieving and furious that Evelyn left without explanation years ago. She is also no longer the child Evelyn remembers. With a mafia threat hanging over them, the three end up behind the walls of Evelyn’s Montana estate.

Evelyn is there to keep them safe. Sophia wants Evelyn to see her as a woman. Under one roof, both of them have to decide which rule they are willing to break.

My Review

This is a premise book, and the premise does the work. Readers who were looking for a forbidden step-relation age gap found exactly that, and they describe tension that builds steadily, chemistry they could feel, and a story that kept them reading past bedtime. The grief subplot — two sisters who have just lost their parents — gives the book more feeling than its tagline suggests.

The premise is also the problem. A two-star reviewer felt the old bond between aunt and niece was something “darker and unresolved” long before Sophia was an adult, and a three-star reader notes that Evelyn is already looking at Sophia at her parents’ funeral. One reader stopped at 13% over passages that dwell on how small and young Sophia is. These are not fringe complaints: they go to whether the book works at all, and they are worth weighing before you start.

The characters divide readers too. A four-star reviewer who enjoyed it says both leads drove them nuts — Sophia acts every bit nineteen, and Evelyn, despite all the talk of dominance, lets Sophia call every shot. The two-star reviewer found Evelyn rigid and Sophia tiresome, and felt the side characters added nothing. The same review says the mafia storyline is practically irrelevant, and another reader calls the book enjoyable but not very deep.

Finally, it is half a story. Readers say it ends on a cliffhanger, and one who generally dislikes stories split across books says so up front.

My honest note: Readers who want this exact taboo will find it delivered with real tension and some genuine grief. Readers who are unsure should probably skip it, because the reviewers who disliked it mostly disliked the premise itself.

Element	In The Ways She Makes Me Sin
Central relationship	Evelyn Lockhart (39) and her step-niece Sophia (19) — F/F, a 20-year age gap, unresolved at the end of book one
Core tropes	Forbidden love, step-relation age gap, protector turned lover, forced proximity, grief, mafia threat
Setting	Evelyn’s estate in Montana
Heat level	4/5 — romance.io’s four raters say 3, “open door”; readers describe a long build to explicit scenes
Series	The Ways We Burn book 1 of 2 — ends on a cliffhanger; concludes in The Ways She Owns My Heart
Content notes	Murder of parents, death and grief, graphic violence, mental trauma, a step-relation romance with a large age gap and a childhood connection

How Dark and Spicy Is The Ways She Makes Me Sin?

A 4/5 on heat, and the evidence is thin. Romance.io’s four raters give it three of five, “open door,” and one reader says the angst keeps you waiting a long time. Readers who enjoyed it call it a steamy story with steamy scenes, and the passages quoted in reviews are explicit. The old version of this page called it 5/5 and erotica-leaning; the reader accounts do not support that, so we have lowered it.

On darkness, the violence is mostly off to the side — a mafia murder sets things moving, and one reviewer says the threat is practically irrelevant after that. The darkness readers react to is the relationship itself. If the taboo is the appeal, this delivers it; if it is a concern, it is the whole book.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want a forbidden step-relation age gap, an older protector resisting a younger woman who pushes, slow-building tension, grief and a quick read.

You may want to skip it if: a step-aunt romance, a 20-year gap or a childhood connection is uncomfortable, you want the older heroine to lead, you want a real mafia plot, or you hate cliffhangers.

In short: a taboo-premise romance that its fans binge and its critics drop early.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

This is a mid-sized indie release from a prolific author. It came out in January 2025, it is in Kindle Unlimited, and it has 372 Goodreads ratings but only 17 written reviews. The distribution is 44% five stars, 26% four, 17% three, 8% two and 3% one. Amazon readers are kinder: 82% of its 454 ratings are four or five stars. The audiobook on Audible is narrated by Amazon’s Virtual Voice; we found no edition on Libro.fm.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The chemistry, the angst and the addictiveness. Several five-star reviews are short and simply say they could not stop reading; one longtime fan of the author praises her humour and characters.

What readers argue about and complain about: The premise, first. Then the characters — Sophia as grating, Evelyn as less commanding than promised — and then a mafia plot that does not go anywhere. Two of the 17 written reviews are did-not-finish ratings.

The series question everyone should ask first: The Ways She Makes Me Sin does not stand alone. Readers describe a cliffhanger, and the romance and the mafia threat continue in The Ways She Owns My Heart, which is already out. Amazon sells the two together.

Frequently Asked Questions

How old are Evelyn and Sophia?

Readers report that Evelyn is 39 and Sophia is 19. Sophia knew and idolised Evelyn as a child before Evelyn left her life.

Are Evelyn and Sophia related?

Not by blood. Evelyn’s brother was Sophia’s stepfather, which makes Evelyn her step-aunt. The book and its marketing lean into that framing.

Does The Ways She Makes Me Sin end on a cliffhanger?

Yes. It is book one of The Ways We Burn duology, and the story concludes in The Ways She Owns My Heart.

How spicy is The Ways She Makes Me Sin?

Steamy, after a long build. Romance.io’s four raters give it 3/5, “open door,” while the scenes readers quote are explicit. We rate it 4/5.

Is The Ways She Makes Me Sin on Kindle Unlimited?

Yes. As of October 2026 it is in Kindle Unlimited. There is an Audible edition read by Amazon’s Virtual Voice; we found none on Libro.fm.

If You Loved The Ways She Makes Me Sin, Read These Next

Go straight to The Ways She Owns My Heart. For another older heroine in a mafia setting, read our review of Her Wrath. For a protector romance with a mob boss, try The Counterpart. For another age-gap mafia romance where readers weigh the backstory carefully, see Captive of the Crime Queen. Browse our age gap lesbian books, age gap lesbian romance on Kindle Unlimited, lesbian mafia romance books and lesbian bodyguard romance books, or explore lesbian romance books by trope and mood.

The Bottom Line

The Ways She Makes Me Sin is built around one forbidden premise, and whether you will enjoy it depends almost entirely on that premise. It succeeds on tension, chemistry and a grief subplot with real feeling. It is weaker on characters many readers found frustrating, on a mafia plot that fades, and on a cliffhanger ending, and it rests on a small set of written reviews. In Kindle Unlimited with its sequel already out, it is a fair pick for readers who want exactly this taboo, and one to skip for anyone it would trouble. Check The Ways She Makes Me Sin on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, The Ways She Makes Me Sin ranks as a divisive premise-led romance — addictive for its niche, uncomfortable for many, and incomplete without book two.