Book Review: The Price We Pay

• Book Blurb

  Everyone wants to give in to temptation, but no one wants to pay the price.
  
  I was a child when my father surrendered me to the Temple of All Gods. No one gave me a choice. No one even bothered to explain. I was simply tossed aside, unwanted.
  
  That was the day the God of Temptation claimed me as his.
  
  Now, I’m studying how to become the perfect priestess. Life in the temple means embracing my emotions and learning to harness each type of desire. Power, fear, lust, and rage are the most common, but not the only ones. Each has a power. Each has its place. I just have to figure out which kind of priestess I’ll become.
  
  Before I decide, I have questions – yet no one seems willing to give me answers. My only option is to leave it in my god’s hands. This won’t be easy, and my instructors think I’m a fool, but Temptation has been listening. Asking. Offering it all.
  
  In exchange, he intends to use me.
  
  I have demands. The priest and priestess who took me in have become my family. The guys? They taught me to love. How am I supposed to give this up? Why should I? Not even a god can make me walk away from them! All I have to do is stand my ground.
  
  In this temple, there’s always a temptation.
  The question is if I’m stubborn enough to resist…
  Or brave enough to pay a god’s price.
  
  
  ~~~
  NOTE: There are some situations in this book that may be triggering for some readers. Please check the front of the book for the ‘Potentially Sensitive Content’ page for further details.
  
  ~~~
  *The Price We Pay is book 1 in the complete Path of Temptation series.

  Everyone wants to give in to temptation, but no one wants to pay the price.

  I was a child when my father surrendered me to the Temple of All Gods. No one gave me a choice. No one even bothered to explain. I was simply tossed aside, unwanted.

  That was the day the God of Temptation claimed me as his.

  Now, I’m studying how to become the perfect priestess. Life in the temple means embracing my emotions and learning to harness each type of desire. Power, fear, lust, and rage are the most common, but not the only ones. Each has a power. Each has its place. I just have to figure out which kind of priestess I’ll become.

  Before I decide, I have questions – yet no one seems willing to give me answers. My only option is to leave it in my god’s hands. This won’t be easy, and my instructors think I’m a fool, but Temptation has been listening. Asking. Offering it all.

  In exchange, he intends to use me.

  I have demands. The priest and priestess who took me in have become my family. The guys? They taught me to love. How am I supposed to give this up? Why should I? Not even a god can make me walk away from them! All I have to do is stand my ground.

  In this temple, there’s always a temptation.
  The question is if I’m stubborn enough to resist…
  Or brave enough to pay a god’s price.

  ~~~
  NOTE: There are some situations in this book that may be triggering for some readers. Please check the front of the book for the ‘Potentially Sensitive Content’ page for further details.

  ~~~
  *The Price We Pay is book 1 in the complete Path of Temptation series.

• My review

  I was blown away by this book—I went in curious and came out completely hooked on the whole Path of Temptation world. I didn’t expect to love it this much.

  The story begins when Nariana, our heroine, is a child surrendered to the temple. I usually get bored when a book starts that early—but not this time. The POV from her childish mind was genuinely endearing, and following her from childhood through adolescence lets us see how she thinks and how her relationships slowly form and evolve.

  Vibes & Main Themes

  In short: academy (with darker themes like bullying), found family, fantasy, godly characters (with priest-driven power corruption), and a very open-minded world regarding sex, sexual identity, and romantic/sexual relationships.

  In long (expanding on those “in short” topics):

  This is reverse harem fantasy romance with academy vibes. The temple backdrop gives the story strong academia energy. Nariana starts school almost immediately after arriving at the temple in book 1, and the series follows her entire educational journey—school and high school in book 1, and advanced priestess training in the later books.

  At its heart, this is a found family story—but not in the usual sense. Found family often refers to romance forming a family, but here it’s about chosen connections. Nariana, for example, finds her own adoptive mother figure in the temple.

  There are darker undercurrents throughout this first installment and the series as a whole—gender roles, bullying (some of it quite intense), and moments where characters are deeply hurt.

  To enjoy this book, you need to be open to true polyamory, where everyone in the group loves everyone, and to different sexualities within that dynamic.

  Spice: Book 1 is lower in spice and a medium burn. Lots of intimacy and kisses; the first explicit scene is around the 51% mark. Later books get much spicier and explore more preferences and kinks, but it never crosses into “plotless smut.”

  Character

  I always like to add a section about the protagonist in my reviews.

  Nariana is a wonderfully crafted character—stubborn, determined, not the smartest in the room, but she knows exactly what she wants and refuses to let anyone steer her off course. I won’t spoil who ends up in her harem, but it’s worth discovering as her connections deepen across the series.

  What to Keep in Mind (Potential Dealbreakers)
  Things that might bother you:

  • Multiple content warnings: bullying (school setting, some of it heavy, and someone gets hurt), gender roles, and other darker topics that continue throughout the series.
    • The series leans heavily into:
    – inner monologues and emotional processing (this ramps up a lot in later books)
    – political themes and power struggles
    – exploration of sexual preferences and kinks

  Can I Read This Without Committing to the Whole Series?
  Short answer: yes.
  There’s no cliffhanger.
  The ending has a clear “more to come” vibe, but it’s not the type that’ll make you want to throw your Kindle at the wall.
  You can read book 1 as a standalone-feeling story if you don’t mind an open-ended, “the journey continues” type of ending.
  That said, you’ll almost certainly enjoy it more if you read the whole series, because book 1 is clearly designed as the foundation for everything that comes next.

  Purchase Tip (Non–Kindle Unlimited Readers)

  If you already know and love Auryn Hadley’s books and don’t have Kindle Unlimited (like me—it’s not available in my country), here’s my recommendation:
  Buy the box sets instead of the individual ebooks.
  • Box set 1: books 1–3
  • Box set 2: books 4–6
  It’s a better deal than purchasing them individually.
  Your wallet will thank you later.

  I was blown away by this book—I went in curious and came out completely hooked on the whole Path of Temptation world. I didn’t expect to love it this much.

  The story begins when Nariana, our heroine, is a child surrendered to the temple. I usually get bored when a book starts that early—but not this time. The POV from her childish mind was genuinely endearing, and following her from childhood through adolescence lets us see how she thinks and how her relationships slowly form and evolve.

  Vibes & Main Themes

  In short: academy (with darker themes like bullying), found family, fantasy, godly characters (with priest-driven power corruption), and a very open-minded world regarding sex, sexual identity, and romantic/sexual relationships.

  In long (expanding on those “in short” topics):

  This is reverse harem fantasy romance with academy vibes. The temple backdrop gives the story strong academia energy. Nariana starts school almost immediately after arriving at the temple in book 1, and the series follows her entire educational journey—school and high school in book 1, and advanced priestess training in the later books.

  At its heart, this is a found family story—but not in the usual sense. Found family often refers to romance forming a family, but here it’s about chosen connections. Nariana, for example, finds her own adoptive mother figure in the temple.

  There are darker undercurrents throughout this first installment and the series as a whole—gender roles, bullying (some of it quite intense), and moments where characters are deeply hurt.

  To enjoy this book, you need to be open to true polyamory, where everyone in the group loves everyone, and to different sexualities within that dynamic.

  Spice: Book 1 is lower in spice and a medium burn. Lots of intimacy and kisses; the first explicit scene is around the 51% mark. Later books get much spicier and explore more preferences and kinks, but it never crosses into “plotless smut.”

  Character

  I always like to add a section about the protagonist in my reviews.

  Nariana is a wonderfully crafted character—stubborn, determined, not the smartest in the room, but she knows exactly what she wants and refuses to let anyone steer her off course. I won’t spoil who ends up in her harem, but it’s worth discovering as her connections deepen across the series.

  What to Keep in Mind (Potential Dealbreakers)
  Things that might bother you:

  • Multiple content warnings: bullying (school setting, some of it heavy, and someone gets hurt), gender roles, and other darker topics that continue throughout the series.
    • The series leans heavily into:
    – inner monologues and emotional processing (this ramps up a lot in later books)
    – political themes and power struggles
    – exploration of sexual preferences and kinks

  Can I Read This Without Committing to the Whole Series?
  Short answer: yes.
  There’s no cliffhanger.
  The ending has a clear “more to come” vibe, but it’s not the type that’ll make you want to throw your Kindle at the wall.
  You can read book 1 as a standalone-feeling story if you don’t mind an open-ended, “the journey continues” type of ending.
  That said, you’ll almost certainly enjoy it more if you read the whole series, because book 1 is clearly designed as the foundation for everything that comes next.

  Purchase Tip (Non–Kindle Unlimited Readers)

  If you already know and love Auryn Hadley’s books and don’t have Kindle Unlimited (like me—it’s not available in my country), here’s my recommendation:
  Buy the box sets instead of the individual ebooks.
  • Box set 1: books 1–3
  • Box set 2: books 4–6
  It’s a better deal than purchasing them individually.
  Your wallet will thank you later.

Character & romance details

Who will love this book

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