Sinner Takes All: A Memoir of Love & Porn

Book was just as described, in great shape. Shipping, although free, took a very long time. I received this almost a month after I ordered it. I imagine that is because the book is new, and the shipper was waiting for the book to arrive from the press company. Shipping times were stated in the description, and they were very clear.

This memoir is exceptionally intimate and well narrated. Throughout the book, Tera tells the story of her personal ups and downs with a positive enthusiasm for life. I couldn't put it down.

I gave this book five stars because it is a miracle this beautiful woman is alive. I really am not going to tell you much about the book but it is a page turner, at times very disturbing and a heart breaker. She starts a modeling career at age 14 and loses her virginity aka statutory rape. Over and over it seems people take advantage of her but somehow she finds the silver lining. She also wrestles with abusing alcohol, pot and valium and has a mental breakdown during an excruciating battle with Digital Playground to break free. I can only describe her as a Phoenix and it will be exciting to see what she does next. I remember one socialite said to me, "We don't travel in the same circles." This from a woman that was literally prostituting herself getting clothes, free rides on private jets and gifts in exchange for sex with rich men while in contrast Tera's sister Debby points out, she takes pride in Tera helping sexually empower women. I find Tera and other women in porn that have become media moguls fascinating, bravely transformative and honest when compared with main stream movie stars. Tera Patrick explains at the very end of her book she was given the option to re-write the book because of her divorce from Evan Sienfeld, rock star turned porn star and she said no. She told her story from the heart and the"afterward" was essential for explaining the end of her marriage and important since many chapters are an "Evan Sienfeld lovefest". One theme comes across loud and strong...love is essential to her. The book is not great but Tera Patrick's courage to tell her story deserves 5 stars.

Sinner Takes All is a blend of many things. On one hand it's a nice biography which covers the youth, professional career and key points of Tera Patrick's life. It's also epic love story about the woman who met the man of her dreams and carved out a happy and romantic life with him. The book is also a tragedy, from sexual experiences with men far older than they should be at times far earlier than it should to Valuim and alcohol addiction, suicide attempts and mental illness. Mixed in are a spattering of Q & A's, porn tips, erotic pictures and sex advice. Individually these things would all make interesting books, but together it's a bit of a hodge podge. On the upside Tera does cover a number of really interesting aspects of her career. She sets the record straight about why she got her breasts enlarged, who she has and hasn't slept with, her actual religious background and more. Tara's retelling of her first photo shoot with Suze Randall and first porn shoot with Andrew Blake are charming and her descriptions of her sexual escapades with Evan are fun. *** SPOILER ALERT *** But the biggest hurdle of Sinner Takes all is what happens to the epic love story that it tells. The middle of the book covers Tera and Evan's romance, the way he helped her find her way through hell and how they built a company together to represent what she really wanted for herself. I absolutely love the "he said, she said" section of the book where both Tera and Evan give their perspective about how they met, her mental break downs and working in porn together. At the end of the book, Tera throws a hand grenade to this, announcing her divorce from Evan and accusing him of using her to get into porn. The Afterward is clearly a mistake, and one which co-author Carrie Borzillo should have helped stopped. It honestly doesn't matter how things turned out after the story has been told. The story really ends at the 2009 AVN Awards with Tera getting inducted into the hall of fame and deciding to quit performing. For her to revise the ground already covered in the book from a much different and much more negative perspective just doesn't work, it's like telling the story of Sleeping Beauty and then saying that the prince who gave her the kiss that awoke her from her slumber only did it to have sex with her and have her as his trophy wife. Even if Evan didn't turn out to be Tera's Prince Charming in the end, the fairytale romance is so compelling that we don't really want to hear a revision of it at the end of the book. Issues aside, Sinner Takes All is a captivating read (and with over 100 pictures and 286 pages it's a fairly quick read). I don't know if Tera Patrick's tale here is a cautionary tale or one of a woman triumphing against the odds. Perhaps this dichotomy is what best sums her up and in the end we are left hoping that somehow she'll find happiness and a life that she now dreams of.