Category: Audio Books

A MelanieM Audiobook Review: Love in Spades (Four Kings Security #1) by Charlie Cochet and Greg Boudreaux (Narrator)

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

When the cards are stacked against you, the Kings will even the odds.

Ex-Special Forces soldier Anston “Ace” Sharpe is fighting a different battle these days—one involving the world of private security across the state of Florida. As part owner of Four Kings Security, Ace and his fellow Kings tackle everything from armed transport and investigations to cyber intelligence and executive protection. Cocky, fearless, and brash, Ace isn’t afraid to take risks.

After years of working alongside his father, Colton Connolly is ready to take the helm at Connolly Maritime, but his father’s retirement is put on hold when Colton begins receiving death threats. If that isn’t bad enough, his father signs a contract with Four Kings Security to provide Colton with round-the-clock protection, despite his adamant refusal. Colton’s life has been turned upside down, the last thing he needs is a shadow, especially in the form of infuriating, sexy-as-sin Ace Sharpe, who seems to be on a mission to drive Colton mad.

Sparks fly the moment Colton and Ace meet on a sultry night club dance floor. But getting involved with a client, even one as fiery and beautiful as Colton Connolly, is a line Ace is unwilling to cross. Colton might be attracted to Ace, but he’d been burned before. He might be willing to put his life in Ace’s hands, but not his heart.

As the Florida nights heat up, so does their passion, and Ace and Colton are faced with a difficult choice—take the plunge and risk it all, or play it safe and walk away?

If Ace can keep a deadly threat from robbing Colton of a future….

Charlie Cochet’s stories are usually piled on my TBR list, so getting to listen to them is a wonderful way for me to enjoy this author’s writing.  Love in Spades is the first in Cochet’s new Four Kings Security series and based on my total enjoyment in this story, I’m highly anticipating the next tale to be released.

The four kings of the series are ex-military men, a tight band of brothers, who have gone into the security business together after their military service ended.  The “kings” tag each  is given comes from the deck of cards and the full story behind the names is slowly revealed over the course of this action/adventure tale.

The first “King” up to get his story and HEA is Anston “Ace” Sharpe.  The Four Kings Security firm is well known in high circules for their discretion, superb ability to get things done, high  attention to detail, and 100 percent accuracy.  They get the job done. So their skills are known and wanted by corporations and individuals around the world.  Their newest assignment is one  Colton Connolly, who’s father has hired them to guard him against every increasing threats.  To say Colton is resistant to their hiring and protection, is mild indeed.

Cochet does the meet and clash of personalities beautifully between Ace and Colton.  The dialog sparkles and pops with testosterone and sex, the scenes snap with instant attraction, irritation, and amusement, and the characters solidify before our eyes. Or should that be  ears?

This push and pull between the two men continues throughout the story as they learn to work together as discover more of each other’s pasts as well.  This is where the reader learns more about the Four Kings start up, revelations about Ace’s past along with his “brothers” like Lucky, Red, and King.

I want to stop for a moment and talk about the amazing job that Greg Boudreaux does as a narrator.  He swings between characters so easily, capturing different personalities with changes in voices,even accents and languages, that you would think you were listening to multiple actors, and not just one.  I have to laugh out loud at his “Lucky”, I can see him so clearly, from his love of clothes to his accent.  But it’s also Red, King, Laz, and other important (and even strong fleeting characters) that Boudreaux voices so well that makes an impact on the reader and pulls this story forcibly together as an audiobook.

As the mystery unfold as to who is stalking Colton and the passion intensifies between the men, the action ramps up. The suspense and action go up tenfold, with Greg Boudreaux keeping pace, making our pulse race with anticipation and a little fear.

The final scenes are just out of control. I just loved them.  I did nothing but lay in bed  listening to this story unfold and hoping for the best outcome.  Which came of course.

Terrific ending.  Great story.  Love, love the narrator.  Now I can’t wait to see what the next King brings.  I’m gong to wait for the audio version.  This has quite spoiled me.

I highly recommend it.  For all you fans of Charlie Cochet, I’m sure you will have picked up the eBook first.  For M/M action/adventure romance, if you haven’t done so, I recommend this version too.  I just loved it.

Cover art is perfect for the character of Ace.  It’s eye  catching and works for the story too.

Audiobook Sales Links:

Audible.com 💛 Amazon 💛 iTune

Audiobook Details:

7 hours, 52 mins

Audible Audio, 8 pages
Published June 20th 2018 by Charlie Cochet (first published April 21st 2018)
Original TitleLove in Spades
ASINB07DVXHWYT
Edition LanguageEnglish
URLhttps://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Love-in-Spades-Audiobook/B07DVXHWYT
SeriesFour Kings Security #1
CharactersAnston “Ace” Sharpe, Ward “King” Kingston, Russell “Red” McKinley, Eduardo “Lucky” Alejandro Morales, Jacopo “Jack” Lorenzo Constantino, Sacha “Joker” Wilder

A Lucy Audiobook Review : Unscripted Love (Road to Blissville #1) by Aimee Nicole Walker and Joel Leslie (Narrator)

Rated 3 stars out of 5

This story is told in the alternating point of view of Chaz and Kyle.  Chaz is a writer and fan of online gaming who works in a salon.  He has been crushing on the sexy vet, Kyle, for a while and they eventually start to talk and date.  Dr Dimples, as Chaz calls Kyle, is sweet, kind and he likes Chaz very much. He is also a World of Warcraft fan, so they start to bond over that

I would have rated this book higher but I had some issues with Kyle being a doormat at times and with Chaz being ridiculous with his yes/no/yes towards Kyle. Chaz has a secret that he is afraid will send Kyle running, but he had so many chances to come clean about it and didn’t.  Instead, he would run out on Kyle, or not see him.  The secret itself to me wasn’t that big of a deal and I felt it was there just to provide some conflict.  The book actually begins with Chaz whispering the secret into Kyle’s ear and then flashes back to a year earlier when the whole thing actually started. Kyle had noticed Chaz previously in a lustful way but since he was with Gabe he never did anything about it. 

Chaz has some funny inner dialogue.  When seeing Kyle professionally about his pet, Harry, he thinks, “Harry? No, I manscape to within an inch of my life.  No wild bush with hairy man berries here!”  But his obsessing about his secret causes him to run so often that he made me crazy. He has some endearing qualities, such as when “I grabbed a glass of wine, a dog-eared paperback copy of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles, my phone and set them all on the nifty bath tray that my grandmother got  me for Christmas.”  Anyone who takes a bath while reading Dame Agatha has smarts, I just wish he would have used them.

On the whole, it was a little bland and the “secret” was so blown out of proportion that it was frustrating.  You would think he had a body hidden somewhere, the way he acted sometimes.  It’s very confusing for Kyle when Chaz is very hot and cold towards him. There were times he hurt Kyle for no good reason. “I saw the moment he realized I wasn’t going to stay.  His dashed hopefulness made me want to cry.”  Kyle, grow a pair!

The side characters, Chaz’s best friend, Josh, and his boyfriend, Gabe, play an integral part.  It was a little awkward because Gabe is Kyle’s ex-boyfriend, a serious relationship that apparently parted very amiably.  This is a spin-off of the Curl Up and Dye series and Josh and Gabe get together there.  I probably should have read that first because I think their story would be more interesting.  Josh and Gabe sort of push Chaz and Kyle together and that causes some consternation.  Meredith, the other Chaz and Josh bestie, is strong and wonderful in her own right.

Oh and the family!  I loved the Matrons.  Grandma, Mom and Aunt Sandy, meddling in Chaz’ love life and just being strong women who want their boy to be happy.  They were so awesome.  “We have a book idea for you, dear,” Grandma said. “We want you to write a story about a small-town guy who really likes the town vet is too afraid to act on it… let’s name him Chad…” They miss nothing, those ladies.

Once the secret is FINALLY revealed, Kyle handles the info like a champ (which we knew he would because he is awesome) and it was a bit of a let down after all that Chaz-drama.

I am a big fan of Joel Leslie’s work but this wasn’t my favorite of his audio.  Right in the beginning there was a strange intonation and I was worried.  But as the book started the voices smoothed out, except there wasn’t quite enough differentiation for Chaz and Kyle, so there were times (as I was listening while driving) that I lost track of who was talking. Mom and Gramma, on the other hand, were done so well I could picture them.

This was my first Aimee Nicole Walker book and I would try another of hers. 

Cover art by Jay Aheer is eye-catching and perfect for the story.  Love it.

Sales Links:

AMAZON US: http://amzn.to/2uzVnkV

AMAZON UK: http://amzn.to/2tzosN1 

Audiobook Details:

Audible Audio, 9 pages
Published May 29th 2018 by Tantor Audio (first published July 11th 2017)
ASINB07CZ4LZ4Y
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesRoad to Blissville #1
CharactersKyle Vaughn, Charles Bailey” Chaz ” Hamilton

A Barb the Zany Old Lady Audiobook Review: The Alpha Prince (Kingdom of Askara #3) by Victoria Sue and Michael Pauley (Narrator)

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

This author has become a must buy for me. Between her two series, both of which I’ve been reading and listening to on audiobook, I’m amazed at her fantastic world-building and creativity.

In this installment of the Kingdom of Askara, we meet a colony of hybrid wolves headed by a wolf named Justice, who has sworn to lead his people to a better life than the desolate barren existence they lead in the Askaran desert. When he learns that Darius, the Alpha of Solonara, plans to hold a contest to award the hand of his son, Cashel, in marriage, Justice sees this as his way to his pack’s freedom.

None of the gathering community of wolves knows of the cruel treatment that Cashel has suffered for years at his father’s hand. When Darius failed to conceive another male heir—an alpha male heir—he began medical experiments on his omega son Cashel to implant a uterus so that Darius would at least have an heir through Cashel. He’s obsessed with his lineage and will do whatever it takes to subjugate not only Cashel but the gamma and beta wolves he commands.

It doesn’t take long for Justice to ascertain just how bad Darius is, and he prepares his forces to take over the pack so his people can move in. But it only takes one meeting with Cashel for Justice’s world to turn topsy-turvy when he realizes Cashel is his soul mate, and his plans need to be amended to protect the beautiful young man.

I loved Michael Pauley’s narration, and that’s saying a lot, because he took over this series from one of my all-time favorite narrators. I wasn’t disappointed at all. The pace of these stories is fast, the plots intriguing, the narration outstanding, and the characters are endearing. What more could I want for entertainment?

Justice and Cashel find their way to a HEA but it’s a hard-fought battle to get there. Along the way, the supporting characters are terrific and the subplot is sweet. Picture a baby in that HEA, and you know a bit of what I mean. Very highly recommended.

~~~

The cover depicts a historical city done in a shade of light blue, surrounded by an edging of darker green. Very simple and bright but not one that would normally attract my attention among the multitude of choices of MM romance bookcovers.

Sales Links:  Amazon | Audible

Audiobook Details:

Listening Length: 7 hours and 47 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Victoria Sue
Audible.com Release Date: July 11, 2018
Whispersync for Voice: Ready
Language: English
ASIN: B07FDFM6ZP

An Ali Audiobook Review: Suspicious Behavior (Bad Behavior #2) by L.A. Witt and Cari Z. with Michael Ferraiuolo (Narrator)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Detective Darren Corliss is hanging by a thread. In between recovering from a near-fatal wound and returning to work at a hostile precinct, he’s struggling to help care for his ailing brother. His partner and boyfriend, Detective Andreas Ruffner, wants to help, but doesn’t know how. And with his own family crises brewing, Andreas is spread almost as thin as Darren.

For cops, though, life takes a backseat to the job. When a stack of unsolved homicides drops into their laps, Andreas and Darren think they’re unrelated cold cases. But when a connection surfaces, they find themselves on the tail of a prolific serial killer who’s about to strike again.

Except they’ve got nothing. No leads. No suspects. Just a pile of circumstantial evidence and a whole lot of hunches. Time is running out to stop the next murder—and to pull themselves back from their breaking points.

I enjoyed this one. In this installment we find Darren and Andreas a few months down the road. Darren is still recovering from his injuries from book one so the guys are working on cold cases. They come across some cases that they realize show the pattern of a serial killer.

This had an interesting case and I thought that aspect was entertaining and well done.  I like how they took the cold case and turned it into an exciting and action packed case.

My favorite part of this book though was the development between the two MC’s. Their relationship was still tentative by the end of the first book but I really started feeling their connection in this one. They have some great scenes together. They’re both complex characters with some pretty serious family issues.  The scenes between Darren and his brother Archer are just heartbreaking.
This audiobook was narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo and I thought he did a really good job.  His performance really added to the vibe and feeling of the story.  It made the emotional scenes between the two main characters even more impacting.  I enjoyed both of the main character’s voices as well as all of the side characters.
Overall this was a really good read/listen.  This is the second book in the series and I do not recommend it as a standalone.  If you’ve read book one I think you will enjoy this.  If you haven’t and you’re looking for a new series to start this would be a good one
Cover Artist: will be updated once the  RT site is back up.
Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing’s link is unavailable atm | Amazon | Audible
Audiobook Details:
Audible Audio, 8 pages
Published July 2nd 2018 by Riptide Publishing (first published August 19th 2017)
Original TitleSuspicious Behavior
ASINB07F2MDKXT
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesBad Behavior #2