Category: Riptide Publishing

A BJ Audiobook Review: Catch a Ghost (Hell and High Water #1) by S.E. Jakes and Adam North (Narrator)

Rating:  4.25 stars out of 5

Catch A Ghost AudiobookEveryone knows that Prophet—former Navy SEAL, former CIA spook, full-time pain in the ass—works alone and thinks only about the trouble he can cause. But his boss, Phil Butler of Extreme Escapes, LTD., has just assigned Proph not only a new partner but also a case haunted by ghosts from Proph’s past. Suddenly, he’s got to confront them both head on.

Tom Boudreaux—failed FBI agent, failed sheriff, full time believer in bad luck—is wondering why the head of a private contracting firm has hunted him down to offer him a job. Still he’s determined to succeed this time, despite being partnered with Prophet, EE, LTD’s most successful, lethal, and annoying operative, and even though the case is also resurrecting his own painful past.

Together, Prophet and Tom must find a way to take down killers in the dangerous world of underground cage matches, while fighting their own dangerous attraction. And when they find themselves caught in the crossfire, these two loners are forced to trust each other and work together to escape their ghosts . . . or pay the price.

If you enjoy alpha males and need heat in your m/m books, look no further! Grab this series right the heck now! If I had three words to describe this story, they would be “intense” and “flaming hot.”

Prophet and Tom together are like a volcano gouging out steam and flames and hot, sizzling lava. Okay, yeah, sometimes the refractory time is really short and their uh, hardiness borders on unrealistic. But there is no doubt at all about their chemistry, and both are well-realized characters with complex backstories which come strongly into play in this series. A few times the backstory on Prophet got a bit complex for me to follow easily, especially given the often fast pace of the storyline. There were a lot of people and details and twists and turns to keep track of… especially as it neared the end. This ending is left largely unsettled as far as the relationship, so its not a HEA/HFN. But  it totally makes me want to read on in the series and get to know what happens with these guys.

I’d already read the book and rated it four stars, but since I’d purchased but not yet finished reading the whole series, I was intrigued when it came out on audio. The narrator was new on audible, but I decided to take a chance and see if the narration would add another dimension to this previously enjoyed story. It totally did! I adored Tom’s Cajun accent… and both men sounded pretty much as I’d imagined. I had no trouble telling the speakers apart. It’s sometimes hard for me to say whether I prefer the audio or reading experience, mostly because only rarely do I partake of a story in both formats. Overall, I enjoyed the audio and the one small part where I felt the book was a bit better had pretty much nothing to do with the narrator. Near the end, in the parts there’s a part where a lot is going on, it was even harder for me to take in and visualize when heard than when reading. Probably because in print, I can read back over a sentence here or there if there’s a need to ground myself more firmly in the details. Since I’m most often driving when listening to audio, rewind isn’t something I do.

The audiobook cover is basically the same as the book… and it’s perfect for the story. The tattoo is just as imagined and love the nipple bar! Beautiful, sexy, hot cover.

Sales Links: Riptide Publishing | Amazon |  Audible  | Buy It Here


Book Details:  

Audible Audio, 9 pages, 8 hrs 3 mins

Adam North (Narrator)
Published December 16th 2015 by Audible Studios (first published September 7th 2013)
Original TitleCatch A Ghost
ASINB016DW5VUC
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesHell or High Water #1, Extreme Escapes, Ltd.December 16th 2015 by Audible Studios

Take a Journey Into the Darker Side of Life with ‘Stealing Innocents’ by Cari Waites (Lisa Henry) (giveaway)

StealingInnocents_600x900

Stealing Innocents by Cari Waites, Lisa Henry
Published by Riptide Publishing
Cover Artist L.C. Chase

Purchase/Read An Excerpt Here at Stealing Innocents

About Stealing Innocents

Those who dare to scratch the surface of ordinary, everyday life may be horrified to find a sick underbelly beneath—a nightmare world populated by villains and victims, predators and prey, where the rules of society no longer apply.

Where you’ll find people like Danny, the boy who sells himself to pay for his father’s gambling debts and ends up in a situation more twisted than he ever imagined. Or Troy, the cop whose obsession with saving a brutalized human trafficking victim turns deadly. Or Drew, the mental patient who begins to suspect his nightly delusions of abuse by his doctor are actually real. Or David, the cuckolded husband who decides the best way to get revenge is to seduce his wife’s barely legal son.

Stealing Innocents is an exploration of our darkest human impulses, where sex is power, love is horror, and there’s no such thing as a happy ending.

This collection contains three edited second editions stories that were previously individually published, plus one all-new story, by Lisa Henry writing as Cari Waites.

http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/stealing-innocents

About Lisa Henry

Lisa likes to tell stories, mostly with hot guys and happily ever afters.

Lisa lives in tropical North Queensland, Australia. She doesn’t know why, because she hates the heat, but she suspects she’s too lazy to move. She spends half her time slaving away as a government minion, and the other half plotting her escape.

She attended university at sixteen, not because she was a child prodigy or anything, but because of a mix-up between international school systems early in life. She studied History and English, neither of them very thoroughly.

She shares her house with too many cats, a green tree frog that swims in the toilet, and as many possums as can break in every night. This is not how she imagined life as a grown-up.

Cari Waites is her much darker alter ego.

Connect with Lisa:

  • Blog: lisahenryonline.blogspot.com
  • Twitter: @lisahenryonline
  • Goodreads: goodreads.com/LisaHenry

StealingInnocents_TourBanner

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Stealing Innocents, Lisa is giving away a $20 Riptide credit and an ebook of your choice of title from Lisa’s backlist.  Your first comment at each stop on this tour enters you in the drawing. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on January 16, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. Entries. Follow the tour for more opportunities to enter the giveaway! Don’t forget to leave your email or method of contact so Lisa can reach you if you win!

An Ali Audiobook Review: Stars & Stripes (Cut & Run #6) by Abigail Roux , J. F. Harding (Narrator)

Rating:  5 of 5 stars                ★★★★★

Stars & Stripes audiobookSpecial Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have managed the impossible: a few months of peace and quiet. After nearly a year of personal and professional turmoil, they’re living together conflict-free, work is going smoothly, and they’re both happy, healthy, and home every night before dark. But anyone who knows them knows that can’t possibly last.

When an emergency call from home upsets the balance of their carefully arranged world, Ty and Zane must juggle family drama with a perplexing crime to save a helpless victim before time runs out.

From the mountains of West Virginia to a remote Texas horse ranch harboring more than just livestock and childhood memories, Ty and Zane must face their fears—and their families—to overcome an unlikely enemy and bring peace back into their newly shared world.

This was a re-read for me but the first time I had listened to it on audio. This book remains one of my favorites of the series. The guy’s have worked hard to get to the positive place in their relationship that they’re in. During the course of this story they go to both of their parents’s homes and it is interesting to see the different dynamics between the two families. Most of the story is spent at Zane’s home where they try to solve a case involving Zane’s family ranch. I enjoyed the case in this one and I found it fast paced and entertaining. There are a lot of laugh out loud moments in this story, some really sweet and romantic ones and some of the steamiest ones in the series. I love every minute of this book every time I read it.

Audio:

I had listened to the first four books in this series on audio in the past. There were two prior narrators and this narrator is totally new. I wasn’t sure about his voice for Ty when I first started. The problem with reading a book first, in my opinion, is that you have the characters firmly set in your mind. While his Ty was fine, it wasn’t how I envisioned Ty. His Zane though was fantastic. Deep, growly voice with just a bit of a Southern drawl. After a few chapters I got used to his Ty and decided I liked it. There are a lot of characters in this book, with a lot of different accents and I felt like this narrator did a great job on all of them. I also found him able to do both male and female voices well which is a talent some narrators do not have. I loved listening to this on audio. I think listening to this really emphasized the emotional scenes and made them more heart wrenching (There was a scene between Ty & Zane’s dad that made my eyes water. It was much more emotional listening to it than reading it.) And the sexy scenes? Holy moly they’re burning hot on audio. I would definitely recommend this to readers/listeners.

Cover art by L.C. Chase. I don’t know what to say about the cover really. It’s very simple but it’s a classic and I would never want to see it change.

Sales Links:  Audio at Amazon |  Audio at Audible

Audiobook Details:

Stars & Stripes
Written by: Abigail Roux
Narrated by: J. F. Harding
Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
Series: Cut and Run, Book 6

An Ali Audiobook Review: Touch & Geaux (Cut & Run #7) by Abigail Roux , J.F. Harding (Narrator)

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars                    ★★★★★
Touch & Geaux audiobookAfter having their faces plastered across the news during a high-profile case, FBI Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have become more useful to the Bureau posing for photo ops than working undercover. Just as Zane is beginning to consider retirement a viable option, Ty receives a distress call from a friend, leading them to a city rife with echoes from the past.

New Orleans wears its history on its streets, and it’s the one place Ty’s face could get him killed. Surrounded by trouble as soon as they land, Ty and Zane are swiftly confronted with a past from which Ty can’t hide—one with a surprising connection to Zane’s.

As threats close in from all directions, both men must come to terms with the lives they’ve led and the lies they’ve told. They soon discover that not all their secrets are out yet, and nothing lasts forever. 
 
This was a re-read for me but the first time I have listened to it on audio.  This is another of my favorite books in this series.  This is probably the most emotional of all the books.  Ty and Zane head to New Orleans with the Sidewinder guys for a weekend of fun and end up in a complicated case involving both of their pasts.  In some ways I think this part of the plot is over the top but really the most important part of the story is Ty and Zane’s relationship.  Both of the them have issues which we’ve known from the start of the series.  In this book though, the tentative hold they’ve had comes crashing down on them.  And when it comes crashing down it comes down hard.  Not only does it come crashing down hard on them, it comes crashing down hard on the reader.  There are some emotionally charged scenes in this book and I remember how devastated I was at parts of this the first time I read it.  Even on re-read it was very hard to go through with them.  It’s our first detailed look at the Sidewinder guys and that part is a great set up for the branch off series with Nick and Kelly.  
 
Audio:
 
I really love this narrator and I felt like he did an excellent job.  As stated above this is an emotional read anyways but hearing this on audio was very difficult.  The narrator captures all the emotions, both good and bad, that the guys are going through in this.  There were a lot of scenes that just broke my heart.  It was brutal hearing the things they were saying to each other. There’s one scene where one of them starts to cry and the narrator just nailed the scene perfectly.   In addition there are a lot of side characters in this story and I felt the narrator did a great job on all of their voices.  Extra enjoyable were Digger’s Cajun and Liam’s British accents.  If you are a fan of audio books I highly recommend listening to this book.
 
Cover art by L.C. Chase. This is one of my favorite covers in this series.  It captures an important part of the story.  These covers are simple but are classics and I would hate to see them  change.  
Audiobook Details:
Touch & Geaux: Cut & Run Series, Book 7
By Abigail Roux
Narrated By J. F. Harding
Series: Cut and Run, Book 7
Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
Release Date: 12-15-15

A MelanieM Review: Part & Parcel (Sidewinder #3) by Abigail Roux

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Part&Parcel_600x900Nick O’Flaherty and Kelly Abbott had their happy ending in sight when a friend’s call for help almost ended with them losing it to the blade of a knife. Now, in the aftermath of near-disaster, both men are trying to heal and move on.

Moving on together, though, is harder than either of them realized it would be. Kelly struggles with simply being a lover instead of the Doc, while Nick is mired in his recovery. The distance between them inches along in stilted silence.

Desperately seeking solace, Nick finally gathers the courage to sort through the possessions his dear friend and fellow Sidewinder teammate Elias Sanchez left him when he died. Instead of comforting memories, Nick and Kelly find a stack of letters and strict instructions from Eli that prompt them to send out a call for assistance. With Eli’s letters in hand, Sidewinder sets out on one last mission together, seeking peace and absolution from beyond the grave—and from each other.

Part & Parcel is simply Abigail Roux’s finest Sidewinder story to date, and it ranks high among her other stories, even some of the beloved Cut & Run books.  In Part & Parcel, Abigail Roux employs one of my favorite story elements, that of letters delivering a voice from the past.

After the devastating events that saw Nick dying in the streets of Miami, everyone is left trying to move forward with their lives with varying degrees of success.  The ones having the most trouble?  Nick and Kelly.  Now with all the lies that Nick kept hidden from Kelly out in the open, the repercussions from those actions and necessary falsehoods are still disrupting their lives.  If they would only face it.  The author does a remarkable job of bringing forth the inner turmoil each man is undergoing, the heartache, the anger, and the confusion over how to end the stasis their lives has become.  I think too often the PTSD in other stories is tidied up into a neat little box. Not here but the issues Nick has extend not only to his service years but his abusive childhood, current father problems and more.  Add on to it Kelly “Doc” Abbott’s own personal crisis and you have not only a team in turmoil but a couple’s relationship floundering in the worst way.  Roux’s descriptions make each man’s torment immediate and raw.  We hurt for them both.

Then come the letters from Eli, a road trip cross country with the Sidewinders, Zane, and two kittens.  A journey I enjoyed stop by stop, conversation by conversation.  I loved the dialog.  Sometimes hilarious, often heartbreaking, even when snarky and sarcastic.  You could feel the long time camaraderie and brotherhood tightening up once more as the letters were read and memories were shared.

Yes, my tears flowed with theirs.

By the end of the journey, the healing process had set in, the brotherhood was back and I felt I really had gotten to know more about each man and their part in each other’s lives so throughly that past novels and plots clicked into place more, relationships become more cleanly defined and I “got” the Sidewinders…finally.

It was great seeing Ty and Zane again and getting a peek into their new lives.  Loved the kitties.  But the joy was Kelly and Nick, surrounded by family of brothers again.  Owen and Digger, each a new revelation to go with the newfound sense of family I felt at the end.  And Eli?  He was there too, in the letters, in the memories, maybe something more…

I thought Part & Parcel was a deeper, more layered story and I can’t wait to see where Abigail Roux goes next with this series and couple.

I love this story and series but wonder if its given the chance it deserves. The Sidewinder series has the unfortunate element of being Cut & Run’s (meaning Ty and Zane’s ) followup children.  I  know there are fans out there that anything less than Ty and Zane will provoke a frenzy of teeth gnashing if not polite disappointment.   Others expect a rehash of the Ty and Zane dynamic with Nick and Kelly in their shoes, and again this couple seems to take a beating when that doesn’t’ happen.  I love these men.  They are wonderful, powerful and yes, vulnerable characters and this is a terrific series.  I highly recommend it.  Grab it up today and start reading.

Cover art by L.C. Chase.  Love the style and graphic.  Perfect.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing |  All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, 302 pages
Published December 19th 2015 by Riptide Publishing
Original TitlePart & Parcel
ISBN139781626493681
Edition LanguageEnglish

Series Sidewinder with links to our reviews: