Review of Audiobook If the Seas Catch Fire by L.A. Witt, narration by Michael Ferraiuolo

by L.A. Witt, narration by Michael Ferraiuolo

5 star 

Sergei Andronikov was a child when the Mafia wiped out his family, leaving him with nothing but a hunger for revenge. Years later, through ruthless strategy and tireless patience, he's a contract killer working for the three families ruling Cape Swan...and he's nearly in position to bring them all down from the inside.

Domenico "Dom" Maisano is Mafia royalty, a made man...and a hitman. He's caught up in a violent life he can't escape, struggling to maintain an image he doesn't want, and suppressing desires he can't have.

A chance encounter throws the killers into each other's paths. Though Dom knows he's playing a dangerous game, he's intrigued and keeps coming back. Sergei can't resist him either - Dom is everything he set out to destroy, but he's also everything he's ever ached for in a man.

Then Sergei gets the contract he's been waiting for - the hit that promises to bring the town's Mafia to its knees.

But when a boss makes an unexpected move, Sergei must choose between dropping the hammer on the families he vowed to annihilate, and protecting the man he swore he wouldn't love.

And the wrong choice - or even the right one - will destroy them both.

We LOVE this book!  If the Seas Catch Fire is our favourite L.A. Witt book, hard to choose just one!  And in all honesty we have read it 5+ times.  So what could make it better?  An amazing narration by Michael Ferraiuolo!

Why we love the book?

-          The story:  We love Mafia stories and If the Seas Catch Fire is at the top of our love list.  These 2 are normal men who are dragged into a life they don’t want.  There are so many similarities between Dom and Sergei yet they are so far apart on who they believe themselves to be.  It made us want to shake them, and make them acknowledge what they were felling.   This is a fast-paced ride of a story, so many ups and down, intrigue and heat-ache.

-          Dark dark dark:  this is a dark story, murder, drugs, human trafficking, torture, the list goes on.  But what do we love a dark romance?  The idea of redemption, the hope that itr will be okay.  And man we held onto that throughout If the Seas Catch Fire, we yearned for these men to find a little peace.

-          Sexy sexy sexy:  So sexy.  Dom and Sergei know they shouldn’t be together but just can’t stop needing each other, their middle of the night tryst are so hot and so good.

Let’s talk about the Narration:  Michael Ferraiuolo is amazing.  We have heard him in other audiobooks that do nothing for his talent.  He seems to have 100 voices from mafia Italians to Russians, and they are all exceptional.  We never felt confused, about who was who or what was going on.  And he delivered on the feels.   the Seas Catch Fire is an emotional read and Michael captures that heart-breaking quality, the hopelessness that surrounds Dom and Sergei. 

If the Seas Catch Fire is a perfect example of a fantastic author and an excellent narrator coming together to create a superior audiobook.  It is one of the best we have heard this year and on the top of our recommendations.  We are so pleased that L.A. Witt choose Michael Ferraiuolo to narrate and hope for many successful collaborations in the future.

Review of How to be a Normal Person by T.J. Klune

 by T.J. Klune

5 stars

Gustavo Tiberius is not normal. He knows this. Everyone in his small town of Abby, Oregon, knows this. He reads encyclopedias every night before bed. He has a pet ferret called Harry S. Truman. He owns a video rental store that no one goes to. His closest friends are a lady named Lottie with drag queen hair and a trio of elderly Vespa riders known as the We Three Queens.

Gus is not normal. And he's fine with that. All he wants is to be left alone.

Until Casey, an asexual stoner hipster and the newest employee at Lottie’s Lattes, enters his life. For some reason, Casey thinks Gus is the greatest thing ever. And maybe Gus is starting to think the same thing about Casey, even if Casey is obsessive about Instagramming his food.

But Gus isn’t normal and Casey deserves someone who can be. Suddenly wanting to be that someone, Gus steps out of his comfort zone and plans to become the most normal person ever.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

We have a special place in our heart for anything TJ Klune – stories that are magical, whimsical and quirky and unusual.  How to Be a Normal person is a playful story of peculiar people and how easy it is to fall in love, and fall in love we did!

The good:

-          - The characters:  Amazing.  TJ Klune creates exceptional characters, rare characters that don’t seem to be real, but jump off the page and make us fall in love.  From Gustavo and Casey, to the friends in town, they are all one-of a-kind characters!

-          - Slow Burn:  Gosh, we love a slow burn romance, and How to be a Normal person has it is spades.  The romance is lovely, there is an ease from friendship, affection, excitement and love that is so sweet.  This is not a rip each other clothes off romance and slow-burn seems so authentic for Gus and Casey.

-          - Sexual Spectrum:  Not many books have asexual main characters and although we were a bit hesitant about how this would work for a romance, it added so much.  And honestly, it opened our mind up to a different kind of non-traditional romance and how one view of love isn’t always everyone’s view of love. 

-          The feels:  So so so many feels.  So many heart aching moments.

The meh?

-          - The quirky:  I think you have to be in the right mood to love this book.  It isn’t for everyone.  It is sweet, shy, eccentric, and unconventional; all things that make it great could leave you scratching your head.

-          The internet advice: Gus, being left of normal, googles” how to be a normal person”, and although fun we kind of got tired of the internet advice.  By the 6^th internet advice section we skimmed a bit *hides head in shame*.  We missed Gus and Casey and just really wanted to get back to their interaction.

If you are looking for an unusual love story, filled with peculiar people How to be a Normal Person is a must read.  We couldn’t get enough Gus and Casey, so we bought the audiobook!  Off to fall in love all over again.

Review of Off the Ice (Hat Trick #1) by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn

by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn 

3 stars

Tristan Holt is nothing if not pragmatic. Despite a flourishing career as a defenseman for the Atlanta Venom, Tristan knows he can’t play hockey forever. One day he’ll retire—if an injury doesn’t force him to hang up his skates first. His backup plan? Finishing his business degree. But he doesn’t count on a very inappropriate attraction to his standoffish sociology professor, Sebastian Cruz.

Sebastian is on the bottom rung of the Sociology Department at Georgia State. He has his sights set on tenure, and he can’t afford to be distracted, especially not by a sexy student with a body straight out of Sebastian’s dreams. No matter how much Tristan tempts him, that’s one line Sebastian won’t cross. At least not until summer classes end. After that, everything is fair game.

But Sebastian lives loud and proud, and Tristan is terrified of being the first out player in the NHL. Neither of them can afford to risk their hearts when they can’t imagine a happily ever after. The problem is, unlike hockey, when it comes to love, there are no rules.

We don’t know where to start with this one.  Avon Gale and Piper Vaugh, match made in heaven, and add a hockey romance, a sure fire winner.  But, we HATE to say this but it didn’t work for us, there was so much going on, but never really felt that nothing really worked for us

The good:

-           - Teacher/Student:  We really liked how Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn dealt with the teacher/student relationship.  We appreciated how Tristan waited until he was no longer Sebastian’s student before jumping into bed.

-           Tristan:  We loved Tristan.  We felt connected to him, a super-star hockey player struggling with his sexuality, struggling with coming out, and wondering how to be his authentic self.  Sebastian would not be who we choose for him, but alas it is who we got.

-         -  The kink:  This is a good and bad.  We liked the hot-between-the –sheets, hot, sexy, and plentiful, how we like our sex!

The bad:

-          -So much going on:  There is so much going on.  Teacher-student, sports romance, coming-out, age difference and on and on and on.  It was a little much and we didn’t really feel that they all worked.  Example – the age difference, other than a mention we didn’t really feel that Sebastian was significantly older; it just didn’t work for us. 

-          -The jock coming out: Off the Ice is actually like may sport romances.  Does the jock come out?  Sebastian acts like a petulant child and essentially gives Tristan an ultimatum, come out or we are done.  Yeah, we really didn’t like where that went.

-          -The kink:  We love kink. But this kink didn’t really fit.  There was a spanking scene that came out of left field, and about halfway through Tristan turns submissive to Sebastian’s dominant cranky personality.  As we said we love kink, however humiliation play isn’t one we are particularly fond of ,but there was no build towards the change in their relationship and we felt it just didn’t fit.

We don’t know why but Off the Ice fell flat for us.  We didn’t particularly like Sebastian and the humiliation play was unexpected, but it was a combination of so many things that just didn’t help Off the Ice come together for us. Off the ice is the first in a series so fingers crossed for a winner in the next book!

Review of Going Sasquatch by Jess Whitecroft

  by Jess Whitecroft 

5 stars

Lovestruck lapdogs, lazy Instagrammers and calcium deposits in the pool – Hollywood personal trainer Sean ‘Finn’ Finnegan is having one hell of a week, not helped when the much-feared agent Angie Lorde calls to demand if he knows why her hottest property – winsome superhero star Chase Morrow – has suddenly ‘gone sasquatch’ and apparently disappeared off the face of the earth.

Out of concern (and maybe a little unrequited love, let’s be honest) Finn goes searching for Chase, but this leads to a day so bad that when he does catch up with his crush, they both agree that the best solution to their very Hollywood problems would be to take off, head up into the Bigfoot country of Northern California and – like America’s favorite cryptid – pretend not to exist for a while.

When Finn and Chase discover that their long-attraction is entirely mutual, they also discover that going off the grid is not that easy in the 21st century. Especially if you’re an A-lister.

Going Sasquatch is our first Jess Whitecroft book and we are wondering where she has been our whole life!  Going Sasquatch is fun, flirty, sarcastic, charming read that will keep you entertained from the first page.  So good!

The SO good:

-           - The story:  Going Sasquatch s a really unique story.  A movie-star running away from his life, and falling into bed with his personal trainer.  It is fast paced, action packed and quirky.  It kept us charmed thorough the whole story, laughing through Finn and Chase’s antics and falling in love with these boys.  It is a bit ridiculous in parts but that is part of the magic of Going Sasquatch.

-           - Chemistry:  We talk a lot about chemistry in our reviews, but Going Sasquatch is a true example of characters that have sizzling chemistry.  It is palpable between Finn and Chase and adds a level of reality to the story.  Although there are jigs and jogs in the story their chemistry doesn’t falter, and gives this book a level of truth.

-           - Pop-culture:  We love the references to pop-culture.  The references to Trump tweets made us laugh out loud. 

-          Humor:  Jess Whitecoft has really captured flirty, sarcastic banter between characters.  It is so enjoyable.  We found our self chuckling and laughing through the whole story.

The bad:

-          - That it is only 280 pages?

We are in LOVE.  This is an undiscovered treasure of a book.  It is humorous, sexy, flirty, enjoyable, exciting, entertaining and a fun fun fun read.  What could make it better?  A second book!