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 Dark Silence (The Bound Subject #1) by Katze Snow

by Katze Snow

3 stars

Claude Galen was brought into this world to train slaves, not to want them.

When his latest victim, a twenty-one-year-old boy named Tristan Kade, begins to see Claude for who he truly is, only one thing can be done to stop Tristan from escaping: punish him.

Trapped in a padded white room with no windows or doors, all Tristan can do to stay alive in this world is to obey Professor Galen.

Submit to him.

Yield. Break.

But what happens when Tristan's body is trained to work against him? When he starts to crave the pleasure instead of fear it? When he begins to see the man behind the monster?

With it being Halloween week we delved right with this Dark Thriller ……romance – not really, from Katze Snow.  It is a dark, psychological erotic thriller and, although satisfied the dark we felt it missed the building of connection between the main characters.  We enjoyed it, we think, but left us felling a bit sad, and wishing the second book was here already.

What did we love?

-      -    If you are looking for a Dark read, pick up Dark Silence.  There is kidnapping, sexual exploitation, torture; it is twisted and sadistic in parts.  But, not to say anything is too much, we didn’t find ourselves putting  it down because it was too much (unlike some Dark reads that we have had to stop reading!).

-     -     We really enjoyed the set-up of the story, the part before Tristan was kidnapped.  There was great tension that kept us flipping the pages just to see how this would all play out.

-     -     Connection to Tristan.  To be honest we felt for Tristan, Katze Snow builds a likeable character in Tristan and we really did like him.  We felt the horrible things Claude subjected him through and wanted to wrap him up and take away all the hurts.

What took away from the story?

-        -  Editing – call us snobs but poor editing, or continuity takes away form a book, it takes us out of the story.  There are quite a few examples of bad editing, or continuity issues; he was wearing PJs and then the next page, his jeans are getting too tight – hmmmm.

-       -   Tropes – there are a lot of tropes going on here.  Virgin, closeted, struggling with his sexuality, and add that to the human experiments subplot, daddy issues it was a bit much.

-       -   Character Development – we feel in this Dark genre that there needs to be a serious connection between the kidnapper and the one being tortured.  And we struggled to find that.  We didn’t feel that Claude made any choices to lure Tristan over to being submissive, rather just kept pushing and pushing at Tristan’s boundaries.  WE just didn’t feel the connection between these 2 men, and subsequently we truly didn’t feel the push/pull struggle of Tristan wanting and hating Claude at the same time. Claude had no charm and we didn’t feel lulled by his attempts to woo Tristan into doing what he wanted.

-       -   The End – yes, we know that this is a series, but ugh, the end just snuck up on us and we were left feeling wha???????

Dark Silence is the first in The Bound Subject series.  It is and interesting read, dark, yes, but doesn’t push too many bounds.  The one reason that we read Dark Romance is the idea of Redemption that however bad things are there is hope.  But, with it being a continuing book series we didn’t get the satisfaction of a wrap of other the story and it has kind left us feeling a bit wounded.   

Review of The Company we Keep by Kay Simone

 by Kay Simone

4.5 Stars

Another can’t-put-it-down m/m hot-as-hell romance by Kay Simone!

The Company we Keep by Kay Simone focuses around a crime lord A.R. Carrow, and his gang The Company.  This diverse group of criminals out of California is on the AIIB’s list of must-infiltrate, and Federal Agent Charlie Judge has been training his life to be the done to take them down.  The Company loses a man in a heist and replace him with Agent Judge turned  Dust Wrenshall demolitions expert.  But once happens when the people and place you are working to destroy are the ones you want to protect – fireworks.

Kay Simone is one of our favorite romance authors, she can create a story that is pure magic, and The Company we Keep is no exception.  It is fast-paced, exciting and hot as hell.  The sexual tension between Dust and Carrow leaps off the page and the sex doesn’t overwhelm the story.  This book captures your attention from the first words and keeps you turning the pages.  There is vulnerability in these 2 alpha-strong males, that somehow they don’t really know each other, but need each other.  Kay creates this hope that even though you know that things can go so wrong for Dust and Carrow you are wishing for their happy ending.  

Not only does this story capture you with the heat, heat, heat between the 2 main characters, but introduces us to some fantastic supporting characters.  In many of Kay’s books she creates a cast of characters that does not disappoint.  The Company’s members are a diverse group of people and although we were a little confused about who was who, they each have personalities you won’t soon forget.  The story walks you through Dust actually infiltrating The Company, so as Dust learns of the gang, so do you, it makes you feel like you actually know individual members and their quirks. .

For some reason this was on our Kindle for a long time, and we should have known better as how can you go wrong with Kay Simone?  The Company we Keep is a fantastic, sexy read, that needs a sequel…..seriously!