Audio Review: Salvation by Sloane Kennedy

Salvation (The Protectors #2) by Sloane Kennedy, Narration by Joel Leslie
Audible, Amazon, Goodreads
Time: 7hrs and 56 minutes

3 Pants Off

Blurb: "I lifted my gaze to tell Seth no but then I saw it. The thing I'd feared I'd lost. It wasn't hero worship or the wayward emotions of an innocent child. And it wasn't some distorted reflection of a man who no longer existed. All I saw was me...the way he saw me." (Ronan)

Trauma surgeon Ronan Grisham lost everything the day the man he loved was stolen from him in a brutal attack. Driven by a thirst for vengeance, he turns his hatred into building an underground group that can do what he couldn't that fateful day...take the lives of the guilty to save the lives of the innocent. But years later, he's forced to confront the one link to his past that he can't sever.

Seven years after the loss of his parents in a violent home invasion that left him permanently scarred both inside and out, 21-year-old Seth Nichols is trying to put his life back together so he can take over the reins of his father's global shipping empire. But the last person he expects to come back into his life is the man he drove away with one innocent, stolen kiss.

With one brush of his lips, Seth managed to do to Ronan what no other had since the day Ronan watched the light in his fiancé's eyes go out forever. He made him need again. But Ronan can't need anyone, least of all his dead fiancé's younger brother. Because even one touch from Seth could shatter Ronan's carefully constructed world and Ronan knows there's no coming back from that a second time.

But when a series of escalating attacks against Seth forces Ronan back into his life, Seth knows it's his last chance to show Ronan he can be the man the broken surgeon needs. Only the Ronan who returns isn't the Ronan Seth fell in love with so long ago....

Can Seth be Ronan's salvation or will he end up destroying them both?

Review 

The Story: 3 Pants Off 

What in all the drama was this?  

Ronan Grisham. Trauma Surgeon, lover, and a fighter. Ronan had it all with the man he loved until tragedy came in and took everything from him. When he was given the opportunity to seek revenge he took the path he now walks as a Protector. Ronan is in charge of elite bunch of killers who rid the world of the worst type of scum. He’s very much detached from life but is all about his job. Then there’s Seth, beautiful innocent Seth the little brother of his slain lover. 

The things Ronan is feeling for Seth is a complication he doesn’t need but when Seth is assaulted Ronan makes his grand appearance into his life once again. It seems Ronan is here to stay when the violence against Seth starts to escalate to the point of dangerous 😜 and he needs to protect him. But sparks are flying and Seth has made it quite clear his feelings for Ronan hasn’t changed, and Ronan has never been able to deny Seth. 

This begins a push and pull of a man falling for his dead lovers little brother, and protecting him from harm.  

Seriously, this book had so much stuff going on and by stuff I mean all the bad happening that have happened to Seth. His parents are murdered and he was violently hurt in the process, his brother gets murdered and he’s left alone, then someone is trying to kill him now. It was just all a little too much and it just kept getting more ridiculous. This is only my second book in the series but it’s the most ridiculous so far and that’s counting that in the first book a man almost shot another man because he thought he was a pedophile 😩. 

Overall, ridiculousness x10 and Seth and Ronan didn’t really do anything for me 🤷🏽‍♀️ 

The Narration: 2 Pants Off 

🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😭😭😭 those emojis are my reaction to my listening experience. There was just so much emoting especially on Ronan’s part. Who in the world thought this was acceptable? I’d like to have a word please. 

Joel Leslie you did a bad job here sir, and while the story should have been angst ridden I found myself laughing at random points and I couldn’t take anything seriously.  

What a complete and utter disappointment. The story was already lacking and the narration just made it all the worse. 

It’s a no for me dawg. 

Review: Shiver by Jocelyn Drake & Rinda Elliott

Shiver (Unbreakable Bonds #1) by Jocelyn Drake & Rinda Elliott
Amazon, Goodreads
Novel: 330pgs

4 Pants Off

Blurb: Lucas Vallois is always in control. He’s building an empire in the glittering city of Cincinnati and created his own family from his three close friends. The self-made millionaire has everything he wants within his tight grasp. But his world starts to crumble after he’s jumped by a trio of thugs late one night after leaving a club. The warning is clear—give up his new property venture or end up dead.

Caving to the demands of his friends, Lucas accepts the help of bodyguard, Andrei Hadeon, as as he hunts for the source of this new threat. But as Lucas gets closer to uncovering the danger, he realizes the sexy Romanian bodyguard poses an even bigger risk to his carefully constructed world. Trapped by a need he never expected, Lucas must find a way to deny the shiver of longing he cannot control.

His brother. His warrior. His heart. Four friends. Unbreakable bonds.

Review

SHAKING AND QUAKING 

Well, well, well what have we here? I was never expecting to enjoy this book so much so I went in with little expectations. The last time I went in thinking I’m gonna love a book (ahem Try) I was very disappointed so I went in to Shiver expecting nothing and man was I surprised. The book was hella enjoyable and I am so looking forward to reading the entire series. Let the hot man fucking commence. 

Lucas Vallois, hot man and millionaire. He doesn’t have many things that he loves in life. His love boils down to his three best-friends and his job. Life is good until Lucas finds himself being jumped on a night out with his friends. In a fight Lucas can most definitely handle himself but against 3 seasoned fighters it’s a bit of a stretch, plus the men have intent to do some serious damage. He gets away (barely) and land in the hospital with some serious injuries. Seems someone wants him to hold out on his business ventures and Lucas doesn’t take threats easily.  But it seems his life is in danger and needs to protected, in comes Andrie Hadeon bodyguard extraordinaire. 

Andrie Hadeon knows how to do his job but Lucas is making it hard. First he’s got him all tied up in knots, and second he can’t seem to do his job properly. Lucas Vallois is a problem, a serious problem. Andrie has never been this attracted to a man before and it’s messing with his head, add to the fact that he’s supposed to be protecting his body not effing watching and drooling over it. Complicated shit is complicated. Lucas is more dangerous than the crazy situation they’ve landed in. 

When I say I wasn’t expecting this level of story telling and enjoyment, believe me because I wasn’t expecting it. A few pages in I knew I found a new series to get lost in and fall in love. I really enjoyed Lucas and Andrie together they were cute as hell, and Lucas’s makeshift family is already the best.  

I love the push and pull dance both men do. Is it just fucking? Is it a relationship? Is it just a strong feeling of like? I love that I got to figure it out with them. The plotty device of the thugs trying to stop Lucas’s shine was enjoyable but it was my least fave part of the story. The bad guy reveal had me giggling cus I was like “look at this fool”. While I was a little surprised, his ass was effing amateur. 

Overall, really enjoyed this one and  am looking forward to the rest of the series. Unsure if Shiver is the authors first foray into M/M and if it is, I gotta say, job well done. While it still has that hyper masculinity that some new m/m authors who predominantly write m/f books possess, I find that I didn’t mind that much and there was a nice balance. These new to me authors have found a fan in me and I am looking forward to reading about my man Snow. I’m Canadian so I can handle the cold 😈

Review: The Millionaire Upstairs by M.J. O'Shea

The Millionaire Upstairs (DreamSpun Desires #1) by M.J. O'Shea
Dreamspinner Press
Novella: 198pgs

2.5 Pants Off

Blurb: He might be hard to work for, but he's impossible to resist.

Sasha Sobieski has the perfect job working at legendary American fashion house Harrison Kingsley—or at least he used to. He just never thought he’d have to work for Harrison Kingsley himself. Harrison is exacting, difficult, cold, and hands-down the sexiest man Sasha has ever seen.

After years at the top, Harrison Kingsley knows what he wants, when he wants it, and exactly how he’d like it to be delivered to him. What he wants most right now? His new assistant. Sasha is mouthy, opinionated, and he drives Harrison mad. Problem is, Harrison can never tell if it’s with anger… or desire.


Review

The Rich Asshole Upstairs  

So here I am on the Dreamspun Desires bandwagon, and wanting to see what all the fuss is about. I love the idea behind the series, and just the overall harlequin-y feel of it all. If there isn’t a title called “The Millionaires Secret Adoptive Baby” then I might as well call it quits now. Every series has to have a secret baby. 

Sasha Sobieski just landed his dream job of working with a top fashion designer house “Harrison Kingsley”. A small town boy like him never dreamt he’d be working with the big dogs, and after two years with the company he’s finally making a name for himself. To his utter shock and surprise, his boss asks him to lend a helping hand to her egotistical/asshole of a brother Harrison. Sasha and Harrison do not get along, based solely on the fact that Harrison has always been a class A jerk to him. Ruling out the fact that Harrison is drop dead gorgeous and his voice alone can send Sasha into vapors, he’s a jerk, brilliant but a jerk. 

Harrison Kingsley, designer extraordinaire and a Oscar worthy jerk. His sister grants him the use and expertise of Sasha and what does he do, treat him like a maid all in an effort to keep him at arms length. Because Sasha is too pretty and pretty things are a distraction (cue major eye rolls).  

Ah, what can I say. This started out strong, Sasha’s voice was exciting and interesting, then Harrison comes along and feck things up. There were moments of cuteness and breakthrough and Harrison and Sasha seemed like they would make a great couple and then Harrison would open is mouth and things would go down. I’m not talking just being mean, I’m talking the most demeaning shit you could say to a person. I wasn’t here for Harrison at all, because fool me once shame on you fool me twice, well shame on me. Fool me thrice, then I’d officially call myself a fucking idiot and this applies to Sasha. Dude should have packed his bag and left buddy in the rear. No sob story can cover up the fact that he’s an asshole.  

I would have loved this, man I would have loved this but the writing felt like some bad soap opera, this hot and cold thing was giving me whiplash. There was no clear balance and I was glad when it was over. I liked Sasha well enough but Harrison can suck it! Dreamspun your first offering left much to be desired but I’m not giving up on you yet.   

Review: Locked in Silence by Sloane Kennedy

Locked in Silence (Pelican Bay #1) by Sloan Kennedy
Self-Published
Novel: 284pgs

3.5 Pants Off

Blurb: I've spent years hoping someone would finally hear me. It's easier not to try anymore...
Ten years after leaving his small Minnesota hometown in his rearview mirror for what Nolan Grainger was sure would be the last time, life has decided to throw the talented musician a curveball and send him back to the town he lived in but was never really home.

At twenty-eight, Nolan has traveled the world as a successful concert violinist with some of the best symphonies in the country. But success breeds envy, and when Nolan's benefactor and lover decides Nolan has flown high enough, he cruelly clips Nolan's wings. The betrayal and ensuing scandal leaves the violinist's career in shambles and with barely enough money to start fresh somewhere beyond his vindictive ex's powerful reach. But just as he's ready to get his life back on track, Nolan gets the call he's been dreading.

After a stroke leaves his father a partial invalid, duty-bound Nolan returns to Pelican Bay and a life he's spent years trying to forget. When he's forced to use the last of his own money to keep from losing the family home, desperation has him turning to the one man he'd hoped never to see again...

Even if I could speak, there wouldn't be anyone there to listen...
Pelican Bay's golden boy, Dallas Kent, had the quintessential perfect life. Smart, gorgeous, and popular, the baseball phenom was well on his way to a life filled with fame and fortune. But more importantly, he had a one-way ticket out of Pelican Bay and far away from the family who used love as currency and whose high expectations were the law of the land. But a stormy night, sharp highway curve and one bad decision changed everything, leaving Dallas with nothing.    

Because the accident that took his parents, his future and his crown as the boy who could do no wrong, also stole his voice.

Despised for the horrific wreck that ended the lives of two of Pelican Bay's most respected residents, Dallas has retreated to a secluded stretch of land where he's found refuge in a menagerie of unwanted animals that don't care that he once had the world at his feet or that he'll never speak again.

But when the quiet, bookish boy he wasn't allowed to notice in school suddenly reappears ten years later at Dallas's wildlife rehab center in desperate need of a job, Dallas is thrust back into a world he's worked hard to escape.

Dallas's silence was supposed to send Nolan scurrying, but what if Nolan ends up being the one person who finally hears him?

Will two men who've been fleeing from the past finally come home to Pelican Bay for good or will the silence drive them apart forever? 

Review

 LOCKED IN A TOWN WITH A BUNCH OF IDIOTS...

 I am both in love and hate with this book. My very first time reading this author, and I have to say it won’t be my last. The story really was entertaining and I found my self not being able to put it down. While I really liked it, I still got a few issues… 

Nolan left his backwards small town behind and became a talented sought after violinist. He’s lived an incredible life for the past 10yrs, being in the spotlight and being someone that matters. But trusting the wrong person has left him with nothing, and now he has to return home with his tail between his legs and eating humble pie. The last thing he ever wanted was to return to a place that was a torment through his childhood and to run into one of his tormentors  (a loose discription). 

Dallas was once the golden boy with a bright future ahead of him. He had the looks, charms, and money backing him. Until a tragic accident leaves most of his family dead and his voice lost. Now he’s the pariah of his town, so he moves alone while running an animal sanctuary. Isolation is his best friend and he liked it, or so he thought… 

Nolan and Dallas both with their own hurts to heal and town so dead set in their ways I’m surprised they didn’t mow them all down. Their coming together is tentative at first and then explosively sweet. They come to rely on each other and in the process saved each other as well. 

Alright, the book is all sweet/cozy and sh*t but let me tell you the anger I felt at everyone in the damn town and at Nolan/Dallas for being so damn passive. Nolan’s parents were a piece of work especially his mom and there was just no redeeming her for me. You know what, let’s just get rid of the whole damn town. So backwards, so malicious, and so stupid x2. 

I loved that Nolan and Dallas got their HEA but it was just too neat for my liking. The story was excellent until it was wrapped up in a nice little bow. I understand the need for happy endings but it works when it feels believable and this felt like tying up loose ends to make the reader happy. I would have been quite content if Nolan/Dallas decided to burn everyone to the ground. But you know they were happy without hate in their hearts and so on and so forth (should have made those spineless biaches suffer). 

Overall, I liked it, would have loved it if not for that neat ending. I will be checking out more of the authors work and I am looking forward to more in the series. 

SideNote- That blurb be telling the whole damn story and that cover has nothing to do with anything...