Reviewed by Tori (Vicki)
TITLE: Snow Falling 
SERIES: Haven Heart Universe #1
AUTHOR: Davidson King
NARRATORS: Joel Leslie and Philip Alces
PUBLISHER: Tantor Media
LENGTH: 6 hours, 21 minutes
RELEASE DATE: July 31st, 2018
BLURB:
After running from a past destined to kill him, Snow has been hiding on the streets.
Tell nobody your name.
Tell nobody your secrets.
Trust nobody!
These are the rules of the streets.
His entire life changes when he saves an eight-year-old boy from a violent end.
Christopher Manos is one of the most powerful crime bosses in the country.
Don’t ask anyone to do something you aren’t willing to do yourself.
Secrets can get you killed.
Trust nobody!
These are the rules he lives by.
When his eight-year-old nephew disappears, he never expects the boy’s savior to end up being his own.
A man with a dangerous past and a man with a dangerous future find love amidst murder and mayhem. But with Snow’s life being threatened at every turn, will Christopher’s best be enough to prevent Snow Falling?
STORY REVIEW:
This is the story of Snow and Christopher, two very different men.
When we meet Snow, he has been living on the streets for several years, doing everything short of prostitution to keep himself fed. His mother died, leaving his father a wreck, who eventually racked up debts with a local mobster. When his father is no longer able to make his payments, he offer Snow (then known as Julian) to the mobster to work off his debt, as Snow has an eidetic memory. The mobster starved and beat Snow when he refused to use his party trick…. which eventually sent Snow on the run.
Christopher is the head of the Manos family, who appear to be part of a network of mobster types, who are filthy rich, some are nasty, some are somewhat ethical as Christopher is. He’ll still kill, but only when needed. His sister has died and left him her young son Simon to care for, with the help of his housekeeper and bodyguards.
The two meet after Snow comes across Simon about to be kidnapped by some local ruffians. Simon knows not to give his name or the name of his uncle to anyone, so Snow takes him to the local police station, where Christopher is contacted. Frank, Christopher’s right-hand-man shows up to get Simon and takes Snow to Christopher, where the story of Simon’s rescue comes out, and the fact that Snow is homeless, and has offered himself as payment to Roy, the guy that was trying to kidnap Simon. Christopher convinces Snow to stay for the night, and soon offers him a job and a chance to make a life for himself, as Simon’s bodyguard/friend/nanny. Christopher also sorts out who Roy is, turns out he’s the son of the head of one of the other mob families, and the two go toe to toe.
Snow stays, and is eventually drawn in to Christopher and Simon’s lives. Lots of thing happen from that point on, good things like the two slowly falling in love, silly things like a trivia contest for mobsters and a talent show at Simon’s school, dramatic things like Snow being…. oh, probably shouldn’t give anything away about the crappy things that happen to Snow! But it does have a good ending, even after the bad parts, I will say that!
I liked this book quite a bit, I especially liked the two men together. Snow was the sweetness to Christopher’s darkness. Although he wasn’t reeeeeally that dark even though we see him kill someone on page. In fact, there wasn’t much “mob” stuff even in the book. We see Christopher kill to protect his family, we see him participate in an annual trivia contest to win money for the foundation he opened in his sisters name, we see him flirt with Snow, and attend Simon’s school talent contest. And he does deal with the head of the rival family over the attempted kidnapping of Simon, but I kept forgetting he was the head of his own mob family! I kinda liked him a lot…. and Snow. Just so cute and sweet! Like a little snowy white baby bunny. I have no idea how he lived on the street as long as he did. Nor do I know how he so easily recovers from what happens to him later in this book. But he thrives with Christopher, and Christopher gets the love that he so needs.
This is the first book written by Davidson King, and I think it was very well done. The plot kept my interest (after I set my expectation of reality aside), and I loved the outcome for Snow in particular. I liked both main characters, the differences between them made them interesting, and the connection between them was lovely to see. I liked Simon, I’m iffy on kids in my romance novels, but he was there enough but not too much. I liked the sex scenes, not a lot but just enough. I liked the extra characters, both the good ones and the bad ones. All of that made for a good reading experience of an unfamiliar author.
I would recommend giving this one a try, I listened to the audio version and enjoyed it!
NARRATION REVIEW:
Great narration for this book! The perspective shifts from Snow to Christopher chapter to chapter, and both characters would naturally have very different voices, so using two narrators was perfect. I loved that I could always tell whose head I was in, and the voices they each used for the characters worked very well. I hope we see more of this dual narrators concept in the future, I loved it!
RATING: 
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