Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Imperial Stout 
SERIES: Trouble Brewing #1
AUTHOR: Layla Reyne
NARRATOR: Tristan James
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Audio
RELEASE DATE: July 23, 2018
LENGTH: 6 hours, 57 minutes
BLURB:
Layla Reyne spins off from her pulse-pounding Agents Irish and Whiskey books with Imperial Stout , the first installment in the Trouble Brewing series
It’s a good thing assistant US attorney Dominic Price co-owns a brewery. He could use a cold one. Nic’s star witness has just been kidnapped, his joint operation with the FBI is in jeopardy, his father’s shady past is catching up with him, and the hot new special agent in San Francisco is the kind of distraction best handled with a stiff drink.
Kidnap and rescue expert Cameron Byrne has his own ideas about how to handle Nic, but his skills are currently needed elsewhere. The by-the-book FBI agent goes deep undercover as a member of an infamous heist crew in order to save Nic’s witness, break up the crew, and close the case before anyone else gets hurt. Nic in particular.
Things heat up when Cam falls for Nic, and the witness falls for Cam. As the crew’s suspicions grow, Cam must decide how far he’s willing to go – and how far into his own dark past he’s willing to dive – to get everyone out alive.
REVIEW:
I’m a huge fan of romantic suspense novels. I love the thrill of the chase, the threat of danger that gets my hear racing. I love to try to figure out how it’s all connected. So I’m always excited when new suspense novels are released and have a hard time putting them down until I have all the answers.
I fell for Cam in the Agents Irish and Whiskey series and I was so happy to see that he would get his own story. And not only a story, but a whole spin-off series. So okay, he does share the limelight with Nic, but let’s be honest almost everyone would be very happy to share the glory with a hotshot ex-navy seal lawyer. At least Cam is – at least for the most part.
Cam is a kidnap and rescue expert and is called in when things get dire. And Nic has a dire problem. His star witness in a huge case is not only missing – she’s been kidnapped. In the hopes of getting her back unharmed and hopefully take down the crew that has her, Cam goes undercover. With ghosts from the past and dangerous and devious minds plotting and planning, things get dicey to say the least.
There is a lot going on in this book and at times I found myself wondering what was going on, how it all was connected – and not always in a good way. Mostly though I had a really great time listening, it kept me entertained. Just don’t expect the plot to be credible, because it’s really not, but still I don’t always need it to be. I need to be entertained – and I was.
As for Cam and Nic, the sexual tension between them is off the charts. There’s a bit of a push and pull, but not one I really minded. It added another layer. There isn’t much time for them to connect, let alone develop anything deep and lasting, with everything that’s going on. But when they do get together, the steam factor is set to high. Add in secret pasts coming into play and I was one happy camper err… listener.
Tristan James…. I have a hard time finding something about him that I haven’t said before. I love his voice, his accents – he’s brilliant at those. I also keep wishing for him to add feelings to the words, to add that extra layer. But then again, I know that I won’t get that when I pick his books up, it’s not news. And for what it’s worth, he is consistent in his narration, it never varies, there is no uncertainty when picking up his books. Which is always a plus for me. There is nothing worse than picking up a narrator you’ve loved before only to realise that the narration is sub-par. That will never happen with Tristan James.
This might be a spin-off series from Agents Irish and Whiskey, and could possibly be read as a standalone. But my recommendation is reading the original series first, to get introduced to the characters, the backstory. Because this book starts with a bang. You are thrown into the fire from page one, and if you don’t have any clue about the characters and so on, you’ll be playing catch up for the entire book, and I’m not so sure that’d be very enjoyable.
As with Agents Irish and Whiskey, the story isn’t finished when the book ends. There are still threats out there lurking in the horizon, and I am anxiously waiting to see what else this series will bring.
RATING: 
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