Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Prince of Killers

SERIES: Fog City #1

AUTHOR: Layla Reyne

NARRATOR: Tristan James

PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio

RELEASE DATE: August 27, 2019

LENGTH: 5 hours, 37 minutes

BLURB:

No indiscriminate killing. No collateral damage. No unvetted targets.

These are the rules Hawes Madigan lives by. Rules that make being Fog City’s Prince of Killers bearable. Soon, he’ll be king—of an organization of assassins—and the crown has never felt heavier. Until the mysterious Dante Perry swaggers into his life.

Dante looks like a rock god and carries himself like one too, all loose-limbed and casually confident. He also carries a concealed weapon, a private investigator’s license, and a message for the prince. Someone inside Hawes’s organization is out to kill the future king.

In the chaos that follows the timely warning, Hawes comes to depend on Dante. On his skills as an investigator, on the steadiness he offers, and on their moments alone when Hawes lets Dante take control. As alliances are tested and traitors exposed, Hawes needs Dante at his back and in his bed. But if the PI ever learns Hawes’s darkest secret, Hawes is sure to get a knife to the heart—and a bullet to the brain—instead.

There’s no shortage of twists and turns in this new romantic suspense trilogy from Layla Reyne. Prince of Killers is book one of three. Fair warning: buckle up, cliffhangers ahead!

REVIEW:

Prince of Killers marks the explosive start of a new trilogy by Layla Reyne. And you may want to heed the warning in the blurb – it does end on a cliff-hanger…

Some legacies weigh more heavily on your shoulders than others and no one knows this better than Hawes Madigan, the Prince of Killers. He’s been the prince of his family’s empire since he was fourteen, and it’s a title he never wanted. The Madigan name holds power and a lot of it. And the family empire has its hands in just about everything, legal and otherwise – mostly otherwise, after all assassins rarely work on the right side of the law…

However things are changing. Hawes and his siblings are running the empire a bit differently from when their grandfather was running it. For one thing, they do not target innocent people and they make it a point to go after the ones that eludes the justice system for one reason or another. And they always, always do their homework before taking on any kind of a job. Not everyone are happy with the new direction they are taking the organisation. Someone close to the family is working against them, going so far as to trying to destroy them all.

Dante Perry a private investigator inserts himself into the Madigan family. Warning Hawes that someone on the inside is trying to kill him. Together with Hawes he tries to flush out the traitor, all the while trying to keep Hawes alive from the assassins attempt to kill the man.

The romance between Dante and Hawes is secondary to everything else that’s going on – someone is trying to kill Hawes and his family after all, so that’s only natural. It slow building and mostly on the attraction and lust – no insta- love in sight. But it does make Hawes dream. Dream of finding that someone to spend his life with, a true partner, someone to love. He envies his brother’s married bliss, figuring that’s not in the cards for him. But Dante is starting to make him believe there might be a future there anyway.

There are many twists and turns, many strings that are pulled and many individual agendas driving the actions everyone take. Some visible and others hidden. It’s definitely entertaining to try to figure out how it’s all connected, where the plot and characters are going. Who are loyal and who’s not? This book will keep you on your toes, and loving every second of it – that’s one thing that’s certain.

Tristan James once again shows why he narrates books. With his passion and range of voices he brings this story to life. He might have switched a word there in the beginning, but if that’s easily overshadowed by his passion for the story and the feelings he adds to the words. One of the more emotional moments was right there in the end, where Hawes realises another truth and the heartbreak that truth brings. That moment was so vivid I could see it play out right in front of my eyes. It made me wish for a different reality for Hawes, one where love, loss and betrayal don’t go hand in hand and happiness isn’t only a dream or wishful thinking.

As I mentioned earlier, this book ends on a cliffhanger, and one that will probably make you swear and yell just a little bit – at least if you are the impatient kind. I know I can’t wait to see what happens next, because this adventure has only started.

RATING:

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