Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: One-Eyed Royals
SERIES: Seven of Spades #4
AUTHOR: Cordelia Kingsbridge
NARRATOR: Wyatt Baker
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
RELEASE DATE: September 25, 2019
LENGTH: 10 hours, 25 minutes
BLURB:
Spoiler alert! The following blurb contains spoilers for Cash Plays, book three of Seven of Spades.
Shattered by their devastating breakup, Detective Levi Abrams and PI Dominic Russo find themselves at war right when they need each other most. While Dominic is trapped in a vicious cycle of addiction, Levi despairs of ever catching the Seven of Spades. The ruthless vigilante’s body count continues to climb, and it’s all Levi can do to keep up with the carnage.
When Levi’s and Dominic’s paths keep crossing in the investigation of a kidnapping ring with a taste for mutilation, it feels like history repeating itself. Thrown together by fate once again, they reluctantly join forces in their hunt for the mastermind behind the abductions.
But the Seven of Spades hates sharing the spotlight, and they have an ace in the hole: A new batch of victims with a special connection to Levi. Their murders send shockwaves through Las Vegas and change the rules of the game forever.
The Seven of Spades has upped the ante. If Levi and Dominic don’t play their cards right, they’ll end up losing everything.
REVIEW:
Things in Las Vegas are heating up and becoming more instable for each passing day. Not only haven’t the Seven of Spades been caught, they aren’t even close for that, but white supremacists are battling for power, a group of mercenaries are kidnapping higher ups for ransom. Is it any wonder that Vegas PD have their hands full? Or that Levi’s tenuous grip of his sanity is starting to fray at the edges? Especially as somethings hits closer to home than he ever wished it to.
Some of the events taking place in this book aren’t less horrifying the second time around. If you’ve already read or listened to the book you know what I’m talking about and I you haven’t I’m not going to spoil it for you. There are certain things you just have to experience for yourselves. I’d recommend keeping away from food while reading though, nausea is a definite possibility at certain points.
Usually when a character goes down the rabbit hole by falling off the wagon in one way or another it tends to be a short slip and easily resolved without any serious consequences or lasting effects. So kudos for Kingsbridge for really putting Dominic out there, because when he fell, he really fell. You could feel it in the air when that first card was dealt in the previous book, and even more so now. How gambling dictates his every move, destroys everything. It’s harsh, heartbreaking and real.
I’m kind of loving Levi and Dom and the issues they’re having. Now hear me out before you hang me. We know Liam and Dominic loves each other but they also have their issues, issues that really comes to play in this book. I’m tired of books where problems just magically go away, or that finding that special someone ends and cures all of your woes. That from the first moment they meet you are never left wondering “will they make it?” For the past couple of books I have been wondering, and it is awesome. Not that they were having issues, but that they were so wonderfully human and flawed and credible.
Wyatt Baker is widely talented, there is no doubt about that. And I know this is a minor thing when you consider a narration of an entire book – but Wyatt Baker’s mispronunciation of a few words drove me up the wall. It wasn’t even once – but consistently throughout the book (and series so far). Otherwise I’m enjoying his narration very much. He captures both Dom and Levi perfectly, you feel the emotions with them. Dominic’s compulsion for gambling, the magnetic pull he feels towards the casinos. All of it is there in Baker’s voice. As is everything Levi is going through, his loss of control over almost anything going on in his life, how battered and worn down it makes him feel. Also like always I like how the phone calls stand out from the normal conversations. It’s more mechanical and sounds like they are talking into a tin can or something. Whatever it is, it works, and it adds depth to the whole experience.
There is a tension in the Vegas air and you can feel how it is all building towards an explosive ending looming in the next and final instalment of this series.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
[…] Read More » […]