Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE: His Hart’s Command

SERIES:  Nothing Special #6

AUTHOR:  A.E. Via

NARRATOR:  Aiden Snow

PUBLISHER:  Tantor Audio

RELEASE DATE:  November 5, 2019

LENGTH:  8 hours 51 minutes

BLURB:

Lennox Freeman (Free) is one of the best hackers in the world which has caused him to spend most of his life on the run. Never able to put down roots, he couldn’t trust anyone not to take advantage of him, even his own family.

Ivan Hart has lived and bled one creed all of his life: To Serve and Protect. His intense focus and determination in law enforcement has led him to finally commanding his own team. He’d worked hard to put together a squad of badasses capable of backing up a very dangerous team of detectives. Being God and Day’s last line of defense came with a lot of responsibility that he took very seriously.

After his divorce was final Hart turned right around and remarried his job. He had his good friends there in the office with him every day, so it was easier to ignore the few quiet hours he spent at home alone each night. He’d settled well into his new routine and was comfortable with it. Then God decided to disrupt everything by hiring another tech specialist for his department. A man whose brains, trendy looks, and voice would leave Hart tongue-tied and captivated at their first introduction.

Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE: Bishop

SERIES:  A True Lover’s Story

AUTHOR:  A. E. Via

NARRATOR:  Tor Thom

PUBLISHER:  Tantor Audio

RELEASE DATE:  March 31, 2020

LENGTH:  13 hours 10 minutes

BLURB:

At only 32, Bishop Stockley has lived a hard-knock life. After doing five years in a federal prison, Bishop is back at his dad’s trailer and working for his landscaping company, thrust into a legit world where he’s no longer the alpha – a world where a criminal record is the least of his disadvantages, because Bishop can’t read or write.

Bishop already had the deck stacked against him, but he wasn’t afraid of hard work to change his situation, and he did want to change. Especially after he encountered Edison Scala, a kind-spirited office manager who didn’t hesitate to come to his defense…a man that saw past Bishop’s grass-stained coveralls. A man who wasn’t intimidated by his stern features and his silence.

Bishop knew Edison was off-limits. He’d made personal vows to himself when he was released from prison, ones that he never intended to break. But, when Edison asked him about providing landscaping services at his home, there was no way he could refuse. He hadn’t expected Edison to feed him, praise him, encourage him, and look at him the way he did – as if Bishop was somebody.

Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE:  Rocket Science

SERIES:  Love Logic # 1

AUTHOR:  K.M. Neuhold

NARRATOR:  Zachary Zaba

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

RELEASE DATE:  November 29, 2019

LENGTH:  6 hours 17 minutes

BLURB:

Relationships aren’t rocket science. If they were, I might stand a chance of figuring one out.

Elijah

Saying I’ve had a crush on my best friend’s older brother, Pax, most of my life is like saying the big bang was just an explosion. It’s true, but I’m not sure that quite captures the essence of its true enormity.

I know he’s only hanging out with me because I’m new in town and getting my PhD doesn’t leave me with much time to make friends. And even if it did, my strength is mathematics, not friend-making. What I don’t understand is why he kissed me…why he seems to want to keep kissing me. I don’t think my advanced physics knowledge is going to help me figure this one out. But I think for once I’m okay with not knowing, as long as Pax and I don’t know together.

Pax

He’s still the awkward Nerdlet I remember…he’s also probably the cutest, most tempting man I’ve laid eyes on. I know I should keep my hands off him, but this thing between us is like a force of nature. I want to be his first everything. He says we’re nothing more than atoms crashing into each other. I’m no scientist but I don’t think either of us are braced for the explosion.

Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE:  Promises, Part 3

SERIES:  Bounty Hunters #3

AUTHOR: A.E. Via

NARRATOR:  Aiden Snow

PUBLISHER:  Tantor Audio

RELEASE DATE:  February 11, 2020

LENGTH:  7 hours and 48 minutes

BLURB:

Bradford (Ford) King was sure he had the rest of his life mapped out. Life was simple, no distractions or complications – at age 46, that’s all Ford wanted. What he didn’t want was his work partner, sniper/watchman Dana, giving him s–t all the time.

Dana Cadby had grown up labeled a roughneck from the wrong side of the tracks. Dana pulled himself up by his own boot straps and made a name for himself in the marksman community. He’d been Duke’s bounty watchman for five years. At 33, he was trusted, well-respected by his peers, his bosses, his friends…so why couldn’t he earn the same respect from his partner?

Dana knew he was bisexual before he graduated high school. He also knew he was attracted to the huge, 6’3″ SEAL from the moment he and his brother came to join their team.

When Duke sends Dana and Ford out to track down their most dangerous bounty yet, they both embrace the fact that they make one hell of a team…but they fight tooth and nail against the powerful intimacy brewing between them.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Forever Haunt

SERIES: Jimmy McSwain Files #5

AUTHOR: Adam Carpenter

NARRATOR: Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio

LENGTH: 9 hours, 58 minutes

RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020

BLURB:

Fifteen years ago, NYPD officer Joseph McSwain was gunned down while trying to stop a robbery. His murder was never solved. Until now.

For his son, Hell’s Kitchen private detective Jimmy McSwain, his father’s death has defined him, defied him, and denied him his chance at happiness. But the shooting death of a young officer named Denson Luke has reignited the investigation into the mysterious Blue Death conspiracy. Jimmy still must earn a living, so he cannot ignore a family in distress. New neighbors Carmen Ramirez and her young son, Sonny, are clearly running from danger.

Overnight, their case becomes one involving a missing father, a Chinese crime syndicate, and an abduction which threatens to overwhelm Jimmy’s mission of solving his father’s case. His relationship status with Frank Frisano on and off again, Jimmy tries to do double duty, jeopardizing his own safety. It’s only when another murder occurs that Jimmy finally finds the path that has eluded him.

His investigation finally leads him back home, where a devastating family secret overshadows all he’s learned, and the cost to the McSwain family may never be repaid. Jimmy realizes the blood on his hands will forever haunt him.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Trailer Trash

AUTHOR: Marie Sexton

NARRATOR: John Solo

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 9 hours, 43 minutes

RELEASE DATE: October 19, 2016

BLURB:

It’s 1986, and what should have been the greatest summer of Nate Bradford’s life goes sour when his parents suddenly divorce. Now, instead of spending his senior year in his hometown of Austin, Texas, he’s living with his father in Warren, Wyoming, population 2,833 (and Nate thinks that might be a generous estimate). There’s no swimming pool, no tennis team, no mall—not even any MTV. The entire school’s smaller than his graduating class back home, and in a town where the top teen pastimes are sex and drugs, Nate just doesn’t fit in.

Then Nate meets Cody Lawrence. Cody’s dirt-poor, from a broken family, and definitely lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Nate’s dad says Cody’s bad news. The other kids say he’s trash. But Nate knows Cody’s a good kid who’s been dealt a lousy hand. In fact, he’s beginning to think his feelings for Cody go beyond friendship.

Admitting he might be gay is hard enough, but between small-town prejudices and the growing AIDS epidemic dominating the headlines, a town like Warren, Wyoming, is no place for two young men to fall in love.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: The Burning Plain

SERIES: The Henry Rios Mysteries #7

AUTHOR: Michael Nava

NARRATOR: Thom Rivera

PUBLISHER: Audible Studios

LENGTH: 12 hours, 42 minutes

RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020

BLURB:

Attorney Henry Rios fights for his freedom and his life when a homophobic serial killer targets gay men in Los Angeles

Defense attorney Henry Rios knows how the system can be weighted against you . . . especially if you’re gay. His worst nightmare becomes a reality when a man he had been on a date with the night before is slain. Relentlessly pursued by a homophobic Los Angeles Police Department cop, Rios goes from prime suspect to target when more gay men are savagely murdered. The victims all suffer the same fate: They’re beaten to death, with a hate message carved into their bodies, and they’re dumped in an alley.

Rios must break through a conspiracy of silence that reaches to the highest levels of Los Angeles politics and Hollywood power. And the closer he gets to the truth, the closer he gets to becoming an enraged killer’s next victim.

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Building Forever

SERIES:  This Time Forever #1

AUTHOR:  Kelly Jensen

NARRATOR:  Austin Jay

PUBLISHER:  Riptide

RELEASE DATE:  May 28, 2020

LENGTH:  9 hours and 58 minutes

BLURB:

A new town, a new neighbor, and a new chance to build a forever.

Charlie King is doing fine. Sure, he’s a widower raising a teenage daughter who just got her first boyfriend, his book series isn’t writing itself, and he has a crush on his new neighbor – the guy next door. But everything’s just fine.

Simon Lynley is doing better. He moved to Bethlehem to fall out of love and rebuild his career. An affair with his neighbor isn’t part of the plan, but the attraction between them is too hard to ignore.

But when Simon’s ex follows him to Pennsylvania to reconcile, and Charlie’s life starts to feel like a video on repeat, everything comes apart. Charlie fears that he’s failing as a father, and Simon is a distraction he can’t afford. Meanwhile Simon doesn’t know if he could survive being left again, and he hasn’t come all this way to make the same mistakes. Despite their fears, it’s only together that they’ll find the strength to slay old foes and build the forever they’ve been waiting for.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: The Death of Friends

SERIES: The Henry Rios Mysteries #6

AUTHOR: Michael Nava

NARRATOR: Thom Rivera

PUBLISHER: Audible Studios

LENGTH: 7 hours, 25 minutes

RELEASE DATE: March 2, 2020

BLURB:

When a judge leading a double life is murdered, Henry Rios comes to the controversial defense of the prime suspect

Chris Chandler, a long-married California state superior court judge and family man, has been found dead in his chambers—beaten to death with his recent Judge of the Year award. When his young lover, Zack Bowen, is arrested, Henry Rios takes on Bowen’s defense. For Rios, who has kept Judge Chandler’s secret since law school, it means going up against a closed community—including Chandler’s angry wife and son—to defend a man he believes innocent. Then Bowen vanishes.

As Rios copes with tragedies both personal and communal, he finds himself front and center in a case that becomes a test of his own moral courage.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Fresh Kill

SERIES: Jimmy McSwain Files #6

AUTHOR: Adam Carpenter

NARRATOR: Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio

LENGTH: 9 hours, 6 minutes

RELEASE DATE: June 17, 2020

BLURB:

Jimmy McSwain returns, but the question lingers: Now that he has finally solved the 15-year-old murder of his NYPD cop father, Joseph, who has he become?

Busy concentrating on family issues, Jimmy hasn’t taken a new case in nearly three months, and when a call comes in from Philip Connelly, who wants proof that his wife, Myra, is cheating, Jimmy is torn. Take the case or say no. He rejects it, only to learn a week later that Philip has been found dead in a park on Staten Island. The police believe it was suicide, but Myra – a self-admitted adulteress – is convinced he was murdered. Jimmy agrees to take the case. But it seems his decision to rejoin the world has also affected the other areas of his life: His sister is facing a health crisis, an old friend from his father’s past has resurfaced, and his lover, Captain Francis X. Frisano, is working a difficult case in Chelsea where gay men are being attacked.

If that wasn’t enough, Jimmy is on the hunt to bring down his new nemesis, the criminal mastermind Mr. Wu-Tin. A fire at one of his warehouses stirs fear in Jimmy that the man is trying to destroy evidence of his crimes. That’s when life throws him a twist, and suddenly Jimmy feels that just as he’s hoping to find answers, new mysteries emerge about whether the path he’s on leads to a fresh start or a fresh kill.

Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Mastering the Flames

SERIES: The Beacon Hill Sorcerer #4

AUTHOR: SJ Himes

NARRATOR: Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio

LENGTH: 14 hours, 53 minutes

RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

BLURB:

Guilt-ridden after the massacre of his family, Isaac Salvatore turned to binge drinking to escape the pain. Now 24 years old, Isaac is a recovering alcoholic woefully out of practice in the magical arts, leaving his fire affinity hanging on the edge of disaster. After a month of rehab, he returns to Beacon Hill and his family, determined to remain sober, learn to control his magic, and figure out a plan for his life that doesn’t involve drinking.

Constantine Batiste is the oldest, most powerful vampire in the city. Born in ancient Gaul, the bastard son of a Celtic king, his long life has been shrouded in tragedy and horrors. Recent mistakes have left him wary and determined to guard his clan from all foes. When two of his clan members fall victim to an ancient evil, he summons the Necromancer of Boston for aid. Accompanying his older brother to the Tower is the handsome young fire mage once wounded by Constantine’s arrogance, and their encounter reignites an attraction that burns within both Constantine and Isaac.