Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE:  Salvation

SERIES:  The Protectors #2

AUTHOR:  Sloane Kennedy

NARRATOR:  Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

RELEASE DATE:  May 01, 2017

LENGTH:  7 hours 57 minutes

BLURB:

“I lifted my gaze to tell Seth no but then I saw it. The thing I’d feared I’d lost. It wasn’t hero worship or the wayward emotions of an innocent child. And it wasn’t some distorted reflection of a man who no longer existed. All I saw was me…the way he saw me.” (Ronan)

Trauma surgeon Ronan Grisham lost everything the day the man he loved was stolen from him in a brutal attack. Driven by a thirst for vengeance, he turns his hatred into building an underground group that can do what he couldn’t that fateful day…take the lives of the guilty to save the lives of the innocent. But years later, he’s forced to confront the one link to his past that he can’t sever.

Seven years after the loss of his parents in a violent home invasion that left him permanently scarred both inside and out, 21-year-old Seth Nichols is trying to put his life back together so he can take over the reins of his father’s global shipping empire. But the last person he expects to come back into his life is the man he drove away with one innocent, stolen kiss.

With one brush of his lips, Seth managed to do to Ronan what no other had since the day Ronan watched the light in his fiancé’s eyes go out forever. He made him need again. But Ronan can’t need anyone, least of all his dead fiancé’s younger brother. Because even one touch from Seth could shatter Ronan’s carefully constructed world and Ronan knows there’s no coming back from that a second time.

But when a series of escalating attacks against Seth forces Ronan back into his life, Seth knows it’s his last chance to show Ronan he can be the man the broken surgeon needs. Only the Ronan who returns isn’t the Ronan Seth fell in love with so long ago….

Can Seth be Ronan’s salvation or will he end up destroying them both?

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Crossing the Touchline

SERIES: Auckland Med Book 2

AUTHOR: Jay Hogan

NARRATOR:  Gary Furlong

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 11 hours and 58 minutes

RELEASE DATE: February 12, 2021

BLURB:

What if you’ve worked your whole life for a dream, to play rugby for the most successful sports team on the planet, the New Zealand All Blacks?

What if that dream is so close you can smell it?

What if you meet someone?

What if you fall in love?

What if your dream will cost the man who’s stolen your heart?

And what if the dream changes?

Reuben Taylor has a choice to make.

Cameron Wano is that choice.

Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE:  Absolution

SERIES:  The Protectors #1

AUTHOR:  Sloane Kennedy

NARRATOR:  Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  7 hours 16minutes

RELEASE DATE:  August 19, 2016

BLURB:

After four years abroad, artist Jonas Davenport has come home to start building his dream of owning his own art studio and gallery. But just as he’s ready to put the darkness of his past behind him forever, it comes roaring back with a vengeance.

The only thing keeping ex-cop Mace Calhoun from eating his own gun after an unthinkable loss is his role in an underground syndicate that seeks to get justice for the innocent by taking the lives of the guilty. Ending the life of the young artist who committed unspeakable crimes against the most vulnerable of victims should have been the easiest thing in the world. So why can’t he bring himself to pull the trigger?

After years of fighting in an endless, soul-sucking war, Navy SEAL Cole Bridgerton has come home to fight another battle – dealing with the discovery that the younger sister who ran away from home eight years earlier is lost to him forever. He needs answers and the only person who can give them to him is a young man struggling to put his life back together. But he never expected to feel something more for the haunted artist.

Cole and Mace. One lives by the rules, the other makes his own. One seeks justice through the law while the other seeks it with his gun. Two men, one light, one dark, will find themselves and each other when they’re forced to stand side by side to protect Jonas from an unseen evil that will stop at nothing to silence the young artist forever.

But each man’s scars run deep and even the strength of three may not be enough to save them.

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: The Fantastic Fluke

SERIES: The Fantastic Fluke Book 1

AUTHOR: Sam Burns

NARRATOR:  Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 8 hours and 13 minutes

RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2021

BLURB:

A lost fox. A gorgeous ghost. And an unlikely partnership to stop a murderer.

Since his mother’s murder, Sage McKinley doesn’t live, he exists. His weak magic has made him an outcast, shadowing his life with self-doubt. All that changes when the spirit of a gunslinger appears in his bookstore with a message that will flip Sage’s world upside down. According to the mesmerizing apparition, a powerful magic lies within Sage…if he can find a way to tap into it.

But dastardly threats accompany this untapped power. Bodies are piling high as a killer hunts for the secrets of the mage that now course through Sage’s veins. Can Sage find the confidence to embrace all he’s capable of? Or will the next life snuffed out be his own?

Reviewed by Stephen K.

TITLE:  The Bureau Vol 1

SERIES:   The Bureau #1-3

AUTHOR:  Kim Fielding

NARRATOR:  Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER:  Kim Fielding

LENGTH:  7 hrs and  39 mins

RELEASE DATE:  July 17, 2018

BLURB:

This collection contains the first three Bureau novellas:

Corruption

Once a proud demon of the night sky who carried nightmares to humans, Tenrael has spent decades in captivity as the star attraction of a traveling carnival. He exists in miserable servitude to men who plunk down ten dollars to fulfill their dark desires.

Charles Grimes is half human, half…something else. For 15 years he’s worked for the Bureau of Trans-Species Affairs, ridding the country of dangerous monsters. When his boss sends him to Kansas to chase a rumor about a captive demon, Charles figures it’s just another assignment. Until he meets Tenrael.

Clay White

Someone – or something – is murdering young men in San Francisco. Clay White has been fired from the Bureau of Trans-Species Affairs, but he’s determined to track down the killer. When he comes across a vampire named Marek, Clay assumes he’s caught the perp. But the encounter with Marek turns out to be more complicated than Clay expected, and it forces him to deal with his own troubled past and murky psyche.

As Clay discovers, sometimes the truth doesn’t come easy – and the monsters are not who we expect.

Creature

Alone in a cell and lacking memories of his past, John has no idea who – or what – he is. Alone on the streets of 1950s Los Angeles, Harry has far too many memories of his painful past and feels simply resignation in facing his empty future.

When Harry is given a chance to achieve his only dream – to become an agent with the Bureau of Trans-Species Affairs – all he has to do is prove his worth. Yet nothing has ever come easy for him.

Now he must offer himself and John as bait, enticing a man who wants to conquer death. But first he and John must learn what distinguishes a monster from a man – and what a monster truly wants.

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Fools

SERIES:  Licking Thicket Book #3

AUTHOR:  Lucy Lennox and May Archer

NARRATOR:  Michael Dean

PUBLISHER:  Self

LENGTH:  8 hours and 17 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  February 28, 2021

BLURB:

Tucker Wright’s Clues for Life:

What’s a 4-letter word for an utterly oblivious, totally commitment-phobic, heartbreakingly gorgeous man with a pet pig named Bernadette?

That’d be D-U-N-N, as in Dunn Johnson, my very best pal and fishing buddy since I moved to Licking Thicket.

What’s a 6-letter word for a nerdy, crossword-loving town doctor who’s doomed to be hopelessly, thoroughly, irrevocably, in love with that straight best friend for the rest of his born days?

That’s T-U-C-K-E-R, as in me.

But when I agree to let Dunn be my 24/7 dating coach, and he decides to get our whole nosy town in on the act, there’s only one 5-letter word to describe the pair of us.

F-O-O-L-S.

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Unholy

SERIES:  Witchbane #5

AUTHOR:  Morgan Brice

NARRATOR:  Kale Williams

PUBLISHER:  Tantor Audio

LENGTH:  6 hrs and 33 min

RELEASE DATE:  March 30, 2021

BLURB: 

A cycle of ritual murders. A coven of dark warlocks, drawing their immortality from the magic of their dead master. Two men sworn to stop the deaths, destroy the warlocks, and avenge the victims. Except this time, the killer flips the script.

Seth Tanner swore vengeance on the dark witches who killed his brother, Jesse. He rescued Evan Malone from one of the witches, and they’ve fallen in love despite the danger and chaos, going on the road to complete the quest and bring an end to the ritual murders. Their relationship is still new, tested at every turn by danger and magic.

Seth and Evan head to Charleston to stop the next warlock and save his intended victim. But this time, they’re too late. The warlock has already powered up, and he’s determined to destroy the two hunters one way or another. A deadly curse on Seth and Evan means time is running out. Can they find a way to turn the tables, or is Charleston their final destination?

Contains mature themes.

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  True Knight

SERIES:  Prosper Woods Chronicles Book 0.5 (Prequel)

AUTHOR:  Patricia Logan

NARRATOR:  John Solo

PUBLISHER:  Westburg Publishing

LENGTH:  4 hours and 28 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  March 17, 2021

BLURB:

My name is Romeo Harmon and I’m the new sheriff of Prosper Woods, a small California town smack dab in the middle of the sequoia forest. People around here tell me the town hasn’t changed a whole hell of a lot since power lines and telephones were installed. It’s a quaint place with a movie theater that shows the old classics, a saloon with a decent choice of beer, a general store with a grumpy old coot behind the till, a gas station with a pimply young mechanic, and a bed and breakfast that attracts tourists and vacation money.

I think I’m gonna like it here.

My name is Vincent Lasco. I’ve searched a long time to find a new place to settle down. Because of what I am, I need to pull up stakes and start over every twenty years or so—before people realize that I don’t age anymore. Prosper Woods has everything a man like me could ever want. Though there aren’t many humans, it doesn’t really matter. I’m so old, I don’t need to eat very often and there’s no reason to expose myself to the locals whom I hope to call friends some day.

I think I’m gonna like it here.

There’s newcomers in town. Prosper Woods is a nice place as long as you’re passing through. I wonder how long these folks will stay once they find out what’s really going on here. Somehow…

I don’t think they’re gonna like it here.

(True Knight is the prequel to the Prosper Woods Chronicles and includes an excerpt from True Mate, the first book in the new series)

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Unhallowed

SERIES:  Rath & Rune #1

AUTHOR:  Jordan L. Hawk

PUBLISHER:  Widdershins Press LLC

LENGTH:  8 hours and 35 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  November 13, 2020

BLURB:

Monsters. Murder. Librarians.

Librarian Sebastian Rath is the only one who believes his friend Kelly O’Neil disappeared due to foul play. But without any clues or outside assistance, there’s nothing he can do to prove it.

When bookbinder Vesper Rune is hired to fill the vacancy left by O’Neil, he receives an ominous letter warning him to leave. After he saves Sebastian from a pair of threatening men, the two decide to join forces and get to the truth about what happened to O’Neil.

But Vesper is hiding secrets of his own, ones he doesn’t dare let anyone learn. Secrets that grow ever more dangerous as his desire for Sebastian deepens.

Because Kelly O’Neil was murdered. And if Sebastian and Ves don’t act quickly enough, they’ll be the next to die.

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  The Answer

SERIES:  Single Dad Support Group #6

AUTHOR:  Piper Scott

NARRATOR:  Michael Ferraiuolo

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  10 hours and 57 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  March  26. 2021

BLURB:

When does a single dad not have any kids? When he’s a single daddy.

What eternal bachelor and Wall Street mogul Damien wants more than anything is a boy of his own to cherish, but after years of heartbreak, he’s given up hope. No boy will ever love him as much as they love his wallet.

Which is true up until he meets his best friend’s son, Matthew – a timid single dad almost 20 years his junior who Damien knows right away that he can’t live without. No matter what it takes, Damien will love him, protect him, and spoil him. And one day, if he’s lucky, his sweet Matthew will want to call him Daddy.

The Answer is the 102,000-word conclusion to the Single Dad Support Group series. It features blazing-hot chemistry shared between a Daddy and his boy, obscene confetti, and a friendship seven years in the making that will forever withstand the test of time.

Reviewed by Stephen K.

TITLE:  Forgotten

SERIES:  Heaven & Hell Club #2

AUTHOR:  Colette Davison

NARRATOR:  Piers Ryman

PUBLISHER:  Audible

LENGTH:  7 hrs and  42 mins

RELEASE DATE:  May 5  2020

BLURB:

Can he build a future when he’s forgotten his past?

Jared has fought hard to achieve something close to “normal”. Needing to get away from his well-meaning but suffocating family, he follows a message he wrote on a scrap of paper to a new city, hoping to find a missing piece of his past.

When Kyrone, a cocky pole dancer at the Heaven and Hell club, saunters into the tattoo parlor Jared works in, his life is turned upside down again. A passionate one-night stand turns into something unexpected for both men.

But life is never simple as they work out if they can have a future beyond what has been forgotten.

Forgotten is an MM romance with hurt/comfort, a small age gap, and two men who need to learn to be true to themselves. It is the second book in the Heaven and Hell Club series, and whilst it can be listened to as a stand-alone, it works better if listened to after Broken.

Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Red Heir

SERIES:  Adventures in Aguillon #1

AUTHORS:  Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey

NARRATOR:  Nick J. Russo

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  7 hours and 1 minutes1

RELEASE DATE:  February 12, 2021

BLURB:

Imprisoned pickpocket Loth isn’t sure why a bunch of idiots just broke into his cell claiming they’re here to rescue the lost prince of Aguillon, and he doesn’t really care. They’re looking for a redheaded prince, and he’s more than happy to play along if it means freedom. Then, his cranky cellmate Grub complicates things by claiming to be the prince as well.

Now, they’re fleeing across the country, and Loth’s stuck sharing a horse and a bedroll with Grub while imitating royalty, eating eel porridge, and dodging swamp monsters and bandits.

Along the way, Loth discovers that there’s more to Grub than meets the eye. Under the dirt and bad attitude, Grub’s not completely awful. He might even be attractive. In fact, Loth has a terrible suspicion that he’s developing feelings, and he’s not sure what to do about that. He’d probably have more luck figuring it out if people would just stop trying to kill them.

At least they’ve got a dragon, right?

Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Love Always, Wild

SERIES: For Him Book 1

AUTHOR:  A.M. Johnson

NARRATOR:  Tim Paige and Kirt Graves

PUBLISHER:  Tantor Audio

LENGTH:  9 hours and 21 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  March 16, 2021

BLURB:

Wilder,

When I left that night, I had every intention of coming back to you. To us. But no matter how hard I wish for what I want, there are some things in life that aren’t meant to be. I don’t expect you to understand. You’ve already moved on, living your life. But mine ended that night, nine years ago, and I still can’t let you go. Not sure I ever will. I regret so many things, but hurting you, I’ll never forgive myself. I’m sorry for . . . everything.

Jax~

Jax,

If only you could’ve seen it like I did, the way you were when you thought the world wasn’t watching. How you’d change when I looked at you, when it was just us. But most of all . . . I wish you could’ve seen how much it hurt me when you disappeared. Regrets are for cowards. It has always been my belief you should chase after the things you want with actions, not words. There is no such thing as never meant to be.

So this apology . . . not accepted . . .

Love always, Wild

Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE:  Natural Twenty

SERIES:  Roll for Love

AUTHOR:  Charlie Novak

NARRATOR:  Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER:  Charlie Novak

LENGTH:  8 hours and 10 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  January 29, 2021

BLURB:

Plants are easier than people – that’s Leo’s rule of thumb. After all, nobody really wants a man who looks like he belongs in a biker gang but would rather spend his time buried in books and flowers. It’s just easier to be single. Until he meets the owner of the new book shop.

Jacob Morris knows two things: He’s really attracted to the man who runs the local flower shop, and he doesn’t date. Not when he’s still healing from a bad breakup, has a new business to run, game nights to organize, workshops to host, and a website to build.

When friendship blooms into something more, Leo and Jay must decide whether to roll the dice and take a chance on love or keep forging ahead on their quests alone. Will their roll yield a one or a perfect, natural 20?