Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Sniper vs. Spotter

SERIES:  Hitman vs. Hitman

AUTHORS:  Cari Z and L.A. Witt

NARRATOR:  Michael Ferraiuolo

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  8 hours and 4 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  November 29, 2021

BLURB:  

Mortal-enemies-turned-furniture-breaking-lovers August Morrison and Ricardo Torralba have found a groove that suits them both. They’ve teamed up as hired guns, they live together, and by some miracle, they haven’t killed each other. It’s the closest to normal they’ll ever have, and they love it.

But, their guns-and-roses future is thrown into chaos when Ricardo’s past comes crashing into their present. What begins as a favor for an old friend – well, “friend”, but don’t tell August – quickly spirals into something far bigger than they anticipated. Now, they’re in way over their heads with powerful people on both sides of the law, and it’s going to take more than snark and explosions to see them through.

Nevertheless, there will be plenty of snark and explosions, because this is August and Ricardo, and no one would expect any less. In between the smoke and sarcasm, though, they are determined to bring an evil operation crashing down…no matter who they have to work with to get the job done and no matter who they have to kill.

Sniper vs Spotter is the sequel to the apparently-it-doesn’t-want-to-be-a-stand-alone Hitman vs Hitman, which absolutely was supposed to be a stand-alone, but August and Ricardo (predictably) refused to be contained. Our audiobook narrator also shares some of the blame, Michael. So, here we are.

REVIEW:

August and Ricardo are back 🙂  They have moved into a new relationship and are living in August’s house and things are going pretty well.  That is until Ricardo’s ex-wife, Eve, gets in touch with him and needs help.  Unfortunately after their divorce that was based on some not quite truths, she has moved on to one of Ricardo’s former military buddies – in fact the absolute worst possible one of them.  When Ricardo finds out, it’s all he can do to not just go off and kill the guy.  But thankfully cooler heads prevail.

As Ricardo and August try to decide how to deal with Ricardo’s former sniper, it’s clear that he is into something bad.  Like really bad.  And when they discover what that something is, they are determined to make sure that not only is he stopped, but that the operation is stopped and the top guys go down.  August’s impersonations in order to get intel on the situation prove to be hilarious but effective – mostly at keeping Ricardo from intervening and making things worse.  After coming up with a plan, they keep Ricardo’s spotter on the hook to get them access to the head honchos, but it turns out this goes much higher and and also in a direction they didn’t see coming.

As the bad guys move up the timetable, Ricardo and August along with August’s sister and Eve have to come up with a plan to thwart them.  Of course things don’t go too smoothly and when somebody sees something they shouldn’t, it appears that all bets are off and Ricardo and August are going to have to take out the spotter.  In the end, things go completely off the rails, but thanks to a quick thinking and acting Eve and a resourceful Ricardo and tenacious August, they end up in a much better position than they thought they would.  Until an unexpected contact shows up to let them know that they are not off the hook for their little stunt 😉

Wow!  I think I enjoyed this one even more than the first one!  First, August and Ricky are already together and their banter and teasing are on point from the get go.  When Eve joins them, things get even better.  August and Eve are quite the combination – one that poor Ricky never envisioned – nor is he sure he’ll survive.  LOL!  I completely enjoyed everyone’s POV in this one and I really hope that we haven’t seen the last of the ladies in this book.  The plot in this one is a bit dark, but that was balanced with plenty of snark and humor.  I like that everyone is so smart in these books 🙂  They all keep each other on their toes.  The action and the escapes and the close calls and the unexpected blasts from the past kept my hanging on the edge of my seat.  Both men’s past and trigger figure prominently in how they deal with the tasks before them in settling scores and thwarting the very worst of humanity.  I think it might be even more of a roller coaster than the first story 😉

Michael Ferraiuolo outdoes himself here with the cast of characters.  I particularly love that August is so many characters himself 😀  So instead of one voice, there are at least three in this book for him.  He’s so inventive and I loved his choices here.  Eve and Elodie are droll and smart and pitch perfect.  Then there is Ricardo 😉  He’s a rock here – for everyone – and Michael’s choice for the emotional center of the story I really appreciated.  August and Eve know Ricardo – maybe better than he knows himself in some cases and they aren’t about to let him make a fatal mistake.

If you enjoyed the first book in this series, I think this one takes it up a notch even.  I cannot wait to see what happens to this group next – because the mic has been dropped and there will indeed have to be at least one more book.  I for one, am not complaining 🙂  Highly recommended.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

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