Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Close Quarter
AUTHOR: Anna Zabo
NARRATORS: Michael Ferraiuolo
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 8 hours and 1 minutes
RELEASE DATE: July 31, 2024
BLURB:
On a transatlantic cruise to New York, sculptor Rhys Matherton struggles to piece his life back together after losing his mother, inheriting a fortune, and finding out his father isn’t his father after all. He spills a tray of drinks on a handsome stranger, then he finds himself up against a wall getting the best hand-job he’s ever had. And for the first time in his life, he feels whole.
Rhys enjoys the company of Silas Quint, but for the eerie way no one pays attention to them even while they kiss in a crowded bar. Silas explains he’s a forest fae able to glamor the room around them—and more importantly, that he’s on the cruise to hunt vampires. Rhys thinks Silas is full of it, until he discovers vampires are real, and he’s part of their main course.
Silas Quint can’t be distracted by a human lover, even one as lovely as Rhys. Stuck in the middle of the ocean, he has barely enough of energy to hunt the vampires he’s been sent to destroy. Rhys is full of the one thing Silas needs needs most—the element of living plants. Only sucking energy from Rhys would make Silas as soulless as the creatures he hunts. How can he keep Rhys safe, without becoming like the very monsters he hunts?
REVIEW:
So I read this book almost 8 years ago. My review was quite sparse but I remembered liking the MCs and the setting/world was unusual.
Silas and Rhys are so different. They meet on a transatlantic cruise ship headed to America from London. Their first interaction is a disaster but Rhys is compelled to follow Silas and make amends. He certainly gets a lot more than he bargained for. Silas is very intrigued by Rhys – he’s not sure who or what he is. Rhys is a bit notorious for his antics after the recent death of his mother and discovering his immense wealth and uncovering family secrets in her will. Silas is pretty sure he knows what Rhys is and the real reason he was abandoned. But danger lurks and Silas has a job to do. That job is very very dangerous. Rhys quickly gets caught up in the danger and suffers the consequences.
At the heart of the mission that Silas is tasked with is the ultimate bad guy. He has been Silas nemesis for millennia. Silas and Rhys had one ally in the ship’s bartender Vasily. But there is a lot against them. Rhys had no idea about his parentage or his abilities until push comes to shove with his insistence on helping Silas. They are a team in Rhys’s mind and he’s not going to abandon Silas. This could mean they are both going to pay the ultimate prices.
The audio book of this story was good. I had forgotten quite a few things and was refreshed on details when I listened to this book. I had forgotten just how many sex scenes were in this book and frankly it was a bit much for me at some point since they were fighting for their lives a lot of the time and suddenly they can’t keep their hands off each other. There is quite a bit of violence and mayhem and stubborn behavior from both MCs. Rhys is trying to get his arms around all the things that have been revealed to him and it’s messing with him. Silas wants to protect Rhys at his own peril, but Rhys is not having it. He’s tired of not having any real control over his life. He’s also not going to give up on Silas. Their story is a bit insta-lust/insta-love under extreme circumstances.
Michael Ferriauolo does a great job with the character voices. The accents were spot on. The terror and pain and fear are especially well performed in this story with our two MCs facing a lot of obstacles and enemies. Clearly they cared about each other even if they couldn’t agree on a plan 🙂 Luckily the get some help along the way.
Recommended.
RATING: 
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