@debbiereadsbook, @sloane_kennedy
Length: 7 hours and 16 minutes 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…
5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
OH MY GOD!!! This book is AMAZING!!!! Not least because of the amazing, totally amazing narration by Joel Leslie! This book is written in the first person, from all three guys point of view. I didn't know that going in, and it threw me somewhat at first, but by god the man has some skill!! Three voices throughout the whole book, changing with each chapter, and character. The story itself is quite dark, gritty and carries some triggers, but Sloane Kennedy pulls this first in the series beautifully! I have book two to listen to next. I hope to work my way through the whole series in audio because I don't like to READ first person, multi point of view books, but I cannot, simply CANNOT fault the narration of this book! 5 star book with 5 star narration!
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* verified Audible purchase - June 2017 *
@debbiereadsbook, @sloane_kennedy
Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins "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?
5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
When I listen to a book, I try really REALLY hard to write a bit about the book then a separate bit about the narration. However! Part of the reason I am enjoying these Protectors stories is the narration by Joel Leslie! So I cannot split them! I'm not a fan of READING first person books and I make no apologies for that but LISTENING to them is becoming a firm favourite! Joel Leslie put so much emotion, feeling so much of the character's very soul into his work, and by god you feel for these guys, you really do! I have no doubt, no doubt at all, that I WILL be listening to the others books as they come out in audio. I don't want to switch to reading, I might not enjoy them so much! 5 stars for the book 5 stars for the narration.
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* verified Audible purchase - June 2017 *
@debbiereadsbook, @sloane_kennedy
Listening Length: 8 hours and 3 minutes Ex Special Forces soldier Michael “Hawke” Hawkins has spent every day of the last ten years waiting for the moment he would get to watch the life fade from the eyes of the men who brutally murdered his wife, but when he finally gets the break he’s been waiting for, the trail leads him to someone he wasn’t expecting. After nearly two years of running, 24-year-old Tate Travers has become an expert at hiding…until the day a dangerous stranger shows up looking for vengeance and threatens to destroy the fragile life Tate has managed to build for himself and his five-year-old son. Except the life Tate has been struggling to hold on to started unraveling long before Hawke showed up looking for the same men Tate has been running from…his own father and older brother. Retribution – it’s all Hawke has wanted since the day he held his wife’s hand as she took her last breath. And he won’t give that up for anything or anyone…not even the tormented young man trying to give his little boy a better life. Because Tate is the only one who can lead Hawke to the men he’s been searching for. And if it means forcing the young man to confront the past that nearly destroyed him, then so be it. Only the last thing Hawke expects to feel is something besides the hatred that has driven him. And he definitely never expected to feel it for a man. But when it comes down to choosing between the unwanted feelings Tate stirs in him and the revenge he’s finally close enough to taste, will Hawke be able to give up the one thing that has kept him going for a second chance at a future he gave up on ever having?
5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
This is book three in the Protectors series. You don’t NEED to have read/listened to books one and two, but I think you SHOULD. It will give you a better picture of this group of people and what they do, and how Hawke came to at the head. And you know, FIVE star listens, people!
For ten years, Hawke has been searching for the men who killed his wife and unborn son. Meeting Tate makes him feel again, something he didn’t think was possible. He certainly never thought it possible he would feel for a MAN.
I loved books one and two, and I loved this one too! I again cannot split the narration from the story, so not even gonna try. So I apologise if this review jumps around a bit!
Hawke loved his wife, bone deep, and when she was murdered, it broke. He’s spent the last ten years as head of an organisation that delivers justice to those let down by the law. The revenge for his wife’s death is a long time coming but he’s getting close and Tate is his link. His reaction to Tate is . . . unexpected. And when Hawke realises why Tate is running, his protectiveness goes into overdrive.
It’s no secret I’m not a fan of READING first person books, particularly if they are multi person but I find I’m really enjoying LISTENING to first person books, ESPECIALLY if they are multi point of view! Joel Leslie is a MASTER at his craft, at narrating multi point of view, in the first person! I simply CANNOT fault the narration. The way Leslie gets every single heart wrenching thought that Hawke has: thinking about his wife, ad what his growing feelings for Tate mean. Every fear that Tate has: that his father will find him, that Hawke might hurt him, that he might lose his little boy. This is not a short listen, over 8 hours and I listened to it in one single siting. I tried to stop, I really did but I needed to know what would happen, how this would play out. It takes a single question from Ronan (Salvation, book 2) to break Hawke. The same question broke me too! And I sobbed at that point, great heart wrenching sobs at the emotion that Leslie pours out of Hawke.
Of course, Leslie can only narrate the words given him, but Kennedy is fast becoming a favourite of mine. The way she intertwines multi level stories, from book to book, is amazing. Sometimes, series lose their . . .what’s the word . . .ethos, as it moves along but not so here. They hold true to their meaning, and I cannot wait to see where this series goes.
I LOVE that I have 9 more books to get through BUT I’ve discovered that Michael Pauley narrates book 4, Forsaken, and I’m not sure how I feel about that! I’ll buy it, without a doubt, but it will be interesting to see how Pauley portrays the voices that Leslie has done up to now.
So, because I can’t split the narration, because I listened in one day, and just bloody I can . . .
5 stars for the book
5 stars for the narration
5 stars overall
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* verified Audible purchase - June 2017 *
Although Sloane Kennedy always dreamed of being a writer as a teenager, she didn't take the plunge until 2015 when she released her first novel. Since then, she has released nearly 30 books including the Amazon best-selling "Pelican Bay" and "Protectors" series. While she initially began writing M/F romance, she found her true passion writing gay romance and nearly all of her most recent releases reached the #1 spot on Amazon's Gay Romance bestseller list and several have made it to Amazon's overall bestseller list. Sloane was born in Germany but grew up in the U.S. and although she currently lives in Wisconsin, the place where she has always felt most at home is Seattle and many of her books take place in the Emerald city. When not writing, a menagerie of 2 dogs, 3 cats and 2 horses takes up what little time she has left in the day!