BLOOD LINE

Blood Line by Paul Heatley
Book 1 in the Tom Rollins Thriller series
Narrated by Wayne Mitchell
Genre: crime thriller
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Blood Line:

Tom Rollins has gone AWOL from his CIA black-ops unit and is living off-grid when he hears that the woman he loves, Alejandra, has been murdered by a person or persons unknown. Rollins is determined to punish her killers and sets out on his own personal search and destroy mission.

Applying pressure as only he knows how, he quickly discovers who was behind the killing — a vicious gang of hardened criminals. Using his dizzying array of lethal skills, Rollins begins to take out the leaders of the gang, one by one. But then he discovers that Alejandra’s murder was part of a larger conspiracy, one that threatens death and destruction on a horrifying scale. The conspirators are clever and ruthless. They’ve thought of everything, covered every angle. Except one — Tom Rollins. Can Rollins find justice for the woman he loves?

Source: Info in the "About Blood Line" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57473420-blood-line on 27/03/2024.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

Wonderful start to a new-to-me series!

For a crime fiction the plot was quite straight forward. But it is not so much the twistiness of the plot but of how the story was told. Now, that, was wonderful!

I like to throttle Anthony, though! That doesn't mean that the character development is bad. Quite the opposite in fact. The author painted him to be such a whiny little shit that it elicited an emotional response from me, the reader.

The audiobook is supposed to be about eight and a half hours long. It felt so much less than eight hours. The book just whizzed by me! I call that fast-paced!

I wanted the bad guys to be punished though. I think some got away lightly and some scot-free. I wanted my happily ever after...

This is my first Wayne Mitchell audiobook and I would listen to him again.

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (8 hrs and 24 mins listening time)
Plot = 4
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Tom Rollins Thriller Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Paul Heatley:

Paul Heatley's books have been published by the likes of All Due Respect, Inkubator Books, Close To The Bone, and more. His short stories have appeared online and in print for publications such as Thuglit, Horror Sleaze Trash, Spelk, Near to the Knuckle, Shotgun Honey, the Crime Factory, and the Flash Fiction Offensive, among others.

www.paulheatley.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Wayne Mitchell:

Wayne Mitchell has been an actor all his life and has been described as a big guy with a big voice. He competed on the Forensics (Speech) Team in high school and college, doing mostly interpretation events (prose interpretation being a favorite). Since getting involved with audiobooks, Wayne feels like he's back doing Speech Team once again, and it's a welcome return!

As an LA based (Meisner trained) actor of twenty yearrs, he has appeared in a dozen TV shows, loop grouped over a hundred TV episodes and numerous movies, and in 2015 cowrote/directed an independent feature film called SOLEDAD, which is available on Amazon Prime.

Wayne brings versatility to any project. He's comfortable with a variety of voices and accents, but most importantly he brings a knack for conveying the truth. The truth of the words on the page. The truth of the experience the listener is being asked to participate in. Be that truth intergalactic in scope, or as familiar as Sunday brunch with Grandma.

www.allthingswaynemitchell.com | twitter | tiktok | facebook | instagram | linkedin | youtube | soundcloud | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.

CURSED WOLF

Cursed Wolf by Brogan Thomas
Book 1 in the Creatures of the Otherworld series
Narrated by Poppy Royana
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Cursed Wolf:

Loathed by those who should love her, can one fierce woman discover the secrets of her unique blood in time to be her own rescuer?

Forrest Hesketh desperately clings to humanity. Trapped in an infuriatingly inept wolf form since she was nine years old, the traumatised girl’s hope of regaining her ability to shift is slowly fading. But as her abusive pack plots to kill her, her desperate act to help her kind stepbrother finally triggers the broken young woman’s transformation.

Stunned that suddenly everyone wants her after fourteen years of horrific treatment, Forrest struggles to relearn basic skills while dodging kidnappers and assassins. And with a powerful shifter councilman determined to claim her as a mate, even the protection of a gorgeous dragon can’t guarantee her safety.

With monsters closing in, will Forrest’s undaunted courage be enough to keep her alive?

Source: Info in the "About Cursed Wolf" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54817962-cursed-wolf on 26/06/2021.

Book Trailer :

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

This is my first Brogan Thomas book and I am so very glad that I stumbled into her! I like her author's voice! The sassy sarcasm and the way she weaves a wonderful world and her characters are loveable! Though the plot has tiny little holes in them and kinda predictable. However, I can forgive that because this is urban fantasy after all, not crime fiction. And the first chapter took a little bit of perseverance on my part to get through. A more forgiving reader might not struggle as hard....

This is also my first Poppy Royana listen and I like the way she reads! Her British accent and young voice fits Forrest to the T! I like the way she reads her lines with sarcasm and vive!

Empirical Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 4.5
Plot = 4
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Creatures of the Otherworld Series:

 

Books In The Rebel of the Otherworld Series:

Amazon

Amazon

Meet The Author

About Brogan Thomas:

Brogan lives in Ireland with her husband and their eleven furry children: five furry minions of darkness (aka the cats), four hellhounds (the dogs), and two traditional unicorns (fat, hairy Irish cobs).

In 2019 she decided to embrace her craziness by writing about the imaginary people that live in her head. Her first love is her number-one favourite furry child Bob the cob, then reading. When not reading or writing, she can be found knee-deep in horse poo and fur while blissfully ignoring all adult responsibilities.

broganthomas.com | twitter | facebook | facebook author page | instagram | bookbub | pinterest | youtube | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Poppy Royana:

Born and raised in the South East but finding her home in the North, Poppy is a bi British Narrator based in not too sunny Manchester. With experience in musical theatre, Poppy is both a singer and a book lover and teaches singing when she’s not found narrating in her booth.

Poppy’s voice could possibly be mistaken at times for Olivia Colman’s so we’d like to think that, in our opinion, Poppy has an award-winning voice. She sounds warm and uplifting whilst being articulate and crisp; and not only that but she can nail sarcasm to a T. There’s really not much Poppy can’t do!

www.poppyroyanaaudio.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | linkedin | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook copies of the book were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.