No
One To Trust (Red Stone Security #1) by Katie ReusPurchase link: Amazon
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Killers are after her…
Computer security specialist for Red Stone Security, Elizabeth Martinez has never been able to turn her back on her brother Benny. When his risky lifestyle finally lands him in harm’s way, Elizabeth finds herself dragged into the dangerous underworld with him and into the path of one of Miami’s most dangerous drug lords. To stay alive, she now has to depend on the one man she has tried so desperately to forget.
He’ll do anything to keep her safe…
Former Marine Porter Caldwell never should have let Elizabeth walk away from him all those months ago. She means more to him than anything and now that she’s in danger and turned to him for help, he won’t make that mistake again. When a local gang targets her and she’s nearly killed in a drive by shooting, Porter vows to do whatever it takes to keep her alive. Even if it means turning his back on all that he’s sworn to uphold.
Computer security specialist for Red Stone Security, Elizabeth Martinez has never been able to turn her back on her brother Benny. When his risky lifestyle finally lands him in harm’s way, Elizabeth finds herself dragged into the dangerous underworld with him and into the path of one of Miami’s most dangerous drug lords. To stay alive, she now has to depend on the one man she has tried so desperately to forget.
He’ll do anything to keep her safe…
Former Marine Porter Caldwell never should have let Elizabeth walk away from him all those months ago. She means more to him than anything and now that she’s in danger and turned to him for help, he won’t make that mistake again. When a local gang targets her and she’s nearly killed in a drive by shooting, Porter vows to do whatever it takes to keep her alive. Even if it means turning his back on all that he’s sworn to uphold.
This was another audiobook read for me and I have come to the realization after what is now, I think, my 4th audiobook, perhaps 5th? that audiobooks, for me, take away a little bit from the reading experience. I think I enjoy the reading experience a lot more when I am reading the book rather than listening to it and as a result, it does the book a disservice as it generally tends to get a slightly lower rating from me.
I've been in the mood for a romantic suspense read recently, which was why I picked this book. It's also a fairly short book, so by audio standards this was a fairly quick read, something I do not mind.
The story opens with Lizzie going to rescue her brother from another one of his scrapes and this time, she has to pull him out of a notorious drug dealer's home. While there, the drug dealer abuses Lizzie and Porter comes to the rescue.
The relationship between Lizzie is a difficult one as they had dated in the past but Lizzie broke up with Porter when he made comment of the fact that she is always pulling her brother out of scrapes. She got mad at Porter and dumped him. In my mind, that's just a real dumb ass reason to dump someone you care about when he has done nothing wrong and you are being taken advantage of by your scapegrace of a brother, no matter your reasons for your loyalty.
There are moments in the story where Lizzie really bugs me and she does starts to do some things which makes me think that she's about to do something really stupid. Fortunately, there's enough common sense and sanity which prevails, and she doesn't. It would have really lowered my opinion of her if she did follow through on some of the things that she thought that she would do. It was also to her credit that while the bad guys were gunning for her, she had the presence of mind to be scared and do as she's told by someone who was much more experienced than she was in those situations. When something tragic happens and Lizzie falls apart, Lizzie pushes Porter away and decides that she is too guilty to feel happy and in love, instead she needs to be miserable instead. I don't understand that. I've read that a few times recently in other books and while I understand grief and the need to grieve, I do not understand the need to punish yourself with the grief and then deprive yourself of happiness or feel guilty because there is brightness in your life as well. It's unfair on yourself and unfair on the person you are pushing away.
As for Porter, I really felt for him. He is such an upright and honorable person, and he cared so much for Lizzie and yet each time he tries to show it, she pushes him away, all the while eating him up with her eyes and thinking naughty thoughts about him. Her brain and heart is obsessed with Porter while her actions push him away. Poor Porter. It makes his job trying to protect her and care for her that much harder. I liked the fact that even for a touch ex-Marine, he had a tender side when it came to Lizzie as well as a protective alpha male side. I also liked the fact that he didn't give up on her even though she was constantly pushing him away, because, frankly, I would have. A person can only take so much rejection for so long.
This was a quick, short read, or rather a quick, short listen. I like this length of audiobook. It's long enough to give you a decent and entertaining story, but short enough that you're not listening to 40 hours of content. Since I only listen at a rate of about 30 minutes a day and not every day at that, it just means I'm not taking months to finish an audiobook and I like that.
I enjoyed this story enough that I think I will look into the rest of the series, or at least try out the next one but I don't think I will listen to it on audiobook again. I'm not a fan of the narrator.
A few thoughts on the narrator, Pyper Down. I didn't like her. Her voice was okay but she had the oddest way of pausing at really weird points in a sentence that made the sentence and the narration seem disjointed and choppy. I didn't like the way her narration broke up sentences in such a way as it made the thought process in the sentence seem incomplete.
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Other books in the series
About the author
Katie Reus is the New York Times, USA Today,
& IndieReader bestselling author of the Red Stone Security
series, the Moon Shifter series and the Deadly Ops series. She fell in
love with romance at a young age thanks to books she pilfered from her
mom's stash. Years later she loves reading romance almost as much as
she loves writing it. However, she didn't always know she wanted to be
a writer. After changing majors many times, she finally graduated with
a degree in psychology. Not long after that she discovered a new love.
Writing. She now spends her days writing dark paranormal romance and
sexy romantic suspense.Author links: Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads - Blog
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I've had this series on my TBR for a while... but it doesn't sound like a good candidate for audio.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not. I think a lot had to do with the narrator too. I didn't like her style. I will continue with this series but just read it rather than listen.
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