Kindle Customer

light hearted story not much to it

Reviewed: 12-21-23

The premise of this story was good and I was expecting grand adventure with intricate lead characters interaction, BUT NO. Sadly, it is a pretty simple tale told with simple events of a dull medieval prison break. Don't expect profound characters or plot here. The two MCs aren't dislikable but they gear toward two dimensional with their flat personalities. We're TOLD, not shown, in one short paragraph about Mouse's reason for his reluctance to find love with the event happening off pages, and we are NEVER told why Garron is so saintly against violence even though there is hint of him having encounter something in his earlier life to make him act so. Again, there was ample opportunity for the write to go deeper into character building but it just never pulls through. I found Mouse and Garron so damn boring I nearly gave up listening halfway but shouldered on finishing. Funny thing with this story is, the side characters have more depths. I don't believe it's the fault of the narrator, who was great. I think whoever else narrated this wouldn't be able to bring anymore life to these two MCs as there is none more to give.

The writing isn't bad if a bit dull. This is something I would have read in my teens on a fanfiction website some twenty years ago. So I recommend this story only for those who are looking for a light hearted plot with simple characters who ends up happily ever after.

Narrator: Five Star. Joel Leslie is a great as usual.

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Interesting but not Ashe's usual greatness

Reviewed: 09-15-23

Review I posted on GR.

Ashe creates intriguing plots and mysteries, I'm never bored with his stories. The only reason I'm not giving this a four or five stars is though I find the two MC interesting, I'm just not in love with them yet. There's also too much physical damage happening without any real time for the two characters to rest. It's hard to believe that someone can suffer such physical attack and get up the next day. I think Ashe needs to pace events happening better to be believable. Then there's Jack's various long monologues of past lessons learned, which just ads on unnecessary jargons. And I have to say, all, yes all the side characters are annoying. Also I keep forgetting that these two MCs are just 16, and have to remind myself that they're just kids still, bcuz they sure act way too old for their age. I've been around 16 years old (and even helped raised three), and many of them are missing half a brain at that age, shrugs, just speaking from personal experience. Plus, I'm a Holmes fanatic so it sort of pains me to read distorted versions of his talent, even when I know it's purposely done. It's like Holmes' personality is split into two here, the coldhearted cunning and calculative thinking machine as the father, and whatever compassion the cool aloof-mannered canon character possessed for humanity had, has been tweaked up on high and bundled into the extremely emotionally unstable son. Still, I'll finish this series since its mystery has caught my attention.

Narration: Greg Tremblay is a solid 5 star as always.

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1 person found this helpful

An ok story with great sound production

Reviewed: 01-23-23

As the title states, this is a story where Moriarty is the protagonist, an innocent hero wronged by agents of the crown. To anyone looking for a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, this will NOT be it for you. The Holmes brothers along with Watson are very purposely taken out of characters to fit the story so DO NOT expect to see the canons here. Someone in another review said this was a reverse of the Reichenbach Falls, it is exactly that. Whatever you know of Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, well just switch their place around. Moriarty good guy, Holmes bad guy. The story itself is just ok. But what made me finish this audio is the production and narration, which is very well done and entertaining to listen to.

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Misleading Title, not much Holmes here

Reviewed: 12-08-22

I'm a Holmes fanatic so I'm willing to try many new Holmes stories. However my favorite detective's ability was sorely lacking here. When a writer puts a CANON Holmes without tweaking his INCREDULITY towards the supernatural , into a story which is MAINLY supernatural, you get this mess of a book. Holmes is NOT the protagonist in this story. He serves mainly as a side character to the Vampire. Which is why I said the title is misleading. Actually it should be changed to The Whitechapel Vampire. Let me put it this way, this story is more about the Vampire's journey and the several side characters' families and personal backgrounds then about Holmes' and his deductions. The writing is not horrible so I won't say don't read it but if you are looking for a solid Holmes story, You won't get it here. I mean I've read supernatural Holmes stories where Holmes is really Holmes. This writer however fails at it.

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2 people found this helpful

great cast and story

Reviewed: 10-04-22

It was an excellent casting and narration production. good fast paced story. The plot kept me on my toes.

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A justified ending...for now.

Reviewed: 12-07-20

This is the only LGBTQ criminal series I love and kept on from start to finish. Hazard and Somers are irresistible despite their ups and downs through each book.

The plot and characters are as good here as in precious books. Ashe creates a good distraction to mask who the psychopath is though pass halfway if you pay attention enough to a small detail, you kind of have an idea who the guy is. Still a good twist. When you find out the reason why he targeted Hazard, you'll probably roll your eyes like I did at the killer's narcistic behavior, the bastard really is one ego maniac from beginning to end. I liked how the pace was set with Hazard getting on track to figuring out who the murder is but doesn't come to a conclusion right away. He does figure out who the person is towards the end.

The ending was a nice tying up between Hazard and Somers with the latter surprising the former, only to realize he'd been the one played. Nothing gets by Hazard that's for sure.

I hope to see more of them next year. Hopefully. Please. Mr. Ashe. It'd be interesting to see Somers in his new job title and see what other crazy exists to challenge his and Hazard's life.

Narrator: Tristan James was truly the best narrator for this series. He give Hazard and Somers each distinctive voices and brought them to life in the best way.

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read all three books...

Reviewed: 10-28-20

book 1 the easy way
book 2 the long way
book 3 the right way

My take here: Storywise, the premise wasn't bad. I did like the background plot involving the fathers' sins which led to their sons future demise. But that's about all I found interesting. This is really just another typical romance series with some tiny wee bit of mobster and crime as a backdrop. I prefer more substance to my plots and characters. Because really, despite their dire and deadly situation, the characters spent a whole lot of time with too many dialogues about feelings. And some of the climatic action scenes, (not the sex mind you because well that there was plenty), but the plot actions were glossed over or written off page. I'm not a fan of authors who do this, I think it's lazy writing, but in the romance genre I've found that it's a norm. And lastly, I found this to be too life-preachy towards the end - not really my thing. Anyway May Archer is a first for me and, though I'm not tossing this one out completely, I'm in no hurry to pick up another one of this author's work.

As for the narrator - he did a good job as usual.

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the dracula of werewolf? Really, where?

Reviewed: 10-21-20

This was 9 hours of long torturous french history jargon, and 2 hours 9 minutes of werewolf story. Really the excess of words was about church, morality, revolution, war and everything eslse but werewolf.

The werewolf story appears only as a backdrop to whatever was going on in France at such time. I wanted to DNF half way thru but decided to forge on. Bad decision. The story was all over the place and none of the characters were likeable. The scenes would also veer off topic and at one point i had to go back to catch where the setting had shift anf why. I hate when writers do this, when they rant on from one setting to another without proper transitions taking place. It makes it hard to follow or even understand a particular chapter. There was just so much info dump that when i finished i couldnt remember what i had read.

I really dont get the dracula comparison. Dracula, though never taking on his own POV, was about Dracula, and not 10 hours of Transilvania history, morality, revolution or its religion.

Anyway, i didnt much care for the narrator either. He wasnt bad but not the best i've listened to either.

I recommend this only for those who love long wordy historical fictions about mannerism of a society. For actual werewolf stories look elsewhere.

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Most BORING listenning this year...

Reviewed: 09-19-20

This was a drag to finish. This story was longer than need be. It was 95% of MC feeling sorry for himself but yet not being able to help himself by getting involved with the other MC. 3% of firefighter action and talks, and 2% of sudden realization. The characters were meek and uninteresting. The climb to the climax-less conclusion was a snooze fest. Good thing about audio is I just move my cursor to skim thru draggy-chapters.
I'm returning for my credit and not continuing with series. The second book's summary sounds as dull.

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3 people found this helpful

Eye rolls...

Reviewed: 08-29-20

really, another rapey cliche story. Man with so many of these stories out there, one might think that every single gay person gets sexually abused on a daily basis. This isn't Felice Stevens' first rapey rodeo either. I wish there had been a warning. I love Stevens' stories when they're good but not these overdone types she does sometimes. I am quite tired of these multitudes of writers who use rape as a go-to key plotline. Thirty minutes in and i didnt like eithet MC. Returning for my credit.

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