This starts off pretty much exactly like a ton of other books in this trope … so don’t expect any surprises or originality.

That said, I did like Talia, pretty much off the bat, so I hung in there. It’s very slow-paced and very cliché (typical, highly used mafia plot, unoriginal) until about 2 hours from the end, action finally starts to go down, and things heat up quite a bit. The action occurs in short spurts, and then it’s sorta slow-paced again, but it’s done well, as more is clearly just on the horizon, keeping me engaged.

By the time I got to the end, I was hooked. And after that wicked cliffhanger, I definitely will need to listen on to book 2—very well played on the part of the authors.

Overall: 3.5 stars.



Audio:
Overall not bad at all, but could’ve been better.
-It could be confusing at times, because both narrators pronounced the main a major character’s name inconsistently, sometimes saying Aris < as it sounds in an American accent, and one saying “Edd-es”. (I get it, I can’t roll my Rs and it sounds similar if I try to say it, however, one consistent pronunciation would’ve made it a lot more seamless to listen to.)
- Both have good voices and both more perform than read like robots, which is amazing. Dual cast that sounded like a full cast thanks to accents.
-However: each narrator works well individually. It seems like they did not work together at all. Whenever the male covered female dialogue, he made her sound like a petulant, weak little girl. It was absolutely awful and a striking conflict from how Sarah portrayed her, and how the authors designed her (as she’s actually wise beyond her years, grows up quickly after being forced to, strong and brave).