Santino Hassell

This is in-your-face! but it works.

This is so sassy it's fantastic. I was totally in the grip of this writing - which is almost all dialogue - and Eric London and Alexander Cendese bring it to life. It's rarely the case but I wasn't entirely sure that they were well cast, as London was quieter than I expected as Bravo, and Cendese louder for Simeon. But their voices were so enjoyable it didn't matter.

Haven't heard of Santino Hassell and looked in my libraries for more, but that seems to be the only audiobook from him. Only thing I know about him was that he once wrote under the name of Sonny Hassell, and he has quite a lot of ebooks under his belt.… (mer)

No.
First, the Spanish was just plain annoying. Turns out there are translations in the back. As if I want to go back and forth all the time, even if I had known that. I looked up a few things in the beginning and then I just skipped it.
Second, Boyd was getting on my nerves. He was ok as a character in the first half of the first book. Then he became annoying. Sure, not his fault he was traumatised and has a weird psychopath for a mother. But my suspension of disbelief was starting to fray towards the end of the first book, and my sympathy went with it. Sin was right, he took charge and never listened, and on top of that he whines and acts irresponsibly out of jealousy.
Sin I still like as a character. At least he's competent, and he starts learning human interactions. But Boyd doesn't really add anything aside from being the lover interest.
Third, did I mention my suspension of disbelief? How much trauma and torture can you cram in one story? And what kind of idiot thinks you can get useful agents by exploiting their phobia and twisting them a little further? Let's try to drive them insane and then expect them to carry out high profile missions and make well-considered decisions. It's too stupid for words.
So, no.
It started out with promise, but it didn't follow through.… (mer)

RATING AND REVIEW REMOVED

The iniquitiy perpetrated in this book and everything that has come to light -thanks to persistence of a small bunch of readers-, has sullied this series irrevocably for me.

https://twitter.com/sweetsakuradoll/status/972031764766994432
target="_top">https://www.goodreads.com/user_status/show/164624031?comment=177504787#comment_1...
https://ingloriousbitches.wordpress.com/2018/03/04/crossing-lines/
https://twitter.com/i/moments/970716633017790464… (mer)

The greatest thing about this story, among several important things like cyber relationships, mental health, respecting boundaries and so on, is the unlikely pairing, and how well it works. The hurdles feel real, and I cried when Kai finally talked -- well, you'll probably know what point I cried for when you read it.

Connections happen in all kinds of weird ways, online is different only in that it really does enable more sharing through written words, appealing to a swath of humanity who in past times had much more limited and time-consuming options, if there were any options at all. We live in an explosion of new connections and it is about time we celebrated that.… (mer)