AUDIOBOOK REVIEW TOUR - PROS AND CONS 1 AND 2
Five men. Five chances for Redemption. One thing’s for sure, they’re no angels.
BOOK 1
Book Title: Pros and Cons of Vengeance
Author: A. E. Wasp
Publisher: Tantor
Narrator: Tor Thom and Alexandre Steele
Release Date: April 2019
Genre: M/M Romantic suspense/romantic comedy
Trope/s: Bodyguard. Leverage meets Charlie’s Angels but more gay
Themes: Vengeance
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 8 hours 54 minutes
It is a standalone story.
Blurb
There’s nothing like being blackmailed by a dead man to really bring a group of cons together. And what a group we are: a hacker, a thief, a con artist, a thug, and a Federal agent with an axe to grind. The deal is simple, we do the jobs and Charlie’s lawyer wipes the slate clean for each of us, one at a time.
Since job number one calls for some muscle, it looks like I’m up first. I’m Steele Alvarez, ex-Special Forces Close Protection Specialist (aka, a bodyguard for some not so nice guys).
After learning what the job is — taking down a seemingly untouchable senator with a penchant for beating up young male prostitutes — I’m in. No questions. A bullet ought to do the trick.
Then I met Senator Harlan’s latest victim: Breck Pfeiffer, the gorgeous hooker with a heart of gold and the soul of a fighter. One look at him and I’m gone. That kid laid me out harder than any punch ever did. I’ll do anything to protect Breck, even kill for him. But Breck doesn’t want the senator dead, he wants vengeance.
If we’re going to find a way to bring down the slimebag and get the blackest mark on my record erased, I’m going to need all the help I can get.
Like it or not, we’re all in this together.
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Karen's review:
It’s Charlie’s Angels meets Mission Impossible with a little touch of the A-team thrown in for good measure…
and it’s all done in a very sexy and humorous way…
‘Pros and Cons of Vengeance’ was very reminiscent of shows/movies that were not only a part of my youth, but shows/movies that I loved to watch. While ‘Charlie’s Angels’ was the first of these shows to come to mind for me and for what I think is very obvious reasons…first we have the mysterious Charlie and while this Charlie is dead we never did meet the original Charlie from television and then we have his ‘lawyer’ Miranda “Bosley” and a cast of 5 angels vs the three female angels that the television Charlie had.
It’s when we come to the angels that we start to deviate to other shows/movies…such as Mission Impossible or Oceans Eleven. Shows/movies where the team is comprised of men who each have their own unique talents and for the most part tend to walk on the wrong side of the law but ironically they also seem to have stronger moral fiber than many who claim to be on the right side of the law.
Regardless of any reflections of past shows/movies that these stories seemed to bring to mind for me the stories themselves were refreshingly original.
I was surprised to realize that “The Pros and Cons of Vengeance” my first time reading this author and happily it’s turned out to be a good time. Stories that contain a bit of romance, adventure and intrigue are among my favorites and always have been going all the way back to the days numerous shows/movies that this story engenders memories of.
Here in ‘Pros and Cons of Vengeance’ the author had a really big task to accomplish since it is the starting point for everything that comes after. The reader never actually meets the mysterious Charlie since everything begins with his funeral. This was seriously one ‘reading of the will’ that I would have loved to attend because basically it’s also a case of ‘blackmail from beyond the grave’ as it says in the blurb 5 jobs, 5 chances for redemption. Each man is given a mission and once he accomplishes it, Charlie’s lawyer Miranda Bosley will wipe the slate clean of whatever it is that Charlie has on them. So not only do we get the story/1st mission, we also get to meet a very ensemble cast of characters…there’s the 5 men in question and a group of supporting characters who will also recur in future stories.
‘Vengeance’ is the first mission and it’s assigned to ‘Steel’ Alvarez ex-Special Forces close protection specialist. His assignment, should he decide to accept…nothing too complicated, just take down a seemingly untouchable senator with a proclivity for abusing young male hookers. Needless to say, Steel’s all in on this one and that’s before he meets Breck Pfeiffer one of the senator’s most recent victims. However, Steel’s no fool he knows he can’t accomplish his mission without a little…ok maybe a lot of help from his ‘friends’?
‘The Pros and Cons of Vengeance’ for me was one of those stories that I could just sit back, relax and enjoy. There was action, intrigue, romance and laughs so may laughs and in the good way. The story was laced with a solid dose of humor and it was the kind that kept me smiling and laughing.
I won’t say that I’m fussy when it comes to comedy, but I feel like it’s one of those things that you either get or you don’t. I’ve read books or watched shows/movies that were suppose to be humorous and I haven’t even cracked a smile while everyone else is rolling on the floor and the opposites happened as well, for me it just comes down to you get it or you don’t. I got it…seriously or maybe not so seriously in this case I got it.
As well as a new to me author on this one, I got not one but two new to me narrators by the names of Alexandre Steele and Tor Thom. I have to admit not being familiar with either narrator I can’t say who voiced what throughout the course of the story but I can safely say that I enjoyed the narration in it’s entirety, which is a huge relief for more than one reason…one of course being that I had to listen to the story and thankfully because these two knew what they were doing, I don’t need to worry about getting anything wrong about who did what, that I did or didn’t like. I can just summarize with I enjoyed it all.
This story was simply delightful and add to that the fact that as I said back at the beginning for me it was very reminiscent of so many shows/movies from my youth shows/movies like Charlie’s Angels, Mission Impossible, Ocean’s Eleven with a touch of ‘A-Team’ and ‘The Avengers’ and no I don’t mean the Marvel Avengers. The thing about all of these shows that I loved was that they had a touch of everything in them…there was action, adventure, romance, mystery suspense and humor (sometimes more than others but there was usually at least a light touch of humor). It’s a good recipe for any story if it’s done right because really it offers a little bit of something for everyone if it’s done right and so far it seems like the author has found a good mix to create something that a lot of people should enjoy.
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An audio book for ‘The Pros and Cons of Vengeance’ was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
BOOK 2
Book Title: Pros and Cons of Deception
Author: A. E. Wasp
Publisher: Tantor
Narrator: Tor Thom and Alexandre Steele
Release Date: June 2019
Genre: M/M Romantic suspense/romantic comedy
Trope/s: Fake boyfriends. Leverage meets Charlie’s Angels but more gay
Themes: Justice
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 8 hours 13 minutes
It is a standalone story but it helps to read the first one.
Blurb
There's nothing like being blackmailed by a dead man to really bring a group of cons together. The deal is simple, we do the jobs and Charlie's lawyer wipes the slate clean for each of us, one at a time.
Job number two lands right in my lap. I'm Bond. Wesley Bond. (I can't resist saying it that way. Blame my dad, if you can find him.) You could call me a hacker. I redistribute wealth - moving it from rich slimebags to poorer but infinitely more deserving people - and make a tidy profit as I do. My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to bring down some modern-day slave traders.
With the life of the one person in this world I love on the line, I can't afford any screw-ups or distractions. Unfortunately, my biggest distraction is my biggest asset - Danny Monroe. Danny is a leftover complication from our first job. He's a smart, funny, gorgeous ex-prostitute, who can't seem to keep his clothes on. I can't seem to keep my mouth shut around him. But I need a fake boyfriend, and Danny is the only option.
We don't know who the bad guy is; we have no idea how to prove anything. If I'm going to do this, I'm going to need all the help I can get. Like it or not, we're all in this together.
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Karen's review:
Five jobs, five chances at redemption and this is job #2…
Deception’s the theme for this job and the man that Charlie thinks can pull it off is none other than…’Bond’…Wesley Bond. What can I say he couldn’t resist, and neither could I.
Wesley’s a computer specialist. Some might call him a ‘hacker’ who specializes in the redistribution of wealth…a modern-day Robin Hood if you like. I prefer computer specialist since computers are his weapon of choice for his undertakings whether its redistributing someone’s finances or gathering information. Give him a computer and he’ll give you results and he’s going to need them if he wants to be successful in his mission to take down modern day slave traders.
We’ve not only got everyone back on board for this mission, but the team is growing. Along with Steel Alvarez comes Breck the man he rescued and fell in love with, in the previous book and with Breck, comes his best friend and fellow victim from book #1 Danny Monroe.
Wesley’s assignment takes the team to a vacation resort on a tropical island and while for some it’s a working vacation for Wesley and Danny the sexy, funny, smart, gorgeous and did I mention sexy? ex-prostitute…if you want to know what else you missed then do your homework and go back and read/listen to the first book…now, where were we…oh…that’s right Wesley and Danny, they’re going undercover as…you guessed it lovers…let the fun begin.
Once again A. E. Wasp has created a story that’s filled with action, adventure, drama, intrigue, suspense, danger and more than a few laughs. As Wesley and Danny begin their pretense of being lovers…which, is really not a hardship for either man given the strength of their attraction to each other.
Considering the fact that Wesley is the ideal image of what Danny wants in a man…he’s smart, sexy and those baggy clothes that he hides under haven’t really done their job because Danny’s sure there is one sexy toned body underneath it all.
Now if Wesley could just keep from being so distracted by Danny and keep his feet out of his mouth whenever he talks maybe he could actually figure out how to let Danny know what he really thinks of him and how he really feels…then their relationship could be more than pretend.
While I enjoyed Wesley and Danny’s relationship follies. This time for me the real star was the mission and the hijinks that were involved. In both the previous story and this one the times when these men were working together and wearing their communication devices were hilarious no to mention that this time around with the exception of Wesley and Danny the men were cast into ‘jobs’ that…well, let’s just say their qualifications were dubious at best and circumstances more often than not were entertaining awkward…between the scantily dressed bartender, militarized daycare and what sounded like a bathroom mishap worthy of Abbott & Costello with some interesting B&E on the side…well, things were entertainingly dicey at times.
The real mystery for me so far is…who is Josy, really? Because I’m pretty sure she’s not just a housekeeper/cook/den mother for these men and then there’s the question of Leo’s phone friend…’you can call me Al’, ok…but Al, I’mma just wondering what’s your real name?
Once again, the narrators were Alexandre Steele and Tor Thom and once again, I was delighted with the audio performance of this story. I’m looking forward to the next adventure in this series and I have zero doubt that I’ll be holding out for the audio book. After listening to the first two books on audio, I truthfully can’t imagine that I’d enjoy reading these stories nearly as much as I enjoy having them read to me.
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An audio book for ‘The Pros and Cons of Deception’ was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author
A dreamer and an idealist, Amy writes about people finding connection in a world that can seem lonely and magic in a world that can seem all too mundane. She invites readers into her characters’ lives and worlds when they are their most vulnerable, their most human, living with the same hopes and fears we all have. An avid traveler who has lived in big cities and small towns in four different continents, Amy has found that time and distance are no barriers to love. She invites her readers to reach out and share how her characters have touched their lives or how the found families they have gathered around them have shaped their worlds.
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