Narrated by Abby Craden and Sean Crisden
Hot alpha heroes abound in Axel, the first novel of the Corps Security series. I loved this second-chance-at-first-love romance with its fantastic emotion laden plot, and great setup to what promises to be an action-packed, sexy series about a private security operation run by ex-military men. As if that weren’t enough to make you go listen, the narration by Abby Craden and Sean Crisden superbly brings these dynamic, powerful characters to life, making this a great choice to listen to in audiobook format.
Isabelle “Izzy” West knows just how difficult love lost can be. As if that wasn’t enough, fate has also taught her what it’s like to be the victim of an abusive husband. Trapped in a disaster of a marriage for years that has sent her to the hospital on numerous occasions and broken nearly every bone in her body, she is just a shell of the spirited, independent woman, she used to be. Fortunately, the one area in which fate has smiled down at her is her especially close relationship with her best friend Dee. Of course her husband, Brandon, has tried his best to alienate Izzy from Dee and all other friends and family.
When a clandestine meeting with Dee unleashes the worst beating ever, Izzy barely escapes with her life. If it weren’t for Dee, and Dee’s friend Greg, coming to her rescue, that probably would have been the end of Izzy’s story. But with their help, Izzy slowly starts building a new life. Then, when Brandon refuses to sign the divorce papers and commences new threats, Greg, a member of the Corps Security firm, decides its time to call in the only man who he trusts to truly make Izzy’s problems go away, Holt Reid.
Little did Greg and Izzy know that Holt, is actually “Axel”, Izzy’s high school sweetheart, and the reason Izzy felt fate had damned her in the first place. Axel is none too happy to see Izzy either. After twelve years, however, he is determined to get answers, whether she wants to give them or not. Of course for a domestic abuse survivor, a tough, angry, alpha man causes all sorts of anxieties, which unleashes the wrath of a number of the other Corps Security members who have come to know and view Izzy as a friend and sister. Moreover, Axel can’t believe this is the independent, free-spirited woman he came to know and love in high school.
Despite the internal turmoil this causes, Axel is not a man to be denied; he is equally determined to ensure Izzy’s safety irrespective of the past. The more they spend time together, the more inescapable is the truth – that they still are as passionately attracted to one another as they once were. Could fate finally be turning in their favor? Or will the truths, lies, and danger seal their fate once and for all?
The narration is divided by chapter depending on whose point of view is being shared. Abby Craden narrates the chapters from Izzy’s perspective (which comprise the vast majority of the book) and Sean Crisden takes the chapters from Axel’s. This style works well with the layout of this story, providing for easy differentiation as to whose POV is being shared. Both narrators deliver a memorable performance.
Having previously listened and highly enjoyed prior books performed by Abby Craden, I knew the narration would be good. Well, I have to say that Ms. Craden’s performance went above and beyond even what I remembered. In particular, I’m always dazzled by narrators, like Ms. Craden, who can adeptly create distinguishable voices for books with a large number of characters. Whether female or male, her renditions all sound genuine to their gender and true to their personality traits. Her ability to communicate the emotions throughout this intense listen, truly heighten the overall effect of this already charged story.
Sean Crisden also is a talented narrator. He does a fantastic job with enacting the particular mood of the scene being enacted. And his sexy, baritone voice was perfect for this large cast of alpha heroes. Mr. Crisden is also able to vary his pitch sufficiently so as to render distinguishable male and female roles. As I’ve noted in prior reviews (see my AudioGals review of Fueled), however, Mr. Crisden’s natural voice is too deep to render believable female pitches. Fortunately, due to the division of the narrator parts, the female dialogue he performs is pretty limited, so I was, for the most part, able to ignore this effect.
All in all, I highly recommend Axel. I was so enthralled by this story and the talented narration that I binge listened to it over just two days. If you like high action filled, alpha hero driven story lines with intense passion to heat things up, then the Corps Security series promises to be satisfying listen. I can’t wait to listen to this fantastic group of ex-military men continue to develop in Cage, Book 2 of the series, which features Greg’s story!
BJ
Narration: Abby Craden – A – Sean Crisden – B+
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: For your burning ears only
Violence: Domestic Violence
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Axel was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for review.
The book sounds intriguing now that I have read the review but I must say that the cover alone makes me want to turn away. Why does Tantor continue to hand us cover after cover with bare chested men – so many in fact that they feel the need to change it up a bit and offer something along these lines?! Can you imagine your hero posed like this? What is he doing? Asking you to check his nipple to make sure it looks okay? Geesh – romance listeners are smart women – not women panting to see a man’s nipple no matter how you serve it up.
Okay – rant over for now. I plan to write a feature on really bad covers one of these days (with examples) – this one will probably make it! HA!
LOL! I hadn’t really seen this cover. But now that you mention it, really what is the model doing?
Goodreads has the standard muscular guy with no shirt and tats cover (presumably from the e-book edition). Funny that you mention it, but yes covers can influence buys and not always in a good way. Nearly all the CR//NA covers are over the top these days though. So much so, that I now buy my Amazon books on my own account (got tired of my husband saying “really?”, every time I would buy one on the family account we share). Too bad. It really isn’t necessary to sell the books, and most times not even indicative of the character of the story. I guess the old adage is true. You can’t always judge a book by its cover. In this case, the story was fantastic, and definitely about much more than just a guy flaunting his assets.
I started reading on a Kindle as I was having a problem with harsh light and it helped a good deal. The side benefit? I no longer carried around all those romance paperbacks with embarrassing covers. And I don’t share my Audible/Amazon account with my husband for that exact reason!
LOL! Ah yes, the old paperback covers. But back when I used to read print, I mostly read HR. The swooning heroine and the muscular hero typically embracing on one of those HR books was embarrassing yes, but still much tamer than today’s CR/NA erotic covers. They are so over the top these days that I have to imagine that at least some have been banned.
Yep, I also got my own Audible account the last time I ran out of credits: )
Hah. You guys only have your MF books to worry about where husbands (and other passengers. friends, RELATIVES!) concerned. I love my gay MM romances so you can imagine how thankful I am for e-readers! If you think those het covers are problematic, take a look at the gay MM ones.
Wow, interesting Elaine. I hadn’t previously thought of the MM romance covers. Do you find that the racier the cover, the racier the title when it comes to MM? Strangely, as I alluded to above, it doesn’t always correlate in the MF world, so I wonder why publishers even bother. But I guess all it takes is a few extra sales to convince them to continue with the provocative covers, while the rest of us have to continue hiding our covers: ) Frankly for me it really doesn’t even factor in–my decision to read/listen is usually based on the blurb and my familiarity with the author/narrator.
Covers usually aren’t a factor for me either unless I encounter one that is really distasteful. Then it keeps me from looking further unless I am familiar with the author or narrator whose work I’m usually drawn to.
I agree on the heat level. Often the cover has nothing to do with the content – especially those Clinch covers.
Hi BJ,
MM titles suffer from the same problem as MF ones – often, one or both, of the MCs have no similarity to the actual character in the book. The cover may show a long-haired blonde but the character has short hair. Or one of the characters is much older but the covers show two men of similar age.
There’s a lot more MM covers now that are quite lovely and benign. Like Blue Days, by Mary Calmes or Return on Investment by Aleksandr Voinov (I don’t know if images can be posted so I haven’t tried). Then there are those like Elf Struck by Jenna Castile, or the menage Broken Pieces by Riley Hart. I would definitely NOT be seen reading a book with either cover.