Friday Duel Review: Survival Instinct by Fiona Quinn

Survival Instinct by Fiona Quinn

Narrated by James Cavenaugh

Melinda: Something a little different for this Friday – we have our duel – I mean DUAL review of Fiona Quinn’s Survival Instinct. While it’s not the first dueling review in AudioGals’ history, it’s the first time these 2 intrepid reviewers have squared off. In this corner, Caz is still fuming that she wasted her time on this audiobook – and in the other corner is Kaetrin, who already wishlisted the next books in the series. And look at that DAWG!

And now, ladies and gents, we present:

Caz: In one of our recent Currently Playing chats, I mentioned that I’d just listened to Fiona Quinn’s Survival Instinct and what a disappointment it was. Kaetrin responded that she’d listened to it as well and had enjoyed it – and as life would be very boring if we all liked the same things, I suggested we expand my initial review to include her thoughts and comments, as her views might resonate with some listeners and mine with others. So here’s our first ever joint review! ~ Caz

Caz: I’m sorry if I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but Fiona Quinn’s Survival Instinct – book one in her Cerberus Tactical K9 series – turned out to be yet another in a sadly long line of romantic suspense stories that are neither romantic nor suspenseful. I’ve listened to and enjoyed a few books by this author, but basing my decision to pick this one upon past listens was a bad one in this instance, because after a strong start, it went rapidly downhill and never recovered.

Kaetrin: I’m laughing right now, Caz, because I really liked it! I thought it was suspenseful and romantic and I raced through the listen. It’s like we listened to different books! LOL

Caz: I get that. I mean, how often have you read something, gone to Goodreads and seen all the other 5 star/1 star reviews and thought that exact same thing?!

So, here we go. Like all the other Iniquus operatives, Harrison “Tripwire” Williams is ex-special forces – in this case a former SEAL. He’s been with the Cerberus K9 unit – the search and rescue arm of Iniquus – for a few years now, and works with Valor, a young, bright and enthusiastic German shepherd. When the story begins, Trip, together with other members of his unit are on a training exercise in West Virginia with members from international S&R teams, and today’s exercise will involve jumping from a plane with their dogs (yes – I had no idea that actually happened either!) There’s a lot of detail as to how this works, which was fine, as I was very curious as to the logistics of skydiving with a dog attached!

Anyway. Trip and Valor, his team leader Ridge and his K9 Zeus, and Pierre and Hugo from the Swiss team are preparing for their jump in weather conditions that seem to be deteriorating. The mission is still a go, but after Ridge and Zeus jump, a sudden gust sends the plane lurching and literally throws Pierre,Trip and their dogs out of the door. As the plane is buffeted before righting itself, Pierre is clipped by the wing and knocked unconscious, and Trip is his only hope of survival. 

That opening sequence is, I’m sorry to say, the most exciting thing in the entire book.

Kaetrin: Still laughing! The opening sequence was very exciting yes but I thought there were plenty of other suspenseful moments. Including when Trip and Valor were desperately searching for Dani in the blizzard.

I’m a big fan of dogs in romance (dogs in general actually) and I lapped up all the dog stuff. Some of it was a little over the top (puppy memory FTW!) but I loved the discussion of what motivates Valor and why she wasn’t cut out for a military K-9 role. I loved the way Trip and Valor communicated. I wasn’t bored by it at all. I’m a listener who will complain if there’s not enough dog in a romance with a dog on the cover, so I was all in on the dog stuff. Bring me all the dogs!

Caz: See… for me it was total doggie overload. I’ve enjoyed books featuring K9s and their handlers before (for instance, the hero in Melinda Leigh’s Bree Taggert series is a former K9 handler who now trains service dogs, and his dog gets a fair amount of on page time and often has an important role to play in the story.) I don’t dislike dogs (although I’m a cat person) but the “dog stuff” in this book was WAAAAY more than I wanted or needed to know and I strongly suspect that is partly why I started to get bored.

With the teams safely on the ground and in the light of the news of a dangerous weather system moving in, they’re told to stay put until it passes. Everyone is to be housed at the nearby Wild Mountain Lodge for the next few days – but even before they arrive, Cerebus is hired to locate a missing film crew who left the Lodge well before the news of the impending Bomb Cyclone came in.

On leave from her tour in Afghanistan, military veterinarian Major Dani Addams and her friend Tiana are making a trip in remembrance of their friend Lei Ming, who was very recently killed in action along with Dani’s dog, Daisy. At Lei Ming’s request, Dani and Tiana are going to make a kind of pilgrimage by walking the “paths of her childhood memories” and enjoying the mountains she’d so loved. But on their first afternoon at the Wild Mountain Lodge, Tiana pleads a migraine and sends Dani off on their first planned hike without her.

Kaetrin: I did think this development was a bit hinky – why not send Dani on the shorter hike if she was going alone? But it made sense in the end.

Caz: It was clear something was up – and that it was something serious. Given what they’d both been through with the loss of their friend etc. I was pretty sure from that point what that “something” was going to turn out to be.

Trip and Dani meet when Valor finds Dani in a hermit’s cave, where she has stopped to read some of Lei Ming’s poems. Trip and Valor are looking for the film crew, and after telling Dani about the worsening conditions, she agrees to return to the lodge and he goes on his way. But then Trip receives news from his team leader that they’ve had a phone call from Dani’s mother indicating that Dani may be suicidal, so he retraces his steps and, not finding her at the cave where they’d met, heads out on the trail to catch up with her.

Kaetrin: Dani was grieving and very sad about the loss of both her friend and her dog. She’d been “saving up” her grief and planned to let it out on the “pilgrimage” so even though I never thought Dani was suicidal I could see why someone may worry that she might be? If I squinted. It was a little thin there but there was information I didn’t know at the time which may have changed my view on that.

There were a few things toward the latter part of the story that didn’t work for me so well and given the short time frame most of the story takes place over I had genuine concerns it wasn’t going to end in a HEA. Some of the information Trip was given wasn’t shared with the listener until much later and there was a high degree of …somewhere between convenience and deus ex machina toward the end but up until then I was very entertained. 

I’d say it’s more of a romantic adventure story (as it focuses mainly on search and rescue) than romantic suspense but I found it full of action and tension. 

Caz: I don’t disagree with that categorisation – but I didn’t feel it had much action or tension, certainly not of the romantic variety. There’s barely enough plot here to fill a small paper bag, let alone an eight hour audiobook. There’s a lot of info-dumping, the narrative is overloaded with backstory and internal explanatory thoughts, and when we do get some dialogue between Trip and Dani it’s repetitive and inane. Other than their respective jobs and a tendency to moon over dogs, I got no sense of who these people were, and as for understanding what they saw in each other? Forget it. The story takes place over just a few hours, and by the end of it, they’re thinking about forever, but there’s no chemistry and no sense of connection between them, so the romance is a complete non-starter.

Kaetrin: Most of my quibbles with the story came near the end; the closed door sex scene was disappointing, particularly as the listener got all the build-up but not the finale. I don’t mind books where there’s no sex on page but I get a bit confused by stories which have some explicit content which stops just shy of actual penetration. I find it jarring. Fiona Quinn writes good foreplay so I don’t get why listeners don’t get to have the… er, climax of the scene too. (har).

Caz: I’ve come across that in the author’s work before. In my review of Open Secret I made a similar comment; the author doesn’t stop outside the bedroom door by any means – but she goes so far and then slams it in your face, and it feels REALLY odd. Do it, or don’t do it – but don’t leave the rest of us hanging!!

Kaetrin: On this we agree completely!

I’m happy to report that the main story ends in a hopeful HFN and then there’s a months-later epilogue which shows things have progressed quite a bit in their relationship so the book does have a HEA. My romance-loving heart forgives quite a bit if I can get my HEA. 

There was one thing missing though. I wanted to know Trip’s other dog got home safely from Afghanistan and they were reunited!

Caz: As to the narration… I’ve listened to James Cavenaugh a couple of times and have given him fairly high grades (a B and a B+), but I can’t go that high this time. He has a pleasant voice and although his pacing is a little on the slow side, it’s not horribly so. His female voices are good, and he does a reasonable job of differentiating between the overwhelmingly male cast, although sometimes the differences are so subtle, it’s not always possible to identify the characters aurally and I had to rely on dialogue tags. But overall, the performance lacks animation and colour; Mr. Cavenaugh injects some degree of expression into his voice, but it’s not enough to contradict my overall impression of a general lack of… “oomph!” for want of a better word. That said, I do think that perhaps the lack of plot, tension, romance, humour… just about anything to make the story even vaguely interesting meant he didn’t have much to work with.

Kaetrin: I’m not sure that I’d listened to James Cavenaugh before but I really enjoyed his performance here. Honestly Caz, my reaction to the book was basically the opposite of yours. It’s too funny! For me the story was tense and engaging and the narration enhanced that experience. I didn’t hear a monotone or lack of energy in the performance at all. I heard the connection between Dani and Trip in Mr. Cavenaugh’s voice. I do agree with you about a certain lack of vocal distinction between the male cast members though. 

Caz: This will come as no surprise, but I didn’t enjoy Survival Instinct and probably would have DNF’d if I hadn’t been listening for review. I don’t intend to continue with the series.

Kaetrin: Whereas I immediately went and bought the next ebook in the series (which happened to be on special for 99c it’s true) and I’ve wishlisted the third book on audio. And yes, I’m still laughing.

Melinda: It’s no spoiler that Caz and Kaetrin are still friends, and no dogs were harmed in the posting of this review. Let us know in the comments what you thought of Survival Instinct!

Caz and Kaetrin


Buy Survival Instinct by Fiona Quinn on Amazon

4 thoughts on “Friday Duel Review: Survival Instinct by Fiona Quinn

  1. I don’t really know if I would enjoy the book or not, but I enjoyed the hell out of this review! Thank you both! And thank you, Melinda, for your role as moderator (referee??) and for reassuring us that all’s well with the reviewers and with any real or fictional dogs involved. :-)

    I’m hoping for more “duel” reviews in the future!

    1. Hah! This really happened by accident although I’m definitely up for doing more if we can find something we disagree on!

  2. On a serious note, I want to comment on the fact that what does and doesn’t work for a reader is very personal and isn’t always easy to articulate. I really didn’t like the writing in a novel titled Archer’s Voice which has rave reviews. I thought the writing was simplistic and unpolished, but can’t figure out what I’m missing if so many enjoyed it.

    But, when something doesn’t work for one reader it’s not always a quality issue. I will never enjoy Gregory Ashe’s work not for the quality, which is high, but for the stress level, which is also high! :-)

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