Formerly straight characters are suddenly gay, characters develop super powers, or are overwritten to the point that they become obnoxious even if they were your favorite characters before. All of them seem to have the same flow - interesting setup, followed by another book or 2 of universe building that gets more and more interesting, followed by a moment of bliss for the characters, followed by character assassinations and convoluted story lines with too many characters to keep up with. I love M/M action adventure and mystery books, and this is now the third series I've read. I hate to say this, but my enjoyment ran dry with this one, and I'm out :( I would really love it if she could realistically fix the problem she created with Dex, but I don't see how that's possible this late in the game. She did exactly what Abigail Roux did with Cut & Run - she's made bad decisions with her characters, and in the process wrote herself into a corner that she can't get out of. She described this as a game changer, and it is, but that doesn't make it a positive one. This seems to be a general problem with M/M fiction readers once they become fans of a series. Her beta readers should have been honest with her, rather than gushed over everything she put out. I think she might be spending too much time getting feedback from only fanboys and fangirls. It's not romantic in the least, it makes the relationship unbalanced. owned - is creepy, and needy, and not at all what I'd expect from Dex.

Now, Dex is simply bionic, and he's lost pretty much everything that made him vulnerable in the first place. One of the things about Dex and Sloane was that they were so different, and Dex's human vulnerabilities made missions for him actually dangerous. The decision to make Dex half human was such a jump the shark moment. I think she's gone off the rails, and is the perfect example of what happens when a series goes on for too long. What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?ĭisappointment. He hasn't bothered me before, but I had to stop and re-start over multiple days because I could only handle his narration for 10 minutes, tops. The narration is so awful that it sounds like it's being read by a 1940's B-Movie villain. This is actually why I gave it such a bad review.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Mark Westfield? By going where she did with Dex, she's pretty much cut out the danger factor in his missions. This would have been more enjoyable had she not blatantly ripped of True Blood with the marked storyline. What could Charlie Cochet have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you? This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?Īnyone who is such a sucker for the series that they'll put up with any of its flaws

Smoke & Mirrors by Charlie Cochet