Chloe is doing amazing job

Nice story. Chloe Miller is an asset to the story doing an excellent job narrating. The way she does different voices allows to dive into the story and forget that it is narrated.

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DSB

The Winston Brothers march on, this time with Roscoe at the helm.
He was always there in the background, the youngest in the family, a teenager in his elder brothers' stories. But now there has been a six year jump in time, and yes Roscoe has grown up into a fine (that's fiiiiiiiiiiiiine) young man.
His carefully constructed life crashes to a halt when his former best friend Simone shows up in their home town.
We also get a sneak peek into what has been happening in brother Billy's life during the last six years, and a set up into how that will continue.

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Not my favourite, but worth a listen

I love Penny Reid books but this wasn’t as good as her others. I was on track to give it 3 stars but it really improved by the end so it bumped up to 3.5/4 stars.

Simone wasn’t really likeable until the last quarter of the story. I’ve given it a lot of thought since finishing it to try and put my finger on what was wrong with the book. I think it was that the narrator, Chloe Miller, wasn’t a good match for the character. Don’t get me wrong, Chloe is a good narrator and I’d happily listen to more of her, but she had far too much emotion and soft squidgy centre coming through in her voice to convincingly portray a character who is supposed to be logical and makes decisions based on facts. Because of this, Simone comes across as a heartless b***h who doesn’t feel enough for the hero, instead of a clueless brainiac who takes a while to process emotions (which is what Penny was going for I’m sure). By the end you felt what she felt, but the start was all wrong. I usually love Penny’s brainiac emotionally out of touch characters, but it really didn’t work here.

There wasn’t much description on what the characters looked like (hair length/style for example) so I felt like my imagination was stunted. It could have been weaved in seamlessly if it linked to physical interactions between the characters. I don’t need much description, but more than “she’s black with smallish boobs” and wearing a scarf round her hair when she sleeps presumably means natural hair (I may be wrong), but length? Style? Anything? Facial features? And with him I only figured there was a beard because of the title and reference to it towards the end.

As a side note, as a white British female, I found the references to the realities of growing up as a black person in America incredibly sad but poignant, and well balanced with the plot to share a message through a different medium which might resonate with a wide audience in a way that stimulates more reflection, discussion, action and social change. Let’s hope it does anyway. Often the topic of racism comes up after police shootings and the news reports which rightfully shine a spotlight on what is still happening, but there is so much to be done to change culture from the ground up in daily life with shaping people and their views before it ever escalates. Books like this can contribute to this in subtle ways. I’m glad I’ve grown up in a community where guns aren’t around and racism is shunned and not a daily fact of life - not to say it doesn’t happen, and there is still stigma and assumptions made based on looks, but the picture this book painted made me feel outraged. How can you judge a person based on the colour of their skin?!?! To judge a person based on appearance/background/money/other trait is far more telling of the person doing the judging, than the person being judged. And the people who are there to serve and protect being like that? So despicably wrong. Some people are such small minded pricks.

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1 person found this helpful

Sweet with a little suspense

Loved. Loved. Loved. My heart ached for Roscoe Winston and the love he had for Simone Payton, who I have to say, I did not like in the beginning. I thought she was hard faced and cruel, but, give it a few chapters and of course I warmed up to her. To be honest, she was clueless about life and love. Her job, she was brilliant at, a superb agent. Feelings, no clue. Roscoe however was completely in touch with his feelings, and his memories, he just wished he wasn’t. Struggling with a broken heart for so long takes its toll on a person. The Winston brothers, as ever, had me grinning to myself, I love these guys and it’s alway great checking in with them, I forgot how anal Cletus is. Roscoe though, just takes everything in his stride, apart from Simone that is. Daddy dearest also makes another appearance in this story and the Iron Order as I’ve grown to expect, stirs up some trouble. A wonderfully written story (as always from Ms Reid) with a number of unexpected twists and turns, sweet with a little suspense and wonderful characters. The audio version worked so well for me, Chris Brinkley and Chloe Miller were just as I imagined Roscoe and Simone to sound.

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Such a great series

This took me on a ride. Especially after reading Billy and Claire's book before this. My eyes bugged out several times. Especially since I wasnt expecting the time jumps and all the inside info. I was all in with this and after just rereading the entire series I already want to do it again.

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Not the best in the series

I don’t like giving negative reviews to an author who has given me so much enjoyment, but this book was a bit of a disappointment.

Roscoe had “ghosted” his best friend Simone, ten years previously, and now she was back in town working undercover for the FBI. Even now, having finished the book, I still feel I don’t really know Simone, or understand her. She was a confused mishmash of past book characters with frequent random and long-winded internal musings that did nothing to explain what had made her the person she was. Roscoe also spent a lot of time inside his own head, but his unique ability to recall detailed memories often made audio listening incomprehensible, as he flicked between present and past events.

This couple had zero chemistry: Roscoe was so hung up on Simone he was still a virgin, 10 years after they split up. This complete inability to “move on” did not add to his appeal. During this time Simone happily indulged in multiple “hook ups” because for some completely illogical reason she didn’t want a “relationship”. I did not find her particularly likeable, and was especially wierded out by the distasteful way she contemplated how best to “instruct” Roscoe in various sexual positions to ensure that he never failed to satisfy her.

There was a subplot about racism in the South which I thought was really good, and very enlightening. It has received some criticism but I feel that it really attempts to delve into the way that racism can have such an insidious effect on the decisions that someone makes. Unfortunately the FBI murder plotline was really weak and never really felt authentic

What I really missed in this book was Penny Reid’s wonderful sense of humour and her ability to bring real emotion to her characters. The last couple of books in this series have not been as good as the earlier ones and I suspect it must be difficult for an author such as Ms Reid to keep on bringing us the character “quirks” that make her books so unique (and often so brilliant), without repetition. She will always be a “must buy” for me, and I do think her books are so much better on audio, but I did not enjoy this one. I guess it must be difficult to be brilliant all the time!

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