Marked Steel

Steel Crew, Book 8

De: MJ Fields

Narrado por: Troy Duran, Carolyn Eve

This is a story about two broken hearts—one danced in dark and one in light—who were both marked by tragedy yet found love, and together, they created a beautiful life.

Tris: When a spring flower blooms too early, it often wilts while others blossom during their proper season. That's me in a nutshell, and what eventually landed me in the nuthouse.

Through necessity, I found a new passion, one that helps mask the darkness by thrusting me into the spotlight. Each show is a session, ending in a kiss meant for revenge. He broke me, and I will make sure I do the same to him.

Matteo: Wealth is the very thing most people desire above all else, except those who have it and know the truth in its empty pleasures. Love, the ultimate luxury, is the one thing that even the wealthy cannot afford. I lived without it all of my life, and when I found love, I could no longer live with it.

On my journey from then until now, I have accepted my fate and found solace in molding beautiful things that others can love. I am a broken man, but I'll make sure all I leave behind is whole.

Contains mature themes.

©2021 MJ Fields (P)2022 Tantor

Cutesy

this was a good read. I waited a little long to get back to the series but enjoyed it. Still trying to wrap my head around this age gap thing in the stories. Sometimes it feels like it’s grooming because some of the characters are so young hooking up with older men or women. but all in all it is a good rate.

Well..

Maybe it’s because it’s been so long since I listened to the last Steel story, maybe it’s because I was confused at first because technically this story should have come before Bree and Ranger’s story.. or maybe it was Tris’ constant whining that just got to be so annoying.. I don’t know this book had me ready to put it down so many times. Maybe I should have gone back and listened to some of the previous books but I feel like I remember them pretty well and this one just fell on the side of confusing and annoying for me.. I LOVE Troy Duran, and Mateo’s character was great. But they were both up and down left and right and maybe that’s how it was supposed to feel due to Tris’ mental illness which we learned in Bree’s story is bipolar disorder.. maybe that was exactly the point- to put the reader right into the middle of the emotional chaos that can be a part of untreated mental illness.. if that’s the case then the writer was spot freaking on. As for me? Didn’t love it.. the Steel family is great I’ve loved all the books so far- this one just didn’t do it for me at all.. except for Troy’s voice- he always does it for me- only reason I finished the book..

Mental Health Awareness Agenda ≠ Enjoyable Quality Romance.

I felt a little sick when Matteo described his encounters with Carlos. *shudder* It sounded so predatory. I’m so disappointed that the premise of this book had so much potential, but just fell short. I hated all the mental health drama and the mushy woo-woo junk. (For instance, Matteo and Tris illustrate 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘺'𝘴 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘖𝘶𝘵 and their having painted the picture together was supposed to have made such an emotional impact, but it was a bit silly—especially considering Matteo is a famous sculptor). There was so much drama, but so little actually happening to move the story along—it was like being a trapped fly on the wall during hours of some immature teenager’s therapy appointments. Tris is such a drama queen—I’ve seen mental illnesses, and this was a bit much, despite the “awareness” attempts. It was a total teen tantrum snooze fest. Whine, whine, whine. Troy Duran did a superb job, as always. I think Zachery Webber would have been a wonderful choice for Matteo’s calm demeanor, though. Carolyn Eve did OK, but I think it still could have been better. I nearly DNF, but stuck it out. It was torture until the very end. It was out of order, much lower quality than most of the previous books, and it really seemed like an afterthought on the author’s part.