Face-Off at the Altar

Assassins, Book 9

By: Toni Aleo

Narrated by: Jillian Macie

Markus Reeves is sucking. Big-time.

Toiling away on a minor-league hockey team hundreds of miles away from home, he's watching his dreams of an NHL career fade away. Add in the lingering guilt he has over the dramatic demise of his relationship with college girlfriend, Mekena, and he's a mess on and off the ice.

But the family of his heart, the Sinclairs, won't let Markus suffer any longer. When he arrives himself back in Nashville for a trial run on the Assassins, it feels like his life may be making a turn for the better. If only he could get Mekena to forgive him....

Mekena Preston has been hurting since fleeing Nashville following the horror of Markus's betrayal with her sister. Now a professional photographer, Mekena finds herself in the same place at the same time with Markus to celebrate Lucy and Benji Paxton's wedding. Neither of them has been able to move on-and they're starting to wonder if they really want to.

They're headed for a face-off at the altar unless they can confront their past and unearth the truth about what really happened on that fateful night.

©2016 Toni Aleo (P)2017 Tantor

I don't know about this one...

This story was my least favorite of the series so far. The storyline was slow and I just could not get into it. I enjoyed the wedding more than the storyline about Marcus and ??... I can't even remember her name.

good but not great

I was excited to read about Markus' story but I feel let down in this book. Seems like a lot of random things got brought up and got glossed over when they should have been fleshed out more. Especially when other things were over detailed. I also think there should have been a warning in the beginning of the book for the sexual assault due to being drugged. I didnt like how Toni also didnt go more into that, such as his recovery and dealing with it. She seemed like she just brushed it off like it was nothing.

Good book!

Good book! This story was so good. I am so glad that they were able to find their way back together.

Finally, Marcus' story!

Marcus was introduced in book two of the Bellevue Bullies series, Clipped by Love. He's a character that will quickly capture your heart. He's a good person and stands by those he loves. After listening to Hooked by Love, I was astounded that the fourth book in the Bullies series wasn't his. I couldn't believe that Toni Aleo wouldn't write Marcus' story after the role he played in books two and three of the Bullies series. I was thrilled when I found his story as a part of the Assassins series. I had high hopes for the story and Aleo didn't let me down!

New narrator...awful performance

I have listened to most of the books in this series. All the previous books were performed by the same narrator, Lucy Malone. Almost from the beginning I was disappointed in this narrator. I get that this is a different performer but the voices and intonation are nothing like the previous versions. And believe me, this narrator should not perform male roles. She makes big, bad professional hockey players sound like they are members of the Chipmunks. The whispering is annoying as crap...evidently it is supposed to indicate flashbacks but it’s awful. But the parts that take the cake for me were the long pauses for no reason, making me think my app had stopped working and the mispronunciation of a player’s name. Did the author not listen to this to review it? Did the narrator not listen to previous versions? For all the previous books the Titov brothers have been pronounced Tee-tove. Now suddenly it is Erik Tit-of?! Every time she said it I lost my mind. (Yes, readers of series get a little invested!)

In the short term the author benefits as I had to buy the book to finish it as I couldn’t listen any more. In the long term the author loses out as I won’t buy any more audio books as this narrator has the next three books and I’m disappointed that the author doesn’t seem invested in the quality of her product so I may not purchase further ebooks either.

disappointed

No where near as good as the rest of the series. I was ready for the end!

Ehhhh

What happened to the old narrator? And the story could have had a bit more depth.

Face-Off at the Altar

I don’t want to sound like a broken record. But this series and all the “bad” situation is finally getting to me. I started re-listening because I wanted to catch up on the new books I hadn’t listened to yet.

The stories itself don’t need all the extra drama take this book for example it could have been a beautiful second chance love between Markus and Mekena but the author added all this extra bad stuff. Now if we had just the one thing that tore them apart ok. But then it escalated to the point it was unbelievable, and I almost stopped listening.

I am going to give this series one more chance before I see if maybe my own personal tastes have just changed.

I do love that the narrator changed!!! Jillian Macie did a much better job and sounded like the age of these characters. SO happy about that.