Inked

De: Gladys Cross

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Inked is an opposites attract romance with a dirty-talking tattoo artist, a curvy girl trying to outrun her past, and a stalker in the shadows.

EMILY ROSE
He’ll never stop looking for me.
That’s why I can’t afford to be tempted by a tattoo artist.
He wants to help me, but no one can.
The last person who tried woke up in the hospital.
I’ve accepted that there are no winners in this twisted game.
Only those who make it out alive.

CHARLIE
Miss prim and proper makes me want to break my number one rule.
Always keep things casual.
Only I can't seem to forget about her or the scar I inked over.
We both know she’s in trouble, but I’m nobody’s knight in shining armor.
Emily’s not the only one haunted by her past.
The only difference is I’ve already laid my demons to rest.
But maybe I’ll stick around and kill one more.
For her.

Readers are strongly advised to read the TW inside. Standalone romance with HEA and no OW drama or cliffhangers.

Distracting voice

The voice was fine at first until you realize it sounds like a computer reading it. (which it is) It sounds glitchy and there are no inflections just the same tone throughout everything. The story itself was decent, but there were sometimes I felt that they could have used some flourished words instead of just the same penny words. all in all I made It through the story, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I Could have.

Loved the characters relationship development

it was a great book, i loved it I thought it was very well written and the storyline was exciting

Narration

I wish it wasn’t narrated by an artificial voice. Often times during the story it did affect the feel of the plot bc I would have to decipher how things were supposed to be said. But the story and plot were great! Loved the book!

Different

At first, I was fine with the AI narrator. The emotions would get high and conversation faster, then it would just get confusing to me. The narrator has no emotion so it’s like your brain is fighting the input it’s given. Plus, it starts to get difficult to know if it’s her talking or him. I think the story would have been better if I wasn’t trying to catch up via clues in wording versus tone or inflection that’s missing.

AI no feeling

AI reading of novel did not like. there was no feeling like when a live person reads the novel

Great book! Just wished the audio was done by a real person

If the book was read by a real person- read with emotion it would be a 10/10!

Aside from the pet peeve and the the fact that our main character kind of sounds like a child, I loved it!

Let us Begin ✏️

Overall Plot Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ -
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ - -
Execution of Spice: ⭐⭐⭐ - -

Tropes/Triggers: violence, murder, death, profanity, reference to prior domestic abuse, including body shaming, crime and morally great characters, tattoos / piercings, explicit sex scenes including but not limited to: car sex, reverse cowgirl.

Format I read: Audiobook 🎧
Audio version: virtual voice narration/ai reading
Narrators and performance:
As far as AI readers go, this one wasn't horrible. If you just heard a few sentences out of context, you wouldn't have even been able to tell that it was AI. However, there was absolutely no difference between the different characters voices. Which made it a little harder to follow conversations when there were multiple people talking. Overall, not a deal breaker. I still finish the book, and I still enjoyed it. But I feel like the enjoyment was less than it would have been had we had real people reading the story.

1st person POV
The POV splits between Emily Rose's and Charlie's point of view

Pros of the Story 👍
- it's a cute little small town romance. Between a girl who was once in an abused relationship. And a jaded tattoo artist who grew up watching his father beat his mother.
- the story isn't too fast-paced, which you get with a lot of the spicy stories. You feel like the author just wants to rush to the sex scenes, but this one held out and was more of a slow burn. Which I absolutely love.
- right from the get-go, I absolutely loved Charlie's character. His crass way of talking and his utter bluntness, is exactly what I want in my book boyfriends lol

Cons of the Story 👎
- the author fell prey to one of my biggest pet peeves. She uses "shake" for both nodding and shaking their head no. I absolutely hate that. When someone nods their head that means they're saying "yes"! And when someone shakes their head that means they're saying "no". You do not shake your head in an up and down motion! When you shake it's side to side you cannot shake your head yes! Our author says the bgs like: "he shook his head yes."
NO!!!!
I absolutely hate that. With a passion! I cannot stress this enough. For that specific reason, the overall story lost a star because I feel as an author you should know the base definition of the words you're using. Other than that it was great! :-)

In summary 📝

8/10 would recommend. I feel like this is a nice little spicy story that has you really rooting for our main characters, Emily Rose and Charlie.

Strong, horrible narration

I’m sure it would be a fantastic book if I could follow along with the narrator. You can never tell if it’s from the man’s point of view or the woman’s point of view because nothing ever changes in tone and no indication that you’re going from one person to the next if I could give performance zero star, I would

the AI takes the passion out

story is ok the AI riuns it. a really voice actor is worth it