Pros & Cons of Vengeance

Pros & Cons, Book 1

By: A. E. Wasp

Narrated by: Alexandre Steele, Tor Thom

Five jobs. Five chances for redemption.

There's nothing like being blackmailed by a dead man to really bring a group of cons together. And what a group we are: a hacker, a thief, a con artist, a thug, and a Federal agent with an ax to grind.

The deal is simple: We do the jobs, and Charlie's lawyer wipes the slate clean for each of us, one at a time. Since job number one calls for some muscle, it looks like I'm up first. I'm Steele Alvarez, ex-Special Forces close protection specialist (aka, a bodyguard for some not-so-nice guys).

After learning what the job is - taking down a seemingly untouchable senator with a penchant for beating up young male prostitutes - I'm in. No questions. A bullet ought to do the trick. Then I met Senator Harlan's latest victim: Breck Pfeiffer, the gorgeous hooker with a heart of gold and the soul of a fighter. One look at him, and I'm gone. That kid laid me out harder than any punch ever did.

I'll do anything to protect Breck, even kill for him. But Breck doesn't want the senator dead, he wants vengeance. If we're going to find a way bring down the slimebag and get the blackest mark on my record erased, I'm going to need all the help I can get.

©2019 A. E. Wasp (P)2019 Tantor

Charlie's Angels

Charlie was not a nice man. He was a thief, a liar, and a cheat. He accumulated wealth through every illegal means possible, then died an early death. In his will, though, he’s still controlling those around him. Five men with questionable pasts are gathered to find out what Charlie had in mind when he called on them from the grave. Each man has committed some act that would surely send him up to prison, and here Charlie is, offering them a chance. Right five wrongs, and each of the five men will go free.

Now, why Charlie didn’t just grant them freedom is the big question, but I get the feeling Charlie’s up there (or down there) enjoying this game he’s set up. His lawyer Miranda is leading this band of merry men and she’ll wipe the slates clean – once the jobs are done.

First up? A senator with a penchant for beating young male prostitutes. These are barely legal boys who are in need of love and attention, not violence and degradation. They’ve chosen the life for various reasons, but none signed up for being the victim of one of the most powerful men in Washington.

Steele Alvarez is one of the men Charlie’s recruited. Once he learns about the senator’s predilections, he's quite happy to take the man down. The problem? Breck. The young man has been one of the senator’s victims and he’s out for vengeance. The college student isn’t exactly built for revenge, but he’s built for Steele.

Now, Steele has stuff from his past in the armed services that he’s not proud of. He did what he had to do in a bad situation, but it was far from legal and still hangs over him. Breck has recently chosen prostitution. He had good reasons for needing the money, but it still wasn’t the path he would have selected for himself. The two men together…they just fit. Breck can stand on his own, but Steele having his back means something. Steele can go it alone, but having someone to care about brings meaning to a life that once had none.

This book has plenty of action and intrigue. I liked the premise and enjoyed the execution. There are more books in the series and I can’t wait. As for the narration, I’m not always a fan of duo narration because if the solo narrator is competent, the book usually works. In this case, I’m good with how things were set up. Alexandre Steele and Tor Thom are great and they perform well together. Like I said, I can’t wait for the next book.

MMy Thoughts and Review

A story about a ragtag group of men who for one reason or another gave a professional blackmailer… ”professional information gatherer,” cause to gather information on each of them.

After the passing of the Pro Info-G, the men are told if they team up to finish a few of the dead man’s jobs they will each be given back the information gathered on them. **Someone pass that chick a thesaurus. She’s used the word “gather” more times than a gaggle of geese on an egg hunt…😂😂😂

While this had all the parts present to be a really good Ocean’s Eleven group type dynamically charged story, (think original with “The Rat Pack,”) it felt like part of the chemistry was off.

Some of that I think had to do with two narrators' voices not blending well with one another. One narrator had one of the MC’s voice’s kind of subtle and medium pitched and the other made him sound like he’d smoked three packs of Lucky Strikes a day since Kennedy was in office, even though the young man was barely twenty-two.

I actually read along with the book after a while when this particular MC’s POV/chapter would start.

Overall the story was okay, definitely worth a read if you like character groups, which are my favorite, where two characters become the main focus in each story.

The Story: 4.00⭐

The Narration: 3.00⭐

Overall: 3.50✨

Differences in narrating distracting

I like how they switched off narrators to illustrate change in POV from chapter to chapter, but the 2 guys made ZERO effort to voice the different characters in the same ways. It made it harder at times to figure out which peripheral character was speaking when or saying what.

Best story ever!

Imagine a gay version of the tv show Leverage. That’s what this is.
Four con artists and a Federal agent, blackmailed into cooperating from beyond the grave, come together to right wrongs. Their methods aren’t necessarily legal but they do get the job done. Along the way, they surprise themselves by developing a friendship of sorts, falling in love and illustrating that sometimes the only way to get justice is by thinking outside the box. Their journey is made more enjoyable with snarky banter accompanied by a healthy dose of demon confrontation and hopeful resolution.

The narration was really on point. Steele and Thom bring these men to life with easily differentiated voices and smooth flowing dialogue. Wonderful listen and I highly recommend!

CHANGE NARRATOR

Please match the narrators voice to the descriptions. The Pfeiffer twins are described as angelic. The narrator’s voice for them sounds like a 30 year smoker with a beer gut!!!!

Good start to a new series

Story: 4.5 stars
The story was intriguing, unique, well thought out, and brought together an interesting cast of characters that seem more like misfits and opposites than men who can work on a team. And we can't forget about Miranda or Josie. When we first really meet Steele he is trying to flirt with Ridge, only it's his identical twin brother he winds up falling for. I laughed at that, but Breck isn't going to make it easy for him.

The story focuses on revenge and retribution, on taking down the scum of the earth. I'm not going to sit here and tell you what happens or how it happens or if they succeed, but thoroughly enjoyed listening to this merry band of misfits come together for a common cause, to discover that they may have more in common than just a blackmail scheme. My only gripe is that the story was rushed in several parts. I think a few more things, while not so much needed to be flushed out, we needed to see certain things develop a little more. And no, I'm not against lust at first sight or instalove. I believe in it and have watched it happen in real life to a lot of family members. But sometimes it seemed like we were flying by the seat of our pants and on a rollercoaster flying down the hills and whipping around the turns. A little more time and development would have helped. 4 stars.

Narration: 3.5 stars
There were two narrators for this book, and I'm going to review each of them. Tor Thom & Alexandre Steele

Tor Thom has a deep, swoon-worthy voice that I think was perfect for Steel...and less perfect for everyone else. Carson has a British accent, and it was non-existent in the narration at the beginning. Breck and Ridge were given deep gravelly voices by Tor and then smooth tenors with Alexandre. I get they are two different narrators and they will do their character voices differently, but I would have liked to see a little more flow between the two voices. In addition, there was a lot of pauses that sounded like they were in the wrong place in the beginning. By the end, the flow was better, albeit the voices still needed some work.

Alexandre Steele has a smooth voice that seems to have a huge range. He did a variety of voices with ease and could shift from one character to the next. My issue with him was sometimes it seemed as if the emotions were all the same sounding. I wish there was a little more dynamic.

Maybe they are trying to figure out the characters and weren't sure of them in this book? I don't know. I can tell you that the narration is so much better in book 2. 3.5 stars for narration.

Overall: 4 stars
Good book with talented narrators. I don't mean to make it sound as if I didn't enjoy the audiobook, I did, and the more I got into it, the better it got. I highly recommend the book and give it an overall of 4 stars.

wow...the narration can really destroy it

the book was good but both narrators were awful. it really does destroy the entire experience for me.

Its OK

I really enjoyed this book until about the 3/4 mark. It just got so schmoopy and my suspension of disbelief was broken. I just couldn't buy into the whole concept anymore . I DID finish it - which is good because the author telescopes the whole series in just this book.
Maybe if the narrators were less intense I could have bought into it more. I think I'll read the next story in the series . Or maybe this one to see if my opinion changes . The both have pleasant enough voices but both read the story with a little more force than is really required for the simplicity of the plot and language . It's not REALLY a thriller because hardly any of the action happens on page. If you are a fan of insta-love then this is the book for you .