Requiem & Reverie

Sandman Duet Series 2

By: Keri Lake

Narrated by: Alexander Cendese, Lidia Dornet

It takes a killer to catch a killer.

And no one understands the motives of ruthless murderer The Sandman quite like Rhett Voss.

Having spent his childhood in the shadows of the deranged lunatic, he's become an expert on the topic. Killing is in his blood, and as a hitman for hire, Voss maintains a steady diet of carnage, himself. Except lately, it's lost its appeal. Until he's enticed to track down the clever Sandman who has his sights set on Nola Tensley.

The stunning single mom is a distraction Voss can't afford, but to catch his elusive kin, he needs to watch the next victim closely. Consequently, stalking her soon becomes a dangerous obsession, turning a friendly game of cat and mouse into more than he bargained for, when someone close to Nola goes missing.

Suddenly, it's no longer an old vendetta fueling Voss's need to hunt down his enemy, but new stakes that are sure to mean more bloodshed. Voss knows better than anyone, though: to draw a killer out of hiding, one must have the right bait.

And both of them want Nola.

Contains mature themes.

©2019 Keri Lake (P)2020 Tantor

Warning-Don’t Stay Up Until 4am Listening

First, an author who finally knows Chicago! Yay! I’m a native Chicagoan and I love how out of town people are like, ‘oh, don’t go to the south side’ and I’m like….um, that’s not the side you need to worry so much about.
Second, normally I’m not a big fan of this particular male narrator—at least not in romance novels. But he does a good job with the first book in this duet and an adequate job with this one. It goes off the rails a little bit with the narration but not enough to ruin it. So I think his milieu might be classified as “tough guy suspense”.
Third, what the flip is up with that ending? As you probably guessed from my title I did, indeed stay up until 4 listening to get to the happy ending. (It was a holiday the following day, it’s fine, I’m fine.) But I’m not fine! Because there is no happy ending! Spoiler alert: the reader comes to know something about the villain that the H & h aren’t privy to. So you know your beloved characters are going to spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders and they don’t need to…unless that wasn’t ACTUALLY the meaning of what I just heard and they DO need to spend the rest of their lives in fear. Either way, it was an excruciating thing to hear at scary bleary-eyed o’clock. Unless there’s a novella coming, I’m very upset. And I can’t tell that there are any plans for a follow up. So I’m upset.
And fourth, these books are well-written and I think I would still say they are worth it. So what a good author! Well done.

Incredibly satisfying

Wow...I would like to take this moment to give Alexander props for portraying a psychopath in a compelling way and to Keri for writing such an engaging story, and to Lidia for her portrayal of a mother who's been through too damn much. Ty Keri, you are an insta fave but please leave the cats and kittens alone :')
Warning for rape.

The Sandman chapters were something else!

To get into the mind of the Sandman, Keri Lake did such a great job. It was dark and unsettling.
Several chapters had my jaw on the floor! Slowly making the connections across both books was beautifully done.
I just don't think I can hear the word "nectar" anymore... 😅

Awesome!

Great story! This was such a wild ride and more than worth the credits. I cannot wait to read more from this author.

good conclusion

So, did I guess who the villain was? Yes! But I still felt like it could have been a few people up until the final reveal.

Overall, a quick series listen that was thrilling, sexy, and DARK.

What this book is giving:
✅ Dark Romance
✅ Dual POV +1
✅ Hitman
✅ Single Mother post-traumatic widowhood
✅ K!nk
✅ Serial Unaliver
✅ Traumatic Pasts

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5
🌶️🌶️🌶️+ / 5

Honestly a bit let down - vanilla

Great writing and details as always. Unfortunately this series fell flat for me. For a romance there was way to much focus on the kid. Also I deal absolutely cheated in the sex scene department! There was all this awesome hinting about the guys kink and what he liked and how wrong and dirty it was….then what!? Like one practically vanilla scene!!!?! The book just wasn’t set up in a way that his dark fantasy kink could be explored. Would have been very off putting for them to be getting it on extra dirty while her kid was missing..or around..or pretty much anywhere in the story! Thus my issue with single parent romances! Anyway…the way the story played out it seemed totally unnecessary to even mention the guy had a kink. It was almost like now that he met this chick he is somehow cured of his dark kinky desires?
Overall just a very unsatisfying romance if your looking for dark,sexy, kinky, taboo. But if you want to read about a mom freaking out about her kid and bills and guy drama and how she tamed some super dark kinky badass into a few sweet vanilla hook ups (somehow taking his fantasies from full bdsm dungeon with a girl in a cage to sweatpants pulled off one leg quick and tipsy couch sex),well this could be the book for you.
To be fair the serial killer character and details were very well done. My only other issue (and I’m probably only mentioning it because I’m feeling so disgruntled) was the make narrator. While he did an excellent job for the most part, his female voices were a bit painful to hear. A bit to breathy and fake girly- made them sound kind of stupid and overly feminine. It’s hard to put into words but the point is they weren’t great.
I wouldn’t recommend this duet. Skip these books and download literally any of her other works. Not sure why this series seemed so different from her other books. I strongly recommend Nocticadia or really any of her books. Besides this duet, they have all been fabulous and well worth the credits. Probably why this series is free…luckily for you I sat through it so you don’t have too! Skip this non sexy mom anxiety and go listen to something deliciously panty melting

Keri Lake is officially a favorite author for me

Book two closed out everything very nicely. I loved how for awhile it kept me guessing. I finished both books with in a day in a half. Keri Lake knows how to write a good MMC.

Great listen

,A huge fan of this author and I saw this and decided to give it a go, and I’m glad that I did. Great narration the entire series was excellent.