AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: “Control” by Mary Calmes & Cardeno C

ABOUT:

Vy Aleknos is the leader of a hawk shifter flock. Openly gay since he was a teen, Vy is proud and self-assured on the outside, while secretly worrying he’ll be forced to spend his life alone because two males can’t be mates. When bear shifter Robert Cimino appears in Vy’s small town, Vy realizes his concerns were unfounded — he has a male mate, and a sexy, dominant one to boot.

Robert is a bear shifter who refuses to shift. Immediately attracted to Vy, he deviates from his normal pattern and seeks more than a one off with the powerful, bristly hawk. But Robert’s affections are rooted in his human form, and when Vy discovers Robert doesn’t recognize him as his mate, he pulls away. If Robert wants to stay with Vy, he must convince a man deeply ruled by his animal instincts to give their relationship as humans a chance.

 

BOOK INFO:
Title: Control
Author: Mary Calmes, Cardeno C
Narrator: Greg Tremblay
Publisher Dreamspinner
Release Date: December 17, 2014
Purchase Links: Dreampsinner, Audible

REVIEW:

Well that was awkward.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just not made out for audiobooks. Or maybe, more specifically, I’m not made out for erotic audiobooks.

To start, this audiobook experience was only my 2^nd. My first, I quite enjoyed. It was more of a romantic suspense/mystery. This one, well, it’s Cardeno C and Mary Calmes. And all the sweet & smut that I enjoy from them in ebook didn’t work for me on audio. It was just…squeeeeeeky…to listen to the sex scenes and the endearments. I felt…uncomfortable.

The narrator, Greg Tremblay, wasn’t awful. But for me, it just felt like I was sitting in a local neighborhood one-man theater production…and I had a hard time enjoying the experience. (I see now the benefit of Amazon Whispersync and being able to switch back and forth from Kindle to Audible for books…)

Now, the story itself, I actually enjoyed. I don’t read many shifter books, but I’m starting to open up to them more and more. The couple in this story spent the majority of the time in their human form and I almost forgot I was reading about shifters. This shifter-lite version worked for a novice like me!

Ky (hawk shifter) and Robert (bear shifter) made for a fun opposites attract couple and I liked the bit of power play between them emotionally…and also the power play between their animal sides. I think if I had read this book rather than listened to it, I would have like Ky a lot better. The drawback to listening was that the voice the narrator used for Ky felt super whiney and I lost my patience at time.

What is true for both these authors is that they can write some good-time-smexy and there were scenes that were hot hot hot! And also some very endearing bits as well. I’d expect no less from this combo.

All in all, this was a great story from my go-to authors for great stories. Probably would have been 4+ stars for the ebook. But I’m going 3.5 to include the mediocre audio experience.