Narrated by Christine Leto
Wanton is the 2nd in the Dane Carter PI/Men to the Rescue Harlequin Blaze series. Blaze is Harlequin’s answer to not-quite-erotica – steamy, sizzling, hot – and with an accomplished author like Lori Foster, you are usually getting a pretty good story too. I think of them as being a sort of junk food approach to reading romance. The audiobooks are about the same – a rather short (about 6 hours) read with an ok but not great narrator.
Celia Carter wants to prove she’s got what it takes to work for her brother Dane as a PI, so she puts herself undercover to help stop young women from getting caught up in a prostitution ring. The book just jumps into the action without much in the way of backstory – she’s already there, trying to get the attention of the bad guys, when her brother’s partner Alec finds her. It’s a little silly that she has pretty much no idea how to be a PI, but Foster gives us enough attraction and heat between Alec and Celia to make you forget those pesky details. Alec carries the burden – and a tattoo – from a bad marriage, so he prefers to bed not wed the girls, but lo and behold, Celia is like no other woman. Yeah, it’s sort of predictable but it’s entertaining.
Narrator Christine Leto is ok – she’s good enough – she pronounces all the words correctly, and gives all the various characters different, discernible voices. She manages some pretty hot scene-reading without going overboard, without getting husky-voiced or trying to sound as if she is one of the characters. The book and the reading just weren’t that great of an experience. It may be that the story isn’t as good as some of the others in the series. While not bad, it left me a little unfulfilled. I liked the characters in the rest of the series, and in Wanton all we heard about were Celia and Alec and the bad guys until the very end. If you’re a Blaze/Foster fan, you might enjoy the next one in the series, Caught in the Act, with narrator Victor Bevine, who has a wonderful, deep, growly voice for the hero Mick. My ratings for the other audios in the series were the same as this one – just ok.
Melinda
Narration: C
Book Content: C
Steam Factor: For your burning ears only
Violence: None
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
