Narrated by Lucy Rivers
As a lover of both contemporary New Adult romances and romantic suspense novels, I just had to listen to Carter Reed based on its description. Unfortunately, while the story for the most part met my expectations, the promising beginning left me generally underwhelmed with its predictable plot and extremely tame love scenes. Lucy River’s narration is a plus though, and she does a great job of bringing to life the large cast of characters.
Emma has experienced more than her fair share of tragedy, having both lost her parents and watched the brutal killing of her older brother, AJ, at the hands of the mob when she was just a child. But she is a survivor and found a way to escape unnoticed that day by listening to AJ’s advice.
Ten years later, Emma faces a new tragedy when she comes home and finds her best friend and roommate being brutally raped by her boyfriend, a man who also has ties to the mob. She makes a split second decision that changes her life forever, and shoots and kills him even though she knows such an action will practically seal her death sentence. Then she remembers another nugget of advice that AJ imparted on her before he left her all those years ago: if she ever needs protection, go to Carter Reed.
She hasn’t seen him in over a decade, but when Emma realizes she has run out of all other options, she seeks out Carter hoping he will remember and choose to help rather than hurt her. As AJ’s best friend, Carter practically grew up with her. After her brother’s death, however, he transformed himself into a killer when he joined a rival mob family to avenge AJ’s death, disappearing from her life. With his “nothing to lose” attitude and unending drive, he quickly rose to the top of his mob family’s leadership, and has become a very powerful man with a vast empire of wealth.
Carter does remember her and, shortly after reuniting, old feelings surface and new passions come alive. Carter, being the alpha hero that he is, quickly convinces Emma that he can protect her only if she leaves her old world and joins him in his. Although deeply attracted to him, Emma worries about the safety of her friends she has to leave behind.
This was my first experience with Lucy Rivers, and I truly enjoyed her rendition of this title. Ms. Rivers adeptly produces believable voices for both males and females. Additionally, she finds a way to impart differing intonations even amongst those of the same gender, making it easy for me to distinguish each of the many characters. Ms. Rivers clearly communicates emotions and modifies the speed of her delivery to appropriately convey the particular theme of the scene being recreated. In summary, Ms. Rivers delivers an above average performance of all of the critical elements of a romance audiobook narration. I will no doubt be looking for more of her works in the future.
As for the story, I also generally enjoyed that as well, even if I did wish that it had a less predictable and steamier path to its ending.
BJ
Narration: B+
Book Content: B-
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Fighting & Domestic Violence (including a pretty graphically described rape scene)
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Carter Reed was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.