My Review:
Overall: 3.5
Performance: 3.0
Story: 3.75
I need to state right up front that I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I hadn’t listened to it in audiobook format. Sometimes the dialogue could get a little cheesy and that always sounds worse when listening to an audiobook than it does silently reading it. Also, Maxim’s Russian accent sounded very different between the two narrators and that was extremely hard to deal with on the audiobook. I think both narrators did a fine job with the accent…it just sounded so different. I think this is a case where a single narrator would have been better (and I never feel like that). And one more thing…Maxim was supposed to be 24, but the narration made him sound so much older. I don’t know if it was the narration or the inflections or what? But I never could get his character grounded in my head as someone younger than Derek.
So, yeah…all the way around, I think this book would have been more enjoyable to me if I had simply read it rather than listening to it.
Because the story was pretty good. I just never seemed to sink into it well or the characters as much as I like. The premise was interesting. I liked Maxim’s reason for coming here, even if a few things felt a bit far-fetched. The whole setup of how he needs so much help was very well done, and I could totally see a theft happening like that especially after an overseas flight where you’re simply not functioning anymore because of pure exhaustion.
And I liked the build up of tension between the two guys. It was really well done. So, a bit of a mixed bag review, but it boils down to…if the book interests you, I’d recommend you read it outright and skip the audio.