Bane's Choice

Vampire Motorcycle Club, Book 1

By: Alyssa Day

Narrated by: Teddy Hamilton, Laurie West

Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Sons of Anarchy meets True Blood in this sexy series from New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Day.

Bane lost his humanity ages ago. Nothing is more important than protecting his Vampire Motorcycle Club from the death magic invading his territory. The most ancient of vampires, he seeks cold, unfeeling, bloody vengeance...until a frustratingly sexy human doctor is thrust into his path. She tempts Bane to distraction. And distraction is deadly in his world.

Buttoned-up and meticulous Dr. Ryan St. Cloud never thought she’d find herself in the mix of a motorcycle club, let alone one full of terrifyingly badass vampires. Or how intrigued she is by their dark and enigmatic leader, who seems balanced on the knife’s edge of killing her...or claiming her.

But Bane’s choice is harder than it seems, because when that danger hits too close to home, he’s forced to choose between her life and everyone else’s....

©2020 Alesia Holliday. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Narrators Teddy Hamilton and Laurie West enliven this first book in a vampire motorcycle series.… Both Hamilton and West bring subtle menace to their portrayals of Bane - listeners will wonder if he is going to kill Ryan or kiss her.… With the banter between Bane and Ryan increasing in intensity, the story takes listeners on a wild ride."
--AudioFile Magazine

redhat queen

Excellent book. This book was so exciting I couldn’t stop listening to it. I loved Bane and Ryan. Ryan was so funny. This book was a great paranormal romance story. The narrators were fantastic. They put a lot of passion in there reading of this story. I will definitely refer this book to my friends.

A Lot of Supernatural Beings

it took a little bit to get into this book but I stayed with it and it got more interesting. A surprise about 3/4 of the way through. I will read the next book.

not finished yet but must warn people

the story is good, Teddy is always wonderful BUT Laurie sounds like an old man when talking in a male voice, it is soo bad it takes away from the listening experience. if Narration is important to you i would skip this only because of this.

Good Start to a New Series

The narrators did a good job but as a head's up - rather than Oliver as Hunter or Mia as Alice through the entire book it went by who's point of view started the chapter. The hero Bane is 300+ years old and used to being in command and very protective his family but it still seemed a bit much to me (but by the end Bane is completely devoted to Ryan which I liked). Ryan as a heroine was okay and some of the interactions between them were pretty funny so it was a nice read.

Definitely check it out

A great start to a series. I love the mix of PNR and motorcycle club genres, it makes for some very bada$$ alphas.

A must listen!!

This is the first book in the series and I'm glad I gave it a chance. It is packed with drama, a snarky doctor, a playful hellhound, and so much steam. I can't wait for book two!

A good start . . .

But needs major editing or a writer’s group or something. The main characters did not act consistently, as if the author didn’t really understand them. The secondary characters were better. Funny parts, and I think if this were a first draft it could turn into something great, but it’s just not there.

”Bram Stoker is a vampire?”

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💚
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌏
Character development: 🤓😉
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The Hero: Bane - he is a 300-year-old vampire and is the president of a vampire biker gang. His territory is in Savannah, Georgia and warlocks have been encroaching on his territory, binding humans to them via blood magic and killing even more. He had claimed his territory from warlocks long ago and fought a war with them, coming out the winner. He wouldn’t let them return, though he didn’t understand why they kept trying. He had already beat two other groups of warlocks in the last few years.

The heroine: Ryan - she is a human and a doctor. When men in a motorcycle gang enter the room of one of her burn victims, she is enraged that they are putting him at risk since they are not sterile. She stands up to the leader of the men and he tells her he is coming for her before he disappears with her patient. She doesn’t know it yet, but she is resistant to his compulsion which is something that never happened to Bane before.

The Story: Warlocks are dangerous to vampires due to their blood magic. Humans that are bound to warlocks are nearly as indestructible as vampires. So it was of utmost importance that Bane and his MC deal with the group of warlocks that are trying to move in on their territory. This group has more power than any Bane had felt before, they are led by a master necromancer named Constantine. Though Bane has magic as well.

The story didn’t seem to be that bad, but I found myself getting bored of it fairly early on. I am not sure if it was because of the mood I was in, or if it was the writing. Sometimes when you are in a mood, you just can’t get ‘in’ to a story and that was my problem with this book, though I just couldn’t pinpoint any specific thing that was wrong. Though I didn’t think the vampire seemed as bad as he was made out to be and the heroine was a bit bland. There were also many pop culture references that seemed a bit silly at times…

“Usually only predictors are shifters, like Wolves, Lions and Tigers and Bears.”
“Oh my”.

The audiobook was told in multiple points of view via dual narration. It was narrated by Teddy Hamilton and Laurie West. Teddy Hamilton is one of my favorite narrators, he has a great voice and shows a lot of emotion through his narration. I don’t know that I have heard Laurie West before, but she has a good voice for the female characters, but definitely has a frog in her throat when she does the male characters. It was absolutely horrible.

Absolutely Awestruck

I really enjoyed this audio book. The narrators did an amazing job bringing the book to life. Super awesome job and amazing book. I highly recommend.

had potential but didn't quite do it for me

(Bane & Ryan): female narrator does a terrible job on male characters, especially the voice of Bane. She sounds like she's talking into a fan or trying to fake a sore throat. It's like nails on a chalkboard. I liked the concept of the book and once you weed out all of the unnecessary parts of the story, which there's a lot of, it is actually pretty good. For me, there were too many POV's which distract too much from the main characters. I understand trying to build the plot but it felt like each POV was not only part of this book but also separate stories themselves. This is a slow burn, I mean really slow. For a book that is narrated in 11 hours, it takes a while before we come to the, ehm, climax… to be technical. 🤷🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️. Bane and Ryan have a definite chemistry but there's no real build up of a relationship with the two of them because something is happening or another character with a POV in the story interrupts the flow.