Blade

Hell's Ankhor, Book 1

By: Aiden Bates, Ali Lyda

Narrated by: Andrew Morrison

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

An MC President and his enemy’s son make for an explosive combination....

Blade has a motorcycle club to run, and he doesn’t need a turf war on his hands. When a beautiful young man with haunted eyes walks into his bar, Blade’s protective instincts roar to the surface. The kid clearly isn’t made for MC life, but once Blade has had a taste, he can’t let go.

All MCs can burn in hell, as far as Logan is concerned. He’s seen the way his father runs his club, and he wants nothing to do with the life. But infiltrating Hell’s Ankhor is his one chance at escape, and now he’s in the crosshairs of the sexy as sin, President Blade. How can Logan resist the strong, protective man when he’s everything he’s ever wanted in a partner?

But Blade is still a big rough biker who will do anything to protect his club. What will he do when he finds out who Logan truly is? And how much destruction will Logan’s father cause when he finds his son in bed with the enemy?

©2019 Special Fiction Books (P)2021 Special Fiction Books

A Good Forbidden Love Story w/Disappointing Audio

Finding a temporary safe haven with Hell's Ankhor and in Blade's arms, Logan is wracked with guilt and fear that his identity as the son of the vicious rival motorcycle club's president will be discovered. Hell's Ankhor President Blade knows Logan's hiding something, which only heightens his protective instincts, but he can't deny the intense mutual attraction and deep feelings growing between them. It's a steamy and angsty forbidden-ish romance with threats of danger - physical and emotional - and is an intriguing start to this series.

Narrator Drew Morrison does a decent job here, with a good variety of character voices, but this audio book needed tighter editing. Numerous odd pronunciations and misspoken words, long pauses, and phrase repeats were distracting and, honestly, detracted from an otherwise good story. I received this free review copy audio book by request and have left this honest review voluntarily.

Sexy biker series

I've listened to this series out of order, so I was happy to go back and get Blade and Logan's back story. The story sets up the Hell's Ankhor club well and you get to know the main members. There is a little too much build up to the big reveal of Logan's identity, but the end is satisfying. The narration was not great. The narrator had a nice voice but he wasn't good at differentiating the characters and he mispronounced so many words, repeatedly. I'm glad he doesn't narrate the rest of the series. The narrators for the other books are much better.

Great story

Great story, love the biker storyline! However it had a very disappointing audio narration. I probably wouldn’t have purchased the audio if I had to do it again.

Excited for the rest of series..

So yes bunch of longer than needed pauses. And a few stutters. But to me story is good enough to keep me listing.

Really Enjoyable Story Despite Narration Issues

This is such a great story. The connection between Blade is Logan is palpable even through a narration that has some issues. At times the narration is great, and other times there are so many audio issues like long pauses that almost make you think the app stopped working and mispronounced words. In Chapter 13 there is even a random whistle at one point before repeating a line lol. But even through all that the story is great. There’s a lot of action, heart, and at points in the story I even cried. I do think Logan was way too nice and forgiving towards his brother through everything that happened but maybe he’ll show up in later books proving me wrong. There was also a lot of heat in the love scenes between Logan and Blade which I liked, as well as when they were being cute and domestic. Also really loved the secondary characters, especially Priest and Raven but didn’t really enjoy that their story basically ended a chapter early and the last chapter was suddenly Raven’s POV. I don’t really like when books do that. I get it’s a series but I prefer a fluffy prologue at the end of the drama, even if you know there will be more drama coming in the series. I give it a 4/5 overall even with the narration issues.

bad bad BAD narration

not only was there background noise in the narration but the random pauses mid-sentence, the repeating of lines and long pauses between sentences and chapters made listening unbearable!
I probably would've given the book better ratings if I had read the book versus listening to it.

a great story that Seriously needs editing

This was very difficult to rate, because I absolutely love the story and his voice was wonderful, but there were so many issues with the recording that it threw me out of the story which made it very difficult to enjoy. I ended up finishing the book reading it because I got really frustrated. The first issue I noticed was that he pauses between every sentence for maybe a second or two. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's not how people really talk and sounds a lot longer when you're waiting for the next sentence. This was incredibly frustrating, but I counteracted it by speeding up the book to 1.35. This was fine, not ideal, but I have enjoyed other audiobooks with the same problem this way just fine. If this was the only issue I would have rated it better, unfortunately there were plenty of other problems. Next was that occasionally he would stop and repeat a sentence, going back when he didn't like the way something sounded or messed up. This is normal when recording, but should be edited out before selling it as a finished product. I mean one or two times in the whole book isn't a big deal, and even some of my favorite narrators miss something occasionally, but I only got halfway through the book and he had already done it five times which seemed a little excessive. Then there were the mispronounced or altogether incorrect words or names. You know by context clues what he's supposed to be saying, and if you follow along in the book (The way I like to do if I have the time) You know he was supposed to be saying another name or a completely different word. This was just irritating because it threw me for a second making me puzzle out exactly what was supposed to be said versus what actually was said. It can be especially jarring when there's two sides of a debate and the wrong person speaks what's supposed to be a point for the other side if that makes sense. The final straw was him swallowing in the background. It's one of those sounds for me (kind of like chewing or smacking gum) that kind of turns my stomach. It wasn't subtle And after the 10th time he did it, I was done. I would be willing to give this audiobook another try and rate it better if someone goes back and edits these problems because it really is a great book and I really do like his voice, but I listen for pleasure, and so when it's more frustrating then enjoyable I'm not going to force myself to listen.

Good Listen, Great Story

I’m a huge fan of Ali Lyda’s Get Ink’d book series and so I had high hopes for this one and she did not disappoint. She’s writing with Aiden Bates for this series and they are gold together.

Blade is a Motorcycle Club President and Logan is a nurse and the rival MC President’s son, which Blade doesn’t know. Logan’s car breaks down on his way out of town and away from his father right in the middle of Blade’s territory. They slowly become more.

I liked the slow build on their relationship. I also liked the dynamics they had as a couple in the MC. This was my first MC book so I had no idea what I was getting involved with, but I’m hooked. I will be moving into the next one in the series.

Andrew Morrison is a new narrator to me, but I enjoyed him. Good listen.


*Listener Note: I received a free copy of this audiobook through Gay Romance Reviews (GRR) and this is my honest review.

Blade and Logan

Blade is the new President of Hell's Ankhor, when a stranger comes to the bar to wait to get his car fixed, battered and bruised, Blade No we he has to help. Logan is trying to escape his abusive father who is trying to move into Blades territory. Violence and love happens. Great start to a series

Excellent story

The story of Blade and Logan is compelling, smart, and delicious.
My only complaint is the production of the voice talent was inferior. There were 2 mispronunciations per page and odd pauses within a phrase that distracts from the action.
Love this series though!