Zero

De: S.M. West

Narrado por: Lucy Rivers, Aaron Shedlock

From USA Today best-selling author S.M. West comes a steamy enemies to lovers standalone romance about heart wrenching secrets, relentless evil, and new beginnings.

*Contains sensitive and mature topics. Recommended for ages 18 and older.*

©2022 SMW Books (P)2022 SMW Books

Wild and suspenseful ride!

Zero by S.M. West was a wild, spicy, and suspenseful ride that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. Zero and Morgan’s journey to HEA is full of steamy twists and spicy turns that will captivate your attention. This book can be listened to as a stand-alone but is a part of the Scarred Hearts series.

Aaron Shedlock and Lucy Rivers narrate this audiobook. I love the tone and the energy these two brought to S.M. West’s words. Aaron showcased Zero’s past trauma, strengths, and dedication to Morgan brilliantly. Plus. Lucy did a fantastic job portraying Morgan’s conflicted and determined persona. Both, Aaron and Lucy brought the heat with Zero and Morgan’s magnetic chemistry.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. If you are a fan of a suspense romance with a hot guarded computer hacker, a woman on the edge, danger, traumatic pasts, bodyguards, super hot steamy times, loyal friends, helping those in need, an epic jaw-dropping climax, and a HEA that will make your heart race, then you will love Zero and Morgan’s story. I always look forward to more from S.M. West.

Scarred Hearts indeed!!

S.M. West grabs your attention from the first sentence and holds you hostage until the very end of Zero’s story. There are twists, turns, suspense and shocking revelations with a good bit of sexy times too!! Morgan is well-liked by all she comes into contact with, wealthy, and chooses to live frugally while dealing with survivors guilt!! On the other hand, Zero, a hacker who stumbles across Morgan’s crime, becomes instantly attracted to her and decides he can help her move forward, preferably with him!! However, Zero is no stranger to horrendous acts and is also recovering from his own tragic event !! Together, they solve an important case still being investigated by law enforcement officials and agencies!!
Aaron Shedlock and Lucy Rivers did a great job narrating. Aaron’s voice shows empathy, honesty and patience, which are all qualities needed to assist others. Lucy’s voice is pleasant but she speaks too quickly at certain times making things run together. Overall, this was a good listening experience!!

Amazing Story & Narration🎧 Gripping & Intense!

S.M. West pens another amazing romantic suspense set in her “Scarred Hearts” series and I loved everything about it, from her wonderful writing style to the fantastic characters and storylines, to the perfectly cast narrators who bring it all to life from the pages to your ears. Each book in this series features different lead characters and stands on its own, characters from earlier books may appear in each other’s stories, but everything you need to know about them is in the descriptive details so you never feel lost or as if you missed something. This book is Zero and Morgan’s story, Zero was Griffin’s partner in the fourth book and his character intrigued me and I looking forward to learning more about him. Griffin has since moved on, joining a team with more resources, continuing doing what he did with Zero and is hoping Zero will join the same team so they could work together again. Zero, a skilled hacker, was also offered a job with the FBI and is taking some time off to decide what he wants to do. In the meantime, he is looking to help a victim of a horrific crime, a robbery at a convenience store where the perp shot innocent victims. Morgan had been in that convenience store with her date when an armed man held up the place, the perpetrator got spooked and was going to shoot her but her date stepped in front of her taking the bullets intended for her and saving her life. That night changed her, the shooter was never caught, so she lives in fear that he will come after her and she suffers from survivors’ guilt. Something about her draws Zero to her and he wants to help her put her demons to rest, but he has demons of his own to deal with. Morgan is not very trusting and Zero lacks people skills, but he finally gets her to hear him out. It takes time, but she warms to his ideas and just when they get leads on the shooter at large, the case he is working on has a new twist and it is something he was not expecting at all. I loved how everything played out in this book, also loved the complexity and layer of the story, a story that is cleverly plotted with plenty of drama, angst, action, twists and turns, thrilling suspense, heartfelt emotions and a slow burn, enemies to lovers romance. S.M. West, thank you for another amazing story and emotional rollercoaster ride.

🎧📚🎧 And for the amazing narration, Lucy Rivers and Aaron Shedlock were the perfect cast to bring these characters and story to life, and did so with a complete understanding of who they were portraying, giving each a voice that suited their persona and making them believable in every role they played. Shedlock’s Zero was spot on, cool, calm and collected with an edge that only Zero could have. Rivers grasped every side of Morgan’s personality, from her insecurities to the strong woman she was. Both were fabulous performing the roles of all the secondary characters too. They set the perfect tone for the story, captured all the characters’ emotions and projected them into their performance. These entertaining storytellers are versatile voice artists and a pleasure to listen to. Thank you for another fabulous listen.

Great Performance Of A Hero With A Damaged Past

Part of the Scarred Hearts series, though the titles are interconnected, they stand alone. Zero appears in the previous book of the series Griffin, so if you're going to prep with a single story, I would read that one first to get your interest in Zero tickled.

Zero is a keyboard warrior. He's a hacker, and information seeker and tech specialist that works to fight against human trafficking among other crimes. He wants to save the victims, he wants to punish the criminals and he wants to do it in the fastest way possible, which sometimes means working outside the system, but in the end, the officials are given all they need to locate and prosecute the evildoers.

Morgan was the victim of a terrible random act of violence. She is now trying to recover from this trauma and survivors guilt that has changed her life immensely.

Zero is drawn to Morgan, to her need for justice, to the desire to help her heal and become a whole person again. He wants to be near her, to spend time with her and to make sure she is able to move on with her life. But the more time he spends with her, the more he wants to be able to be part of her life.

It took a bit to ramp up on this one, but the suspense and the build was worth it for me. I was very engrossed by the end, needing to find out what was going to happen next and trying to put all the pieces together for myself before the characters.

There are some heavy topics in this one, so beware the trigger warnings: Drug abuse, violence (including death), discussions of Human Trafficking and sexual abuse.

The audiobook was performed by Aaron Shedlock and Lucy Rivers. Aaron was fantastic as Zero, the care and emotion that was given to his backstory and motivations, I really felt for him. I found Lucy to be a bit of a fast talker at first in the baseline narration, but as the story progressed I got used to it and found it to be very genuine to the character in the end and I found myself keeping up with the pace.

I requested and was provided with an advance copy of the audiobook. These are my honest opinions.

The Many Lives of Leo

4.5 stars - Zero has been a side character in this and another series (NY Knights). While I did initially hate him for not interceding with Tommie, he slowly grew on me, and I was elated when Suzanne announced he was going to get his own story. I liked that he redeemed himself over time and that there wasn't a rush to get to where we are with this book.

Enter Morgan. She's a bit of an enigma. A trust fund baby who would rather work for tips at a club / restaurant than touch the family money. At the very beginning, we get to experience the worst moments of her life, when an armed robbery takes the life of another, leaving her broken in ways she barely acknowledges. She's falling apart at the seams when Zero engages with her. I really do love how he acknowledges his weaknesses, most of them anyway, and slowly lets Morgan see that she's not the only one to have experienced the crappy parts of life.

Their chemistry is great, even when Zero won't let her touch him. Of course, once he does... things get very hot, very quickly. Morgan is a bit hot-headed at times (sometimes for justified reasons), and I like how they balance each other when these moments occur.

I did see some of the crazy that was coming their way, but the way it unfolded was terrific. I don't want to give anything away so I will leave it there. 😉

This can definitely be read as a standalone. If you are curious about the earlier books Zero is in, I encourage you to read or listen to them, I know I really liked each of them, but it's not a requirement to enjoy this one.

While this is a bit of a dark book, much of the shadier sides of humanity occur off-screen with snippets here and there of horrible occurrences. Do be aware that human trafficking and some of the things that go along with that are discussed. There are still some violent and other content-sensitive scenes.

I received an author's copy of the audio book. The narrators are Lucy Rivers and Aaron Shedlock. I really like Aaron... mmm... and Lucy's pretty good, too. Duet narration would've made the experience even better, but this is still a good listen.

Story: 4.5 stars
Narration: 4 stars
Listening Speed: 1.5x