Blood & Bitcoin: Organized Crime

Criminal Delights, Book 4

By: L. A. Witt

Narrated by: Michael Ferraiuolo

Chris Emmett has a talent for screwing up and landing on his feet. As a SEAL, he managed to evade bullets and court-martials alike. As an FBI agent, he dodged danger and disciplinary action - right up until he didn’t.

With his career and freedom hanging in the balance, he’ll do whatever it takes to clean the slate...including an off-the-books deep cover solo mission.

The objective: infiltrate the Hive, a complex crime syndicate operating on the dark web, and find out who’s trying to kill Piker, the organization’s enigmatic and strangely alluring modern day mob boss.

The moment he’s pulled into the Hive, Chris enters a world where no one is what they seem, including the man he’s there to protect. Lines blur between moral and wrong, legal and criminal, ally and foe, and, as Piker’s seductive magnetism draws Chris in, straight and queer.

Chris is running out of time to stop a killer. He has dangerous feelings for a dangerous man, and the deeper he moves into the realms of organized crime, the less he knows and the fewer people he can trust.

And that’s before he learns the truth about Piker’s assassin.

Warning: These books are for adult listeners who enjoy stories where lines between right and wrong get blurry. High heat, twisted and tantalizing, these are not for the fainthearted.

©2019 L.A. Witt (P)2019 L.A. Witt

Excellent Read!

The story of Chris and Piker was so sensual. It was suspenseful , thriller, mystery, and more. The chemistry between these two was HOT! L.A. Witt did an excellent job. And Michael Ferraiuolo narration was off the chain. The differential between the characters' voices was amazing. He did an excellent job telling an excellent story. I highly recommend this story. Another part of a very, and I do mean very, entertaining series. ENJOY!

Can't get enough of narrator Michael Ferraiuolo!😍

Who is she? WHAT is she? I ask myself (and writer L. A. Witt herself, believe it or not) these questions when she blows both my oars right out of the water with yet another incredible book. Blood & Bitcoin is the writer's contribution to the fifteen-book Criminal Delights series and is one of only five that has made it to audio format. Splendidly narrated by the simply incredible Michael Ferraiuolo, this novel sent me to bed to continue my listening experience after about the fourth hour in. I just wanted to process the story with no other distractions besides my pillow.
In the novel, we meet Chris Emmett who is a bit of a maverick who manages to get in just enough trouble to get noticed but not enough to get washed out permanently. As an FBI agent, he is charged with infiltrating the Hive in a solo and unsanctioned covert operation in order to avoid federal prison. The Hive is operating on the dark web as it is willing to operate outside the law in an effort to do the right thing, right some wrongs, eliminate persons who cannot be legally touched. Chris is told his objective is to stop someone trying to kill Piker, the organization's leader.
Chris finds himself attracted to Piker and becomes more and more drawn to him intimately. Piker takes advantage of Chris's interest in him and keeps him close enough to become a personal bodyguard and not just another drone on the security team. Way before the story draws to a close, Chris is emotionally committed and invested in Piker's safety. When he learns the truth about Piker's would-be assassin, he is willing and able to prevent his murder at the risk of his own life. The book ends with the clearing of Chris's, the prevention of Piker's termination, and the exposure of rogue agents within the FBI.
This novel is way-over-my-head sophisticated but that in no way detracted from the gritty magnetism that exists between the two main characters. The dialog is clever and the sex exquisite! L. A. Witt is absolutely masterful in blending the danger with the intimacy--creating a palpable tension in the narrative that commandeers the reader's full attention. With the excellent world-building, it's could be easy for some to overlook the character development that exists with not just the protagonists, but several secondary players. Trust me, it's there! In addition, the book has exceptional pacing (the rate at which the writer introduces key elements in the story) and meticulous balance (the distribution of varying types of elements in the narrative), giving the audience an incredible, memorable reading experience.

I need a sequel!!!

Wow! Just, wow! I mean, I knew Blood & Bitcoin was going to be good based on my co-bloggers’ reviews of the ebook (spoiler-free, thank you, ladies). Between L.A. Witt’s writing and Michael Ferraiuolo’s narration, it was pretty much guaranteed that I’d enjoy it. And yet it still exceeded my expectations. As much as I enjoy the variety of romance genres Witt is able to tackle, I am seriously crushing on her organized crime romances… and I’ve only read two of them. As an aside, if you enjoyed Witt’s If the Seas Catch Fire, especially the audiobook, you’re not gonna wanna miss Blood & Bitcoin because while the stories are nothing alike, it has that same intense, gritty, ‘people aren’t who they seem and you never know who you can trust’ feel to it.

As a disgraced ex-FBI agent and former SEAL, Chris Emmett is believable as a man desperate for a job that would put the only skills he has to good use. Unfortunately for Chris, the man he’s been sent to protect is justifiably paranoid and makes it nearly impossible for Chris to do his job. Fortunately for Chris, he’s a the-ends-justify-the-means kind of guy and he maneuvers himself into an ideal position to protect Trent and do his job as a double agent. But the closer Chris gets to Trent, the more he begins to question his mission because the intel he was given doesn’t add up with what he learns about Trent, WST, the Hive, and who’s behind the threats against Trent. Making matters worse, Chris is drawn to Trent in a way he’s never experienced before and he’s not sure what’s worse: that he’s falling for an organized crime boss or that he’s falling for a man.

Witt crafted a story that is ripe for the picking of conflict and she harvested the heck out of it. We not only get multiple servings of suspense as Chris works to earn Trent’s trust, thwarts assassination attempts on Trent’s life, undertakes missions to interfere with Cartel business, collects intel on WST and the Hive, and talks his way out of a bullet more than once when caught lying to Trent, but we also get plenty of yummy, forbidden angst as Chris grapples with his unexpected attraction to Trent. Because it takes a while for Chris to acknowledge his attraction, I was treated to a delicious build-up of sexual tension that added to the overall feeling of suspense in the novel as I listened with rapt attention, waiting to see who was going to snap and make the first move. And it was HAWT! But even that didn’t compare with the intensity of the action that plays out when betrayals are revealed, and when desperate men make desperate decisions in the name of love.

Michael Ferraiuolo does such a tremendous job with Witt’s characters and storyline that I stayed up later than I should have listening to it and resumed listening to the audiobook as soon as I could upon waking the next morning (well, technically the same morning as it was well after midnight when I stopped listening). Blood & Bitcoin has a rather large cast of characters and Ferraiuolo not only does an exceptional job of creating unique voices for them but also in conveying a full range of emotions for them, sometimes at whiplash speed, dragging the listener along for the nail-biting ride. I’m a bit of a multi-tasker when listening to audiobooks and found myself stopping what I was doing because I got so sucked into the action that I couldn’t continue the menial tasks. Oh yes, Witt and Ferraiuolo commanded my complete attention more than a few times over the course of the audiobook. Is it wrong that I really, really hope that Witt gets attacked by a litter of organized crime plot bunnies that drag her back to the Hive to create more stories? Because I would love to catch up with Chris and Trent again and get more stories from the Hive, especially with Ferraiuolo back to narrate. A girl can hope. And thankfully a girl can listen to her Blood & Bitcoin audiobook again… well, after she listens to If the Seas Catch Fire again first.

I recevied a free audiobook copy of Blood & Bitcoin (Criminal Delights: Organized Crime) by L.A. Witt, narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo to listen to and review for Wicked Reads.

Enjoyed the story.

Once I figured out I wasn’t missing something when I first started listening to this story I really did enjoy it. I didn’t realize it was part of a multi author series. I was looking at it because I like mafia books and this one looked interesting.

Fantastic! This deserves more than 5 stars.

I absolutely love Michael Ferraiuolo's audiobook performances; I have listened to several and all of them are excellent. The various voices he does for Blood & Bitcoin fit the characters perfectly. I read the book fairly recently and yet when I listened to the audiobook it was like the story was almost totally new to me. I highly recommend this book. For that matter, any collaboration between L.A. Witt and Michael Ferraiuolo is an auto-buy for me. Below is the review I did for the ebook when it was first released.
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A year ago, if you'd asked me if I like reading mafia type stories I would have answered with an emphatic "no!" L.A. Witt and narrator Michael Ferraiuolo changed all of that when I listened to If the Seas Catch Fire last August. So, when L.A. offered a review copy of her latest book, Blood & Bitcoin, I couldn't pass it up – especially when I found out that Michael will also be narrating the audiobook (coming soon).

I couldn't put this book down once I started it but I made the mistake of starting to read it too late one night so the need for sleep forced me to put is aside for a few hours. The story grabbed me right from the start. While this is a mafia-type story, with lines between right and wrong a bit blurred, I felt that the main characters were much more good guys than bad.

The blurb is pretty long and tells you everything you need to know about the story line. What it can't convey is how heart-pounding the action is. I was on the edge of my seat throughout most of the book. My words in this review can't possibly do justice to the story so I'm not even going to try. The many twists and turns kept me guessing and when something major was revealed I didn't see it coming. The hot-as-fire sexy time in the book wasn't bad either. 😊

While I'm probably never going to be a big fan of mafia type stories, one thing is certain: if L.A. Witt writes it, I will read it. And I can't wait to listen to the audiobook!

***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***