Clouded Hell

Inferno, Book 1

By: J.R. Gray

Narrated by: Mark Westfield

Length: 9 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

I survive on avoidance. Physical pain to avoid the mental. Disposable flesh to avoid relationships. Work to avoid attachment. My club became my empire of avoidance. Inside the ring, millions are won and lost. The fight is confined to breaths, actions and reactions, fists and pain. Rules don’t exist. Only my opponent exists. 

I’d been avoiding my needs for far too long, when Remi stumbles into the Inferno and I’m hungry. The promise of a submissive with no attachment is far too tempting. I can’t resist him. He was only supposed to be a distraction, but I know I'll never get over him. There isn't a chance in this clouded hell.

©2016 Jordan Farquer (P)2019 Jordan Farquer

Please rerecord.

I can't even tell if the story is good or bad. The narrator has a nice voice but the cadence he reads in is horrid like he's reading a children's book., which does not work for sexy M/M romance.

I had to pry open my soul and let him see inside

Would I listen to it again: yes
Did the story keep me engaged: yes
Was I invested in the characters: yes

Story comment: Overall I enjoyed this story, but the beginning was confusing - I was about 3 hours in before I had a clear idea of who the players were and what they were doing. Once I had that straight - I was completely drawn in. This is a complex story, the characters are flawed and broken and have to fight for each other to the very end.

Dante:
• based in New Orleans
• lost his husband which has left him broken
• owns "The Inferno", a bar hosting an illegal fight club that he also competes in.
• Dominant and uses the 'pain' from the fighting to escape his demons

Remi:
• tattoo artist, best friend, and business partner to Kai - based in California
• Remi is a "swtich" - Dom to Kai, but also feels the need to submit. Living together, they have an 'open' relationship but Remi isn't getting what he needs.
• son of a homophobic Mob Boss, (based in Las Vegas) Remi is working to further expand his fathers business into the fight club scene in New Orleans.

Narrator comment: For myself, I'm familiar with Mark Westfield's style of narration and think it suits the emotionally scarred characters of Clouded Hell - There is enough of a differences in the characters voices and personalities that I didn't have any problem distinguishing which characters were speaking. I recommend listening to the audio sample if you are interested in this book - its a good representation of the narration style.

Although this is Book 1 - it is a complete story, but I do hope the next one is released in audio soon 😁

One of my favourite books

The story is absolutely wonderful. Dante and Remy are wonderfully broken together.... and so very HOT! I can't wait to hear the second story. JR Gray is truly a great author.

The only thing I didn't quite enjoy was the cadence, the rhythm of the narrator. It was a bit robotic.

Robotic narration, dark story

Even if I was in the right mindset for a dark BDSM book, this narrator ruined the story for me. Weirdly robotic and almost autotuned, the narrator doesn't show any emotion and made some very strange choices in voicing these characters. I DNF-ed at 30%.

Good Story Ruined by Poor Narration

JR Gray turns out very good stories. "Speak no Evil", which apparently is the only other title from this author available on audio, is actually great (both story and narration). Unfortunately I am forced to stick with Kindle for "Clouded Hell" because the narration is stilted and robotic to the point of utter distraction. This narrator has a good voice - its just that there is no inflection, it literally sounds like a robot is reading the book to you. There is no distinction in the voices of the male characters, so when they are engaged in a dialog it is impossible to tell which character is speaking. Similarly, there is no difference in tone or delivery between dialog scenes and internal thoughts or descriptive scenes - in short, the listener is completely lost. This story deserves a prompt do-over with a different narrator.

Not what I expected

Well this wasn’t what I expected. There were so many elements in play that it was hard to tell where the story was going to go. It has some really good heat. I don’t know. I feel like it was missing something. I like Mark Westfield’s narration but not in this story. I think I would had like a stronger sounding voice. Overall I’d recommend it.

new narrator

Such a different auther. I love how edgy and twisted this auther is. How I Feel like his basic needs shines through his books.
Alot of male authers are abit off in the romance World. But not JR Gray. It feels good to feel its a man writing this book. Its like he is in touch with his caractors. And that makes it special.
Now on top of my review of the story i must say that it was abit more different to listen then read this time. 99% of the time i like the audio better then reading. But not this time. I felt like it was not the best narrator for this book. And that is a shame. because i loved the story. but not the voice. It might just be me.

Better in print

I absolutely love this story but I just can’t listen to the audio anymore. The narrator doesn’t fit well here - there is no differentiation in tone between any one sentence and the next, nor any character and the next, and the end of every sentence has this odd inflection where it sounds like the narrator is saying ‘I told you so’ in his head.

Not a good pairing and unfortunately didn’t work for me at all.

as good as the ebook

The story is always full stars, because if I wouldn't like the story as ebook, I wouldn't listen to the audiobook. I can't listen to an audiobook without knowing the book, that's not possible for me.

The performance from the narrator is also very important for me. I can't listen to a lot, because my English as a non-native-speaker isn't so perfect to follow a whole story over hours, when the narrator speaks too fast or too sloppy. Normally I have to SEE the person, who is talking to me in English. It took me a little bit, to come into the narrator, but at the end, it worked. I only have to take a few breaks between. I'm just not yet finish with the book, I’m over the half, but I listen enough to give a review.

PLEASE READ MY RATING SYSTEM!!!

To my ratings:

5* - very very good
it's like an A+

4* - very good and will be often re-listening
it's like an A

3* - it's more then a one-time-listening.
it's like a B