Delicate Ink (Montgomery Ink)

By: Carrie Ann Ryan

Narrated by: Gregory Salinas

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

On the wrong side of 30, Austin Montgomery is ready to settle down. Unfortunately, his inked sleeves and scruffy beard isn’t the suave business appearance some women crave. Only finding a woman who can deal with his job, as a tattoo artist and owner of Montgomery Ink, his seven meddling siblings, and his own gruff attitude won’t be easy.

Finding a man is the last thing on Sierra Elder’s mind. A recent transplant to Denver, her focus is on opening her own boutique. Wanting to cover up scars that run deeper than her flesh, she finds in Austin a man that truly gets to her—in more ways than one.

Although wary, they embark on a slow, tempestuous burn of a relationship. When blasts from both their pasts intrude on their present, however, it will take more than a promise of what could be to keep them together.

©2014 Carrie Ann Ryan (P)2014 Carrie Ann Ryan

HO HUM.... IT'S A 40/60 LISTEN

This is one of those listens that has you scratching your head because there were parts I hated, parts I thought "oh come on" and parts I liked so at the end I was left wondering just what exactly my feelings were on this. And these listens are the hardest ones to review.

My dislikes.... one minute the H/H hate each other, the next day they go out to dinner and talk about a mutual Sub/Dom BDSM relationship and go straight back home and have hot sex (me thinks surely not a first date conversation!) dual POV's. There were missing time periods, glossed over events and I had a big question as to why the new person couldn't of brought all his stuff with him (I don't want to give any spoilers).

My likes.... The family dynamics were good and once I got passed all the sex (which I never thought I'd say) there was a decent story in the end when the whole family pulled together after a shocking life altering twist for the two lovers. Lots of characters with sub plots told from their own POV's which made it interesting. Very sexy narration.

Worth a credit? Will this teach me not to judge a book by its cover? nope.... it's hot. I MAY give the second book in the series a try I'm undecided. As to the credit well I would rather of got this while on sale.... but I won't be asking for my credit back.

first and last ok. middle sucked.

Would you try another book from Carrie Ann Ryan and/or Gregory Salinas?

Maybe, if I could be sure that I wasn't going to skip through pages of being educated about dom/sub. Probably wouldn't listen to Gregory Salinas.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I was most interested in discovering the heroines big secret. It was the only thing that kept me reading. I was least interested in the ad nauseam discussion of dom/sub. I feel like If I am really into that (which I am not) incorporate it into the story in way that is sexy to people who like it. If I want to learn about it I will go read "Domination for Dummies," or something. If I am not into it...you are not going to convince me by pontificating about it in a romance novel.

What three words best describe Gregory Salinas’s voice?

cyborg reading "male-love-interest." I tend to avoid reading novels where a main character is a woman read by a man...It normally just doesn't work for me. Strangely in this novel I like him reading ALL of the characters (even the women) better than the main male love interest. I just hated it.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

Any additional comments?

My additional comment is not specifically about this book in particular. I don't know where else to comment. Maybe audible will hear me. I can't be the only one who really wishes that they would start cleaning up the categories to make them easier to find what interests us. I choose romance because I am interested in the main focus being the relationship of the main couple and how they deal with whatever mystery, paranormal or other conflict that is going on. If I wanted pages and pages of push the envelope sex I would choose erotica or porn. If I wanted to learn how to participate in certain lifestyles I would buy how-to books. If I wanted to feel justified in my lifestyle I would buy essays or nonfiction. I am not into threesome, bdsm, bondage, or homosexuality... I don't care if audible has them. I just wish I could easily figure out whether these are a main focus of the book so that I can identify if this is something I would enjoy reading. I am tired of plowing through endless books and finding one that seems interesting only to realize at the last minute that it is about something that I don't care to read about. ..I would think that people who appreciate those things would like it too.... If not maybe they could add a category for minimal, tasteful, vanilla hetero sex when appropriate to an other wise well written story....

Review of 2 novellas and Book 1- Delicate Ink

Montgomery Ink Series- Carrie Ann Ryan/Gregory Salinas

Montgomery Ink 0.5- Ink Inspired (New Orleans)
Shea Little and Shepard Montgomery.
Series intro novella. Shep's a tattoo artist. Shea's a rich girl with an evil mom who wants to groom her to be as vacuous and superficial as herself. Shea wants a tattoo in her ongoing battle to break away from her ridiculous family expectations. The mom's evil is way over the top, and the romance is a bit shallow and instalove, BUT it's a very short story (less than 2 hours) so a lot has to happen in a short period of time. It was good and had potential for great, so that means I liked it enough to get the next in the series and see where it goes.

Montgomery Ink 0.6 Ink Reunited (New Orleans)
Sassy Bordeaux and Rafe Chavez and Ian Steele
Menage novella featuring Sassy, the receptionist at Midnight Ink, and 2 men she had loved and lost 10 years ago. We have an evil dad this time and your basic society shaming issues but with Rafe's family and the Midnight Ink family, this triad also receives a lot of support which helps them in their struggle to reach their HEA.

Montgomery Ink 1- Delicate Ink (Denver)
Austin Montgomery and Sierra Elder
The eldest Montgomery returns to Denver after a visit with cousin, Shep, and after dumping his lukewarm flavor of the month and seeking a change of scenery to figure out what he's missing. The owner of the boutique across from Montgomery Ink walks in, and he assumes she's there to complain about something and promptly offends her before she tells his sister that she would like a tattoo. Feeling like a jerk, he manages to make a sincere apology. When she returns for her appointment, she finds that it is Austin who will be her artist and is not thrilled, but then she notices that he looks "wrong." Family drama has him distracted, and he tells her about it, causing her to see him in a better light and allowing her to open up to him about her issues as well. Luckily for the two of them, they both like to dip their toes in the D/s pool and neither MUST have it that way all the time, so total compatibility and no bedroom power struggle dramatics. We have a visit from Shep and Shea from book 0.5 and a peek at the NOLA family as well. This series is rolling along well. I'm interested to see where we go from here.

Heat factor on this series is quite hot (6/7 on a 1-10 scale = R/NC17), meaning we have stories that have a fair amount of hot sex but with a frequency that is not in the range where I would consider a book to be considered as erotica with some story to tie the sex scenes together (9/10). Carrie Ann Ryan uses a nice combination of dirty talk, anticipation and action. The characters are a little superficial in the beginning, but I am already seeing some growth, so I'll stick with the series. It is absolutely not in the category of "forgettable beach read," and I can see myself listening to this series again in the future when I'm in the mood to visit with this family again.

The narrator, Gregory Salinas, is pretty good. Like a lot of narrators, he is not as good with voices of the opposite sex, but his performance won't draw any harsher criticism than that from me which makes him better than average. Regardless of a slight mispronunciation here and there, I did not find myself distracted by mispronounced words or sentences read with the wrong inflection on pertinent words, and since that happens fairly regularly with audiobooks in general, I have to say that GS's performance was remarkable in that there was nothing glaring for me to be able to mention a couple of minor errors.

Creditworthy? Not yet. I got the novellas and the first book pretty cheap with free Kindle editions and reduced Whispersynch audiobook adds. At around $10 for the trio, I would say that was the right route to go and a fair price for the opportunity to test drive a new series. I think this series is already developing and getting better, and the next books may be worth cash or credits, but try these out using less cash to see if they are your cup of tea.

Interesting

Well, this was an interesting storyline. I have enjoyed the shifter stories written by this author as well! Nice voice on the narrator!

Couldn’t get through

I would rather just read it. The narrator over enunciated and I couldn’t get past it. Seriously I’ve listened to some ok narration but this one I couldn’t get through the first chapter.

Good

Good . narration could be better. performance is okay. overall good.Good . narration could be better. performance is okay. overall good

Good Concept, But

Good concept, but the execution wasn't great, leaning way too far into melodrama and soap opera clichés. Things were dragged out too long, and then other things were just resolved off-page.

Narrator wasn't horrible, and his voices were ok. He was just too clinical sounding, to the point of robotic at times.

I may try another by this author, but probably not another with this author/narrator combo. Neither one is good enough to overcome what the other lacks.

Narrator sounds like a robot and book was not what I expected.

I was looking forward to listening to this book-it has everything I like, tattoos, alphas...

But I was sadly disappointed with everything about this book. Firstly, it’s described that there’s BDSM in this book, but only one scene, afterwards, the main characters turn into mush and it gets very lovey dovey. Not that everything needs to be dominant and rough, but definitely not how the book is described.

Next, the storyline. There’s 5 different stories and perspectives going on here, that I can’t keep anyone straight except Austin’s. I get he has a huge family, but this is when a series makes sense, flush out his sister’s story in another book and simply introduce the characters here. Also, EVERYTHING happens with this couple. Not just one major issue to have to tackle, but four huge issues one after another after another. Seems very improbable and hard to even remotely relate to at this point.

Lastly is the narrator. He felt very robotic, especially while reading any sort of D/S scene. It didn’t make me melt, let alone pull me into the story. Instead, I ended up chuckling a few times throughout the book that were meant to be serious.

I really truly wanted like this book. Even though I finished it, I don’t think I’ll be continuing the series.

Good story

This book would be a lot better read than listening to. I'm sorry, but I had a really hard time continuing to listen to this narrator. I almost didn't finish it so many times to count . He kinda ruined it for me. Story was good though. Just not in audio.

Another Hot Tattoo Alpha Male Novel-Yum!

Any additional comments?

The covering of Sierra's scars by Austin are the beginning of a tedious, fragile relationship that neither is looking for.

While I felt the ending was a bit anti climatic-the book was worth listening. As part of a series, I will check out the others.

I enjoyed every scene in which Austin was disrobing. :)


*I received this work in exchange for my review; good, bad or meh. I've written all 3 kinds.

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Emotional

This book has a lovely storyline to it. With well written heartfelt personalities and emotional scarring from the past they certainly have a lot to get over. With love and understanding it’s a great ending for this couple. A fantastic performance from Gregory.

Glad I read/listened

Audio and ebook review

Really enjoyed but like others have said, lots of story lines and make sure you have read book 0.5 because those 2 character have POVs that wasn't needed here but you will be confused if you haven't read their story. Some of the other story lines are just previews for future books so it was okay but it would have been better to reduce some of it. Looking forward to the next book.

It's really light on the BDSM elements so don't worry if you are not into that.

Enjoyed the narrator. While at first I wish there were 2 different voices with so many different POV besides the 2 mc it made sense for only 1.

Gruff perfection

I’ve listened to so many of Carrie Ann Ryan’s books and I keep expecting that one of them is going to feel repetitive or boring, or not live up to my expectations. Each time I’m oh so pleasantly surprised. Her writing is just magical.

This was such a strong start to the series and has just left me desperate for more. I need more of this story, the characters and the feels.

fantastic read couldn't put it down

What did you like most about Delicate Ink (Montgomery Ink)?

Austin comes across gruff but he actually isn't.... well until it comes to the sex

Who was your favorite character and why?

Austin because he was determined to get the girl

What does Gregory Salinas bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

well apart from not losing your page you feel the emotions

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

yes when leaf came into his life

Any additional comments?

amazing book can't wait for the rest