Due Diligence

By: Anna Zabo

Narrated by: Iggy Toma

Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

After Fazil Kurt breaks up with his girlfriend, a business trip to Seattle offers some much-needed time away. Sent by S. R. Anderson Consulting, Fazil is there to help audit Singularity Storage, a company they are trying to save. His first discovery is intriguing to say the least: One of Singularity's engineers is Todd Douglas, Fazil's first love.

He knows better than to get personally involved on a job like this. Back in high school, Todd broke Fazil's heart more times than he could count, but both men have grown so much since then - and Fazil never could say no to Todd....

Contains mature themes.

©2016 Anna Zabo (P)2016 Tantor

well done except for a protracted drama end that has no explanation beyond character idiocy

a story fails when one of the main characters is a complete idiot, repeatedly, but without any explanation as to why or other character traits other than being a self centered idiot. So, yeah. That rather spurred the experience. Being an idiot for sake of drama falls flat. Also, urge to slap said character upside the head or at least fight for his own job and life. Ugh.

It was ok

It was an ok story. Heard it before. I would probably give another one of her books a try

Ups and downs

I love Iggy Toma - he's an auto buy for me.

There were parts of this story I liked.

I liked the idea of two ex-boyfriends find each other again 15 years later.

I liked Todd.

Fazio was a character that started out okay but over the course of the book, I grew to hate him. I know, strong words.

His whining and his need for ego-stroking (and expecting Todd to be the one to take care of that) got on my last nerve.

I enjoyed the hot times between Todd and Z.

SPOILERS

I was very angry when Fazio went back to Seattle. I was angry about how he treated Todd. It was deja vu of their high school days. Shutting Todd out was a s*itty thing to do.

I also didn't like that Fazio expected Todd to be a mind reader.

And finally, although everything ends well, I still didn't like the lack of responsibility that Fazio took for any of his actions (now or then).

Todd, you frickin donut

I know it was part of the character development that Todd never brought up moving to Pittsburgh as an option but the fact that it was never brought up once with even the slightest consideration by him or literally anyone until he had his big epiphany made me so damn frustrated I wanted to throw my device at a wall. I just kept screaming in my head "YOURE THE ONE WITH THE CRAPPY JOB, JUST MOVE TO HIM"
Everything else about the story was lovely.

Playful & tearful

This is an “old lovers reunite” book. I sometimes struggle with these because when I’ve gotten together with an ex, it just makes me more aware of why they are an ex. But this pair had overcomeable problems. They clicked with each other but had to deliberately unlearn old habits to stay the course.

Fazil & Todd have some fun roleplaying adventures which are less “formal” or of a type than scenes in previous series’ books. They even make their own RPG type sex adventure. The narrator, while pretty good on names for Turkish food, had some pronunciation gaffes including one where he conflated ADD with D&D, leading to “The A D & D” manual. Eschew and a few other words were not said as I would have expected. It wasn’t terrible but it was common enough to knock a star.

There was a lot of the Seattle area setting worked into the story. Sometimes it was fun, like the hot chocolate or Space Needle excursion. Sometimes it got overzealous. The Seattle Underground tour is a fun and interesting tour but it didn’t need to be recapped in its entirety here.

The negative work dynamics displayed at the client site are sadly common. Why toxic people are kept and the people who point out toxic people aren’t remains mysterious to me. Gee, you have one “good” engineer who is nasty to other colleagues & an unqualified VP nepotism hire, both of whom have overmuch influence and you wonder why the company is floundering & needs outside assistance…

It’s much nicer to work places where toxic people are shut down or let go, like in Sam’s company. Recurring characters from the series have various roles & cameos that I thought worked well. They’ve become a supportive team, so they are brought in for story as well as easter eggs for fans. Lots of heartfelt chats over drinks.

There is a lot of tear jerking backstory/reconciliation going on for a lot of the first half in particular, so beware in advance if you’re prone to tear up & plan to read this in public. But in general, the relationship brings more light than darkness so it gets less angstful in fits and starts. The pacing is quite good, although I might have smacked Todd upside the head a smidge earlier. It works. Recommended.

Forced

The story was forced and way too focused on the "hot sex" which took away from the potential story. Characters went round and round for no good reason, and the conflict felt inflated for dramatic purposes.

Good performance, good pace, very listenable.

Love this series! And as always, Iggy nails it.

Do yourself a favor and get all of them. Fantastic!! Just enough kink and Tech, and diversity and hotness to keep you not wanting to stop. Listened all in one sitting. Now I'm sad it's done. Hope there are more?

Both depth and fears

The author shows us both the depths that men can have and the fears that can overwhelm them to distraction. The reader lays them all out for listeners in ways that surely demonstrate her intentions perfectly.

very good male male romance

this book was a surprise fine I was strolling through audible late at night when clicking click and clicking I think I found it because Iggy Toma is the narrator and I was clicking through all his work I'm so I can never read this other before I didn't even realize it was a series so I was I didn't know that there were three books in front of this one this is the third book I really really enjoyed it I think I'm going to go back and read the rest of the whole series so I would really highly recommend this book The character arcs for spot on and I kept I kept on listening cuz I was waiting for this idiot to realize what he was doing and I didn't even realize I was not involved in the story which was really really good as it was great hope the author keeps writing.

Good read and good listen.

So... The horrors of the corporate world mixed with steamy sex. Sigh... If only real life as an engineer in Seattle was that hot.

Thoroughly enjoyed this story. The author did a great job of explaining both Seattle and engineering hell.