Five Minutes Longer

By: Victoria Sue

Narrated by: Nick J. Russo

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's Summary

Talon Valdez knew when he transformed into an enhanced human, his life and his dreams were finished. Reviled, mistrusted, and often locked away, the enhanced were viewed as monsters, despised by the public, and never trusted to serve in the military or any law enforcement agency.

Years later he gets a chance to set up a task force of enhanced to serve in the FBI, but with one proviso: each enhanced must partner with a regular human.

Finn Mayer dreamed of joining the FBI from the time he was 14 and made every possible sacrifice to make it happen, including living with his selfish mother and bullying, homophobic brother and never having a boyfriend. But his undiagnosed dyslexia stopped his aspirations dead in their tracks. His last chance is to partner with Talon, an enhanced with deadly abilities who doesn't trust regular humans with their secrets and wants Finn to fail.

Four weeks to prove himself to the team. Four weeks for the team to prove itself to the public. And when another group threatens their success - and their lives - four weeks for them to survive.

©2016 Victoria Sue (P)2017 Dreamspinner Press

Nick J. Russo doesn't disappoint.

Five Minutes Longer was a thrill ride! Action-packed from almost the beginning, so much happens to these characters and the story takes place in less that two weeks! There is strong pace that doesn't let up, some sexy times, and the beginning of a romance between human Finn and enhanced Talon.

Mostly I was really happy this was told in a dual POV, because without it I might have really hated Talon based on his actions. But for real though? I just felt bad for Finn in this. Man, the guy has had a really rough week.

I'm so happy I grabbed this up on audio! Nick J. Russo doesn't disappoint. He makes this a fun listen, with great character voices, a steady pace, and good tone. Every audio I listen to Russo seems to be getting better - honing his craft and giving great performances.

All in all I thought it was an interesting story, but I would have liked a little more world building. Though this doesn’t end in a cliffhanger, not all loose ends were tied up, so it's a nice set up for a series.

I am definitely down for listening to the sequel if Nick is narrating it.

11 people found this helpful

Love this book!

This is the first book in an amazing series. The characters are well developed, the story is well written and sets up future books without hitting you over the head. The narration fits the characters and sounded exactly how I imagined them.

5 people found this helpful

WOW!

What a fantastic story! I didn't want to end..... Sexy, angsty and totally entertaining! As always Nick J Russo did the characters justice. Soooo good!

4 people found this helpful

Exciting start to a new series

What a great start to a new series involving naturally occurring “enhanced” humans pairing up with a regular human to form a new FBI task force. I am a huge fan of paranormal and alpha types in a law enforcement setting so this book was right up my alley. In this first installment, the ground work is being set with a bit of history on the enhanced and their uphill battle to gain acceptance. It is not always an easy read, and in some places, it is downright heartbreaking.

In many ways, this book was similar to the THIRDS series, by Charlie Cochet, except that it is completely different, at the same time. Confusing, I know, but it kept popping into my mind while I was listening. These guys do not shift, but instead they each have different powers. The problem is that they are so fearful of exposing them, rightfully so, that they hide some of their abilities to avoid further persecution or ending up in a laboratory.

This book focuses on Talon, the leader of the new “enhanced-human” FBI team, and Finn, his human partner. These guys each have to overcome a lot to get where they are, but their past has left a huge scar on the both of them. They have to establish trust, and deal with attraction at the same time. Fortunately, it is not drawn out too far, and many of the dramatic moments are not caused by their relationship, which I greatly appreciated. I do love a good story to back up my romance novels.

I did not read this book, but instead listened to the audio. Sometimes I read first, but since I’ve listened to many audiobooks by Nick J. Russo, I knew I would have no problems following along. He has a really smooth voice, and honestly, I could listen to him read all day long. He easily performed a multitude of characters, and I never once had to rewind to figure out who was speaking. As far as audios go, you can never go wrong having Nick in your corner.

This is my second Victoria Sue story, and after looking back at that first review, I can see a marked improvement in a writing style that works great for me. I can also tell you, this won’t be my last book by her. I look forward to seeing where this series goes from here, and I am hopeful that Nick J. Russo remains the voice of the Enhanced.

3 people found this helpful

Love this book

I read this book and loved it, so I immediately picked up the audible version.
I'm a huge Nick J. Russo fan, but not for this one.
Looking forward to the next in line still :)

3 people found this helpful

Love is the most special ability

Why did I wait so long to listen this delightful book? 🤦‍♀️ Guys, the hype is legit! 😱 I love this new series of Victoria Sue. 💙 How come she rocks in every sub genre when it comes to MM romance? 🤔 I discovered her with her ABO books which I loved and gushed over several times, and I loved her contemporary “Rainbow Cove” series and damn, I loved this urban fantasy, sci-fi book! The world building is simply refreshing and fascinating. 👏


Talon is an enhanced, a human with special abilities most normal humans feared and ostracized. Needless to say, Talon is really mistrustful of normal humans so when his superior officer said he’s brining in a normal human to their special task force, he was all against it. Finn thought becoming an FBI Agent is a hopeless dream. After all, he has dyslexia that he kept secret so diligently and as a result his college scores were mediocre at best. That is until he got a call from FBI asking him to join them on a special task force, a task force that each enhanced human will pair with a normal human as a partner. Finn has no problems working with enhanced humans, in fact he’s all for enhanced human rights. But his teammates are aloof and distrustful and Talon who’s supposed to be his partner is the worst among them. 😁 But you can be attracted to someone even when you dislike them. Right? Right? 😉


There’s no way around it, Finn’s family is just shitty. I wanted to bash his mom and his older brother several times. 🤬 And I saw so many people having problems with Talon’s attitudes towards Finn but I get it. I mean enhanced humans are so feared and criticized, it’s difficult for them to accept that there are some normal people who don’t think they are monsters and will treat them different. The chemistry! 🔥 Oh the chemistry!!! 😍That I want you but I don’t like you but oh, I want you more!!! 🔥 I am ALL for it. 👍 I loved Finn, such a sweetheart with a heart of gold and I loved all the other secondary characters in this story. And I know Talon can be a bastard most of the times but he can be a boyfriend of the year when he wants to. 😁 I especially loved the UST and relationship development between these two. And of course, popping butt cherry is always a plus in my book! 😂 So hot! 🔥 And I loved all the thrilling and mystery aspect of the story. Didn’t see that one coming! The villain!!! *gasp* 😱 As always, Nick J. Russo did a damn fine job narrating this story. I loved his Talon voice, so gruff and sexy! 😏 I’m glad I have the book 2 ready in my hands because I can’t wait to start listening ASAP. 💜



4.75 love is the most special ability stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟







Audio rating


Story - 4.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Narration - 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Performance - 4.75 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟
Overall - 4.75 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟

2 people found this helpful

Brilliant new series

Another new series that I have fallen in love with. There were times that I wanted to knock Talon upside the head. Make a damn decision and stick to it!!! This book did remind me of a cross between the Thirds series and the Metahuman series throwing in some x-men along the way. I hope we are in for a long ride with this series!!!!! Finn reminds me of Dex who also can't keep himself out of trouble. I had the bad guy figured out but not what was behind it all. There isn't really a cliffhanger but things are left unfinished. Off to the next one.

2 people found this helpful

Loved it!!

It allowed me to think about today's injustice. I was so happy that this book was so incredible good!! I'll give it 5 awesome stars! Also 5 amazing stars to do author!😉😊

2 people found this helpful

Pleasantly surprised

I feel like I never get my home town as a setting, so that was cute. The plot leave a smidge to be desired, the romance is a little rushed, but overall this was a joy. I’m hyper intrigued by the world the author has created and I wanna know what diner they get those platters at lol

1 person found this helpful

What.

I think I was brainwashed. I must have liked this book because I listened to it all in one day. I don’t remember liking it that much though. I thought that Talon was a jerk and couldn’t understand why Finn liked him so much. And yet I just bought the second one. I don’t know what is happening to me. Maybe I liked it so much I’m in shock.

1 person found this helpful

Okay book, but with some issues

It's okay, but the narrator has an annoying tendency to make pauses before dialogue tags, making it sound more like they belong with the next sentence than the dialogue itself. E.g. "What do you think?" [pause] Talon asked, "I'm not sure." [pause] Eli responded and frowned. (Not an actual quote from the book, but you get the picture.)

There's also a major issue with continuity, where Finn ends up at Talon's place early in the book. Later, he ends up there again, and from everything said and thought it's apparently the first time he's there. You'd think the author would keep better track of what's going on.

1 person found this helpful

Good narration for lacklustre story

I've listened to many stories in the mm genre that have the same tropes of law enforcement officers with super powers. This story was along the same lines - regular guy recruited into unit with men who had super powers.

There was a serious lack of women in this story- the only memorable female was Betty who ran the diner!

When it comes to the nitty gritty the writing just wasn't that good- and neither was the editing of the manuscript.


For example, Finn and Talon went to Talons apartment the same day Finn joined H.E.R.O, and Finn stayed overnight yet, later in the story when they went back to Talons apartment it was written like we had never been there, and Talon suddenly had a dog!


The over description of gestures became really annoying too e.g 'he took a breath, blinked, then blinked again and his shoulders dropped' -this is not a word-for-word quote, just an example. There was a lot of this kind of padding in the final third of the book which took away any credibility the book had gained.

The two mc's were in love within a week, and this topped things for me. if your looking for fluff this book might be for you, but as a paranormal police procedural with romance it wasn't to my standards.

1 person found this helpful