Last Line

By: Harper Fox

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Length: 9 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

John Griffin and Michael South - agents in the renegade counterterrorism agency Last Line, and closer than brothers. It's a fast-lane life of danger and excitement. John loves every minute of it, but he's facing one big problem now: his feelings for Mike have flared up from friendship into a passion he can no longer hide. And Mike, although the bravest and best of partners, doesn't feel the same.

Their one sexual encounter leaves them baffled and alienated from one another. Mike is a haunted man, shaken by flashbacks to his past life as an MI5 agent and a mission in Russia that went terribly wrong. He's been left with a need for violence between the sheets, and John isn't prepared to hurt him.

Not everyone has Mike's best interests at heart. Their ruthless boss hires a ghost from Mike's past to help track down a Russian war criminal who's planted a nuclear device in the heart of London. Anzhel Mattvei knows all of Mike's dark secrets, and soon regains his former sexual thralldom over him, leaving Mike locked in battle for his will and his soul. Anzhel has turned Mike into a human detonation device. Only John's love can pull him back from the brink - and save millions of lives in the fallout zone.

©2014 Harper Fox (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Great writing; spotty storyline; VG narration

I held off on this series for years, wondering when/if the third book would be written. Altho I gave up hope on #3, I was thrilled to discover both books available on audio via AudibleRomance.

As always, quality writing from Harper Fox (evocative/deft... in some ways, akin to Garrett Leigh) but full potential of storyline missed b/c of too many inconsistent and/or illogical points for me. Nonetheless, I plan to jump right into the sequel.

1st time listening to narrator David Thorpe = A- (very good).

(Also, as general FYI/clarification, S&M and/or bloodplay during sex does NOT equal torture. Obviously, YMMV but there's a difference between 'not your cuppa/kink' and mischaracterising a scene in a book.)

Way Too Sadistic

I stopped this when it got to the torture scene in the shower. I have listened to and read many a BDSM book but this story line was just too much. Gratuitous and disturbing. Just ruined what was building up to a good love/redemption story. Sorry Harper, you failed on this one.

GET THIS BOOK/AUDIOBOOK

This book is freakin' amazing! Both books are. It's an emotional rollercoaster in the best way.

Mike and Griff are my babies and I love them both forever.

David Thorpe is AMAZING narrating this and his Russian and accents are *chef's kiss*

Please please please don't pass this up!

Ok

Content warning for torture. Kind of awkward magic in this one. I really like some of this author’s books but this one was merely ok. It perhaps tried for nuance but was really just a confusion of withholding details from the reader. Aside from some characters living through a couple things they shouldn’t have, the magic wasn’t necessary to make sense of the plot. The guys held too much in reserve for not great reasons, and the secondary characters were too villainous or kind of flat. Try Seven Summer Nights for a better take on ptsd & magic. This wasn’t terrible, and I did finish it.

Steam: Medium. Content warning for rape. Problems throughout with consent. Some M/M details on page that think they’re kink but are unprocessed trauma that is not enjoyed. Most of the tension is bad tension.

Narration: I frequently lost track of who was who. The Russian pronunciation wasn’t great.

Wonderful story. Excellent narration.

The characters are fascinating. The story is engaging, suspenseful, and has a supernatural twist. The narrator does an excellent job. I can't wait to listen to the next book.

If you have a free credit..get this...it's ok...

you have to get past the coldness of the narrator, and his British accent which does not add to the story at all, but if you have a credit to use, I liked this one once I got into it.

I don't know what happened to the second book in the series but I had to return it. Could not get half way thru, didn't care if I finished it, and goodness knows I tried...I tried for hours of repeat...what a disappointment.

Good story

This was a moving story. A man who was a prisoner, who was tortured and programmed and led to believe horrible things about himself was able to break it with his love for his partner and his brother. I am looking forward to the next book.

Exciting Mystery

Very exciting and creative mystery. Interesting couple with really cool backstories - nicely done. Audio beautifully performed by David Thorpe.

It was pretty intense

I'm not a fan of brainwashing, torture, or rape so naturally, that was in the first chapter. The second chapter brings you to the present day. There's a fair number of plot holes that were not addressed, perhaps in book 2. OK, there are a lot of holes. The beginning of the book was confusing, particularly since wasn't a lot of world-building. The narrator did a good job but some of the accents were difficult to understand. I don't know why but I have a hard time with Scottish.

Just not my jam

I love Harper Fox so I have no doubt there is an audience for this book that loves it. Unfortch, it does not include me.

Expected M/M Romance thriller, got torture porn

I am so disappointed with this book. The narrator was great but the story... I expected a thriller with a bit of BDSM, but this was not it... this was gratuitous torture porn. I have listened to all of Harper Fox's books and she's never written anything that made me want to throw up. This did. Within the first few hours of this audiobook we got:

Torture
Brainwashing
mass murder
rape
water torture
Coerced BDSM with knives
Rape/torture/cutting of a man with severe PTSD.

What the hell happened? Take out all of the gratuitous torturous sex and maybe there's a good thriller here. I stopped this when it got to the torture rape scene in the shower when Michael's lover was forced to watch. I have listened to and read many a BDSM book but this storyline was just too twisted even for me. Gratuitous and disturbing, written for shock value. This had none of the beautiful prose I've come to expect with a Harper Fox book. I could not finish it.

listen to in a day

not only did it have a great story line to it, and get me listening to book 2 in the series as soon as book one finished ( which I listen to in a day while I worked).

but the narrator is one of the best I've listened to, to date! he is excellent at individual accents and can switch between the characters so fluidly that is almost like having a narrator and cast. certainly going to be hunting out other books he's the narrator of. 👍👍👍