Mexican Heat

Crimes & Cocktails Series, Book 1

By: Josh Lanyon, Laura Baumbach

Narrated by: Holden Madagame

In this town, danger moves to a steamy Latin beat.

SFPD detective Gabriel Sandalini might as well have put a gun to his own head. One red-hot sexual encounter in a bar's back room has put two years of deep undercover work in jeopardy - two years of danger and deception as he worked his way into crime boss Ricco Botelli's inner circle. Gabriel can't afford emotional entanglements. Hell, he can't afford emotions. But that was before he had a name to pin on that anonymous one-off-Miguel Ortega.

Miguel Ortega doesn't trust anyone, but tough, street-smart Gabriel brings out the conquistador in his Spanish blood. But distractions are nothing short of deadly right now, not with his boss's impending marriage to Botelli's sister, which will ensure peace - and massive drug profits - for both families.

On a trip to Mexico to set up drug supply lines, a violent confrontation proves they've got each other's backs - to a degree.

Then one savage act changes everything, testing not only their fragile bond, but Gabriel's will to live.

©2008 MLR Press, LLC (P)2015 The Loquacious Accomplice, LLC

Fantastic Story Loved the Narration

I loved this book and I thought the narration was great. I read the other reviews that were written but I'm glad that I went ahead and gave this a chance. I'll be honest I didnt hear the problems with the audio that they are talking about but maybe they changed the files, I don't know? I didn't notice any doubles at all. As far as the ethnic issues, that really made me laugh especially when I started listening and realized the main character is Italian.

The narrator was great, perfect fit. I wouldn't change a thing.

Fantastic story okay narration

Gabriel is undercover as part of a crime family’s hired gun. In one of his “missions” he ends up meeting Miguel – who ends up being an undercover FBI agent, Antonio – but Gabriel doesn’t know that when they have super hot sex on the boss’s desk!

So there’s the guilt and the idea that they are star-crossed lovers for awhile – until they finally figure out who they really are. (Lovely sexual tension and angst for this part!)

Gabriel is also 100% invested in his job, so that means no relationships that last more than one encounter. He figures it’s too risky, given his line of work.

Antonio is the Dominator in the relationship (though this isn’t really a BDSM thing). He’s the calm, cool voice of reason in the face of Gabriel’s hot-headedness and snark.

In the first half of the book we see the two dance around one another (star-crossed, remember) then embrace their relationship a bit only to nearly lose it when Gabriel is seriously injured in the line of duty.

In the second part of the book the couple spend intense amounts of time together, learning each other, helping Gabriel recover physically and mentally and hiding out from the bad guys.

It’s kind of a schizophrenic book in the sense that the first half and second half are so different from each other –but to me, that’s what makes it such an amazing book.

We have two tough alpha-types, thrown together at first in danger then in the most extreme difficult situation – emotionally- they’ll ever face (I hope!).

I really loved this book and found both MCs to be fascinating and engaging. It’s been rumored there’s a sequel coming – FOREVER and if that’s the truth I’ll happily read it the second it comes out!

I highly recommend this book to fans of two alphas being paired together, hurt/disability romances, cops/crime fans, snarky MCs, Latin MCs and really – anyone who enjoys m/m romance will probably find something in here they like.

Audio

I am so disappointed. This book was so good and it needed an amazing narrator.
Holden Madagame is new to me. It’s not that he did a bad job – he was just not the right fit. His is a more “twinky” voice, a little swishy and more high and effeminate than either of the MCs. He didn’t do much with what should have been a delicious Latin accent, and instead both guys sounded very similar.
I so wanted to love this because I enjoyed the book so much, but …. I didn’t hate it. It wasn’t painful to listen to as some really bad narrations can be, but it missed the mark, entirely.

I can’t rate the book highly enough, but the audio portion forces me to lower my rating to a 3.5 of 5 stars.

Performance

Voice is very distractive. Voice does not match the description of the characters. Cannot finish audiobook.

Josh Lanyon was NOT INVOLVED in making this audio!

I first read Mexican Heat many years ago shortly after finding Josh Lanyon books and after discovering how very much I love Josh's writing. I wolfed down and enjoyed also this book back then.

During the years I've had pleasure of listening to numerous excellent Josh Lanyon audio books, because Josh always makes sure her readers will get the best possible listening experience. Josh always picks her narrators with extra care.

So... do you see where I'm heading?

The narration, the performance of this book is bad. Very bad. Unprofessional and poor. Something a Josh Lanyon book never is. The explanation for this mess is as simple as this:

JOSH LANYON DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS AUDIO PRODUCTION.

So, let's not blame Josh for this. Instead, let's enjoy her own, wonderful audio books. There are so many to choose from!

lovely

I really loved this story a lot.
there are a bit narration problems, some things that ought to have beer corrected by the studio, but when I sat the pace to 1,35 it worked, and I found the narration to be rather charming.