No Quick Fix

Torus Intercession, Book One

By: Mary Calmes

Narrated by: Scott R. Smith

Length: 8 hrs

Publisher's summary

A retired SEAL is about to face his toughest assignment yet. As a nanny...

Fixer. Bodyguard. Advocate. Brann Calder is expected to play all these roles and more as a member of Torus Intercession, a security firm guaranteed to right what’s wrong. In the military, catastrophe was his specialty. Five months out of the service, Brann is still finding his way, so a new assignment might be just what he needs. Unless it includes two things sure to make a seasoned, battle-trained veteran nervous: life in a small town, and playing caregiver to two little girls. 

Emery Dodd is drowning in the responsibility of single fatherhood. He’s picked up the pieces after losing his wife and is ready to move on now, hopeful that his engagement to a local patriarch’s daughter will not only enrich his community but will grant his daughters some stability, too. 

The only thing standing in Emery’s way is that he can’t seem to keep his eyes - and hands - off the former soldier he’s hired to watch his girls until the wedding. 

Emery’s future is riding on his upcoming nuptials, but being with Brann makes him and his family feel whole again. Too bad there’s no way for them to be together. 

Or is there?

©2019 Mary Calmes (P)2019 Mary Calmes

4.5 Stars

Scott R. Smith does another good job bringing all the characters to life and setting an easy listening pace in this contemporary romance with a likeable cast and a very Calmesian plot. 😘

Single POV, with no cheating, plenty of heat later in the story, a bit of a mystery to play out, and a very happy ending. I loved it. 

Great New Series - Super Plot - Excellent Cast

This is another wonderful dimension to the Mary Calmes universe of storytelling. Although an improbable scenario of a retired Navy Seal becoming a nanny in rural Montana, it nonetheless became a sweet story of family and love. I look forward to the next book in the series.

It would be cool to do a crossover with Miro Jones and Ian Doyle from the Marshals Series with Brann and Emery’s story ... and have both Tristan James and Scott Smith collaborate on the narration. The Marshals are looking for a fugitive in rural Montana and need Brann’s help.

One suggestion: The narrator blew it on the pronunciation of Montana’s state Capitol City, Helena: the proper pronunciation is HEH-LUH-NUH, NOT (!) HE-LAY-NA. The story of naming of Helena Montana is widely known as it was a compromise name between Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War....and even then there was a disagreement as to the proper pronunciation. Scott Smith’s performance was fantastic except the constant mispronunciation of Helena (HE-LAY-NA), so 1 star exception.

Perfect Quarantine Period Listen

This book is just what I needed for this crazy quarantine period. It's low in angst. Great story. Enjoyable cast of characters, specially Olivia and April. There's a bit of humor injected in some parts of the story and I have laughed out loud a few times. There's also a bit of mystery. Frustrating in some parts because of Brann's stubbornness, but I don't blame him one bit. The story actually touches a lot of tough subjects and emotional aspects, but Mary Calmes found a way to write it without being too heavy on the angst. Also, there's a lot of steam once the MCs got together. Mary Calmes knows how to write some sexy scenes!

I enjoyed Scott R. Smith's narration of this book. He is a new-to-me narrator and his performance was great.

I can't wait for the next book of this series.

Cringy

You know those cringe memes online where something incredible happens and then "everyone claps?" There's literally a scene like that in here. Every interaction he has with the girls made me so secondary embarrassed because of how cheesy and ridiculous it was. This must be a very young author, and I'm not saying that as an insult. There were several "weird" things in it. For example, the step-mom says something about baked Alaska, and there's narration about how the child doesn't like salmon. Baked Alaska is a dessert. There's also a scene where the MC cups the other guys face in his hands and wipes away his tears--"straight" men don't interact this way. They don't squeeze each other's hands reassuringly. Women do this, and it's clear this is written from a woman's perspective. I found myself laughing out loud in the car while I was listening to it at times. The MC is such a Mary Sue, too. He's not only a former Navy Seal, but he's the perfect baby sitter, armed protector of children, women's advocate, and relationship therapist. It's just all very unbelievable; I couldn't finish it.

Second round listening to this story. Enjoying it just as much as the first time I listened.

Brann and Emery. Interesting couple. Emery when he first meets Brann you can tell he smitten. His kids are drawn to him also. For a guy who wasn’t looking forward to working this job he falls into line with the family right away. The whole town falls for him. Enjoyed this story so much

What a sexy voice!

I really love Scott’s voice. It’s so sexy and engaging. I got to know it in Mary Calmes “His Consort” and “His Consort”. I was delighted to find Scott as the Narrator for this heart warming seal turned Nanny great story. On the story itself, I really enjoyed the funny little events Brann has to figure out. Good job!

Really enjoyable!

Just finished listening to this this book for the second time and I realized why Mary C is my favorite author. Her books have interesting stories but her characters also warm my heart. They stay with me after the story ends, and make me want to listen again. Listening to No Quick Fix again was more enjoyable than the first time and I am now about to indulge in the rest of this series. I highly recommend this book.

Love It!

I've got to say, the only reason I purchased this book when I first saw it was because Scott R. Smith was narrating. I purchased the House of Maedoc series (which was awesome) by Ms. Calmes and fell in love with Scott's ability as a narrator. I am happy to say I am thoroughly enjoying this book as well. There is nothing better then listening to a good book with a great narrator. That being said I look forward to more work from Ms. Calmes with the hope she and other authors will see what a catch they have when using Mr. Smith as a narrator for their books. Too bad you chose two different narrator's to finish this series instead of staying with Scott. The term "If it ain't broke don't fix it," comes to mind.

All fixed in the end.

No quick fix was right up my alley. Any small quibbles with this story are excused as I found it delightful, heartwarming, touching and romantic.

In addition we get a bit of a mystery and murder to be solved! What's not to like? Also a cast of interesting and diverse characters to keep the story interesting and moving along.

cant wait for book 2.

story needed more, but overall enjoyable. can't wait for book two. performance was very good.

Sorry, but his just didn't work at all for me

Brann seemed far too perfect for me, it just did not work. An ex navy Seal, an only child with no experience of dealing with children was able to charm two grieving children within the space of an afternoon? I don't think so.
Emery constantly touching Brann when he's engaged to be married to a woman, even though it's a marriage of convenience just didn't sit well with me.
Brann's actions at the football match seemed a bit heavy handed to me.
There were just too many other negatives, it just didn't ring true and the narrator didn't bring it to life for me either.

DNF

with less than 2 hours to go I'd normally stick it out but honestly I'm so done. Half the conversations make no sense and are just irritating as hell listening to people deliberately misunderstand, talk over each other or just never get to the point. every time something happened the main character had to stop and have an inner monologue about it that felt like it lasted 3 pages, and then immediately do it all again. The thing I stuck with it for was the way the children were written. Their characters , behaviour and experience of grief were excellent and I was deeply invested in them. Shame the rest of the book was not on par.

Great to relax to

I was looking for something warm and relaxing to listen to without much angst or devastation and it was very difficult to find one that also had a good narration. As soon as I played the sample I started to relax. This is a great, heart warming story, with just enough action and drama to frustrate the path of romance and create a few chuckles.

Trigger warning: this deals with themes of grief and loss, of a mother and wife but is handled well by the author.

Boring!

No action until the last hour, only for a few minutes. Very one sided and slow going. No build-up or tension between the parties. Could sleep through the whole story.
The narrator did a good job. He is the only reason I was able to complete it.

Enjoyable story

If you want an easy read without to much stress in it, then this would be a good choice.

Wouldn't recommend

So unbelievable I kept rolling my eyes. It's like a Disney romance with two princes. Actually the story pretty much follows the plot of The Sound Of Music but with no singing and less children. But it was cute, you know... The children were the best bit.

good book

there are only a few bad things about this book, the mc sometimes goes very out of character and gets extremely distracted by stupid things when important information it being given to him this leads to him constantly interrupting other characters and ignoring important details. the only other thing is the narrator is a bit bland for the roll