Pins and Needles

De: A.J. Thomas

Narrado por: Jason Riley

The truth is rarely seen on the surface, and getting to it might mean digging deep....

After a devastating accident and a long stay in the hospital, the last thing petroleum engineer Sean Wilkinson wants to deal with is the settlement the oil company tries to force on him. He'll never be able to work in his field again, his education is all but useless, and his surgeons are pessimistic about whether he'll ever walk again. He needs someone in his corner, but most lawyers take one look at his tattoo-covered father and turn their backs. It's just Sean's luck that the one attorney willing to give him a chance is also the hottest guy he's ever seen.

As a trial lawyer, Nate Delany has a lot to prove - to his father, the world, and himself. Sean intrigues Nate, and he struggles to reconcile the gifted tattoo artist he can't stop fantasizing about with the quiet, brilliant engineer. His investigation reveals facts left out of the accident report - including an illicit affair, greedy coworkers, and a vicious corporation that will do anything to protect its bottom line. When Sean's life is threatened, winning Sean's case, and his heart, becomes a lot more dangerous.

©2017 A.J. Thomas (P)2018 Dreamspinner Press

3.5 Stars

I enjoyed most of the story, especially because it's told from the dual points of view of both Sean and Nate. It even reminded me in the beginning of the John Grisham novels I loved back in high school (and god that sentence made me feel old).

The characters were well developed, the plot was captivating, there was enough legalese and suspense to keep me fully engaged without being too over the top, I just wish the romance side would have been more developed.

I struggled in the middle because of the miscommunication brought on when Nate tries to distance himself from Sean because getting involved with a client could get him disbarred, and Sean thinks Nate is rebuffing him because of his injury, and it just really bothered me. The suspense in the story brought on because of the sabotage to the boat and Sean's recovery I felt were more than enough without adding this unnecessary drama that could have been avoided with a simple conversation.

The narration was okay, but there wasn't a lot of embellishment to Jason Riley's reading, which made it feel a little flat for me personally - but then I like a "performance" and to hear the emotion in the narrator's voice.

Riley's narrative style was a bit fast-paced, which I know will appeal to those people that constantly love to speed up their audiobooks, but for me, especially in the conversational portions of the story, it became confusing at times, because Riley doesn't really use a lot of distinctive character voices so sometimes with his faster-paced speaking style I was confused who was speaking at certain points and had to rewind to re-listen to portions again for clarification.

Those niggles aside, the listen was mostly entertaining, Riley has a nice tone of voice that's quite appealing, and I would definitely give something else of his a listen in the future to see his growth. With only the mild speed bump in my enjoyment in the middle of the story, I found the rest to be quite engaging, I liked the characters, and the ending had me sighing.

If you like good hurt/comfort stories, with some suspense and action thrown in I'd definitely recommend giving this a shot.

great story but read way to fast.

the story was great but i almost didnt finish listening to it. the narrator just raced through the reading as he was embarrassed that he was the voice for the book. i even checked the speed to make sure that i had not sped the narration up on accident. after slowing the reading down i was able to finish the book.

Good story

Not so good narration. No voice distinction between characters. Impossible at times to know who was talking. Minimal change in tenor from sex to murder.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the story so much I made it all the way through the bad narration. I’d definitely read this story again myself, but never listen again.
Sean and Nate are both likable characters. The story is a good one.

Loved this book

I don't have enough words to say how much I enjoyed this book! The first part of the book was amazing. Heartbreaking. Anger inducing. Awe-inspiring. Plain and simple everything you might want from a book and so much more.

A horrible accident at work has left Sean with only one leg, increasing hospital bills, and on top of that, the company he worked for is trying to force him to sign a settlement that won't even cover the hospital stay and recovery, let alone the pain and suffering he's been going through. Enter Nate, a trial lawyer striking out on his own and in need of a good case to sink his teeth into. During the weeks and weeks they spend together, something more than client/lawyer is brewing.

I fell head over heels in love with both Nate and Sean the moment they appeared on the page, and they held me captive to the very last word. The slow burn romance that develops between them is just right. It's tentative, yet the connection between them is strong, and it grows stronger every time they meet. And together they make each other whole.

🔊 Family is about more than sharing a few bits of DNA with someone. It's about who you want to build and share your life with.

The second part of the book sadly didn't wow me as much. Some of the suspense related twists were a bit too much to be believable for me, and the magic of the first part was dimmed a bit. It was a bit too much focus on that part and not enough of the amazingness that was Nate and Sean and their relationship.

This seems to be the first book Jason Riley's ever narrated (I might be wrong, so don't hang me). I did not know this going in, in fact I did not know this until a minute ago when I tried to find out if I'd listened to other works of his. So yeah, I had no indication of that while listening to the book. He has a great flow and pacing, and a great voice to listen to. What I did miss was the performance and true feeling, he tried at times but not really consistently. Then again, that's highly subjective and a matter of preference, and I do think that as he narrates more and more books, we can expect great things to come.

All in all, Pins and Needles is a book I'd highly recommend to anyone liking contemporary romance with a lot of substance and bit of suspense in the mix.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

Heavy on the details but still a good story

3.5 Stars.

There were some things I really loved about this book but a couple of things that just took it down a 1/2 star for me. It took me quite awhile to get through this book but not because I didn't enjoy it although it didn't keep me on the edge of my seat. I found myself able to put it down however, I did keep coming back to it to find out what exactly happened to Sean and who was behind it. I found the case really interesting and I loved that aspect of the book.

I also really liked both characters and I liked their backstories. I loved Sean's backstory of being thrown out and growing up with one of his mom's ex boyfriends Hawk who runs a tattoo studio. I loved the relationship between the two of them. I was even intrigued by Sean's relationship with Bruce. The biggest problem I had with Sean was that I never really believed that he was in love with Nate. I believed he was attracted to Nate and felt a lot of gratitude for what he was doing but I didn't ever feel like it was more than that. I also thought he accepted the loss of his limb pretty easily and he seemed more concerned about the patent on his invention.

I also loved Nate's background and found his relationship with his parents sad but yet still intriguing. It was really great to see him shine on his own and I really loved that at least he had one of his brother's in his life. Now I did believe that Nate fell for Sean. I liked that he was conflicted about acting on his feelings and yet how protective he was about Sean and still respecting his independence and ability/need to do things himself. Unfortunately that made the romance feel very one sided to me and the epilogue did not help at all but in fact seemed to echo that feeling of a one sided relationship.

The other thing that kept pulling me out of the story was the massive amount of details about both tattoos and Sean's invention/job. Maybe if it had been just one or the other but I kept getting bogged down in details and the momentum of the case would get lost for me.

So while this had some great things that were on the 5 star level the massive amount of details and the one sided feeling I got about the romance took it down to a 3.5 star rating.

Tattoos and business suits

Pins and needles is a sweet romance that centers around a few romance tropes. We have Boss and client, classes, flawed men, Physical handicaps and a basic sweet romance.

Nate has worked hard to prove himself to his father to only be put down and accused of trying to steal praise from his superiors. fed up he walks out. Fate must've been smiling on him as Their assistant talks him into taking a case that his former superior refused because the man was all tattooed up and couldn't pay an exorbitant retainer. Nate goes to the hospital to meet Hawk and find out more about the case.

Sean is about to give up hope after a tragic accident that took one of his legs and left the other one not perfect. The doctors are pessimistic he will walk and he won't be able to work in the field he went to school for. The settlement the company is trying to force him into won't cover all of his bill little less anything else. Just when he loses faith in walks a lawyer willing to help and the hottest man he ever has seen.

I loved this story. It is sweet and all the sex is off the page. There is a lot going on and there are several twists along the way as the story unfolds. I would have listened in one sitting If I hadn't started so late in the evening.

This is new to me narrator but it won't be the last. Jason Riley has a smooth voice and it was easy to follow the story.

Awful narrator

The narrator reads like a middle schooler with random pauses and no idea of pacing. Omg. Evidently if you learn to ignore the periods, add random ones to the middle of sentences, read at ridiculously top speed, plus do nothing to differentiate between character voices then any random person can narrate!! Maybe I’ll pick up the hobby.