Queen of Diamonds

A Dark Erotic Romance (Old Money Roulette, Book 1)

By: Natalie Bennett

Narrated by: Marie Smith

Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

His enemy. His partner. His whore.

His mind games. Her morals.

The road to hell...well, there is no road to hell. I already live there.

I was forced to partake in a rigged game of seduction, manipulation, and murder. Mateo Remmington is my formidable opponent. He makes the devil look like a saint. He’s immoral. He's ruthless. He's a goddamn king. King of a clandestine empire who sits on a throne covered in innocents’ blood.

I’ve become his obsession. He’s becoming my deadly addiction. And if I make one wrong move, he’ll end my life.

Age 18-plus: This audiobook contains triggers.

©2018 Duquon Bennett (P)2018 Natalie T Bennett

500 stars

so many stars. I bow down to this author. I can never say enough praise

Could have been better

This book had tremendous potential but just kinda felt flat in all the ways that really matter. It felt very rushed with will little built up of chemistry between the two main characters. There really wasn’t much substance. For instance the main female character is supposed to be a somewhat innocent good girl (with a slightly bad girl persona inside) who is only coming back to her fathers family; who are immersed in a life of crime, money and drugs. In order to find her missing (also supposed dead) sister. Yet after only there second meeting she decides to give into the drug lord and have sex with him in a grungy cafe bathroom on there first meeting. There’s no build up or emotional entailment. Overall the story is pretty hollow. It’s not that the story was bad, it just didn’t deliver a full package.

Story was okay

The story was okay, but the narrator was not great. Her portuguese accent was weird, and she kept mispronouncing words like instead of saying "written," she would pronounce it "writ-en" if that makes sense. Also, half the book was written (haha) from the male lead's perspective, and she still narrated it. Was weird. These are the situations where you need to have 2 narrators. Don't think I'm going to be listening to the rest of the series.

Wonderfully dark and intriguing

Narration:This was my first listen of Marie Smith who did a good job overall with the narration. This book was written in dual POVs with the main male character, Mateo, described by the author as Brazilian with a Portuguese accent. Dual POVs by one narrator can be difficult enough, but add to that a female voicing a deep male, accented voice and there's potential for problems. Marie Smith handled this difficult narration well and seemed to grow more comfortable with the male voice and accent as the book went along. Good job!
Production: There was an issue with volume changes from chapter to chapter near the end of the book (startling through an ear bud!), but was manageable.
Story: This is Book One of the Old Money Roulette Series and is described as "dark, erotic romance". It doesn't disappoint. Natalie Bennett does a wonderful job of laying groundwork for her storyline, slowly revealing backstory and mystery as the story unfolds. I will definitely be listening to and reading Book Two (King of Hearts)!