Man's Ruin

Original Sin, Book 1

By: Nicola R. White

Narrated by: Carol Ayon

Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Magdalene is a mob-connected madam. Tommy Flynn is the hitman who loves her. And when they're framed for the murder of a rival crime boss's favorite son, Magdalene fears the sins of her past have come back to haunt her.

After spending half a lifetime in a seamy underworld where love is for sale and men worship at the altar of sex and greed, claiming sanctuary in a cathedral is the last thing she wants to do - and the only chance she has to find out who set her up. With all clues pointing to Magdalene's ex-lover, a working girl called Lola, the legendary madam is reluctant to trust Tommy, a smooth-talking hired gun, and risk being burned again.

But as time grows short and secrets are revealed, Magdalene will have to look into the dark places inside herself if she is to catch a killer and survive with body and soul intact. In the corrupt city of Crawley, Massachusetts, passion, crime, and religion collide in this steamy, neo-noir romantic thriller.

©2016 Nicola R. White (P)2017 Nicola R. White

Narration was trouble in some areas

An interesting romance by White. I enjoyed that this has a murder mystery involved in it. For me that greatly spiced up the normal romance side to everything. There is also a lot of suspense within the characters themselves. They have some crazy things going on in their backstories and those things are revealed slowly to the reader as time goes on. I think White did an excellent job of keeping my attention and getting me invested into the story through both the mystery and romance aspect. The mystery had a lot of twists and I wasn’t exactly able to put it together right away, so I appreciate the difficulty level of the murder aspect. The romance sometimes took my attention away from the suspense, but overall I found this to be a good work! I would definitely continue with this series! I give the story a 4.5/5 stars.

Narration wise I like Ayon’s regular voice. She has a nice voice and good pacing. The Boston accents are great as well. I however did not like her different accents for the different ethnicities in this story, especially Magdalene’s voice became grating at times. I think she should have read that without the hispanic accent she was trying to do. The rest of her narration is pretty solid though, so maybe she can get lessons for certain accents or just not do them at all in the future? So for me the audio is more a 3.5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Nicola R. White. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Sexy, Seedy and Suspenseful

This audiobook had me on the edge of my seat. I didn’t listen to it in the way I usually listen to audiobooks. I usually pace myself and listen when I am alone or at the gym, in this case I was antisocial. I binge listened because I had to know what happened next. If my usual reading tipple is a cup of tea this was a straight up Vodka!

Let’s talk characters. Our focus throughout is on Magdalene and Tommy, they are not, on paper, character’s that you could like. She is the Madam at a high end, mob controlled brothel and Tommy is a hit man and the guard at that brothel. I liked them both despite their none-too-small flaws. Why? That is hard to answer. When the story opens they are mob controlled and there are things from their past and their careers that have made them incredibly strong, frightening and on the surface cold characters. As the book progresses we get to know Magdalene and Tommy and find there is so much more to them than being a Madam and a Hit man. Tommy is a warm, caring and in some ways gentle character. Magdalene while openly strong, has been let down and used by men her whole life. She is broken in many ways but her inner strength becomes clear as the book develops.

Now to the story. Narrated by Carol Ayon and told through Magdalene’s point of view the book begins with Magdalene on her day off with her girlfriend Lola when she receives the telephone call from Tommy that sets the story in motion. A rival and infinitely more powerful gang boss’ son and a prostitute have been murdered at the brothel. Both were shot in the method known to be Tommy’s signature and Tommy was the one in charge of guarding the room at the time of the murder. They are both in deep trouble! Magdalene will be held accountable because she is in charge of everything that happens on the site and all evidence seems to point at Tommy being the shooter.

This book is a race against time, Magdalene and Tommy must find out who was ultimately responsible for the murders and the clock is ticking because while they are hunting the killers they are also being hunted.

Nicola R. White has penned an extremely fast paced, sexy thriller and it really delivers in intensity and shocks. If I was a nail biter I would have no nails left! I cannot wait to dive into more of her work. Dive in is the perfect phrase to use because I became completely immersed and invested in this story.

Carol Ayon is one very talented narrator! I felt the voice acting was incredible, she maintained the intensity, emotion and innate sexiness of Magdalene throughout the book and the other characterisations were equally well done, well defined and expressive. The voices assigned to the characters (especially Tommy as there is plenty of narrative involving him) were consistent and believable. The different characters had different accents and those accents were equally well done.

Consider me now a fan of both Nicola R. White and Carol Ayon


I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Nicola R. White. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

a very hot Mafia story

a very dark and interesting and good story I love dark stories but not always and this story was very good and very steamy the book didn't disappoint me at all I loved every single second of it very enjoyable book
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

3.5 Stars

This is my first book by this author and narrator. Romantic suspense is my favorite genre so I was looking forward to listening to this book. While there were elements in the story that I found intriguing and suspenseful, this listener struggled with the book at times. Overall I find that I am giving this book a 3.5 rating. There were times when I felt like the author just wasn't clear enough as to what was happening in the story, or maybe it was with the narration and not being able to follow well enough because I didn’t feel the narrator changed her voice enough to know who was who in a scene. Knowing who all the players were, was that one thing that was really missing in this story and maybe if I had read the book I could give it a higher rating or maybe if it was done in dual narration it would have been easier. With many scenes having multiple people talking, not knowing exactly knowing who was who caused me to struggle. Yet even with those struggles, I was able to predict things so that also took away from my enjoyment. There was a surprise or two a few times that and the narrator doing a better job in changing her voice for the various characters helped with the 3.5 rating. I had no issues with the sound quality and enjoyed the occasional background noise that went with the story to give it a more real feel.

Intriguing Mafia story

This is my first Nicola R White book, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Not a typical mafia book, this involved Magdalene, the owner of a brothel and Tommy, infamous hit man. A murder took place in the brothel and these two are being framed. White has included a lot in this story, not a typical kill the person, hide the body and find the culprit. Magdalene has a lot of baggage, a secret that can destroy so many lives and has trouble trusting and loving. Tommy does his best to keep her safe, but is his love and skill enough? There are many twists and turns in this book, enough to keep the story fluid, thrilling and interesting.

This is my first narration by Carol Ayon. I commend her for trying to keep the characters in their ethnicity, but I did find her Spanish accent irritating. Her normal narration was wonderful, including the Boston accents for other characters. I would have preferred her to give Magdalene a different voice.

It was like an old fashioned Gangster Movie!

This reminded me of a good old fashioned Gangster story, some of my early reading favourites were early mobsters books
After the murder of a rival mobster’s son at the brothel Magdalene manages. This happened while Tommy was on duty. So they have to lay low until they find out whats going on.
I have say I loved this audiobook, it reminded me of the black and white old gangster movie. So I was in my element. The two main characters Tommy and Magdalene, a madam and hitman hardly heroes, but like old school movies a hitman that won’t kill women and children. Magdalene a madam with a heart.
I not going into the story, it’s not for the fainthearted or under 18 years old.
This is over 7 hours long and I couldn’t turn it off, listening long into the night
The narrator was brilliant, the different male voices was top notch. I was mesmerised and just had to keep listening.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Nicola R. White. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Old Fashioned Mystery

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

This is not a book I would refer. As an audible book it does not capture attention.

Did Carol Ayon do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

The narration was a bit too monotone.

Did Man's Ruin inspire you to do anything?

I doubt that I would follow this author. There was nothing that inspired me to read another book.

Any additional comments?

The book was provided free for an honest review.

Hitman Hero and not so happy Hooker

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes it is different then most books in this genre.

What did you like best about this story?

The slow growing romance between our hero and the reluctant woman he desires.

What three words best describe Carol Ayon’s performance?

Average,untalented,boring

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

N/A

Any additional comments?

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Hitman and the Madame

I have always been intrigued by mafia stories, and this one has a great premise. I think the narrator tried to hard to have a Hispanic accent for Magdelina, and that took away from her performance. Carol Ayon did great for the other characters in this book. I enjoyed the various twists this book had along with the imagery. The storyline was original and fast moving. The ending surprised me, along with who the killer was and why. I requested this review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review.

This Story Gave Me Mixed Emotions...

There Were Several Emotions That Triggered While Writing The Review For This Story...The First Is Distance..I Didn't Appreciate The Way The Author Had Disrespectful Scenes In The Church.. Being That Religion Is Close To My Heart It Left A Very Sour Taste In My Mouth... The Second Emotion Was Skepticism...I Wanted To Believe In The Main Character But Its Hard To Imagine A 28 Year Old Madame..Most Madames Are Much Older So The Mistakes That Were Made That Ensued The Plot Could Have Made The Story More Believable If She Was More Seasoned... The Last And Final Emotion Was Disappointment..The Ending Could Have Made The Reader Look Forward To The Next Book But All It Did Was Make The Character Look Undeveloped... Better Luck Next Time...