Whiskey and Wry

By: Rhys Ford

Narrated by: Tristan James

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

Sequel to Sinner's Gin

Sinners Series: Book Two

He was dead. And it was murder most foul. If erasing a man's existence could even be called murder.

When Damien Mitchell wakes, he finds himself without a life or a name. The Montana asylum's doctors tell him he's delusional and his memories are all lies: He's really Stephen Thompson, and he'd gone over the edge, obsessing about a rock star who died in a fiery crash. His chance to escape back to his own life comes when his prison burns, but a gunman is waiting for him, determined that neither Stephen Thompson nor Damien Mitchell will escape.

With the assassin on his tail, Damien flees to the City by the Bay, but keeping a low profile is the only way he'll survive as he searches San Francisco for his best friend, Miki St. John. Falling back on what kept him fed before he made it big, Damien sings for his supper outside Finnegan's, an Irish pub on the pier, and he soon falls in with the owner, Sionn Murphy. Damien doesn't need a complication like Sionn, and to make matters worse, the gunman-who doesn't mind going through Sionn or anyone else if that's what it takes to kill Damien - shows up to finish what he started.

©2013 Rhys Ford (P)2014 Dreamspinner Press

Excellent 2nd installment

I loved this series when I read it and am thrilled with the audio version. Tristan James is a treat to listen to. He does a wonderful Irish brogue and really brings life and depth to the characters. I love everything about this book, the romance, the action and witty banter. I really want to be adopted as an honorary Morgan!! I hope there will be more books in the series. Definitely worth a credit.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Sexy doesn't even begin to describe it!

If you could sum up Whiskey and Wry in three words, what would they be?

Passionate, Sexy and Sultry.

What did you like best about this story?

The inner workings of the Morgan Clan coupled with the inner workings of Damie and Miki as brother's of choice.

What does Tristan James bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

That Scottish brouque that is just sexy as hell!

Who was the most memorable character of Whiskey and Wry and why?

Miki, it's always Miki St. John.. SinJin. He is so damaged and twisted and only made whole by Kane.

Any additional comments?

Damien Mitchell knows there is something the people around him aren't telling him, the truth about who he really is. He doesn't feel any connection to the people that call themselves his parents, and he has haunting nightmares of a best friend and a car crash. With each passing day, Damien remembers bits and pieces, trying to put together the puzzle hidden within his shattered mind. He's Damien Mitchell of the band Sinner's Gin who supposedly died in a car crash along with two other members of his band. That's what he thinks, but what if he really is crazy and it's all just an illusion he's created in his battered and bruised mind. When someone burns down the asylum he's being detained in and kills his nurse, Damien escapes and goes after the one thread he can grasp in his muddled mind, SinGin.

Sionn Murphy (pronounced shown) is a former body guard now pub manager slash owner with a past he'd soon rather forget as well. He lost someone on his watch. He now bares the scars of that loss, both mentally and physically. The first time he sees Damien playing outside his pub, he has all intentions of sending the guitarist packing. That is until he meets those stormy eyes that carry so much pain and need, it's contagious. There is an obvious attraction between them that they both deny at the start, for various reasons. But circumstance keeps driving them together, and when a killer shows up to finish what he started at the asylum, Sionn goes into protection mode.

With a killer on the loose and his new lover in danger, Sionn reaches out to his rather large Irish family for help. It's a shock to everyone when the one thing that brought Damien to Sionn has been with Sionn's family all along. Can a family of very large, domineering and mean as fuck Irish cops protect the brothers Damian and Miki, from the killer that has their names carved into his very sharp knives?

This quickly became a repeat listen for me. Not only are both books in this series wrought with emotion, passion and dialogue worthy of a best seller. They are narrated flawlessly! From the various differing tones of Irish brogue that the Morgan clan posses, to Damien’s posh English accent and finally, Miki’s tortured soul tones. Ford’s meticulously written witty dialogue, three dimensional characters and a bad guy that will make your skin crawl and James art of storytelling were a match made in sexy man heaven! The psychotic assassin almost stole the show for me. James reads the killer, Parker, very monotone and cerebral throughout, his tone never changes. Even when he is gutting some poor woman like a fish, he’s just very matter of fact and devoid of emotion, much like his character.

While the chemistry between Damie and Sionn wasn’t quite as smoldering hot as Miki and Kane, it was still volcanic. There is something so beyond sexy about the Morgan clan men, the need to protect their own is engrained into them. And their monarch, Donal, is so well spoken and accepting of everything that is thrown at them. Probably because his little spider monkey of a wife, Brigid, has enough fire in her for them both.

If you listen to audio books, get this one on audio! Oh.My.God. Sexy does not even begin to describe it. I highly recommend this book, this series, I was beyond entertained from start to finish. And Ford left it wide open for a third book! Although, I’m not quite sure the world is ready for three brooding and sexy ginormous Irish men from the Morgan clan.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

New narrator for me

Would you consider the audio edition of Whiskey and Wry to be better than the print version?

I went back and forth between the two. Tristan James did a great job with the character voices, which made it "more" real! But I would switch to the book if I wanted to hurry up!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Whiskey and Wry?

The moment when Sionn is hanging out the window and Damien runs in to help

Which character – as performed by Tristan James – was your favorite?

Donal- the dad

Who was the most memorable character of Whiskey and Wry and why?

Donal, everyone needs a tree trunk of an Irishman to protect you! His relationship with Miki and Damien is something else.

Any additional comments?

Great book, great Audio, great narrator

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Formulaic, but great. Spend a credit here!

Trouble with M2M romances series' is they're formulaic. Each book needs a new set of lovers, with a new set of challenges. Only the best writers are able to tie them together with any sensitivity. This is really a brilliant series - worth spending a credit here.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Almost, but not quite as good

3.5 stars...Perhaps 4stars.
I am frustrated.
This sequel featured Damien, best friend of Mikki St. John, the lead guitarist of Sinner Gin. You know, the one that was supposed to have died in the limo accident where Mikki was the only survivor.
We find out that Damien was not only alive but locked in a Montana asylum with amnesia by some people claiming to be his parents. They told him his name was Steven but Damien somehow knew what those people told him was false.

Damien escapes the mental institution and the kidnapper is revealed in the first two hours of an 8hour audiobook. So right off the bat that suspense of trying to figure out who was behind it was squashed. The bad guy sent a contract killer to make Damien dead for real but the contract was sloppy.

Then the Damien was hit by a car and he magically appeared at a pub playing a guitar. The establishment is now owned by Sionn Murphy and as time went on, they fell for each other. Damien confesses what he knows about his past to Sionn, and the former body guard goes into protective mode. Sionn has to figure out how to protect his lover.

Ok. I am not sure what is keeping me from peaking here, but one thing certainly was the flow. While the narrator gave a 5-star effort, the way the story told created these bad transitions and affected the smoothness of the story. The story itself was good but I didn't quite enjoy Sionn & Damien's chemistry like I wanted to, or even like the love in book 1.

Then since I knew the bad guy, it was a matter of the body count before he was finally apprehended (as I knew he wouldn't get Damien in his own book). I think this was the problem. Knowing the bad guy sooo early took the anticipation away from me.

This was an entertaining read and my favorite part was the reconnection with Mikki. Their love for each other and that 2nd part of the audio was definitely good writing. I just kept feeling like I was on the verge of something, and it never quite came to fruition like I needed it to. I will be continuing the series, in audio still!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Gets Better...

What did you love best about Whiskey and Wry?

It is was a wonderful sequel to Sinner's Gin. I was not sure how the author was going to pull of the story, but she exceeded my expectation.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the narration, and the both characters were wonderful.

What does Tristan James bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He brings the story to life in such a wonderful way, I can't wait for the next in the series.

If you could rename Whiskey and Wry, what would you call it?

Psycho...

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

really enjoyable!

What did you love best about Whiskey and Wry?

It was a sound story with well written character that i could lose myself in.

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoyed to a certain extent the predictability of the story, i knew where it was going and so i didn't feel any real gut wrenching angst at any point and the reunion scene was lovely..

Would you listen to another book narrated by Tristan James?

I would, the only reason i had issue with this particular narration was because i felt that he couldn't remember what accent he had given Damien at any given time, sometimes english sometimes american and sometimes irish. It distracted me and left me slightly confused who was narrating at any given point especially with 3rd person pov. That was ny only real gripe with the narration :)

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

It mostly made me smile although there were some ick factors with the amount of gore spread about by the murderer!

Any additional comments?

the only other thing i have to really say was that i found the sex a bit gratuitous and unneeded to further the story line, don't get me wrong i love a good sex scene but too many make me board and so i tune out until it is over and that happened in this story. On the whole though, an enjoyable read with decent writing and not too trope-ish

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Love the story, so so narration

Damien Mitchell is dead.

At least that's what the world thinks. The man currently residing in an asylum in Montana believes something else. He believes he is Damien Mitchell, and he is very much alive. But how does he get his life back, when he's locked up and no one believes him and he doesn't know who to trust? The only thing he knows for sure is that he needs to get to San Francisco and find his best friend Miki St. John.

Former bodyguard Sionn has returned home after his last assignment went horribly wrong. Working at his grandmother's pub he hides from the world, and himself. Until he hears the busker playing outside Finnegan's. Sionn approaches the busker, determined to chase him away, but it didn't end quite as planned. The two forms a tentative friendship and when the past comes to claim Damien the two scramble to stay alive and figure out who and why is after him.

I feel like parts of the story was missing and the not the least a lot more depth to Sionn. I wanted to get to know much more about him, we get glimpses of his past and who he is, but nothing really solid. Most of the book centers around Damien’s problem and their budding relationship. But the focus is never really on Sionn.

Another thing I missed was a bit of backstory to how Damien ended up in the Montana asylum after his accident? How did no one figure out who he was? And also, what happened to the asylum? I mean did everyone working there get off scot free, no consequences? Someone somewhere must have known who he was. Maybe there were more people in that place that didn't deserve to be there? I wanted some kind of closure on that part of the story, but we never got that.

What makes this book really different from Rhys’s other works is that we not only get Damien and Sionn's POV, but we are also in the head of the assassin, and let me tell you his mind is so sick and twisted you might want to have some brain bleach ready after reading some of his sections. Just a bit of a heads up; if you are bothered by descriptive, gruesome and gory details of what one twisted person can do to another, you might want to skim or skip those parts.

I wasn't too fond of Tristan James narration of this book, it didn't really work for me this time around. Again he narrates the book, he's not performing it, living it as some do. And I can accept that, that’s his style of narration. But what I didn’t like was that he felt emotionless while reading which made the book feel kind of flat. His voice, while very pleasant to listen to, was also very monotone and I found myself spacing out at times and had to rewind parts to know what was going on with the story. All in all, it was ok to listen to, but not as effortless as it could've been.

This book too ends with a teaser for the next (full) book in the series. It's not as dramatic as the one in the first book, but it does peak your interest.

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

Another great performance by Tristan James

I'm loving the Sinners series and the whole Morgan clan. Well rounded characters and family so warm you can feel the love through James' performance.

My second favorite in the series... SO GOOD

What? Damien is alive? Miki will be so psyched! These were my first thoughts when I read the blurb. That’s because Rhys Ford has a way of making her characters a part of your life and the Sinner’s Gin boys are now imbedded in my psyche.

Damien is the driving force behind Sinner’s Gin and when the band is split up by the crash that killed the other 2 band members, Damien is mysteriously kidnapped and held far from San Francisco in a mental hospital. The memories that surface, bits and pieces of his life with Miki, are treated like part of his delusion and it takes a crisis to set him free of his captors and into the hands of his savior.

Sionn (pronounced shoon) owns a bar that doesn’t allow anyone non-Irish singers to perform – so we know something important is occuring when Sionn makes an exception for the cute new guitarist, Damien. Damien and Sionn form a quiet alliance over coffee and then gradually deepen the relationship.

In a bit of serendipity, Sionn is the cousin to Miki’s cop, Kane Morgan. Sionn calls on Kane to help investigate Damien’s kidnapping and a new shooting attempt of his life, thus getting Miki and Damien together after over a year apart. (This part of the book made my heart sing. I wanted to cry along with the boys at their re-union.)

Though it would be tempting to be jealous of the relationship between Miki and Damien, it’s readily apparent that both boys are already head over heels in love with their respective Irishmen, so the focus can be on finding the person bent on destroying Damien’s life.

The villain in Whisky and Wry is perfectly terrible and creepy. The mystery is satisfying and grotesque. The love story is sweet, sexy and sublime. Another fantastic book and a great addition to the series.

I highly recommend this book and give it 6 of 5 stars, amazing.

The audio:

Tristan James’ voice is just perfection.

But really – the man’s voice is just so sultry, his accents make my toes curl. When you put these two together, Rhys’s beautifully crafted words with Tristan’s sumptuous voice you can’t have anything but another hit.

I just can’t praise the combination enough. I can’t wait for Tequila Sunrise to come out on Audio next.

I give the narration a 6 out of 5 stars as well, thus the overall rating a 6- out of this world!

much more enjoyable than book one

**AUDIO REVIEW**

oh, much better than Sinners Gin!

not a brilliant reviw, but I did enjoy in much more than book one. Irish and cowboy really are made for each other. and the fact that we knew who was doing it all right up front was a little different. much more violent than book one, filing on over 18 shelf too.

as for the narrator, i found him much easier to listen to second time aorund and i think i preferred him in this one.

I need book 3, which is not yet available in audio, i will wait though. i dont want to spoil my enjoyment of this series by switching to reading from listening

Another good tale from Rhys Ford

Yet another book I read in pixels before getting the audio and I'm glad I did as the characters came through beautifully and there were some real laugh out loud moments despite the seriousness of what Damien was going through.
The narration was good although there was some fluctuation on the accents but overall I think that Tristan James did a good job of bringing the characters to life. This is definitely one I will listen to again. (Although my favourite character is Miki I do like Damien & hus story was a good one)

Good narration, dark and suspenseful story

This book is not for the faint-hearted. There are some VERY grisly descriptions of murders and murder scenes that really took the edge off the romance aspects in this story. The story arc in general was really engaging, but sadly formulaic - just like the first book, a skinny musician who has childhood abuse trauma is helped through current trauma by another big Irishman with a heart made from marshmallow ... These Morgan men... there's not a bad egg among them!

Don't get me wrong I did like the character of Damien and how he found his way back to his best friend/band mate Miki St John while trying to hide from a murderer, its just that there were issues...

My biggest issue with this book was the writing style. Rhys Ford really does stretch out what could be said in a sentence to a whole paragraph or page. It gets frustrating when the simplest thing is dragged out or repeated. Some may say this is just the authors style of writing, and yes, that could be correct, but cutting all the unnecessary stuff it would leave a wonderfully tight story. I saw what this story could have been and felt sorry that i had all of the distractions of repetitions and over description.

The Irishism's were starting to get to me in this story too. Sionn was pronounced as "Shoon" by the narrator, where as Sionn is Gaelic for 'Sean or Shaun'. Sionn kept calling Damien 'Boyo' as if it was an Irish thing to say, but 'Boyo' is culturally attributed to the Welsh, not Irish. I also still don't understand how the whole Morgan family came to be in San Francisco with Irish accents when the parents moved over from Ireland to the US and all 8 kids were US born, so should have US accents. Playing off the sentimentality of the large, loving, perfect family and Irishness got to be a bit too much for me (as an Irish woman)

I did enjoy the narrators range of accents, and the pacing was much better in this recording. I like Miki and Damien and am invested enough in them to want to know what happens next, but as i go forward to the next book I can already see where this is going. Lets see if i am correct.

Great sequel, but not for the squeamish

This book is definitely worth a listen. The continuation of the story from Book 1's cliff hanger (there's another one at the end of this book) is pretty satisfying, and still leaves room for more in the series .... please! One warning: there are some very graphic descriptions of what the bad guy does to his victims, which are a bit hard to take when you are listening while driving and not expecting quite so much detail!

As another reviewer has mentioned, knowing who the bad guy is so early in the story has and interesting effect on the way you understand the rest of the story as it unfolds. You assume that Damien will come out of it OK, so the extended details of what the hit man is doing and the ways the stories intertwine have a certain inevitability, but it is not totally predictable, by any means.

Tristan James does a great job on the whole with a lovely delivery for both the narration and the character voices, but - as one other reviewer noticed - he doesn't seem to know/remember what accent to give Damien. As an English listener, perhaps I am more sensitive to the change in the vowel sounds, but Damien's voice swings between English, Irish, and American, which can be a little confusing when there are lots of voices in the same conversation.

There are some wonderful characters in this and the earlier story, and I am looking forward to the next developments.

Just Fabulous

I love this book. The narrator is so good he really knows how to bring all the characters to life. Highly Recommended.