3 “broken” brothers fall for 2 sisters & a BF

Parental neglect, over privilege, cavalier attitudes toward sex, alcohol, and drugs with unrealistic expectations about the struggle to fight addictions or to deal with consequences. And the guys were all too arrogant to be appealing at first.
The first story Clandestine is about the oldest brother and sister. Olivia Miller is a model/former model with the cliche issues of self esteem and self loathing. This causes her to be self destructive so she is anorexic and a cocaine addict and somewhat of an alcoholic. Spencer Lancaster is arrogant to the extreme, self indulgent, and mean and clueless to people around him but especially his brothers. Both are concerned about being caught by the tabloids but not their own self worth. Neither are very sympathetic or like-able and both are shallow and weak minded so while I hoped their romance would work out due to their great love, I found their drama very wearing and their story too long. Me Me Me or each other but not friends and family much. Her problems get miraculously fixed after an OD, a cry with her dad, and a quick trip to rehab while his are partially solved by realizing he is in love and that he wants his dad’s approval in business though he never really stands up and does what he’d like career wise which was to be an architect. The moms are marginalized by both and both have daddy issues. A sexy relationship but superficial through much of it. Secrets are their obvious problem but immaturity and cavalier attitudes toward their own substance abuse is a really the worst part of these two. Narration is ok but not great. Aaron Shedlock is pretty good but Lia Langola switches between over dramatic and flat modulations. 2 stars

Sordid
The second couple are the middle kids. Very passionate and instant attractions. Grant is an arrogant workaholic, bright in some aspects but very stupid with his choice of wife and how he deals with her. He also is self indulgent and self pitying through most of his story and at times very undeserving of Bridget, Olivia’s plucky but immature sister. If takes him forever to man up and ask for help. Since I had read the Price series first I knew the obvious solution lay with them, and those siblings were much more interesting. While these two deserved etheir HEA their story was pretty mediocre, though their chemistry was hot. Narration is ok. Virginia Rose plays up at a little girl voice too much and Christian Fox is good as Grant but terrible with female voices, especially Chelsea and Bridget. 2-3 stars

Explicit
The last couple had the most depth and were the most interesting though here again the idea of self redemption and being able to drop a cocaine habit, a party lifestyle, and a dependence for alcohol for the sake of a sympathetic woman is a bit far fetched. Pierce is the youngest and most self indulgent of the Lancaster brothers on the surface. While he also is self pitying and whines about lack of attention, he also has depth and is very sweet. He has a secret side that Lyndsey, Olivia’s best friend and Carson, Olivia’s half sister’s boyfriend can sense. Small word of the debauched and rich. Lyndsey is struggling from physical pain from a serious accident as well as daddy issues of neglect. Older brother Spencer from book one is very nasty through much of this book and girlfriend Olivia is again very self absorbed, and unfeeling and unsympathetic of another addict. She could have helped Spencer understand his brother but appears more interested in sex with her fiancé and jet setting than in being a good friend and understanding future sister-in-law. Just confirmed how shallow the first couple were. This last story had more depth. A worry subplot, characters that made the readers care, and the best narration. It rates 5 stars all the way

20 people found this helpful

Someone forgot to add the storylines...

Ever-present in these books are: Sexual addiction, alcoholism, drug addiction. Absent from these books is: STORYLINE. I often wonder how this stuff gets published...and has the gall to be listed as "romance." This is objectification of women, sexism, sexual addiction, hedonism...Disappointed that treasured narrators take on these projects. As long as they do, the lackluster material will continued to be written. Give us at least a storyline....

13 people found this helpful

Flawed people find their paths

At first glance you could look at the characters, and find things to dislike, but really we are all flawed. These people are real. Along the way, they find their way, they find the right thing.

Clandestine
Spencer & Olivia - The Playboy and the Model. Spencer loves the ladies, and Olivia is a model with no self esteem. Issues with anorexia and drugs have followed her during her career. She's better now, until being in the limelight brings her back into modeling, and 'the lifestyle.' Really there's a lot of truth in this book, the pressures of the spotlight and 'fame' do often come with drugs and other issues. But this is a story of people who learn to rise above it and be better, and be better together.

Sordid
Grant & Bridgett
Grant has become the blacksheep of the family, and opens a rival hotel to compete with The Lancaster. Bridgett, well her sister is dating Spencer, the CEO of the Lancaster. Somehow she meets a stranger, who then becomes her boss at her temp job. Oh, and Grant is working with his estranged wife at the hotel to make matters even worse.

Explicit
Pierce and Lyndsey
Pierce, the youngest Lancaster and the party boy. Lyndsey, Olivia's BFF we meet in Clandestine. She's the reformed party girl, who's still recovering from a devastating car accident we saw in Clandestine. Pierce has screwed up once again and is working community service at the center that Lyndsey now works at. Pierce is very flawed, but he also grows up and works for it, and learns a LOT of tough lessons.

All in all these stories flow together nicely, they can be stand alone, but listening together you get a fuller picture. Yes they are imperfect people, but aren't we all? Isn't it refreshing to know that the imperfect can grow, and heal and be better. Earn happiness. Yes, that is a lesson we all can learn.

6 people found this helpful

Trigger warnings

This box set includes the stories of three wealthy brothers. I don’t have these particular triggers but I was not prepared for the conflict in these books. There is heavy drug use, cheating, and recovery from physical trauma that are integral parts of the stories. The characters are well developed and the books are expertly written, but I just wasn’t in the right emotional space for such heavy and complex psychological struggles. There were plenty of hot and steamy scenes and the HEAs were satisfying if you can get through the emotional turmoil. The narrators were all brilliant and I liked that there were different narrators for each book. It was all very well done just not for me right now.

5 people found this helpful

First book

Listen... I don't know the names of the first two performers.. but I wanted to rip my ears off. Just read the story please. Don't force a fake voice. Good lord..

4 people found this helpful

Fun interesting stories

Narrators did an amazing job bringing to life the characters and their struggles. It was easy to get lost in each brothers story

1 person found this helpful

Bk 1 - Candestine A Review (A progress review)

Book 1 - Clandestine (Review 2/25/21)
Written about 30 mins from finishing this one.

Bit overdone with the whinny, woe is me, heroine. Olivia is insecure and needs people to validate her through her physical image to be whole. She also beats on her physical appearance, even though she's at a healthy weight. Something that women who have body issues will understand, it also tells how the modeling/beauty industry feeds and unrealistic expectation as to what beauty is. Spencer is a hotel heir obsessed with getting back at his brother who keeps sabotaging the legacy he wants to leave with the family business. He also has zero communication skills and dances with a very destructive ex-fiancé (Addison) who is manipulative and conniving allowing her to toy with him like a puppet the moment things get rocky between Spencer and Olivia, proving he has his vices that are just as self-destructive as Olivia's.

The one thing I have to say is that the author fully researched the business that is Modeling. I think my fight with this particular book, the heroine especially, is the whinny heroine. The one thing that the author hasn't done is gone and put Olivia in a situation where she not only gets help with her coke habit, but also the mental help that she needs. She obviously needs to get OUT of her modeling situation and finding a healthy future career.

Spencer is man who hasn't learned how to have a relationship. Unfortunately he holds EVERYTHING to his chest. Because he lost his trust in the opposite sex because of ONE woman (Addison), it's forced him to shut out everyone. Nothing Olivia said or did would've been enough in his mind. It's almost habitual for him to not only keep Olivia out, but to physically push her out. That's not healthy either.

The one thing about this particular novel is that these are two very dysfunctional people who think they need each other to fix the other. It's a blind leading the blind situation and I just don't see how these two would ever make the long haul. But the one thing that grated on my nerves, was Olivia's whining and her "nobody loves me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go snort some coke" mentality. Spencer's character growth and arc is far more tolerable and enjoyable to experience.

3.5 Stars Overall.
3 Stars - Story
4 stars - Performance

1 person found this helpful

Liked two of the three stories

So this was hard for me to review because it’s three books. The first book was hard to get through. I didn’t like the narration of this story at all. This may be a personal preference but I think it was their interpretation of the lines that didn’t work. After listening to all three stories (each story has different narrators) my opinion was strengthened. I really enjoyed book 2 &3! So I would say try it out! If you can get through the first book you will love the second and third books.

1 person found this helpful

Only made it through book one

I have no idea if book 2 and three are better but between the narration and story I literally could not finish. This book is bad. The male narration was the only thing good about it.

Not bad…but

I didn’t mind the series…it was ok, predictable. I couldn’t stand the female narration in the 1st 2 books, I only kept listening because I knew the last in the series was Andi Arndt…whew.