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Sweet Cruelty

Ruthless Obsession

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Sweet Cruelty

By: Zoe Blake
Narrated by: Lauren Sweet, Tor Thom
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About this listen

It was an innocent mistake; she knocked on the wrong door. It was mine.

If I were a better man, I would've just let her go. But I'm not. I'm a cruel bastard. I ruthlessly claimed her virtue for my own. It should've been enough but it wasn't

I needed more...I craved it.

She became my obsession. Her sweetness and purity taunted my dark soul. The need to possess her nearly drove me mad. A Russian arms dealer had no business pursuing a naive librarian student. She didn't belong in my world. I would bring her only pain. But it was too late...she was mine and I was keeping her.

Sweet Cruelty is a dark romance stand-alone novel intended for mature audiences.

©2021 Zoe Blake (P)2021 Podium Audio Contemporary Romance Romance Suspense
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Emma needs help with her tuition and doesn't realise someone else has moved in. It's now Dimitri's home, and he was expecting an escort.

That's the start of their story and involves a very dominant Russsian and an innocent librarian.

This was an enjoyable story. There was a lot of leading by Dimitri and a lot of following by Emma, but that was to be expected with this storyline.

I read on Kindle and read along on Audible. Curiously, there were a lot of differences between the two mediums.

The Russian and the librarian... dominance and innocence

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It’s better on the erotica than on the storyline but easy to listen to while doing other things.

Lacks plot but great narration

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great performance and great production from Podium.

the story did not quite match the audio. I think Zoe released a different copy later on on KU. regardless I enjoyed it very much. well done

another great production from Podium

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The Russian character can’t figure out what accent to use when he’s talking to himself which is utterly ridiculous. Both characters use the same weird wording which wouldn’t ever happen ie:maidenhead …. Iv never heard of it in my 40 something years so hearing 2 different nationalities say it just didn’t sit well.
I’ll finish it as I’m curious but there’s a fair bit that’s put me off. I won’t be listening to the other stories.

Weird writing

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I couldn't put my finger on exactly why this book fell short for me until near the end.

There is WAY to much internal dialogue from both characters at critical moments. Right in the middle of sex or during a kidnapping moment it would meander off into a lengthy explanation that made you forget what was actually happening. It made the sex scenes tiresome and boring and what little action there was fall flat.

The other problem was the male narrator didn't pair his voice with the explanation of the emotion Dimitri was supposed to be feeling. He would be speaking in a calm monotone when it says Dimitri was furious, frantic, aroused...it didn't fit. Other than deepening his voice occasionally he didn't really change. The 3 stars for performance is for the female narrator...she was quite good.

As to the story there really isn't one. The beginning was very dub-con and Dimitri was OTT controlling over someone he had barely spoken a complete sentence to or listened to a complete sentence from.

Insta love on steroids from both sides but we had to listen to endless internal dialogue from Emma regarding how hot he was, no he is a criminal, oh he is just too sexy, no he is too controlling, oh I'm too horny to say no, but wait you guessed it she does...play, rewind, repeat.

Again the tired troupe of bad boy meets innocent virgin though the author tried to make it slightly more palatable by making Emma 23yrs old. God only knows how old Dimitri is - I might have slept thru that part 😴

It took awhile to work out...

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Plot was sorta underdeveloped but 100% would listen again just to hear Dimitri speak. I’m a sucker for a Russian accent.

Plot was lacking but OH MY HIS ACCENT

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Narrators were captivating, especially Tor Thom.
Plot did have a borderline Non Con scene in the beginning so please be mindful of that when listening. Found Female POV could drone on about unnecessary details sometimes. No cheating or OW drama.

Intense

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Good story but it definitely needed more s*x. There were a few scenes that were discussed but we’re not elaborated on.

For example, Dimitri goes down on Emma in the shower, but there is no detail or dialogue of said scene.

More dialogue between Dimitri & Emma during s*x scenes would’ve made this story hotter.

Also the statement ‘you’ll be the death of me’ being constantly said was a little annoying.

The narrators did a good job.

Good story

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Easy listen for when you want some spice and a bit of a story/world however not too much. Very enjoyable.

Hot easy listen

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