Tainted Life cover art

Tainted Life

A Sweet and Angsty M/M Romance Novella

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Tainted Life

By: Mel Gough
Narrated by: Brian Meslar
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About this listen

Metropolitan Police Detective Pete Tucker’s world comes crashing down when his wife sues for divorce and sole custody of their only son.

Desperate to forget his sorrows for a while, Pete seeks refuge in a Soho bar where he is approached by a sexy, funny, and clearly interested stranger. Photographer Liam Jackson is just the ticket for one oblivious night of perfect passion.

However, their attraction proves too intense for a one-night-stand. To his surprise, Pete finds that he’s game for something more - but his baggage soon gets in the way. Then Liam’s own dangerous secrets claw their way to the surface, and threaten to derail the budding romance.

Is their growing bond strong enough to weather the violent storms ahead?

©2018 Mel Gough (P)2019 Mel Gough Literature & Fiction Romance Funny

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Listener received this title free

The story was as expected, let down by the narrator. I assume from his pronunciation of the London landmarks names that he is not UK born, but that happens. What was disappointing was his tone it was dull without inflection, with gaps to showcase his ability to voice multiple characters.

Story as expected

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Sweet but angsty, this novella has a slow but steady pace.
The two main characters have bot tons of baggage and a few truths they keep from each other, which adds both to my frustration (I tend to get vocal when I’m mad at characters, lol) and to the thickening of the plot.
Unpleasant or downright mean side-characters seem to be the theme of the story, too, what with Pete’s horrible ex-wife and Liam’s abusive druggy brother.
I really would have loved for the book to be a bit longer, I wanted to know more about Pete’s ex-partner and best friend and get a more “established” HEA for Pete and Liam, because with everything they’ve gone through they certainly deserve it!
Brian Meslar is a new-to-me narrator, and I think he did a good job. His voice is smooth and pleasant and the pacing flows naturally.

Sweet but angsty.

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Listener received this title free

I went in “blind” to this book. I didn’t even read the blurb. I admit, I thought that a book this short can’t be good. I’m glad that I was wrong! It seems that the length doesn’t matter after all. This was actually very good story. Both MC’s are at the rock bottom of their lives when they meet. I like that the MC’s weren’t perfect and they made mistakes and bad decisions. And still, they weren’t afraid of their feelings for each other. No instalove but slow burn. This story had suspence, angst and love in perfect mix.

The narrator was new to me. Narration was ok, not perfect by any means, but ok. The occasional humming sounds in the background were a bit distracting though.

I can really recommend this book if you are looking for something shorter to listen to.

Short but good

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Listener received this title free

I went in blind on this book. But, as it was a short read, I went straight in. The story is a little slow, but when you get into it, I felt for both of the characters, having lots of baggage and not wanting a relationship, things go from a one night stand to a little more.

It develops into a great book, well worth the read. I will look for more from this author.

As I listened at 1.40 on Audible, Brian Meslar did an OK representation of this book. Although I believe he was American and the book was set in England, he didn't pronounce some words correctly. Also, if you don't increase the speed, then the voice is a little slow and mundane.


Tainted Life
A Sweet and Angsty M/M Romance Novella
By: Mel Gough
Narrated by: Brian Meslar
Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins


❤❤❤❤ Overall
🎧🎧 Narration
📚📚📚📚 Story
Read at 1.40 speed on Audible

I received this audiobook for free, and my review is my opinion and an honest review.

New to me author and narrator

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Listener received this title free

I did enjoy this book, but in both the story and the narration I felt it was missing something.
The narration itself was clear, but the London accents often felt forced and slipped into an almost South African twang. And a few pronunciations were wrong, the most obvious being Woolwich. It sometimes came across as a flat monotone making the pace of the book feel slower than it should.
Again with the story, it didn't have that spark I like to find in a book. Maybe it was the narration dragging it down, but nothing inspired feelings of either high or low. It wasn't awful, but it was far from the best I've heard.
In the end, it was good enough for me to listen to all the way through, but not enough to do so again.

A good story, but lacking something.

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