Forged in Trust

Bay Area Professionals

By: Mickie B. Ashling

Narrated by: John Solo

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Dr. Ethan Marshall is the young medical student on call the night Tessa Duran murders her husband for abusing her 12-year-old-son, Rino. Ethan stays in the cubicle while the rape kit is performed and is surprised when the boy resorts to prayers instead of tears.

Despite compelling evidence, Tessa is sent to jail for life. To avoid placing Rino in foster care, their parish priest agrees to raise him. Ethan is touched by Rino's plight and visits whenever possible, but the connection is broken when the priest and young boy leave the area months later.

Raised by the Dominicans in California, Rino considers joining the order until a romance blossoms with a fellow student. After much soul-searching, he turns his back on everything familiar, and chooses his orientation over his perceived vocation. Upon graduating dental hygiene school, Rino takes a job at the office of Scott Gregory and Robin Kennedy.

Seventeen years have passed since that horrible night in the emergency room. Forty-three-year-old Ethan is now a dominant in search of a full-time submissive. Twenty-nine-year-old Rino is adrift, longing for someone or something to help him find the serenity he's lost along the way. As they rekindle their friendship, they realize they might be perfect for each other.

©2015 Mickie B. Ashling (P)2016 Dreamspinner Press

excellent narration of a reasonable book

Any additional comments?

Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Ethan was on call the night Rino came in, with his mother and dead step father. Rino's abuse needed documenting and Rino would only consent to it, if Ethan stayed and held his hand the whole time. 17 years later, Ethan and Rino cross paths, and Rino knows that Ethan is the guardian angel he prayed to for so long. Ethan is under no such illusions, especially when Rino turns up at his club.

Generally, I talk about the book first then the narration after. I'm flipping that here. A narrator can only work work with what is presented to him, granted he puts his own voices to the characters but the words he reads are not his own. I cannot fault the narration.

John Solo narrates. It is the first of his work I have listened to and it will not be the last. Solo's voices for the characters are clear and easily identifiable, and his reading voice deep and even. He portrays the emotions of all the characters well, and they come across in all the right ways in all the right places.

What I have a problem with, is the story itself. Overall, its good. I just don't like how fast it moved! Rino was raped, repeatedly as a child and then again as a date rape as an adult. Yet on his second encounter with Ethan (after they met at the club) they are able to fully consummate their relationship. (Trying to word it so Amazon will take the same worded review, but you get what I mean) There is hardly any reservations or reactions from either Rino or Ethan, and I would have expected more.

I read, A LOT. And as such have picked up a whole range of lay knowledge for a whole range of things. I would have expected more hesitation from Rino, maybe Ethan too. Maybe I read too much, huh?? It just bothered me, and I've learnt to listen to those bothers and write about them in my review.

This is book 4 in the series, I have not read any others. BUT I am left curious enough about Robin and Scott (Impacted, book 1) to add their book to my to-read pile.

3 stars for the book
5 stars for the narration
4 overall.

**same worded review will appear on Goodreads, Audible.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Kobo*

hot and sexy stories

the stories sexy, and narrator did a superb job bringing the story to life. and the story between Ethan and Rico perfect.

Wonderful! John Solo is Perfect

I definitely enjoyed this one, but I've got to honestly say that it wrapped up right when it was getting good. Rino is dealing with his faith, he and Ethan are just embarking on a Master/slave relationship, maybe a new career for Rino?

Well I admit I skipped #2 and #3 in this series simply because they aren't out on audio but I do plan to go back and actually read them. It was great to see characters from the first book in this series playing a prominent role in Forged in Trust so hopefully the author has plans to continue the series.

John Solo was perfect, as always.