Ruthless People

By: J. J. McAvoy

Narrated by: Joel Froomkin

Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

To the outside world, they look like American royalty, giving to charities, feeding the homeless, and rebuilding the city. But behind closed doors is a constant battle for dominance between two bosses, cultures, and hearts. Ruthless People is a romantic crime fiction set in modern day Chicago and follows the life and marriage of Melody Giovanni and Liam Callahan - rivals by blood and leaders through fear. Their marriage was arranged by their fathers in hopes to end years of bloodshed between the Irish and the Italians. Liam believes he's getting a simple-minded wife, one he can control, one who bends to his every need...the complete opposite of Melody. She knows exactly what type of man he is and would rather die than give up the power she has spent her life building. The mafia of the past has evolved, and with rival bosses gunning for them, Melody and Liam will have to learn to work as one to take down those who stand in their way.

Warning: This book contains adult language and subject matter including graphic violence and sex that maybe disturbing or triggers for some listeners. This book is not intended for listeners under the age of 18.

This book is written in the perceptive of mobsters who aren't looking for redemption or possess a heart of gold.

©2014 J.J. McAvoy (P)2015 J.J. McAvoy

Brutally Awesome!

Liam Callahan agrees to marry Melody Giovanni and bond the two mafia families together. Irish and Italian together? You know it’s going to be explosive. Liam is expecting an easily malleable woman who he can placate with a credit card. Poor Liam, what he gets is a boss, a ruthless killer who bows to no one including him… Gasp!

Get ready for a wild, insane ride. This audiobook is unlike anything I’ve ever listened to before. If you’re faint of heart or have any triggers, stay far far away from this story! There is wholesale slaughter, violence, and sex with no apologies. These aren’t good people, in fact, you can say they are pretty much soulless. The one powerful thing they have going for them is unwavering loyalty to the family. Oh, there’s squabbling and some serious family infighting going, but when the family is threatened, they pull together and take no prisoners.

Ruthless People is narrated by Joel Froomkin and his Irish accent is to die for! Joel voices all the characters in this nearly 12-hour audiobook. It was the most adrenaline fueled listen I’ve heard in quite awhile. This audiobook is the first installment of the Ruthless People Series and I’m so glad the other two audiobooks in the series have been released. I’m dying to find out how this story plays out!

This audiobook was received in exchange for an unbiased review!

Loving evil ways

First, this book is not for everyone. The characters are absolutely evil, they do horrific stuff to innocent people, so many people may not like that. With that being said they are mafia bosses and they do thermos of stuff you would expect a mafia boss to do. However some of the things they were responsible for were..... Which is why I found myself cheering against them as much as I cheered for them. When bad things happened to them I was very much ok with it. Karma. But the story is interesting especially from their point of view. And Mel and Liam's relationship was the best part of the book. Some things did get repetitive like Melody always getting upset at Liam and trying to kill him or trying to kill everyone else, I got tired of that. One thing I did not like about the narration was Melody's voice. She sounded whiny and more Valley than mafia, many times more petulant child than mafia boss. Everyone else sounded really good though. I would recommend this if you're looking for something a little different: romance with some violence mixed it. That's if it don't mind cheering for the bad guys.

What are you waiting for?!?!?!

I adored everything about this book. Loved the story the main characters the side characters the development of the characters the way the author was able to build a world you could get lost in. I will admit the heroine (using that term losely as they are technically in fact criminals but I digress) was a bit caustic at first but that just made her eventual surrender to love rhat much sweeter.
Im reading everything by Ms. McAvoy. ABSOLUTLY EVERTHING!!!!!

ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY INCREDIBLE!!!

WHOA! What a ride! and I didn't want to get off!!!
It took me a while to start this review because I have no idea how to do this series justice. This is incredibly written and this dark original storyline is going to keep you guessing and clamoring for more.

I cannot say enough about the job that Joel Froomkin did as a narrator. I feel like it shouldn't even be called narration, it was acting. He brought us along for the ride so much so there were a couple of times in the story I wanted to sink down on the floor and weep, or fist pump the air in elation.

This was my first introduction to this author and narrator, and I am a forever fan after this.

Ruthless...potential triggers and spoilers!

I would like to start my review by saying if you have any triggers caused by rape, mass massacres of innocents, slaughtering of children, miscarriages, plane crashes, bulling kids with disabilities etc.... this is not for you.

The story line starts by introducing the hero and heroine Liam and Melody in their respective roles in their irish mob & Italian mafia families and the different expectations from what they think their marriage union will bring to the table. Liam the heir to the callaghan mob family is only waiting to be married so he could ascend to cenna na conaitre (head of the family) and rule supreme over the Irish and Italians with a supportive trophy wife . As a elitist smart handsome rich and a ruthless politician with a chauvinistic personality that only sees the union as a means of more power and resources to dominate Chicago with the wife as a bonus he gets a rude awakening when he meets his financee melody.
Melody is already the boss in her family and has been ruling for years as Capo in secret as the head of her family. She's cold, aloof, beautifully ruthless with lofty ambitions and doesn't know how to love anything and is getting married because her father is dying and he doesn't want her to be alone when he is gone . While Liam was still in a classroom melody was already well trained in guerrilla warfare ,going on jewelry heists, infiltrating other mob families blowing up houses calling the shots and leaving a trail of massacres in her wake. She is beautiful on the outside but a unfeeling psychopath on the inside that only thinks of gains for her empire and has no intentions of giving up her power to be a shopaholic housewife with no sense of purpose other than to support a husband or anyone other than herself.
When Liam first meets melody he is caught by her beauty but her beautiful appearance and his initial thoughts are shattered when he sees her carrying out a torturous interrogation and he interrupts her out of anger because that shouldn't be the role of his future wife and she teaches him a lesson he will never forget for his interference while she's working!
The plot was very good and I loved the alternative narrations from each character's perspective. It allowed the story line to flow naturally and also giving insight on other characters I didn't like Liam's old fashioned chauvinistic attitude and the manipulations to capitalize on her affections displayed by the lead but their was alot of character development throughout the book. I did audio as I read for a more immersive experience and it was absolutely titillating!

BEST NARRATION EVER

Seriously...this was one guy that voiced all these different characters of different ethnicities and genders...UN-BE-LIEVE-ABLE! Amazed shocked, it was so impressive and the story was good too whole you like real violence because this was believable (I mean as that can be) as a real mob story. I am from NJ and not sure if the real mob is this ruthless so great name for the book.Hopefully the next narrator in book two can do 1/3 of the job this Joel Froomkin did because he made this story come to life. Bravo!

What a ride!!

Freakin loved it! Story line! Characters! And the narrator were brilliant!! Definitely worth a credit and then some!!

Killer Mafia Seies

I love the series this is just A totally awesome author the story pulls you in the action is incredible the narration is outstanding

Too sociopathic for me

What did you like best about Ruthless People? What did you like least?

As the bloody body count mounted it became more and more clear the reader was not expected to take the deaths seriously, which minimizes about 80% of the story, the remainder was x rated harlequin romance/sex. The characters were stereotypical Italian/Irish mafia with nothing of real value added.

Do you think Ruthless People needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

this was obviously a set up for follow up books, no thanks, I'm not sure how you follow a book whose only subject is revenge and random killings and mad wild sex. I know the author wrote this intending that people take it as a lark and just have fun with it, but it really wasn't that fun.

That Voice

I love it when the narrators actually have the accent of the characters. i was a little nervous because it was just a male narrator and i knew that this book was from dual perspectives but Joel Froomkin blew all my expectations out of the water. He acted his tail off with the emotions in his voice and he did every accent to a T. I can say that this narration is one of the greats.