Five
Minutes Longer
By: Victoria
Sue
Narrated by: Nick J. Russo
Series: Enhanced, Book 1, Enhanced, Book 1
Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 09-25-17
Language: English
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Press LLC
Whispersync for Voice-ready
Enhanced: Book One
Talon Valdez knew when he transformed into an enhanced human, his life and his dreams were finished. Reviled, mistrusted, and often locked away, the enhanced were viewed as monsters, despised by the public, and never trusted to serve in the military or any law enforcement agency.
Talon Valdez knew when he transformed into an enhanced human, his life and his dreams were finished. Reviled, mistrusted, and often locked away, the enhanced were viewed as monsters, despised by the public, and never trusted to serve in the military or any law enforcement agency.
Years later he gets a
chance to set up a task force of enhanced to serve in the FBI, but with one
proviso: each enhanced must partner with a regular human.
Finn Mayer dreamed of
joining the FBI from the time he was fourteen and made every possible sacrifice
to make it happen, including living with his selfish mother and bullying,
homophobic brother and never having a boyfriend. But his undiagnosed dyslexia
stopped his aspirations dead in their tracks. His last chance is to partner
with Talon, an enhanced with deadly abilities who doesn’t trust regular humans
with their secrets and wants Finn to fail.
Four weeks to prove
himself to the team. Four weeks for the team to prove itself to the public. And
when another group threatens their success—and their lives—four weeks for them
to survive.
Buy links Dreamspinner Audible Amazon
Cat gives this one 5
Meows...
Finn has wanted in the FBI
since he was a small child, but he has some reading disorders and is finding it
hard. Then he gets a call but is disappointed to find he is wanted to be a
human in an Elite group of Enhanced specialists. Even though they are sort of in
the FBI they are still treated badly. Finn has no problem with them but The enhanced man that he is supposed to partner with has all kinds of problems with him.
Talon wants his team of
enhanced men to be recognized and able to save other enhance people and
children from the torment he and his friends have endured and hope to show the
world they are not all bad. He can’t have a human in his group because of all of his
men have hidden secrets and their abilities seem to grow as they age.
I absolutely loved this
book and all of the characters. It pulled me in and I didn’t want to stop once
I started (yes I listened in one afternoon)
Nick J Russo did a great
job of narrating this book, bringing each ma to life and adding all the
excitement. I highly recommend this if you like Special ops, secret powers, FBI
agents, suspense and a sexy romance as well. (If you read Charlie Cochet’s
Thirds and are looking for something similar and as good… Here ya go! More hot
men with secret powers.)
Excerpt…
FINN MAYER was so excited,
his hands shook as he tried to open the official-looking letter. This was what
he’d always wanted. This was what he had dreamed about every day. This was why
he did six long years at college while slogging his ass for minimum wage. Regretfully
we have to inform you…. The rest of the words blurred as his heart
plummeted. He held the letter out so he didn’t get tears on it and blinked
furiously. It wasn’t possible. He’d convinced himself it would be a conditional
offer of acceptance, which was almost a guarantee. He’d just had to get through
the poly, the personal interviews when they called him back, and references.
What had happened? What had he done wrong?
The screen door slammed,
and Finn stuffed the letter in his pocket quickly before his older brother, Deke,
saw it.
Deke stood in the doorway,
absently scratching his crotch. He was thirty-seven but looked a good ten years
older. His balding sandy-brown hair was going gray at the temples. His double
chin burst from his collared shirt, just like his beer gut spilled over his
wrinkled suit pants. Finn was too distracted to even crinkle his nose in
disgust.
The screen door slammed
again, and his mom’s voice piped up. “Finn, did you start supper?”
“Yeah, Finn,” parroted
Deke. “Did you start supper?”
Finn ducked his head and
brushed past Deke into the kitchen. He knew Deke wouldn’t get into anything
with him while his mom was there. Not that he was convinced she would care if
he did. “I just got in, Mom. I’ll start now,” Finn said woodenly. He needed to
think, but he couldn’t disappear until they were eating.
His mom narrowed her eyes
and followed Finn with her gaze as he opened the cupboard and took out a bag of
potatoes. “Finlay,” she sighed disapprovingly. “You know your brother works
incredibly long hours to support this family. It isn’t much to ask for a little
help around here while he’s providing a roof over all our heads.”
Finn didn’t reply and
quickly started peeling potatoes. The “incredibly long hours” were a joke. Deke
took twice as long to do anything because he was too lazy. Finn knew he and his
other two cronies—Albert Crawford, the bank manager, and Desmond Attiker, the
local deputy sheriff—could always be found in Alma’s Café on Main Street,
having at least a two-hour lunch every day. It was pointless to argue anyway,
and his mom knew full well half of Finn’s wages also went to pay for the upkeep
of the so-called roof. The only thing that had stopped him from moving out
years ago was the fact that he wanted Deke not to make waves with his application
when the FBI did the family interviews, and even the rent Deke charged him was
cheaper than getting his own place.
What had he done wrong? He
knew he wouldn’t have failed the poly. His boring existence contained no
secrets to keep. Well, maybe one, but Finn was so far in the closet, he was
almost able to pretend it wasn’t real.
And Deke would never think
Finn had a chance of getting accepted into the FBI, so he wouldn’t have
bothered trying to sabotage it by giving him a crappy reference.
Finn fisted his hands, the
peeler cutting into his palm. It was impossible. They’d made a mistake. Deke
couldn’t have been right, not now, not after all this time.
He’d laughed hysterically
when Finn told him the reason he wasn’t joining him at the insurance company
Deke owned, as his mom and brother expected, was because he needed to attend
college full-time. Deke had insisted college was a complete waste of time and
Finn just needed to join the real world, but Finn could think of no greater
torment than working with Deke for the rest of what he knew would be a
miserable life. There were only so many online courses he could cope with for
another reason, which meant he had to be physically present in class at least
three days a week. The entry requirements for the FBI were tough, and as law
and order, languages, and computer sciences were all impossible for him, the
only other recommended professional field they would take from was accounting.
Finn had stacked shelves
at the local Z-Mart since he was thirteen. Mr. Jacobson was blind, and Finn had
discovered accidentally that he was being robbed by his CPA. Finn had been
asked to copy some papers for Mr. Jacobson, and Finn, quick with numbers, had
noticed the discrepancy straight away. Mr. Jacobson was eternally grateful, and
Finn had taken over his bookkeeping when he was seventeen, then studied it at
college. In return Mr. Jacobson had exaggerated his professional ability on his
references.
Mr. Jacobson had recently
accepted an offer for his two stores and had told Finn he was retiring. The
thought that he had a prospective FBI agent stacking shelves for him for years
had always tickled the old man, and he’d been happy to help.
Finn could feel the letter
rustle in his pocket as he moved to fill the pan with water. Ten years.
Ten years since his school had two agents come and talk to their class as part
of a college awareness scheme. Cookeville High School, Iowa, had a really low
rate of seniors going to college, and the new principal had tried to change all
that by bringing in what he thought might be tempting job opportunities.
It worked with Finn. At
fourteen he was hanging with an increasingly wilder crowd. His reading
challenges just about turned him off school. He was lucky, really. Were it any
major city, his crowd would already be doing drugs and probably stealing. It
was only the lack of opportunity that kept his nose clean up to that day. He
walked out of that lecture theater completely changed. He wasn’t stupid,
though. His dad was the only one he told, and his dad promised not to mention
it.
His dad. The knife trembled in his hands as he chopped
the potatoes. Three years didn’t dim the memory of him coming home one day to
find his dad had finally lost his battle with depression and blown the back of
his head off with his old service revolver. Another souvenir he got from the
Vietnam War.
He never forgave his mom
for her part in it. Every day she was out on one of her committees or seeing
her friends. Her hair done, her nails carefully manicured. The cab fares
because she never learned to drive and wasn’t willing to. It never occurred to
her to get a job, to help his dad when he needed a newer power chair. The
endless arguments Finn could hear because his bedroom was right next to theirs.
How, if his mom could drive, they could start going out together.
He never forgot the last
one, though. When his dad quietly asked if the reason they never went out
together anywhere was because she was ashamed of being seen with a cripple, as
he bitterly called himself.
Finn had held his breath
as he lay in his dark room, staring up at the ceiling, waiting for the denial
that never came from his mom’s lips. The next day he came home early from
college because a tutor was sick and found his dad. The powder burns around his
mouth, the blood, and brains all over the wall behind him.
Finn nearly threw the
peeler in the sink. His mom got out the store-bought pie she purchased that
morning. He laughed giddily. He could go rob a bank, take drugs, have
sex….
Victoria Sue… Wrote her first book on a
dare from her hubby two years ago and he says he has regretted it every day
since. Loves writing about gorgeous boys loving each other the best—especially
with either a paranormal or a historical twist. Had a try at writing contemporary
but failed spectacularly when it grew four legs and a tail. Loves her wolves!
Is an English northern
lass but is currently serving twenty to life in Florida—unfortunately, she
spends more time chained to her computer than on a beach.
Loves to hear from her
readers and can be found most days lurking on Facebook.
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