Friday, March 23, 2018

Point of No Return by N.R. Walker Audiobook Review


Matthew Elliot is one of LA’s best detectives—a smart, tough, closeted gay man. When he falls for his gym instructor, it’s not his colleagues he should be worried about finding out…it’s the bad guys.

Matthew Elliot is one of LA’s best detectives. He's been labelled the golden boy of the Fab Four: a team of four detectives who've closed down drug-rings all over the city. He’s smart, tough and exceptionally good at his job.

He's also a closeted gay man.

Enter Kira Takeo Franco, the new boxing coach at the gym. Matthew can't deny his immediate attraction to the man his fellow cops know as Frankie. But in allowing himself to fall in love with a man known to his colleagues, Matthew risks outing them both.

Matt and Kira work to keep their relationship and private lives hidden from Matt’s very public life, fearing it would be detrimental to their careers.

But it's not the other cops who Matthew should be worried about finding out his deepest, darkest secret… it's the bad guys.

Audiobook Details
Length: 4 hrs, 38 mins
Narrator: Sean Crisden

Add to Goodreads –


Book 1
Audiobook Buy Links

Amazon Audiobook  ~  Audible  ~  iTunes

Ebook Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Available with KindleUnlimited  ~



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Angela☆☆☆☆☆
To begin, I have to say that I freaking loved that BOTH men were in the closet. I’m not sure that I’ve ever read a m/m romance in which both men were in the closet; maybe a ménage romance, but I have yet to think of one in the past week as I’ve listened to Point of No Return several times. Even though Matt seems to lose sight of the fact that Kira is also in the closet – likely due to his past failed relationships where his partner was forced back into the closet with him – he is not the only one with something to lose if their relationship is discovered by their co-workers. The other part of Matt’s being in the closet that I thought was an interesting angle to the story was WHY he was in the closet. He wasn’t concerned that his partner or close colleagues were homophobic, but rather that his being gay would define him rather than his record. It certainly made me think and I could definitely see this as being a valid concern, especially in his career.

As for the story itself, Walker packs one heck of a punch in Point of No Return – actually, quite literally when it comes to Matt and Kira’s meet cute. The opening scene was quite effective in showing the reader the kind of man and detective Matt is all while providing the needed background information for the romantic suspense threads of the story, without it feeling like an info dump. Because the story is told from Matt’s point of view, we get to see just how hard his physical attraction to Kira hits him (no pun intended), but we have to wait a bit to learn that the attraction is mutual. Walker does a great job of balancing the secret romance with Matt’s demands as a detective, capturing the disappointment and frustration that comes with dating a person whose job requires them to be on-call for emergencies. While I figured out the twist relatively early, I credit that with being a reader of romantic suspense and psych student, and not a detective who’s watching his CI deteriorate to the point that his information is questionable. But even knowing the twist didn’t prepare me for the direction the story went, and I found myself caught up in all of the detectives’ distress when the bad guy made his move. I won’t go into what happened because potential readers or listeners deserve to take that rollercoaster ride with no warnings, but I absolutely loved how it played out – both professionally and personally for Matt and Kira.

Now for the narration. I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying Sean Crisden’s narrative performances before, but he was perfect in Point of No Return. The voice he uses for Matt is ALL COP. By that I mean, there was no doubt in my mind that I was listening to an overworked but determined detective trying to find his way through the muddy waters of a complicated case all while walking a personal relationship tightrope. Crisden made me feel Matt’s emotions – his frustration, his confusion, his need, his anticipation, his happiness, his fear, his stark terror, his relief, his I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude, and his love. And Crisden does a great drunk Matt voice that I found myself grinning at because Detective Matthew Elliot is an amusing drunk. I got sucked down the rabbit hole with this audiobook and went back for repeated trips as I found myself queueing it up several times this past week. I thoroughly enjoyed Point of No Return and hope that book two, Breaking Point, will be available on audio soon as I want more of Matt’s story.



N.R. Walker is an Australian author, who loves her genre of gay romance. She loves writing and spends far too much time doing it, but wouldn’t have it any other way.

She is many things: a mother, a wife, a sister, a writer. She has pretty, pretty boys who live in her head, who don’t let her sleep at night unless she gives them life with words. She likes it when they do dirty, dirty things... but likes it even more when they fall in love.

She used to think having people in her head talking to her was weird, until one day she happened across other writers who told her it was normal.

She’s been writing ever since...

Connect with N.R.

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Blog  ~  Goodreads
Google+  ~  Instagram



Sean Crisden

I have been a professional voice artist since 2006 (wait, people pay me for this?) but my history extends further than that. As a child, I was known as “Radio Man” for the articulate, listenable qualities within my voice. I don’t know any other kid who took quite so much pleasure in standing up and reading out loud Tikki Tikki Tembo or“Bunnicula for their class.

This lead to an early pursuit of performing and I performed for nearly a decade with the prog rock band Divided Sky as vocalist and guitar player. I have expanded my abilities into on-camera acting, appearing in numerous commercials and films including M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. I was even fortunate enough to act in and choreograph the combat sequences in Le Meduse Rouge.

I continue to grow, develop and refine my talents in an ongoing effort to find fulfillment by drinking of my creative well. I also train in several martial arts and do my best despite the lure of my bed and apple pie to stay in excellent physical shape.

Connect with Sean

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Google+  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Point of No Return (Turning Point #1) by N.R. Walker, narrated by Sean Crisden to listen to and review.

No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are reviewed by a blog admin before being published. We thank you for visiting our blog & leaving a comment.