Another excellent story by Rhys Ford and narrating by Kale Williams

Loved the fast paced action in this story, but it's the main characters, Kuro and Trey, who make the story. Both have baggage, Kuro, a former black ops man, now owned of a Ramen shop, and Trey, child actor, whose burned more than a few personal and professional bridges. Loved that each could see past the baggage and especially that Kuro could see the goodness in The and how hard he was working to get control of his life. Kale William's narrating was wonderful as usual! I've yet to listen to anything he's narrated that I haven't loved!

4 people found this helpful

Very entertaining!

First of all suspend all beliefs, because this book is way OTT. It’s entertaining for sure, and if you are a fan of a lot of action – as in flying bullets and an explosion or two – you might want to check this book out. But go into this book wanting to be entertained by a fast paced book and don’t expect it to be anywhere near the world of reality.

For some reason I really liked this book, I shouldn’t have, but I did. The plot was beyond unbelievable and our two main guys made it out of one death trap after the other with barely a scratch to show for it. And when you add in the cliché of disbelieving and unintelligent and bullying cops and some family drama, it should be a no-brainer for me to dislike this book big time. But it wasn’t. It worked for me. I think Rhys Ford might just be magical.

There were a few things that I didn’t like with this book. The first one being the romance between Kuro and Trey. It didn’t feel genuine. It was just suddenly there out of seemingly nowhere. I missed the building tension and getting to know you part, the longing glances and hearts that go pitter-patter. Granted, romance tend to end up in the backseat (not literally) when running for your life. But still, I wanted something more in that department.

Then there was the plot in general. It almost read like a movie. With lots of different things going on, exciting action scenes from one moment to the next. For a movie that works, for a book, you need something more, to have a flow of events that makes sense from start to finish. You need more depth.

Despite all this I really had a great time listening to this story. Kuro and Trey were interesting characters, they both have issues and flaws and I want to see much more of them and this world in general. There is a lot of promise to build on for future stories.

I’ll be honest with you. When I first saw that Kale Williams was narrating this book I was disappointed. He hasn’t been one of my favourite narrators in the past, and I was really looking forward to this book. But I have to say, Williams did it again. I truly loved his narration of this book. With his passion he brought it to life. I love is intensity and how he varies it after the situation. He truly made me enjoy listening to this book. Plus, he has a very nice voice that makes my ears very happy.

Ramen Assassin was a good start to a new series, and I’m eager to know more.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

3 people found this helpful

So Good

I loved the book and the audio version did not disappoint. Kale Williams did a wonderful job narrating. Rhys Ford spins a fabulous tale of intrigue and relationships. One of the things I love about her books is the low angst factor. The storyline is perfect with twists and turns that keep one guessing until the end. I hope this isn’t the last we hear from Kuro and Tre.

3 people found this helpful

Written by a Wise Cracking, Smart Mouth

I don't know where the GREAT reviews on this one came from . . . I can't stand the smart mouthed way everyone in it talks. Maybe some people think its entertaining. Not me . . . It must be written for twenty somethings . . . I can't get away quick enough. No substance.

2 people found this helpful

A silly-looking title

Despite its funny title, the story is a bit gruesome. We follow a former actor pursued by a life-threatening menace. The sexy "Blacky", owner of a ramen store, will come to the rescue and help him unravel the mystery.

The main characters are nice but not superb in my opinion. We do not have much description of them so it is difficult to make a perfect image of them. They are not annoying and I praise the not authoritative Kuro. His background could have made him a "I'm always right, listen to what I say without complain because I'm the Man". Fortunately, he is not. And the other character has his mind and opinion and do as he feels right.

the narrator is correct. However, he seems to be reading without much emotion and I could believe that he was a robot time to time. A bit more punch would have been great? for the narration, not the dialogues, these were good.

Overall a nice story that I would easily recommend.

1 person found this helpful

Binge Worthy

Loved it! I did not struggle to finish it because Ramen Assasin had a great story line with fanfastic characters and MC's you can't help but like. Kale Williams narration of Ramen Assasin was wonderful. Definity worth listening to - more than once.

1 person found this helpful

Great Narration

Kale Williams is a wonderful narrator! I think think this is the first book I've heard him narrate, and he knocked it out of the ballpark. He made listening to this story incredibly enjoyable and I love his voice.

I don’t know what to think about this book. There are parts I really like, parts I found silly and stupid, and parts that just underwhelmed me. Rhys Ford is a wonderful writer, and I enjoy her writing style, and this book was just as well written as her other work. The problem I had with this book was the strange plot – it was a mixture of over the top action and a nonsensical mystery – as well as some strange characterizations of supporting characters.

First, the plot: I’m all for suspending my disbelief and going along for the ride with a high-pace thriller plot, but that’s not what happened with this book. First, we are introduced to Kuro Jenkins, a special op agent (although it’s never clear what agency he worked for, although I’m assuming it’s based in the U.S.A.) during one of his covert missions that ends up blowing his cover. Apparently a blown cover means he’s no longer valuable and is kicked out of the agency, which confused me. I can see Kuro leaving the agency because he was ready for retirement, but just because you can’t do undercover ops doesn’t mean that such a specialized and well-trained agent isn’t valuable in another position. But I shrugged that off and continued with the book. However, throughout the book Kuro’s black op/special ops background keeps being brought up by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from their astonishment that he’s licensed to own everything up to tank (that was a paraphrase quote from one of the detectives) to how they’re suspicious they can’t find anything about him. It just felt so corny and because it felt corny, I had a hard time suspending my disbelief (because FYI, that’s now how any of this works in real life – a retired agent is a considered a civilian and they still won’t own a tank or any firepower that they might once have had access to when they were still working in that field – at least not legally). Then there was the mystery portion of the plot, which I had a hard time understanding what the motivation was for the need to murder Trey Bishop. I can understand murdering him to cover up another murder, but the other portion seemed super far-fetched, especially considering that situations like that would be fought in civil court.

Second, the supporting characters: The supporting characters all felt like they were pulled straight out of 80s and 90s Hollywood movies. The cops weren’t just bad – they were incompetent and unprofessional to the point of it being a reason for termination from the police force. I could MAYBE see this being believable for a small, dinky Sheriff’s office out in the remote boondocks, but not the LAPD, one of the biggest police forces in America, and one that is used to dealing with people from all over the world, plus celebrities, on a daily basis. The way the cops acted would not be tolerated by the LAPD (maybe in the 80s, but this book was recently published and it felt like it was supposed to be in the current time period). Plus, there are no Police Departments that would allow a detective to work on a case that centered on their family member as either the suspect or victim. I feel like that’s common knowledge, and that even a quick Google fact check would provide that answer. I don’t expect authors to have an in-depth knowledge of police departments, police procedures, or investigative work, but I do expect authors to have some common knowledge, and maybe even supplement it with a few Google checks (it’s not hard to search and read about the LAPD on the internet). Overall, the supporting characters all felt super sloppy and like stereotypical caricatures instead of interesting and dynamic secondary characters.

What I did like was the portrayal of the relationship between Kuro and Trey, and watching Trey grow in confidence and move forward in his life. I also enjoyed the sex scenes between the two main characters, and found their tenderness towards each other very touching. I also, as I first mentioned, really enjoy Rhys Ford’s writing style and humor. Plus, the description of ramen (real ramen, not that insta-stuff) was delicious and made me want to go eat ramen immediately.

Overall, this was a 2.5 star read for me, but I’ll still recommend it for anyone who enjoys Rhys Ford’s books and is looking for some action and mystery. If you don’t really care about caricatural depictions of characters and just want a thrill with a solid dose of love and protective Alpha male, then this book will serve you well.

1 person found this helpful

Overall 4.25 stars

I loved the chemistry and fast pace action that can through this audio book. This is first audio book as Kale Williams as the narrator and his performance was excellent. His accents and different voices was on point. Great listening experience!

1 person found this helpful

Great blend of action, passion and in depth story

I like my romance well seasoned with action, intrigue and mystery and Ramen Assassin was a perfect blend. Didn't get bored with the sexy parts, mystery was well entwined in story telling and not too much angst. Characters were believable and easy to love. Couple that with Kale Williams telling the story and it warrants another five star rating for Rhys Ford.

1 person found this helpful

Entertaining

I really enjoyed the second dart characters. Boom-Boom and Kim. They made parts of the book delightful and fun!

Kale Williams does a great job!