The Banker

SHE’S DONE IT AGAIN.. A 5 ⭐️ NON-STOP LISTEN

After the Buttons and Lingerie series, Penelope Sky is an auto-download author for me and the start of this, her new dark trilogy, had me riveted til the wee hours.. and I knew I wasn’t going to stop (or sleep) until I’d reached the end. It’s an all consuming story as the heroine Siena is threatened and forced to get ‘up close and personal’ to cold-blooded Cato (the most feared man in Italy) to save her estranged father. He’d been kidnapped by a vicious criminal gang who want Cato badly but he’s always surrounded by layers of heavily armed guards.. or in clubs with a revolving door of interchangeable ‘pairs’ of women. Cato and his brother are cold-blooded killers.. they’re criminals.. they’re bankers to mobsters, cartels and crime syndicates.. and Siena has to lure him in without getting caught.

Siena and Cato’s journey doesn’t start off well.. but, along the way, attraction and chemistry knock down walls, bring them closer and fuels a steamy relationship. However, as Siena manoeuvres and manipulates to get closer and closer to Cato, it’s her you’ll want to smack not him because he’s the victim.. he lowered his walls to let her in, he ignored his brother’s advice and he misguidedly trusted her. But it didn’t end well for either Siena (or me) because there was a nasty evil cliffhanger waiting for the both of us.

Worth a credit? I love.. love.. loved it - but I wish I’d known beforehand that this is part 1 of a trilogy because I’d never have started it until all the books are out. Nevertheless, it’s an intense and insanely good start, the dual POV narration by Michael and Natalie was perfect and YES, IMO, it’s definitely creditworthy.

17 of 18 people found this review helpful

so disappointed.

loved it until the cliffhanger!!!!! Love this author, tired of her never-ending trilogy's!!!!!!. tell me first. let me choose to buy now or wait until I can get them all at once. Love the story, HATE the wait.

16 of 17 people found this review helpful

Disappointed

Prepare yourself for unnecessary vulgarity. The ending wii leave you hanging. This could have been a good book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Cliffhanger

Where is book 2? I hate when there is a cliffhanger without another book to follow!

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Poorly researched; Cliffhanger/first in a series

First, this book is a cliffhanger first book in a series. The others are available yet so it looks like a stand alone on the Audible site, but it’s not.

Nothing irritates me more than a poorly researched book. This isn’t the author’s first book to take place in Italy, yet you’d think it was and that she had no clue. It comes across as she’s never even been there or done any research other than briefly looking at a map.

She just writes Americans but claimed the cities they are in are Italian cities - total lack of understanding the Italian people and culture. One example: they go out to dinner and the woman says something like, “Who goes to an Italian restaurant and doesn’t eat cheese?" First, not all Italian food has cheese, but worst yet, if someone is Italian and eating at a restaurant in Italy, it’s not an “Italian restaurant” its just a “restaurant”, nothing special about the type of cuisine.

There are also multiple times when the characters contradict something they say a few chapters earlier. There are many inconsistencies throughout the book. It’s like they were rushing to produce and publish this book so didn’t take time to think about or edit the writing.

Also, a major detail that should give away her secret is brushed away with a totally inaccurate addressing of the issue. She’s shot in the first chapter (first chapter, so not a real spoiler). However, a month later her wound is passed off as an old injury. It wouldn’t be remotely healed after a month. She might even still have the stitches!

Performance: average. There were a few points where the female performer even put more life into the narration than the words the character actually says, so that’s a little weird. Nothing else truly bad about the narration, but nothing spectacular either.

The story line has potential, but I’m debating if I’d read the next book in the series. It would depend on if it’s better researched and written than this one. I am however motivated by the cliffhanger - it’s a good one (but I won’t reveal that detail here).

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

** TEN 🌟🌟's **

One of the best books I've listened to in a little while! it has me on the edge of my seat. Im glad all 3 books are available on audible! what a cliffhanger! the story is fabulous. the narration is good but I wish Cato sounded a little more like a mob boss..

loved this book.

can't wait to start the next. loved the chemistry between the H n h. I feel bad for both of the them. not an easy situation for fall in love

I'm Totally Obsessed!!!

This story is different from her others in many ways, but she still manages to incorporate bits of her old characters from buttons and lace. it's almost like we get to see how they are doing now lol.. This book kept me on the edge of my seat it's a must ready love love love!!!

Awful! Awful! Awful!

Maybe, but I doubt it, this book would not have been so bad if I read it instead of listening to it. Female sounded too young and had lengthy pauses at the end of every sentence. Very annoying, she also grossly overacted. The male narrator had the most annoying nasal voice. Both did awful renditions of opposite sex voices. Performance was just bad, really bad. Characters were extremely shallow, female was an idiot, male major conceited ass who loved the "c" word which is just not sexy. The female used the "d" word which was also not sexy. The writing was immature and lackluster. I cannot think of one thing to say positive about this book except, thank God it is over. I am definitely not reading the last two books in this trilogy. Don't waste your Audible credits or money on the Kindle version.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Conflicted

I enjoyed the storyline but felt like there could have been more to it. It was very repetitive and that got old fast. Probably won’t get the next book, even with the cliffhanger.