~I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!~

Thriller is probably my favorite genre to read for books like this! It’s been such a long time since a book took me on such a great ride. Every page was filled with twists and turns that compelled me to keep reading just to see if I was right or not about who the killer was! The author does a brilliant job of building the suspense throughout the piece.

In Expired Listings, we meet Dana, a girl with a troubled past who’s into BDSM. Sounds kind of bland when written like that, but I assure you it’s not. Dana is a real estate agent, living in the shadow of her successful sister, Melanie, while caring for her mother, Cassandra, who has recently suffered a stroke. Things seem cut and dry until a string of real estate agents turn up dead. The deeper into the plot we go, the more we see the demons of Dana’s past. Once the story gets to the twisted roots of Dana’s family tree, the reader finally gets all the answers they were after! Usually, I can guess who the killer is in a thriller book, but this one was a complete mystery right up until the unveiling.

In Expired Listings, no one is as they seem. Everyone has a secret which makes this a guaranteed page turner. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye open for more books by this author!
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"I'm not some shlub condo buyer you're sending on a one-way trip to the poorhouse, so shut up and listen.... You've got until tomorrow evening to recount your sins and prepare to atone for them.... The next time we speak, I expect some heartfelt confessions. Otherwise, better drum up whatever catchy slogan you'd like written on your tombstone. Clear?"

Someone is killing Rock Canyon realtors and Dana Black is the lead suspect. Her alibi is a Dom named Dare from her BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism) community. If word got out who he really is and that she has periodic, stress-induced blackouts losing hours at a time, her life would be over. Can she risk her burgeoning relationship with private detective, Aidan Cummings, by exposing her murky past?

See my complete review at The Eclectic Review ( )

This book definitely has a little bit of something for everyone (over the age of 18). It's an exciting book full of murder, sex, bondage, humor, and realtors. The basic premise is that someone is going around killing realtors and the general public really doesn't seem to care. A lot of fingers are pointing towards the book's main character, Dana, as she doesn't seem to have a good alibi for many of the killings. Her alibi is that she's off using her rental properties to have kinky sex with her boyfriend Dare. She also seems to be benefitting from the lack or realtors by picking up their listings. Then, she becomes the object of affection for the local detective. So she has to decide if she wants kinky sex or a real relationship. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author did a great job of building suspense and passion and keeping the reader hooked until the very end. The story itself is a little outrageous, but that doesn't matter. It's fun and fiery. I really liked it and would recommend it to others. ( )

For some, realtors are pillagers that prey on innocent buyers fulfilling their dream of buying a house. Dana, the daughter of a realtor and a realtor herself, has serious problems with her mother, blackouts, and cutthroat competitors. Could an unhappy client or her dominants use murder to make Dana submit or is Dana using the murder to establish her dominance? The plot provides some pleasure twists for readers who experienced buyer or seller remorse and would like to see a little playback. The language and sexual situations are deliberately offensive and is not appropriate for readers of all ages. ( )

My original Expired Listings audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

A killer is targeting realtors. Dana Black, a realtor herself, has no alibis and suffers unexplained blackouts and soon finds herself a suspect in the murders. Combine that with the fact that Dana uses empty properties to meet up for sex games with her Dom, Dare, with whom she has been in an open relationship for years; add Aidan, a Scottish-born detective turned private investigator, who is no stranger to the BDSM scene either and you have a very promising and really novel idea for a sexy, suspenseful plot.

Expired Listings is impossible to classify, as a lot of genres and sub-genres are thrown into the pot. There is obviously the mystery aspect. It's almost like a cozy mystery, but then there's the BDSM setting. However, there are no explicit sex scenes. The author alludes, the scenes that are described are quite clinical rather than erotic. Some of sex games, e.g. the Bingo scene, were quite inventive, though. It is advertised as having satiric elements, and a couple of scenes did make me smile. The crazy cat lady was a nice touch. There are elements of a romantic suspense story, but I have to admit I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between the characters. There were even aspects of what I would call women's fiction with regards to the protagonist's relationship with her mother, sister, and grandmother. All of which covered quite a bit of family drama. While I felt rather disconnected from the characters and couldn't relate to any of them, I thought Dana was an intriguing protagonist with regards to her back-story and her issues. She believed she needed fear (hence the lifestyle) and was unable to have a fulfilling vanilla relationship. I thought it was quite interesting how the author connected Dana's past and her experiences to her current lifestyle and her thought processes. However, I felt Dana's issues were resolved too easily at the end. As far as the mystery element is concerned, I didn't work out who the culprit was until the reveal, so points for that. The why and how was stretching credibility a bit, though.

So overall, a bit of a mixed bag, but as a debut novel certainly not bad. It kept my attention throughout, as the pace was steady and there was a lot going on. There were frequent switches from the events in the present to providing flashbacks that revealed the protagonist's childhood and more recent past and rehashed her relationships with other characters. Apart from Aidan, nobody was really particularly likable. I would have preferred a bit more angst or suspense, and I needed to feel more emotions to rate this any higher.

Hollie Jackson's narration definitely enhanced the story for me. She was a very good fit for the protagonist's first-person perspective. I was also really impressed by her performance of voicing the male characters. Aidan's Scottish brogue was pretty good. She made all the characters sound authentic and gave them distinctive, suitable voices that made it very easy and pleasant to listen to this story. As far as the production quality is concerned, there were some instances where you could tell the recording had been stopped and restarted, but it was minor and didn't distract too badly.

Overall, an entertaining listening experience with an original plot.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author. ( )