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Swan Song #1
Whiskey Sour
Chicago, 1926
"This city is full of predators. There are more dirty cops than clean ones, more mobsters than grocers. For a girl living on her own trying to make it in the big city, life can be very dangerous. You have to be smart, you have to be hard but most of all, you have to be heartless."
Adrian Marcone left behind a small life in a small town to try her luck in the city. She's a young woman with big dreams and a bigger voice, a talent that's landed her a plush job in one of the hottest joints around. But success comes with a price tag and in Prohibition Era Chicago, nothing is ever for certain. Keeping afloat in this shark tank of a city, surrounded by bullets and blood, gangsters and empty promises, Adrian is vigilante about one very important thing; she keeps her heart locked tight.
But then one night a dark and deadly stranger comes to town and nothing will ever be the same...
*Download the complete EPUB here on Goodreads for FREE!
**Episode #2-Gin and Toxic now FREE on Goodreads as well!
"This city is full of predators. There are more dirty cops than clean ones, more mobsters than grocers. For a girl living on her own trying to make it in the big city, life can be very dangerous. You have to be smart, you have to be hard but most of all, you have to be heartless."
Adrian Marcone left behind a small life in a small town to try her luck in the city. She's a young woman with big dreams and a bigger voice, a talent that's landed her a plush job in one of the hottest joints around. But success comes with a price tag and in Prohibition Era Chicago, nothing is ever for certain. Keeping afloat in this shark tank of a city, surrounded by bullets and blood, gangsters and empty promises, Adrian is vigilante about one very important thing; she keeps her heart locked tight.
But then one night a dark and deadly stranger comes to town and nothing will ever be the same...
*Download the complete EPUB here on Goodreads for FREE!
**Episode #2-Gin and Toxic now FREE on Goodreads as well!
55 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 19, 2013
22 people are currently reading
480 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 13, 2015
I don't normally like period projects, but there's just enough drama and suspense to keep me interested. I definitely want to know why Adrian is so attracted to Drew and what she's going to do about Tommy.
The era interests me only because of the music. It was when black music was making its renaissance. I found myself laughing when they mention Milton Berle or Duke Ellington. I wasn't alive during that time, but I know the players. So it's fun in that way.
There are a couple of reasons I'm not giving it more stars; As I mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of period pieces so it's not really the authors fault. It's just not for me. I feel like the story drags a bit with the descriptions of everything, but also may be needed for those who aren't familiar with prohibition era. But it's a bit much. Also, there are a ton of characters that we get to know very little about. I don't know if they are necessary for the novella. Maybe if it was all a full book so we could learn more about them or who or what they mean to Adrian. But I find myself a little confused as to who is who when the names sort of pop in and out for no real, obvious to me, reason.
I'm moving onto the next story though. I do want to know what happens between Adrian and Drew.
The era interests me only because of the music. It was when black music was making its renaissance. I found myself laughing when they mention Milton Berle or Duke Ellington. I wasn't alive during that time, but I know the players. So it's fun in that way.
There are a couple of reasons I'm not giving it more stars; As I mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of period pieces so it's not really the authors fault. It's just not for me. I feel like the story drags a bit with the descriptions of everything, but also may be needed for those who aren't familiar with prohibition era. But it's a bit much. Also, there are a ton of characters that we get to know very little about. I don't know if they are necessary for the novella. Maybe if it was all a full book so we could learn more about them or who or what they mean to Adrian. But I find myself a little confused as to who is who when the names sort of pop in and out for no real, obvious to me, reason.
I'm moving onto the next story though. I do want to know what happens between Adrian and Drew.
March 5, 2014
3.5 - 4 stars! I have never read a "roaring 20s" piece like this, so I'm going to have to judge them all based of this novella. Good thing I liked it. Lol Whisky Sour was a super quick read (which also was its downfall... Why so short? I would have like a longer book 1 to get used to the characters and story lines). The dialogue was witty and kept you in tune with what the characters were thinking. I like the lead and the triangle set up with Adrian. I just wish there would've been more. And not in the I-hate-a-cliffhanger way. I get the feeling the author was just testing the audience out. And I wish she would have trusted, for lack of a better word, us with more. I'll definitely be headed over to get the second book, but I am wondering if it could have been combined into one. Overall, it pulled me in. I liked the characters, I liked the steam, I liked the dialogue. I just wanted more of all of that. :)
September 4, 2014
This was a great story and very well written.
June 22, 2021
I’ve recently been watching a lot of classic gangster and noir films, which made me crave a historical gangster romance. A search brought this novella(?) to my attention, and so here we are. In that respect, Whiskey Sour scratched my historical gangster romance itch pretty well. I’m a sucker for the Roaring ’20s, and Cole does her world-building right; there’s a very lived-in feel to these characters and this setting, such that it (thankfully) never reads as modern people merely dressed up in 1920s’ clothes. I think I would have preferred a little more physical descriptions of places, but that’s a minor complaint in the long run—I’m not all that big on scenery- or fashion-porn in books, so will gladly take too little as opposed to too much.
I’m less thrilled about Adrian, our main character. It isn’t that I disliked her, exactly, there just seems to be so little to her? Aside from coming from Small Town, Nebraska and wanting to move to NYC, she just didn’t seem to have much of a personality. I like her relationships (with Tommy, with Drew, with her roommates), but am resoundingly “meh” about her, herself, if that makes sense. Maybe it’s because, for all that the summary touts her as “a young woman with big dreams and a bigger voice,” we never really see any of that? And I get it, it’s near-impossible to do musical numbers in books, but we get so little related to her actual job as a singer—no talk of rehearsals, no performances, nothing. What does her voice even sound like? Bright and sweet? Dark and sultry? On the one hand, yes, I am here primarily for gangsters and romance, make no mistake, but on the other hand, I need my main character to be more than just some cipher. (Her name is also a bit of a pet peeve, as “Adrian” is traditionally male, and while I’m not opposed to her having a boy’s name, it would have been unusual enough in the 1920s that I feel it should have been brought up or addressed in-universe?)
Of course, some of my ambivalence about Adrian might be related to my ambivalence about the writing style as a whole. Cole occasionally touches upon memorable, flowing language (the last paragraph of chapter 4 immediately springs to mind), but for the most part her prose is beige and utilitarian. And that, paired with a 1st-person present-tense POV, doesn’t exactly lead to a dynamite combination. Adrian (owing to the aforementioned prose style) doesn’t have a particularly interesting way of thinking or relaying events, so it becomes pretty boring and borderline irritating to be literally stuck in her head the whole time. Something tells me I would have enjoyed things a lot more if Cole had only written it in a limited 3rd-person POV, as that would have at least created some metaphorical distance with the character.
Lastly, technical errors abound, mostly related to Cole not knowing the proper formatting for dialogue tags (though there were a few other punctuation errors I caught). With a good technical editor, I would easily bump up my rating up to a 3.5, and might even feel comfortable rounding up my star rating to a 4. As is, though...
That said, there’s a lot of good going on here. As stated, the world-building is great, and I’m intrigued by the Adrian/Tommy and Adrian/Drew relationships (though Drew started to dip into stereotypical dark, broody, “I’m no good for you” territory at the end, there). Still, the relationships/attractions struck me as believable overall, and I especially liked the (for romance novels, at least) unusual physicality to both men—how Tommy is tall and thin, while Drew is on the shorter side and not conventionally handsome. Perhaps most importantly, I am ALL ABOUT sexual tension, and I’m pleased to report that Cole delivers on that front.
Some people might be put off by the shorter, episodic nature of the story, but I can roll with it. Despite my issues with Whiskey Sour, Cole has some definite promise as a writer, and I’m on my way to check out the second installment, Gin and Toxic, so she must be doing something right. My only fear is that—with there only being the two novellas out, both published way back in 2013—that I’ll come to the end of episode 2, still wanting more.
EDIT: It turns out the story was actually turned into a more polished, full-length novel (Swan Song, under the name Tracey Ward), so good to know I won’t be left high and dry after two installments. Would have been nice if this novella had somehow pointed me there, though, as I probably would have just started with that.
I’m less thrilled about Adrian, our main character. It isn’t that I disliked her, exactly, there just seems to be so little to her? Aside from coming from Small Town, Nebraska and wanting to move to NYC, she just didn’t seem to have much of a personality. I like her relationships (with Tommy, with Drew, with her roommates), but am resoundingly “meh” about her, herself, if that makes sense. Maybe it’s because, for all that the summary touts her as “a young woman with big dreams and a bigger voice,” we never really see any of that? And I get it, it’s near-impossible to do musical numbers in books, but we get so little related to her actual job as a singer—no talk of rehearsals, no performances, nothing. What does her voice even sound like? Bright and sweet? Dark and sultry? On the one hand, yes, I am here primarily for gangsters and romance, make no mistake, but on the other hand, I need my main character to be more than just some cipher. (Her name is also a bit of a pet peeve, as “Adrian” is traditionally male, and while I’m not opposed to her having a boy’s name, it would have been unusual enough in the 1920s that I feel it should have been brought up or addressed in-universe?)
Of course, some of my ambivalence about Adrian might be related to my ambivalence about the writing style as a whole. Cole occasionally touches upon memorable, flowing language (the last paragraph of chapter 4 immediately springs to mind), but for the most part her prose is beige and utilitarian. And that, paired with a 1st-person present-tense POV, doesn’t exactly lead to a dynamite combination. Adrian (owing to the aforementioned prose style) doesn’t have a particularly interesting way of thinking or relaying events, so it becomes pretty boring and borderline irritating to be literally stuck in her head the whole time. Something tells me I would have enjoyed things a lot more if Cole had only written it in a limited 3rd-person POV, as that would have at least created some metaphorical distance with the character.
Lastly, technical errors abound, mostly related to Cole not knowing the proper formatting for dialogue tags (though there were a few other punctuation errors I caught). With a good technical editor, I would easily bump up my rating up to a 3.5, and might even feel comfortable rounding up my star rating to a 4. As is, though...
That said, there’s a lot of good going on here. As stated, the world-building is great, and I’m intrigued by the Adrian/Tommy and Adrian/Drew relationships (though Drew started to dip into stereotypical dark, broody, “I’m no good for you” territory at the end, there). Still, the relationships/attractions struck me as believable overall, and I especially liked the (for romance novels, at least) unusual physicality to both men—how Tommy is tall and thin, while Drew is on the shorter side and not conventionally handsome. Perhaps most importantly, I am ALL ABOUT sexual tension, and I’m pleased to report that Cole delivers on that front.
Some people might be put off by the shorter, episodic nature of the story, but I can roll with it. Despite my issues with Whiskey Sour, Cole has some definite promise as a writer, and I’m on my way to check out the second installment, Gin and Toxic, so she must be doing something right. My only fear is that—with there only being the two novellas out, both published way back in 2013—that I’ll come to the end of episode 2, still wanting more.
EDIT: It turns out the story was actually turned into a more polished, full-length novel (Swan Song, under the name Tracey Ward), so good to know I won’t be left high and dry after two installments. Would have been nice if this novella had somehow pointed me there, though, as I probably would have just started with that.
December 2, 2013
Why are some girls attracted to bad boys?
In Whiskey Sour, a racy 1920s novella set in prohibition Chicago, our heroine is Adrian Marcone, a small town girl who has gone to the big city to become a star. She’s no innocent dame though. She has her eyes wide open and knows exactly what kind of people she’s dealing with.
However, she’s not attracted to just one, but two of the worst bad boys around – the kind that ‘give the works’ to Al Capone’s enemies; Tommy, her handler, and the mysterious Drew, a hitman on loan from New York. It has the makings of a complicated and highly dangerous love triangle.
For a novella, Audrey Cole has created three characters that have a very ‘lived in’ feel about them. There’s plenty of roaring twenties flavour, and a constant brooding edge of gangster brutality.
Cole has a great grasp on the mood and style of the time. Some readers might find it a touch short on descriptive scene setting, but if you love the genre or have seen the movies, you’ll be right at home in smoky confines of the Cotton Club.
The end leaves you somewhere between disappointed and hungry for more, but it is a serial. I have a feeling there will be a few more novellas before we find out how this cocktail of love and danger is resolved.
In Whiskey Sour, a racy 1920s novella set in prohibition Chicago, our heroine is Adrian Marcone, a small town girl who has gone to the big city to become a star. She’s no innocent dame though. She has her eyes wide open and knows exactly what kind of people she’s dealing with.
However, she’s not attracted to just one, but two of the worst bad boys around – the kind that ‘give the works’ to Al Capone’s enemies; Tommy, her handler, and the mysterious Drew, a hitman on loan from New York. It has the makings of a complicated and highly dangerous love triangle.
For a novella, Audrey Cole has created three characters that have a very ‘lived in’ feel about them. There’s plenty of roaring twenties flavour, and a constant brooding edge of gangster brutality.
Cole has a great grasp on the mood and style of the time. Some readers might find it a touch short on descriptive scene setting, but if you love the genre or have seen the movies, you’ll be right at home in smoky confines of the Cotton Club.
The end leaves you somewhere between disappointed and hungry for more, but it is a serial. I have a feeling there will be a few more novellas before we find out how this cocktail of love and danger is resolved.
January 25, 2014
Normally with stories this short I tend to avoid them simply because it's so difficult for an author to set up a world, give it a plot, and give the characters personality in less than 100 pages. But since both books were out, I figured okay, part one, part two, this could be okay. Afterall I love stories set in the 1920's mob scene.
But this one fell a little short. I mean it had me hooked all up until the ending. It was like the author just decided to stop writing and that was it. Like...okay? Um, totally did not expect that to be the ending of the first book. Fortunately this book was free or I would have been pissed. Even at $.99 this really is only a partial story, with no plot follow through. And actually the author really just needed to release both "books" as one solid story. I haven't read the 2nd one yet, it's next up. But if it ends anything like this one did then I will be sorely disappointed.
But this one fell a little short. I mean it had me hooked all up until the ending. It was like the author just decided to stop writing and that was it. Like...okay? Um, totally did not expect that to be the ending of the first book. Fortunately this book was free or I would have been pissed. Even at $.99 this really is only a partial story, with no plot follow through. And actually the author really just needed to release both "books" as one solid story. I haven't read the 2nd one yet, it's next up. But if it ends anything like this one did then I will be sorely disappointed.
August 12, 2014
3.5 - 4 stars! I have never read a "roaring 20s" piece like this, so I'm going to have to judge them all based of this novella. Good thing I liked it. Lol Whisky Sour was a super quick read (which also was its downfall... Why so short? I would have like a longer book 1 to get used to the characters and story lines). The dialogue was witty and kept you in tune with what the characters were thinking. I like the lead and the triangle set up with Adrian. I just wish there would've been more. And not in the I-hate-a-cliffhanger way. I get the feeling the author was just testing the audience out. And I wish she would have trusted, for lack of a better word, us with more. I'll definitely be headed over to get the second book, but I am wondering if it could have been combined into one. Overall, it pulled me in. I liked the characters, I liked the steam, I liked the dialogue. I just wanted more of all of that. :)
January 9, 2014
"Swan Song 1- Whiskey Sour by Audrey Cole.
Adrian Marcone is headlining at one of "the hottest joints in town". That town is Chicago and the year is 1926. She is described as "a raven haired, stormy eyed, statuesque siren." She is determined, talented and gorgeous.
She headlines at the Chicago Cotton Club which is run by Al Capone's big brother.
All Adrian wants to do is make it to the stage of The Cotton Club in New York City, but as always happens with beautiful women, men get involved and her life gets more complicated than she bargained for.
This a short and fast paced read and will keep you reading to the end and wanting more.
I can't wait to read more about Adrian's adventures in Book 2 : Whiskey and Toxic.
5 out of 5 stars
Adrian Marcone is headlining at one of "the hottest joints in town". That town is Chicago and the year is 1926. She is described as "a raven haired, stormy eyed, statuesque siren." She is determined, talented and gorgeous.
She headlines at the Chicago Cotton Club which is run by Al Capone's big brother.
All Adrian wants to do is make it to the stage of The Cotton Club in New York City, but as always happens with beautiful women, men get involved and her life gets more complicated than she bargained for.
This a short and fast paced read and will keep you reading to the end and wanting more.
I can't wait to read more about Adrian's adventures in Book 2 : Whiskey and Toxic.
5 out of 5 stars
December 30, 2013
I must admit this book did not appeal to me upon first reading the description mainly due to the era in which it is based. Three word's I WAS WRONG!! and boy I was.
Although it's a short book - it is a little box of treats.
The characters are well explained and reading it you visualise the characters as well as the settings.
I am looking forward to getting to know the characters more as the books progress.
I hope Adrian ends up with Drew yes he's a bad boy but he will treat her like a princess, whereas Tommy sees her as a priceless possession and will be too controlling not allowing her to spread her wings and fulfil her dreams.
Looking forward to reading the next one!!
Although it's a short book - it is a little box of treats.
The characters are well explained and reading it you visualise the characters as well as the settings.
I am looking forward to getting to know the characters more as the books progress.
I hope Adrian ends up with Drew yes he's a bad boy but he will treat her like a princess, whereas Tommy sees her as a priceless possession and will be too controlling not allowing her to spread her wings and fulfil her dreams.
Looking forward to reading the next one!!
August 11, 2016
This is the first part of a romance novel set at the 20's.
It was interesting but not a stand-alone.
I need to read the second part, Gin and Toxic.
It was interesting but not a stand-alone.
I need to read the second part, Gin and Toxic.
December 15, 2013
A serialized romance novel set in mobster-era Chicago. I can't wait till I get my hands on the second part of this book. Very intriguing.
December 7, 2013
Good with with a nice twist ... And not just in the drink. I enjoyed reading about a strong heroine who fought the bad guys with a zeal equal to any man!
January 16, 2014
Looks like a good book. Can't wait to read it and share with friends!
Want to read
March 3, 2014Kindle freebie
May 13, 2014
I like it. It's a nice start. It has all the makings of a great story: mobsters, speakeasy, jazz singers and chorus dancers. I'm hoping Gin and Tonic is a touch longer.
November 5, 2016
I don't normally like these teasers but it did leave me wanting more from this story. Just need to find out how much for the completed series before I decide to go further.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews