Series: The Game Maker #1 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: May 6th 2014
Links: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
Meet the Professional.
Mafiya enforcer Aleksandr “The Siberian” Sevastyan’s loyalty to his boss is unwavering, until he meets the boss’s long-lost daughter, a curvy, tantalizing redhead who haunts his mind and heats his blood like no other. Ordered to protect her, Aleksandr will do anything to possess her as well–on his own wicked terms.
He makes the rules.
Grad student Natalie Porter has barely recovered from her first encounter with the dark and breathtaking Siberian when he whisks her away to Russia, thrusting her into a world of extreme wealth and wanton pleasures. Every day under his protection she falls deeper under his masterful spell.
In the game of obsession, two players are better than one.
Yet all is not as it seems. To remove Natalie from an enemy’s reach, Aleksandr spirits her into hiding. From an opulent palace in Russia to the decadent playgrounds of the mega-rich in Paris, the two lovers tempt each other’s boundaries to discover whether their darkest–and most forbidden–fantasies really can come true….
I freaking LOVE Russian mafia books (and the HOT Russian men in them), but I was a bit disappointed with Kresley Cole’s The Professional. This is actually the first book I’ve read by KC, and I’d been so, so, so excited to read it, but it fell a bit short of my expectations. I was expecting to be swept away by the mafia story and a sexy, alpha-male Russian hero, but I wasn’t. I can see why people loved this book, but for me, The Professional was an okay read – it just missed the mark for what I was expecting to get in this book.
Natalie Porter thinks she’s just a regular grad student when she meets the gorgeous and mysterious Aleksandr Sevastyan, until he takes her away from all that she’s known and thrusts her into the dark world of the Russian mafia. Turns out she’s the long-lost daughter of a powerful boss, who has assigned his enforcer the task of bringing her home by any means necessary.
Dangerous, deadly, and powerful, Sevastyan is the loyal and dedicated enforcer of the Russian mafia. But of all the things to knock him off his feet, Natalie is the only person to make him crazed with lust and out of control. The intense and instant attraction between them is unexpected, but this alpha knows what he wants and he’ll do anything to have her.
“If you became mine, I wouldn’t let you go.” His words were clipped, as if he was biting back frenzy. “Understand me, if I’m your first lover—I will be your last.” The ringing tone of finality chilled me. “And I would kill any man who thought to touch what was mine.”
In between the fiery chemistry and hot sex in The Professional, we’re swept away to the mafia world in Russia. There’s action and suspense, and pretty much never a dull moment for Sevastyan and Natalie. So I’m pretty bummed out that I couldn’t love this book more. The premise of it had me in love, but as I kept reading, I just couldn’t really get into the story or the characters, mainly because of the ridiculous amount of kinky sex. This book pretty much made me realize that I’m not the biggest fan of BDSM, so sadly, the sex – while hot – just wasn’t my type of thing. Plus, it felt like Sevastyan used sex to manipulate Natalie, so that was a big no for me.
In all honesty though, I did enjoy the book for the most part. We have an obsessed alpha-male who’ll do anything for his woman, and the chemistry between them was well-written and off the charts. I liked the romance, minus all the crazy sex, and the mafia world was interesting. I just didn’t connect that well with the characters – but if you’re a fan of over-the-top heroes and BDSM, this book might be for you!
“Concerns beyond you no longer matter. You’re at the center of my life”—he frowned—“no, you are my life.”
Reading Order: The Game Maker series
#1 ~ The Professional: Ebook • Paperback • Audible (Part One, Two, Three) • Goodreads
#2 ~ The Master: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#3 ~ The Player: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
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Annnnnndddd added to TBR list.
LOL yay!! The next two books are even better, too 😉