Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Enemies of the State

Tell me, why haven't I picked this up sooner?

Enemies of the Stare is a high stakes, action-packed romantic suspense. The president of the US and the head of his secret service security detail falls in love. You couldn't come up with a messier combination.

The story was romantic and heartwarming while at the same time full action and politics and military operations. There's a dash of treason, conspiracies, and international relations just to make it even messier.

I absolutely adore Jack and Ethan. Their tentative friendship and love are soooooo wonderful. And Tal has a way to show that love and break your heart at the same time. I was rooting for these two the whole time.

The storyline with all the action and politics was actually pretty engaging. I wanted to keep reading and reading just to see how this all turns out. The actual twists were not unpredictable, but that didn't take away from the enjoyment.

There were some pretty hilarious moments when I laughed out loud. But there were also moments when I was nervous, sad, and devastated. The balance between all these emotions is a pretty big pro in the book. It makes you happy while at the same time keeps you on your toes.

I can't wait to see how this story moves forward.

Content Warnings

20sidedbi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

espiargrant's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I really wanted to love this book because it's been rated quite highly and had some glowing reviews, plus, it had so many elements that I love—they were just done terribly. That said, there actually were some moments in the story that I actually quite liked, just not enough to save this book for me.
Now, I tried to suspend all belief, but there were so many things that weren't even close to plausible that it felt like a sit-com at times. I also found that our MCs themselves weren't very believable, nor was their relationship development. Ethan is supposed to be one of the best secret service agents in the biz, yet he's bending/breaking rules in ch. 1. The same goes for Jack, who asks his bodyguard to have a drink with him, and questions about foreign policy, and

sneaks him up to his room after hours to hang out. After which, we're supposed to believe that Jack thinks this is all in the name of friendship.

Now, this is a bodyguard romance, so I did not expect for their relationship to stay 100% professional forever, but the fact that they didn't even try annoyed me and took all the tension out of the romance.

Once the two actually became a couple, I liked the story a lot better, but things were still unrealistic in many ways. There were several scenes that I found cute/sweet or heavily emotional, but they didn't hold much weight due to the lack of build-up from the aforementioned reasons.
I liked the writing style well enough, there were some great descriptions, but some things got repetitive. I won't say much about the ending, but I felt that one or two chapters should have been cut from it.

Not sure if I'll read anything else from this author, but I'm not going to continue with this trilogy. :(
Positional Dynamic:

Jack: Top, Ethan: Bottom (changes in later books I believe)

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