allingoodtime 's review for:

The Professional by Kresley Cole
4.5
challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
 
I knew this story would be intense. I knew to expect a whole lot of heat and extreme sexual situations. This book has all of what I was expecting, but the strength of the emotions was a bit unexpected for me. Natalie and Sevastyan couldn’t stay away from each other if they tried. On all levels, these two are connected.

While there is plenty of angst and emotion, there is also humor sprinkled throughout. This is a dark story, so it helped to have a reprieve from that darkness once in a while. Because Natalie is adopted and had been searching for her birth parents, there is a vein of hope throughout the story when it comes to her and her birth father. There is also a hopefulness to the relationship between Natalie’s birth father and Sevastyan. It’s a very sweet and touching relationship.

It was refreshing to have Natalie admit that it’s not a great thing for a woman to try to fix a man when there are so many other men in the world that don’t need so much work. She has to decide if the relationship she envisions with him is worth the work she will need to put in. Sevastyan has to learn that to love someone is not to keep them in a cage. But how can he let go of the overwhelming need to protect what he loves? These two have a lot to work through.

I’m not much for mafia stories as a whole. I’ve read some I’ve really loved, but it’s not a sub-genre I’m generally drawn to. I dove into this story because it is the next in order of the Kresley Cole books being read and discussed on the first season of the podcast Fated Mates. I knew I’d be in good hands, and I was right. The author has a knack of getting her readers to care deeply for her characters, no matter how broken and scarred their souls are. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings