Review: The Professional: Part 1

The Professional: Part 1 by Kresley Cole

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Mafia, alpha male and an amazing Russian palace, what more can a small town USA girl want? Natalie Porter's life is completely turned upside down when she finally finds her biological father. She's been searching for six years to find him. Natalie wasn't an unloved orphan. She was a loved adopted child. Still, as with many adopted kids, they want to know why they were given up and who their birth parents may be. To find out her biological father is rich and involved with organized crime, it's a bit overwhelming.

Ms. Cole creates some of the cutest spunky female characters. Natalie is no whimpering wall flower. She takes everything in stride. She's a strong independent female with a snarky attitude. This female can easily fit in with the strong females from Ms. Cole's other series, Immortals After Dark (IAD). This means readers who loved the females from IAD will recognize and like Natalie. The male romantic interest is Aleksandr Sevastyan. He's sexy and intimidating. He's feared and respected. Aleksandr is a quiet one who walks softly but carries a big stick. He's easily likeable.

The characters are not too complicated. They follow the pattern of Ms. Cole's other books. The familiarity is both a good and bad thing. For those who enjoy reading this type of combination over and over again, it's a delight. For those who like something different, this may come off as a bit boring from a character development perspective.

The most surprising part of this book is the incorporation of BDSM. It's very light. It's more mentioned and a bit hinted at than real BDSM play. For this, I classify the book as SugarKink. It's is a good start. I wonder where Ms. Cole will head with it. I eagerly look forward to her cranking up the spicy heat.

From a plot perspective, it's decent. The world building is good and Ms. Cole does an excellent job of painting the picture for readers to clearly see each location. What is frustrating is this is a serial book, not a series. Had I know this up front, I might not have picked up the book. Why? Because the book doesn't feel finished. As the story is really heating up and I'm engaged, it ends. Since I don't turn on my Kindle reading progress anymore, I didn't realize I hit the end of the book. I thought my Kindle froze. In a panic, I kept tapping my Kindle in hopes of it moving to the next page. When it did not, I tapped to see if it will go back to the home page screen so I could pull the book up again. It worked. Then I turned on the reading progress tracker - 100%! I admit, I did shout a few curse words. I felt teased and became disgruntled. Still, I'm charmed by this fast moving tale and I want to read the next installments. I want to know what happens. This romantic suspense is recommended for readers who enjoy a spunky female lead and stoic alpha male.


*provided by NetGalley


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