Review: The Professional (The Game Maker #1) by Kresley Cole

This book sat on my Kindle for way to long. I’m so glad I decided to finally read it. It was sexy and intriguing with super interesting characters.

The Professional (The Game Maker #1) by Kresley Cole

The highly anticipated complete novel of The Professional—the first installment in #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole’s scorching Game Maker series, an erotica collection that has readers asking: How hot is too hot?

He makes the rules…
Mafiya enforcer Aleksei “The Siberian” Sevastyan’s loyalty to his boss knows no bounds, until he meets the boss’s long-lost daughter, a curvy, feisty redhead who haunts his mind and heats his blood like no other. Ordered to protect her, Aleksei will do anything to possess her as well—on his own wicked terms.

Rules are made to be broken…
Grad student Natalie Porter had barely recovered from her first sight of the dark and breathtaking Sevastyan before the professional enforcer whisks her away to Russia, thrusting her into a world of extreme wealth and wanton pleasures. Every day under his protection leads her deeper under his masterful spell.

Are you ready to play?
Yet all is not as it seems. To remove Natalie from an enemy’s reach, Sevastyan spirits her into hiding. From an opulent palace in Russia to the decadent playgrounds of the mega-wealthy in Paris, the two lovers will discover that even their darkest—and most forbidden—fantasies can come true…

4 out of 5 stars

This was super intense and hot. It starts out really fast-paced and jumps right in. I like that Natalie’s bewildered by this crazy situation and rolls with it. She was stubborn and challenging and sometimes a bit too accepting but I liked her fire. Sevastyan is gruff, commanding, and all-consuming, he's basically a complicated mess and I wanted to know why the entire time and loved learning anything about him. These two have a lot of push and pull together, crazy chemistry that's heat-filled, and I thought they were intriguing. I was great watching them come together, it could be such a battle because of their personalities but also super passionate because they were drawn to each other.

The writing was really good with great character development overall. The pace was decent for me though on occasion some parts felt drawn out. This was about the same time I'd get frustrated with both Sevastyan and Natalie and want to yell at them because they could be a little over the top stubborn. There's mild drama with a very light suspense element, a lot of heat with some BDSM elements in play. I thought the sexy time scenes were well written and descriptive.

Overall I really liked the story. I was excited while reading and anxious about what was going to happen next. I loved the conflict waging inside Sevastyan and the personal battle he was facing. I'm a sucker for that moment that comes, when things click for the hero and this was a great one. The main theme was intense and hot, definitely intriguing. It was a crazy good ride!