The Professional by Kresley Cole

I received an ARC of The Professional in return for an honest review. Thank you to Miss Cole and Gallery Books for this opportunity.

The Game Maker series is a new series out for Kresley Cole. I am a HUGE fan of her Immortals After Dark series. I was excited and nervous to read The Professional. On one hand I knew Miss Cole was a superb storyteller. She has a wonderful talent for bringing paranormal romance to life, but could she bring that talent to The Game Maker series? Why, YES SHE CAN!

The Professional is about a PhD student, Natalie Porter and a mafiya enforcer, Aleksander "The Siberian" Sevastyan. 

Natalie is a PhD student who has recently hired a private investigator to find her biological parents. As the semester is ending she joins her friends at a bar. She has a knack for looking at a man and figuring out exactly what type of person he is: one night stand, obsessive lover, etc. But when Aleksander walks into the bar and she is challenged by her friends to categorize him, she is stumped. She is intrigued by this and is challenged by her friends to introduce herself to him. When she tries to flirt, Aleksander shoots her down. 

Natalie gets whisked away by Aleksander to Russia to meet her father, a vor-head of a mafiya organization.

She finds she is being targeted by her father's enemies and he wants her in Russia, not only to meet her, but to keep her safe. From her first meeting with Aleksander there are fireworks between the two. 

 The Professional is a story of a twenty-something college virgin (reluctantly) and a worldly dark Russian mafiya enforcer. While trying to keep Natalie safe, Aleksander introduces her to the dark, erotic world of BDSM. Natalie, not knowing why she could never become interested in a man enough to go through with having sex with them, finds herself intrigued and beyond excited by the erotic pleasures that Aleksander has introduced her to. But to her dismay, she finds Aleksander backing away from the pleasures she craves that only he can satisfy.

Aleksander and Natalie's journey is a journey of lust, sex, exploration, trust and love. 

  Miss Cole as always DELIVERS!  

Her talent for incorporating suspense, romance, intelligent characters and sex into a story line that engrosses the reader has found a new outlet. She knows when to develop the story line and when it is time to add the romance and when it's just right to introduce the steamy sex. The sex is never the focus of the story and it never feels dirty. It is always a natural progression of the characters relationship.

Aleksander and Natalie's chemistry is off the charts. As Natalie's emotions ride a roller-coaster, thanks to Aleksander, she pushes harder and harder to learn why he is the way he is. This, I feel, is a very realistic expectation of a woman who is or wants to be in a relationship with a man.

Is the BDSM realistic? I have no idea, but I really enjoyed delving into this type of erotica for the first time. I have to admit, my new fantasy involves a sexy Russian from Siberia!

One of the things I think I liked most about this book is how Miss Cole showed how two people in love with each other can satisfy their need for unconventional sex without making it a dirty little secret.

For those readers who enjoy suspenseful erotica, I highly recommend this book. For those readers who enjoy Kresley Cole's books-YOU HAVE GOT TO READ this book! 

I give this book 5 STARS and highly recommend this book.

Happy Reading!