The Southern Gentleman: Protective Instinct (Book 1)

The Southern Gentleman: Protective Instinct (Book 1), Dominant Heroes Collection,  Sweden Reese

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  Romance, Erotica

So, a debut duet. Interesting. I hate waiting for second and subsequent parts of a story to be released, hate stopping part the way through then trying to pick up the threads and drama again months later so a huge Hurrah for the fact that parts one and two are being released simultaneously.
Part one is just 99p  ( pre released price) with part tow being just over £3. I was surprised at how short the first part was, just 162 pages, but at least for 99p you can see if you like Sweden's writing style and the way the story goes before splurging on the rest of the book. part two is 280 pages ( info from Goodreads).
It’s an interesting way of how to get round that dichotomy of readers wanting to try new authors but having limited funds. Often in that situation authors make first books in series/duos, trilogies free and either way at least ensures readers don’t feel aggrieved if they don’t like the story. Its hard selling books when there are so many out at very low cost I guess. Ebooks mean readers can get some great books at very little cost, but the many there make it hard to find good ones and the dross, and hard for good authors to get seen too, and yet without it there’s so many stories that would never get published if they relied on the traditional print format and publishing houses.

So, back to the book, its a fun read, spicy at times though not til very close to the end does anything actually happen. That fits though, it wouldn’t be believable f it happened earlier. The beginning is really setting the scene so when the action happens it feels genuine.
I like Lola, found it hard to believe she was 23, she seemed so much younger, so naive, but maybe that’s her sheltered upbringing.
I like the way Sweden has Lola questioning Nolan about his Dom world, about how he can feel that way given that we’re in a modern era, makes him explain what seems like a dated and antiquated way of regarding women.
I understood her quandary, in some ways Feminism has brought about such a revolution that women who just want to be in the 50’s kind of traditional mould, let someone else make decisions, take control, are regarded as letting things down for women, a doormat, almost second class, and yet surely sexual freedom means doing whatever you want, being whoever you want regardless of what others think. Some people are happiest that way, and if they match up with someone who wants to take the primary role, make the decisions and it works why does anyone think that's wrong? Regardless of whether its a f/m, m/m or f/f combo...Jeannie’s liberalist rant over again * shrug *

I really enjoyed this story, enough politics to make it interesting, but not so much that I  was bored. US politics is a bit of a mystery to me as a UK reader so focussing on the personnel not the politics worked well for me.
Nolan is a great lead, and I’m keen t know more, about his background, his family, his ex, I get the feeling she’s not going to be happy about developments!
Then there’s Lola’s position, with mum running for President ultimately, she needs to be the squeaky clean daughter she’s always been portrayed. She’s not really close to her parents, they’ve always put their careers first, and now she’s 23 she’s finally having a rebellion- at the very worst time.
Something happened recently that made her question their roles, her beliefs, her position in always following their lead, even down to her career choices, and she wants to maybe make some changes. Its means she’s ripe for plucking and her mum’s opposition are up to some dirty tricks putting her into danger.

It’ll be interesting to see if her and Nolan do get together, how they can deal with her parents, how they’ll need to hide things for the sake of politics. How that will affect Nolan and his family and job.
A really interesting debut novel, and a great start.
I’ve got part two as an arc on my kindle and tonight I’m going to be carrying on with the story, having everything fresh from reading part one yesterday.

Stars: five, an excellent first book, and a great idea having parts one and two release simultaneously

. ARC supplied by Netgalley and publisher

LOVED this book! This is a very sexy romantic suspense with a twist. Lola, the daughter of a presidential candidate, runs away from the campaign, planning to hide until after the election. Unfortunately, she greatly underestimates her value to the campaign or to her mother's enemies as leverage to hurt her mother's campaign.

Nolan is a D.C. fixer, and very good at his job. He has a few hang ups and will not fly, so when he is hired to find the missing Lola, he starts driving across the country to find her. He is totally unprepared for the visceral attraction he feels for her at first sight. Before long, he is forced to use all of his skills to keep Lola safe, while still fighting his attraction to her.

This is a very fast paced book that romantic suspense fans will love. While it is classified as erotic suspense, and does contain explicit sex, many romance/romantic suspense novels contain just as much, if not more, explicit sex without the erotic label. This is book one of a two part series and ends in a cliff-hanger. I would strongly encourage you to buy both books together as you'll want to start book two as soon as you complete this book.

Lola is the daughter of a presidential candidate. She's fed up and needs to escape for awhile so she ditches her secret service agent and runs. Campaign manager hires Nolan to find Lola and bring her back to the campaign. His company is a public relations firm and he's former military.

Book 1 has Nolan tracking Lola down to drag her back to her parents. Sounds kinda boring right? Yeah, no, not boring at all! I was mesmerized and it's mainly cause of Nolan. Don't get me wrong, I liked Lola as well. She's early 20's and very mature for her age. She has to be. Her mom, the Govenor and presidential candidate, is very demanding of her time. Lola has already started her own charity and makes appearances and speeches to help further her mothers campaign.

When I started this book, I was afraid I wasn't going to like it. Our first introduction to Nolan is a scene where his ex-wife tries to seduce him. Call me old fashioned but I don't want to read about the H appreciating other woman's features when I know he's going to be with the h later in the story. Thankfully he put the brakes on fast and handled it well. I'm thinking, good, I can handle this.

Then cut over to Lola's parents and campaign manager. I have an immediate dislike to her parents. I think it's pretty obvious they don't value Lola like they should. The campaign manager is giving Nolan the run down of the situation and he kept referring to Lola as a brat. The author already has me wanting to defend Lola and I only read one small scene with her at this point. Impressive.

Thankfully, this is just a small part of the beginning in book 1. The rest of the book is Nolan and Lola and let me just say...This book was crazy hot and man does this story take off at this point! The opposing candidate has hired goons to put Lola in a compromising situation to hurt her mothers campaign. Luckily Nolan finds her right when the goons try. He saves her and one situations turns into another and then another. During all of this we get to know more about Nolan and Lola.

The chemistry between these two was smokin! Nolan reveals to Lola why his marriage didn't work. He wants complete submission and domestic discipline in his marriage. I loved that Lola didn't just say ok. She debates with him. She thinks it's antiquated. He thinks it's necessary for a successful marriage. I'm not really into the complete "submit to your man in all things" concept but I do believe Nolan could convince me with out much of a fight. I don't get the whole spanking thing either but I gotta admit, when the time came in the story, that was an incredibly hot scene Sweden Reese created.

This ends on a really big cliffhanger. Good thing the author is publishing book 2 the same day! I loved book one and can not wait to dive into book 2!