I didn’t know how to tell him how afraid I’d been that I’d never have this moment with him. This moment where it was just the two of us. This moment where he made me feel whole without even trying. –EliAbandoned. Abused. Betrayed.Ex-cop Maverick “Mav” James needs only three things. His Harley, an open road and his work in an underground organization that delivers justice when the law can’t.… organization that delivers justice when the law can’t.
Family? They left him long before he left them.
Friends? A liability.
A place to call home? Doesn’t exist.
Mav’s motto is simple: Get done and get out. Work, sex, doesn’t matter. No emotional connections. Simple.
Until he meets him.
Alone. Hiding. Broken.
At fifteen years old, Eli Galvez had nothing. No family, no friends and only his body as a means to make enough money to survive. But a chance meeting changed all that and eight years later, he’s well on his way to having the life he could once only dream of. He’s been accepted into medical school and he’s finally returned home to Seattle to be closer to the men and women who don’t share his blood, but are the only family he’s ever really known.
Only things aren’t what they seem and the secrets Eli has been hiding are about to come to the surface with dangerous consequences.
One final chance at a real future.
Guys like Eli just aren’t Mav’s type, period. Yet he can’t deny his intense attraction to the younger man who only looks at him with fear in his eyes. Until the day there’s something else in those eyes too. Something that draws Mav in and refuses to let go. Something that makes him want to forget his rules. But Mav’s learned the hard way what happens when you get too close to something. And while he vows to protect Eli after a violent attack leaves the younger man shaken, protection is all he’ll offer.
Because anything else would just cost too much.
Trigger Warning: This book does contain a possible trigger for some readers. Specifics can be found by utilizing the “Look Inside” feature or downloading a sample and scrolling to the page right before the table of contents. Please note that reading the trigger that is included may cause spoilers.
Full length novel (86k words)
This is Book 4 in the series, but can be read as a stand-alone story – no cliffhangers.**
The Protectors series crosses over with some of my other series, so for the most enjoyment, they should be read in this order, but it is not required. I’ve also bundled all my series in the correct reading order under the title of A Family Chosen: The Protectors and Barrettis.
Book 1 – Absolution (M/M/M)
Book 2 – Salvation (M/M)
Book 3 – Retribution (M/M)
Logan’s Need (Escort Series #3) (M/M)
Redeeming Rafe (Barretti Security Series #2) (M/M)
Saving Ren (Barretti Security Series #3) (M/M/M)
Freeing Zane (Barretti Security Series #4) (M/M)
Book 4 – Forsaken (M/M)
Book 5 – Vengeance (M/M/M)
Book 5.5 – A Protectors Family Christmas
Book 6 – Atonement (M/M)
Book 7 – Revelation (M/M)
Note: This book contains M/M sexual content and is intended for mature audiences
more
**********Contains Spoilers**********
I really enjoyed this book but it was very hard to read at some places so you should have your tissues handy. I’m glad that Eli finally got his happily ever after but it wasn’t without a lot of hardships. Eli was first introduced to us in Logan’s Need (Escort Series) Book 3 when Dom and Logan rescued him from living on the streets having to sell himself to make just enough money to survive. I thought he’d be okay but little did we know for the last 6 years his s*distic step-father Jack has been r*ping Eli and manipulated him and made him think that it was Eli that came on to him but come on what grown man couldn’t push a 15 year old off them, due to what Eli had already survived it doesn’t take much to understand why he believed him plus his step-father showed him a doctored video which looked like Eli was a pursuer but really his step-father had dr*gged him. Mav hasn’t had it easy either just to a different extent and that he was abandoned by his mother who left him on the Reservation with his Grandfather when he was sick and it didn’t help that Mav was never accepted due to him being half white and also gay so he doesn’t let anyone get close to him but Eli works his way past his walls and doesn’t allow Mav to ditch him when he tries to as his motto has always been leave them before they leave you. I just love Matty and love that him and Mav are so close. Matty was the first person to make it past Mav’s walls. I loved getting snippets of a lot of previous couples from this universe like Hawke and Tate and I’m glad that all Mav’s workmates didn’t take his bullsh*t either and allow him to ditch him and they’re his found family even though he didn’t ask for them. I’m looking forward to reading the next story. I’d definitely recommend this book, series, universe and author to everyone.
I had read this book quit awhile ago, but I was lucky enough to win a copy of the audio book. I enjoyed the audiobook just a bit more. The narrator added some emotions to the story that I hadn’t picked up while reading.
This was an angst and sex fueled story that tied two of Sloane Kennedy’s series together. If you are looking for steamy scenes, this book had them.
On a very different note…
I appreciated the addition of a character of Lakota heritage. I grew up next to Pine Ridge, and I wish more people understood the challenges faced by people from Pine Ridge. It isn’t all negative stories, but they deserve some empathy and understanding. Some of my college classmates faced challenges like Maverick, and like Maverick they have become amazing men who have helped those in need.
Forsaken and Vengeance are both fabulous reads. Both are emotional stories with their hot men. Vengeance was even more emotional, it was gut wrenching. My heart hurt as I cried.
Both have great hog sex scenes however Vengeance is even more deliciously dirty.
Such strong great male characters with their amazing families.
Read – Sep 2016
Oh, Sloane Kennedy, you’ve done it yet again!
I Absofuckinglutely loved this book! This book set my kindle on fire!! It just hit all the right buttons!! Seriously, we need a new word for hot, that’s how FUCKING HOT these two men were!
OMG, Go buy this book ASAP!!!
This is book 4 in the Protectors series, but you don’t need to have read/listened to the other three before this one. Also there is some crossover with the Barrettis series by the same author and I am reading that series and listening to this one, all out of the order the author recommends. Spoilers, is all.
Mav stops an attack on Eli in the hospital stairwell and is immediately drawn to the much younger man. He tries to stay away, he really does, but he keeps coming back to check on Eli, but he doesn’t want to get too close, because everyone leaves Mav. Everyone. Eli has other ideas, but he doesn’t want Mav to know about his past. He did some terrible things. When those things come back to affect his younger brothers, Eli knows, he KNOWS all will come out, and Mav will walk away.
I’ve been listening to this series, rather than reading it and I struggle to split the narration from the book, like I try to do when writing my reviews for audio books. Also, here? This is not the same narrator as the first three books and I wondered how that would come across, how the VOICES, more importantly, would come across.
Had I listened to these back to back, I might have noticed some difference in the voices of previous characters, but I didn’t, either back to back them nor notice the difference in the voices, so I really cannot fault the voices of PREVIOUS characters.
What I DID struggle with, at first anyway, was Mav’s voice. I don’t think he actually says a word in any of the other books, although he is mentioned. It’s LOW, so very low it dipped in places outside of my hearing range. Which is odd, cos usually it’s the HIGHER pitch voices I lose. But this is a problem I seem to have with Pauley. The dipping of the voices. And since this is written in the first person, there is no reading voice, as such. It’s either Eli, or Mav, with the other voices breaking it up. So struggled a bit, quite a bit at the beginning. It DOES get better, maybe I grew used to Mav, maybe I grew used to Pauley again, after a while. I don’t know, but it did get better.
I cannot fault the story line though!
SO much pain carried by both men, for so very different reasons, and Pauley does get that across well, the pain these men have.
5 stars for the book
4 stars for the narration (but it was very nearly 3!)
4.5 stars overall
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
After three books of Mav being in the background we finally get his story. He was always the behind the scenes man in the other books so you didn’t really get a good read on his character. You knew he was sort of a loner and kept to himself. Since I didn’t read the Barretti series first to learn about Eli, he was a completely new character to me. He was a gentle, sweet soul who had a very rough up bringing who found solace in Mav. I loved during the last half of the book how strong Eli became in not leaving Mav even though he was very hurtful toward Eli. In the end everything worked out and introduced Memphis who I cannot wait to read about!
** 4.5 stars **
Eli is finally ready for his happy ever after but something terrible holds him back. He does not feel worthy, he withdraws from others, and unfortunately they don’t even notice. The only person who sees that some things are not as they should be is Mav. When he comes to Eli’s rescue, both men start on a journey to figure out how to let go of their past and feel deserving of happiness that is within their reach.
I love Eli. He is a survivor, and life should have been sweet to him, but instead he got sour lemons. Poor baby! I rooted for him so much. When the truth came out about what he went through, I was heart broken. Evil exists in many packages, and one never knows what is hiding behind closed doors. Eli is one of the strongest men in this series and so worth knowing.
Maverick while also having traumatic past in its own way was slowly destroying the relationship that was developing between two men. It’s as if he could not stop. From the life he led before it might be understandable but it hurt Eli so much, I really wanted to smack him upside his head sometimes. He needed someone persistent like Eli to show him what devotion and love was. It was at times very agonizing process for both men.
The ending was tragic in a sense that people who were supposed to protect and love Eli betrayed him and hurt him. When the truth came out there was so much guilt, so many tears, so much regret. Mav and Eli went through a lot together, but finally they both were healing and moving forward. I loved this book, and I highly recommend it.