Enemies of the State: (The Executive Office #1)

Amazing, compelling, intelligent, powerful…I am in awe. And it’s the first in a series for Ethan and Jack! Yay! I read the other reviews and saw all the comments about not wanting to put it down and that was absolutely the case with me too. At around 10% I started regularly looking at my progress and wanting the time to stretch out. Typical time to read says 6 hours 22 minutes, so it’s a good length, but I just didn’t want it to end, even though I didn’t finish until after 5 a.m. But I couldn’t put it down. And I wanted more! 😉

The detail and information was impressive. not just for the Secret Service, it extended to every aspect. When the President and his vast entourage traveled out of country, the detail continued and painted a picture that takes you there with them.

The PoV starts with Ethan, but later on switches (at times) to Jack. The cast of characters was large, but not confusing. I liked a lot of them, especially Levi Daniels and Scott Collard, fellow agents and good friends that work on Ethan’s team. Ethan is openly gay, and has lived his life dedicated to his career. He’s very likable and when he realizes his feelings for Jack are pushing him to break rules that he never has before, he has a struggle with himself. He knows he should stay away, but he can’t do it. Ethan isn’t one for relationships, he’s never been tempted to take things past a casual encounter, but he falls for Jack, and he falls hard. The attraction, desire, and love that he develops for Jack is at times heart wrenching. Jack lost his wife 15 years ago and he hasn’t been in a relationship since. He’s straight, or at least he’s always identified that way, but he’s drawn to Ethan and he keeps seeking Ethan out and wanting to do more with him.

The feelings that Jack and Ethan develop for each other can be felt so powerfully, they emanate and touch your heart. I want to give a heartfelt thank you to the author for giving us Ethan and Jack, and also for giving the kind of ending that ties things up and leaves you smiling and wanting more with these two. I would be going a little crazy if the ending had left me hanging at all.

I loved Ethan and Jack’s story from start to finish. If you’re at all interested in the premise then do not pass on buying it, you certainly won’t regret it. I recommend making sure you have a good block of time you can devote to uninterrupted reading, since you’re probably not going to want to put it down.

Here’s hoping that the series gets extended so there’s more with Ethan and Jack. <3

I bought this book because of the premise and the quality of the writing on display in the sample. The pairing of President and Secret Service agent was intriguing and full of romantic potential, and the details of life at the White House were fascinating. For quite a while I was utterly unable to put the book down. I liked the slowly developing friendship where there was supposed to be only impersonal professionalism, and the suspense element of the story was shaping up in an interesting way as well.

And then…. it started to go a bit awry, largely because Ethan and Jack started to behave in a way that lost my respect. This is a romance novel, so I was prepared to suspend disbelief and accept their crossing of all kinds of ethical boundaries, with Ethan risking his career by getting involved with a protectee, and Jack risking his Presidency by being inappropriately friendly with one of his protective detail. And I might have gone on suspending disbelief if they had maintained their dignity whilst dealing with their growing feelings for each other.

However they both have complete emotional meltdowns at different points in the book over the state of their relationship or because one is worried about the other. This occurs not just in private but also when they are surrounded by their colleagues and in the middle of crisis situations. Their relationship clearly affects their ability to do their jobs and especially in Jack’s case I could not believe that any of the military or intelligence personnel around him would have any confidence in him as President. I liked that they were so emotionally attached to each other, but surely an experienced agent and a political veteran would be able to keep their feelings under control in public. Ethan is far too undisciplined for a Secret Service agent and Jack is far too politically nave to have ever become the President.

The first part of the story is all told from Ethan’s point of view and I could see why Jack appealed to him, but I didn’t understand why Jack was so drawn to Ethan. Jack is unrealistically socially isolated, a widower with apparently no other family or friends, but apart from relaxing his Secret Service pokerface ever so slightly, Ethan doesn’t do anything that would justify Jack pursuing his friendship so zealously. And it was hard to believe that Jack could be so oblivious to his growing feelings for Ethan and then decide so quickly that he was willing to try a relationship with a man when he had never considered such a thing before.

I did like the way they took their physical relationship slowly, which was one thing which did seem realistic. But once they are committed to a (secret) relationship they never make much attempt at discretion, and I couldn’t believe that the whole White House machine didn’t know about them.

To give this book its due, I enjoyed the suspense plot, which was well balanced with the romantic storyline. I did pick the surprise villain, but I liked the details of how the Secret Service operates, and the action scenes were well written. Yes, there were some convenient coincidences, but I was entertained by the unfolding developments and there were no places where the pace flagged. But every now and again, the melodramatic behaviour of the two main characters would break out again and annoy me. When describing their feelings, the author lapses into language that is somewhat purple at times, and I wished for bit of understatement. When it comes to tugging the reader’s heartstrings, sometimes less is more. The ending is pure fantasy; even if in the future America can accept a gay President I doubt he would be able to get away with a complete inability to separate his personal life from the duties of his office.

This book has a lot of good things in it, and if your taste runs to love breaking all the rules and sweeping aside all pragmatic considerations then you’ll probably love this story. I just hankered after a better balance between emotion and realism.

Well. For a story that made me tear up more than once, this is a problematic book for several glaring reasons. HOWEVER, I do approve of who the bad guys are. That felt all too real.

Jack is a nice fantasy President. I wish we could elect him. Too bad the R greed would never allow him to exist, and the D ‘both-sides’ing everything would mangle.

Stupid reality.

Anyway. I thought the author did a reasonable job of glossing over/ignoring the iffier parts in this plot, which is why, most of why, I finished reading it. The mole’s ID didn’t surprise me at all, but I doubt that was the point. I liked the way discoveries happened.

The other part is the romance, which is patently ridiculous and further dropped this into fantasy for me. The conflict Ethan feels is too repetitious, but I thought Jack’s slow realization was given enough time, a rare commodity in the ‘gay for you’ subgenre. The intimate scenes aren’t overdone, which was nice. I liked how this book ended, because the relationship is at a satisfying point, which is the objective if you’re going to call a story a Romance.

Will I read more in the series? Probably not. I don’t like political fiction. Particularly after 2020. The characters worked well enough for me, but I’ll stop while I’m ahead. And, and this is a sticking point, the editing is questionable. There aren’t many actual typos, but there are some strange word choices that any good editor would have flagged. I’ve noted the most glaring ones in the highlights notes, but just know that wasn’t all of them.

Unfortunately, I couldnt help comparing this to the base reality that is todays America. The author seems to think that the Office of the President makes the holder an all seeing, all knowing top dog in the world as long as he has the cojones to stand up to the Caliphate.

His America is just the best, the land of the free, the land of boundless opportunity, with a system of government that is so good that all the countries of the world should be in awe of its processes. It follows of course that the rest of us poor ignorant non-Americans should naturally bow down to the supreme commander of the supreme state. Now it may be true that some politicians in some countries do just that, but for the general populations the reaction is entirely different.

The centre and southern states of America are third world countries in all but name, as are the social systems, health and education, in the whole country. The political infrastructure is riddled with corruption and full of low class, self-serving senators. Not the features that are prerequisites of a first world state. Add to this that the current President is an eye-wateringly ignorant lout who is a laughing stock in most of the world, and the reality collides with this book causing an almighty disjunction.

I can only end by saying that the author should get out more and take off his rose tinted all-American glasses.

So what do you get if you cross House of Cards with Homeland and a dash of 24 for good measure? Only one of the most thrilling and fast-paced books Ive read in an age, thats what! Add to that, a beautiful and very romantic m/m romance with two gorgeous MCs consisting of President Jack Spiers and his hunky head of security Ethan Reichenbach, and also a whole host of fantastically fleshed-out and enigmatic secondary characters to really peak your interest throughout, and hey presto, youve got yourself the perfect romantic thriller. This was a breathtaking read and being the authors debut novel made it even more so. The depth of knowledge this writer has with regards to the Secret Service, The Whitehouse and foreign politics in general, is astounding, so much so, theyve gotta have been connected to this world in some way, or certainly have done some serious amount of research on the subject.

This is an edge-of-your-seat political thriller but its also a sort of friends to lovers/GFY romance, although it never feels tropey in the least. Jack has that whole sexy, geeky, bespectacled thing going on, while Ethan is the big, brawny ex Special Forces guy there is no way that is not a hot combo! Ethan, who is gay and has no interest in long-term relationships, finds himself increasingly drawn to the new president even though its against every rule in the book for him to befriend his protectee. Jack on the other hand is straight and a widower 15 years who feels lonely and isolated in his new and high-powered position. The weeks pass and the men very slowly become friends which later leads to attraction. And although Jack was straight, I loved that he didnt get too hung up on the fact he was falling for a man, yeah of course their was some angst and a little soul-searching regarding this but overall I liked that he accepted he was happy hed found love again, and that it just happened to be with a man. One of my peeves in the GFY genre is when the sex is rushed and the originally straight guy is seemingly perfect and suddenly very knowledgeable about everything well this one is all about the slow build up thats for sure. And although this couple are undeniably hot together, the sex is definitely not gratuitous and doesnt overwhelm the story at all. Their intimate scenes are more sweet and loving and about learning and trust and probably therefore much more realistic actually. But it was the teasing and playful banter, the texts, the flirting, the complete trust that Jack had in Ethan to stay up all night and discuss foreign politics with him, and not least the off the chain ST that had me grinning like a fool throughout this tale. This was a proper old-school, swoon-worthy romance imo (so hard to find), but never to the point of being sickly sweet, which is another huge peeve of mine.

Its so hard to go into any real detail about the plot without spoiling it for others, but I will say that this one had it all guns, bombs, high-speed chases, espionage to name but a few, and as for the reveal of the villain/s? well I certainly didnt guess outright, in fact only near the very end of the book before realisation struck and even then my heart was in my throat with anticipation of the outcome. And as far as showdowns go? gobsmacking.and read more like a Hollywood blockbuster! And although the ending was entirely satisfying with Jack and Ethan achieving their well-deserved (at the very least) HFN, certain situations were left wide open to further explore. That, coupled with there being so many intriguing secondary characters who Id kill to hear more from not least Cooper and Faisal? oh yeah, theres history there that I feel this book bears all the signs of the start of a new series (yeah, that was a hint). This is storytelling at its finest, miss it at your peril!

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