I write my reviews without major story spoilers, but I include trigger warnings and I will discuss tropes and elements of the stories that won't ruin the plot.
Check out Sloane Kennedy's website for more information about her wonderful books.
Sloane Kennedy was another new-to-me author who I'd seen recommended all over the internet. Once again, I consumed the first in the series in one night and immediately downloaded the second. Then rinse and repeat! I only haven't started book 4 yet because there is crossover with another of Kennedy's series, so I'm reading that now. I decided to write a review at this point because the three books feel really connected and I want to get my thoughts about them out right away.
Before I get started, I need to give you a few triggers warnings for theses books. Firstly, these are dark stories about men with dark pasts. It's not a spoiler to tell you that the books are connected by a main character in each book being a member of an underground vigilante organisation.
Triggers include (but are not limited to): murder, child abuse, suicide attempts, drug abuse, rape, homophobia.
Ok, so if those are triggers you can handle, but that looks like a lot, don't let them put you off, they are great books, and they all have HEAs (Happily Ever Afters, for those not in the know).
Now that we've got that out of the way, let's get to the individual books. Book 1 is Absolution and is a love story between three men. And I mean love story, because it really is. Sloane Kennedy paints a picture of three broken men are connected by awful events, and thrown together in an extreme situation. She presents the characters at their lowest, where they all believe they are unloveable and unable to love. However, as they spend more time together, they each discover that the other two men are exactly what they need to be whole again. I do read MMM (books with a relationship between three men) but not that often. When I do read MMM I choose ones that I think will about love, and equity between the characters, and this was definitely that. The love blossoms relatively quickly in the chronology of the story, but Kennedy makes it believable because the way the characters and story are written. The dark themes are dealt with well, and do not feel exploitative or over the top; as a reader you are made to understand that the trauma these characters have suffered has brought them to this place in their lives. I was surprised that the first book in a series was MMM, but it actually worked really well, and the book was a perfect introduction to The Protectors Series.
The Second book in the series , Salvation focuses on a side character from the first book and allows him to find a way to work through his own grief and trauma that puts him at the centre of the vigilante organisation. Once again, this book deals with really dark themes that may be difficult for some to read. And once again, Sloane Kennedy treats them sensitively not sensationally. The two main characters are known to each other this time, so there's an element of second-chance-romance in this book. Also, the age-gap is more of a focus in this book than the last.
The third book is Retribution. The beginning of this book makes it hard to feel sympathy for one of the main characters (MC), but he does redeem himself to the reader, and to the other MC over the course of the novel. This one may the most difficult of the three to read in terms of the dark themes, but I think that makes the HEA feel even more deserved. Kennedy works her magic again, allowing us to fall in love with these damaged men as they try and repair themselves and each other.
Kennedy writes her troubled men in a way that makes you desperate for them to find their happily ever after. The HEAs are hard-won, but they are won and you certainly won't be disappointed.
The series is called The Protectors, and ostensibly is named thus because one of the MCs is the protector. However, all these men are hurt and all of them need comfort. As such, the protectors need protecting just as much, and are granted that wish by their lovers.
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