Captivating (Elite Protection Services) Paperback – December 17, 2019

*****Rating: 5 starsSteam 2.5 flames:Genre: MM / Hurt Comfort / Virgin / BodyguardTriggers: Yes*****If I thought my heart was broken in book one, but this book shattered it to pieces. Elijah is an actor, paid to pretend, and from the outside world, spoiled with everything he could ever want. When he starts getting death threats because he was recently outed, the studio decides he needs a bodyguard to keep him safe.Shepherd, former military man, whose skill sets of the interrogation kind. Yes folks, Shep’s forte is extracting information through any means necessary. One thing about Shep, he’s a sociopath and by definition, he should feel little to no empathy for Elijah… So why does he feel… for this broken young man?Elijah and Shepherd’s journey is sweet, filled with insecurities, discoveries, and acceptance. There is a lot of pain in the book that once again hurts my soul. The storyline is engaging, the plot suspenseful, the steam… steamy and sweet, the romance… swoonworthy. This book isn’t all dark and sad, there are some cute and adorable parts of this book too that will easily endear you to these characters. I adored this book and this couple and I will continue to read this series.NOTE: The birthday presents at the end couldn’t have been more perfect. It made my dark little soul sing with satisfaction!

When I read the blurb for this book I thought, "No, this book is not for me." I'm not really a fan of hurt/comfort in the first place, but even so I did love the first book in this series and decided to give it a try. Even though I had a lot of reservations, I did still really like the book. Love takes all different forms and I like that this author tried something different. Elijah and Shep are maybe not the most realistic couple, but they're definitely one of the most interesting.As other people have mentioned, things did get a little iffy at the end, but I guarantee it's not even close to what you're thinking. I wouldn't call it dark, as others have said, but it was a little bit weird maybe. I don't have a lot of triggers but I don't really like being emotionally filleted by a book, and while there was some heavy material contained within, the book really was more concerned with portraying an honest journey between two people who view the world a little differently than most than it was about creating melodrama just for the sake of it. I did stay up way past my bedtime to finish this book, which is not normally my thing, so I will say that Ms. James definitely knows how to write a good page-turner!

4.5 … GAWd I love this author. Her writing is just .. 👌🏼👌🏼 idk what it is but I Cannot not finish her books. One again I devoured another MM by Mrs. James.The things:-MM-Hh is a child actor who’s now 22 I think and miserable. He loves to act but his devil of a mother as his manager is terrible. He’s truly a chameleon who wears a diff mask to fit the person/situation he’s with and in.-HH is Shep 🥰 He is a “high functioning socio” whose very much like a p$ych0 lol. He doesn’t feel much but Elijah.. gives him all the feels.-Shep would you’d think be the dominate.. and he was but Elijah called the shots and it worked in their story.-TRIGGERRRSSSS — “R” and SA of a child. This happens to Elijah and he retells it to Shep (no graphic) but he’s living with the trauma and you feel his panic-Shep has no problem doing what is needed for his H.-HEA/HFNAs always there is never cheating or sharing for this authors guys. I’ve been tired of reading my usual stuff and haven’t been able to finish or feel the want to even start a book I know has all the things I love- this author and this series is just want I want. 🫶🏼 on to the next. I’ll be buying this one

Shep worked for a Protection Company. He was hired to bodyguard Elijah, A Hollywood A-Lister. They meet , even though big age gap, decide each other is theirs. This story is great, has all the twists, turns, weird characters, action, humor, suspense, angst and steamy sex that we love about Onley's books.

Elijah Dunne- Actor, Prey, Rabbit, playful kittenJayne Sheppard- Marine, Predator, Bodyguard, SociopathSnark, so much snark. I love it. This whole book is comic relief for me. I love all the back and forth banter between all the characters. I also love that we get Wyatt, Linc, and Charlie cameos. ♥️♥️“The boy was his…just his, and the world needed to know it. They needed to understand Elijah was under Shep’s protection. He wanted to mark him, scent him, brand him even. Anything to let the monsters of the world know Elijah had a monster of his own.”Primal. That is quite possibly the only word I can use to describe the passion and dynamic between these two. Predator and prey.Shep and Elijah are absolute perfection. They play a game of cat and mouse throughout the book. But in the end, who catches who?“You are the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about at night. You are the only person who makes me smile. I feel like something is missing when you leave the room. I would protect you with my life. Is that love?”Each book in this series is intertwined and I highly recommend reading them in order to get the full experience.***PLEASE READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS***

This is a definite, only in a book fantasy. No one really wants to meet a trained enhanced interrogator and have him claim you has his own, whether you want it or not. But in the book fantasy, it works very well. I enjoyed this book, liked the side characters, liked the MC's and completely believed that they were great together and no one else could function with them. It's a hot crazy ride and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The characters are so fun. I love the dance they do trying to figure each other out and how easily they slot together. What better love is there than one that's held in choice as much as feelings.

I have loved every Onley James book I have read and this one was no different. I was really excited to read this one as it features the twin brother of the one of the main characters from her other series necessary evils. So I knew about him already. Shepherd and Elijah have such an intriguing relationship and I loved seeing it develop over the course and the book.I hope to read the rest of the series soon but first I need to finish some more arcs that are on my list!

Being a fan of Onley’s work, I knew I’d love this book. But what surprised me was yet again the unlikeliness of the two love interests coming together. Both, Elijah and Shep are extremely interesting (and original) characters to unravel and it’s hard to explain why without revealing too much. All I’ll say that the book is fantastic and it’s a highly recommended read.

What's it with me and dark and twisted characters? I don't know, but they just do it for me!!I liked this much more than expected. I enjoyed the first book of this series, but there was something lacking as I already said in that review. It felt... Too long. Like nothing much happened and the romance keeps going but I felt it stalled at certain point. I felt the potential of Wyatt's past trauma and his issues with his dad where not completely exploited, so I expect something similar from this one, I guess.But nothing like that. This is also very romance focused, but there are more deep feelings, maybe. The first book centers on Linc and Wyatt's Daddy/boy dynamics (and pretty nicely, I must say, and that's coming from someone who doesn't love that trope), while this time we center more of... Feelings.Just feelings.As Wyatt, Elijah is a guy who had to live through something horrible that marred him forever. He had his grandpa to save him, but he's alone again, surrounded by people who use him once and again and he feels like he can't be himself. He's an actor but not only when working. He constantly acts different roles in his daily life to survive and protect himself.After coming out and receiving some death threats, he's PR hires the Elite Protection Services and Linc settles Shepherd as his bodyguard. Shepherd has his own issues, and we could say he vein a sociopath is the biggest of all.He knows he doesn't feel like other humans, he doesn't process feelings and social norms as every other people do, but he's learnt since childhood to read other, to understand how others think and behave to be able to act accordingly. When he meets Elijah, though, he feels confused by his chameleonic nature. An soon enough, that confusion becomes interest.The two of them togetherness where pure feelings. It was not (only) about sex, pleasure and attraction. It was about trusting each other enough to let them see their true shelves. It was about coming clean about the good and the bad, about trying to understand each other and thinking of ways to make what they have work.But alongside their romance and their mutual discovery, we have Elijah's past trauma. It was interesting and sad to discover what he went through, the role those around him had and how what happened marked him. But also, it was perfect to see all the guys from the EPS working for justice, and I'm hoping to see more of them kicking ass in the future books!!I'm already loving Robbie, Elijah's heartbroken public fake boyfriend. I can't wait to get my hands on the third book to discover how his story will go. And obvs I'm also intrigued by Jackson because... Who wouldn't be intrigued by the supposedly straight Alpha leader of the team? Yum.Just as an extra, in case you haven't noticed, I realized after finishing this book and checking the future couples (couldn't resist myself) that Webster doesn't start in his own book in this series... Bummer!!! But don't be sad, because after checking the author's other books, I realized his book is part of an spin off series. Which means that after finishing this one I will jump straight into that one. Yep. 0 doubts lol

I'm all for reading about sociopaths falling in love. It was all good and nice and understanding. I myself learned some stuff about the human psyche. Still It feels something left to be desired...I don't feel justice was served, especially for Lucifer. And the ending felt incomplete.Shep and Eli made a pretty unhinged couple. And it suited them I guess.Overall. Sweet reading with potential triggers of child abuse, mental health.