I do love a wonderful slow burn  ice gap lesbian romance, and yes, both Jen Lyon’s books from “The Senator’s Wife Series”: “The Senator’s wife” and “Caught Sleeping” have exceeded my expectations, mostly because the subject was different than other stories and because the author was unknown to me and has written them so good.

“The Senator’s Wife” it’s not just Catharine Brooks (now Cleveland) and Alex  Grey’s age gap lesbian romance , but it displays a larger palette of the colors of their entwined lives in worlds apart: Catharine’s live as a senator’s wife involves lots of intrigue, challenges,  being the subject of undermining, domestic violence, control and blackmail, especially from her husband’s side, as Catharine wants to divorce him and he runs for president as a right wing republican and Alex’s life is made out of soccer and the success she can have playing her favorite game.

I loved the richness of the language, the suggestive emotions of the characters through the smoothness of well build metaphors especially in the sex scenes between Catharine and Alex.

The title suggests Catharine’s status: senator Cleveland’s wife, but she is so much more. And, it also suggests, the real stepping stone between Alex and Catharine’s budding love.

Alex Grey comes from a small town in South Carolina and was brought up by religious parents (her uncle was a priest/pastor). However, she chooses to follow her passion for soccer and joins South Carolina’s The Rage soccer team for women. She shares a great friendship with her childhood buddy Caleb Anderson. Her dream is to play soccer at a big team, and she certainly achieves it and will play for the Sirens soccer team in the San Francisco area and one day to play for the US Female National Soccer Team at the World Cup. Alex is shy and introverted, but she is so attracted to Catharine, just like a moth is to the flame that could burn it.

Catharine Brooks now Cleveland has a proper English upbringing as the daughter of Colonel Brooks in London. She could never meet her father’s expectations of her no matter how hard she tried or how hard she worked for their global company WorldCargo. From the moment he caught teenage Catharine and Nathalie in bed together, he called them an abomination. Catharine went to Oxford, but later she was forced by her father to marry the young American politician Carlton Cleveland  and move to South Carolina. For 23 years now, Catharine has been married to Carlton, help him achieve the senator status, but she also built an empire out of her family business WorldCargo global corporation, even though her father only gave her 49% of the company’s shares and he kept the biggest slice of shares of 51%.

Catharine’s life was her company and she lived in her San Francisco villa with the comfort of her friends like Nathalie Compte, Juliet Sweeney, Lukas Krajnc, the cellist, Fabrice DuPont or Victoria Woodrow, until she met Alex and saw a glimmer of hope for her lonely heart.

Catharine is a beautiful, accomplished, powerful woman with high education and as the CEO of a global corporation and a senator’s wife, she has a lot of connections with influential people in America and around the world, yet in her personal life she is lonely, because deep inside she know who she is and who she can love and that is not senator Cleveland, but Alex Grey.

I guess I am a little more than enamored with Catharine and with her beauty, her strength, her intelligence, her confidence, her subtlety, her delicacy,  her refinement, her charm, her English accent, her lifetime experience, her half smile and her banter with Nathalie and her dedication for charities.

Catharine has a passion for sailing and she loves the water and sails on her boat from time to time in South Carolina, just as she has done it on the Thames when she was younger.

Alex and Catharine’s first encounter is pre-destined by fate and it happens when Alex is on vacation with Caleb and walk on the beach in South Carolina and she sees a lonely sailor on a boat hitting the rocks near the shore and, instinctually, she swims to help the sailor out of the water. The sailor is Catharine who went out sailing on an unfriendly wind and couldn’t control her boat and hit the rocks. She is mildly hurt and Alex and Caleb bring her back home to the Cleveland manor and Alex is surprised on how her husband treats a wounded Catharine, thinking more about the bad publicity than about his wife’s health.

Alex and Catharine spend little time together, but the chemistry between them is palpable.

Alex has games all over the country and loves it, but dislikes the fact that Caleb keeps finding jobs to be close to her.

Surprisingly, in Portland, she has a special visitor: Catharine. She gets to know her a little better and realizes the big difference between their worlds, Alex feels small, when she realizes Catharine has open doors wherever she goes.

Their chemistry is breathtaking, yet they know how risky starting a relationship would be.

Catharine is still married, even though she wants to divorce Carlton, she can’t until his campaign is over, which means she is one more year bound to him.

Alex has a contract with a big company, and a contract which forbids “improper” relationships.

Against all odds, they do start a secret relationship, an awakening for both, a breath of life, a glimpse of happiness. I love this part when they risk it all for love, even they believe it’s temporary, yet neither wants to deny it any longer. The author writes Alex and, especially, Catharine’s emotions so vibrant and real.

Even though Catharine is married and starts an affair with Alex, none can blame her, because of the way her husband mistreats her and how he blackmailed into staying with him until his campaign finishes.

However, Carlton behaves even worse and Catharine is a victim of one time domestic abuse, which proves that wealth, education, power, nothing can save a woman from it.

I really felt sorry for Catharine at this turning point, and even though Alex couldn’t help, Nathalie was there for her, and as a victim she could turn Carlton in, but her company was at stake as he would destroy her and countless lives of her employees depend of her company. Once more, Catharine doesn’t think of herself, but puts others first and goes on with the fake marriage, whilst Alex knows nothing of the abuse.

Carlton is certainly the villain of the story and Caleb becomes almost close to be a little villain after Alex denies his marriage proposal.

Catharine is brave to move forward with her husband’s blackmail, also, because she feared he’ll put a hit on Alex’s life if he found out about them.

I liked the fact that they both were brave enough to not give up on each other, but make their love last, against all odds. And, it’s true that a forbidden love is more intense than a permitted one. And, I loved all the up’s and down’s, the turns and the fact that they felt indestructible when they were together.

I enjoyed the side characters: witty and charming Nathalie, moody Juliet Sweeney, bad Caleb and even the terrible Carlton, they were great written to make the plot more credible and the main characters even more delightful.

I absolute loved this book and I couldn’t put it down and after I finished it, I rushed to start book number 2 of “The Senator’s Wife Series”: “Caught Sleeping”.

P.S. Catharine and Alex’s story has washed upon me like these two songs called:

“Por que sera” by Rudy de la Scala

“Why is it that the forbidden loves
are more intense than the permitted ones,
they fill you up so much, even for a little time
And one is satisfied even with the touch of the hands

Why will it be, why will it be
that forbidden loves make us crazy more easily
why will it be, why will it be

that the taste of kisses have such a different taste

why is it, why is it
that when we make love we eat ourselves alive
Why is it and it’s true that one touches heaven while sinning
and we don’t care if we have an owner

Why is it that any hiding place
is a castle at the time of loving
these loves have a charm that gives us the strength
to endure everything in exchange for a possible nothing

Why will it be, why will it be

that forbidden loves hit us hard when they end,
it will be because you have to endure the wound in silence
and hide it in front of people

Why is it, why is it
that when we make love we eat ourselves alive
Why is it and it’s true that one touches heaven while sinning
and we don’t care if we have an owner”

and

 “Escondidos” by Olga Tanon & Christian Castro

“Kiss me

while you feel the skin

that is behind my skin.

Swear to me

once and again that you

would try to love me more,

just a little more than yesterday,

as if you were

the candle and I the flame

to give light to you and me,

almost nothing, just a little,

in a corner inside the room.

Hidden

alone, for love.

The dark room,

your body, mine,

the time of the clock.

Hidden,

alone you and I,

trapped, not been able to come out

of my inside, of your inside,

while we make love.

Hidden,

alone you and I,

trapped, incapable to come out

of my inside, of your inside

while we make love.

Clandestinely we exchange the heat.

Unquestionably we end up seeing the sun.

Hidden

alone, for love.

The dark room,

your body, mine,

the time of the clock.

Hidden,

alone you and I,

trapped, incapable to come out

of my inside, of your inside

while we make love.”