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Inequitable Trilogy #1
Indiscretion
He shouldn’t, but he will—again.
Leo Cruz is an experienced former Secret Service agent. Even though he survived a small-plane crash, being the body man for President ShaeLynn Samuels is frequently the most terrifying job he’s ever held.
VP Elliot Woodley is deep in the closet and has his eye on being POTUS in eight years. Trouble is, Leo can’t let Elliot go despite Elliot’s inability to commit to something long-term between them.
In walks young Jordan Walsh, like a lamb among starving lions.
And Leo’s feeling pretty damn hungry.
(Inequitable Trilogy book 1. A standalone trilogy set in the world of the Governor Trilogy. MMM, power exchange dynamics, political romance saga, secret workplace romance, close proximity, frenemies to lovers, May/Dec, Secret Service agent, wounded veteran, smol and tall, pining, HEA)
Words: 157,900
Leo Cruz is an experienced former Secret Service agent. Even though he survived a small-plane crash, being the body man for President ShaeLynn Samuels is frequently the most terrifying job he’s ever held.
VP Elliot Woodley is deep in the closet and has his eye on being POTUS in eight years. Trouble is, Leo can’t let Elliot go despite Elliot’s inability to commit to something long-term between them.
In walks young Jordan Walsh, like a lamb among starving lions.
And Leo’s feeling pretty damn hungry.
(Inequitable Trilogy book 1. A standalone trilogy set in the world of the Governor Trilogy. MMM, power exchange dynamics, political romance saga, secret workplace romance, close proximity, frenemies to lovers, May/Dec, Secret Service agent, wounded veteran, smol and tall, pining, HEA)
Words: 157,900
ebook
First published November 27, 2019
13 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Lesli Richardson
175 books446 followersLesli Richardson is the writer behind the curtain of her better-known and more prolific USA Today Bestselling Author pen name, Tymber Dalton (her "wild child" side). She lives in the Tampa Bay region of Florida with her spouse and too many pets of various species. When she's not playing D&D with her friends or shooting skeet, she's a part-time Viking shield-maiden in training, among other pursuits. The two-time EPIC award winner is also the author of over two hundred and fifty books and counting.
She lives in her own little world, but it's okay, because they all know her there.
She also loves to hear from readers! Please check out her website for links, and to sign up for updates to keep abreast of the latest news, snarkage, and releases. There you'll also find reading order lists, and more information about her different series.
She lives in her own little world, but it's okay, because they all know her there.
She also loves to hear from readers! Please check out her website for links, and to sign up for updates to keep abreast of the latest news, snarkage, and releases. There you'll also find reading order lists, and more information about her different series.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 23, 2023
I hate Elliot. Seriously, reading through this book was torture for me in someways because Leo is so torn up. His emotional well being seems to take a back seat to everything Elliot. Is Elliot worth it? I don't think so. And Jordan is a sweet sweet boy. he is perfect for Leo. Elliot treats him like shit. I don't like Elliot.
To read the rest of my review, click on the image below to see it on my website
To read the rest of my review, click on the image below to see it on my website
December 3, 2019
I couldn’t sleep last night so I decided to read.
Boy did this book help. It made me pass out fast.
This was a CHORE to read. It was slow, painful and boring.
There is WAY too much explaining of things that are really of no consequence to the story. The sex? Yeah, it was boring. It took way too long to start and when it did it was glossed over and ended pretty quickly. Didn’t even get my blood pressure up.
Where is the editor? Or was this intentionally supposed to be long and tedious??
Boy did this book help. It made me pass out fast.
This was a CHORE to read. It was slow, painful and boring.
There is WAY too much explaining of things that are really of no consequence to the story. The sex? Yeah, it was boring. It took way too long to start and when it did it was glossed over and ended pretty quickly. Didn’t even get my blood pressure up.
Where is the editor? Or was this intentionally supposed to be long and tedious??
January 31, 2020
¸.•´¸★*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.★¨*.¸¸.•`★¤#mybestreadof2019¤★¨*.¸¸.*ˑ˞★
When I say OMFG, I mean, OMFG!!! 5+ stars, 5+ heat!!! This was beyond a 5 star for me. I was entertained from cover to cover. I cannot wait for the next two books in this trilogy.
I have been looking for that one book that would whip me left, right and center and carry the title of book of the year from my 2019 read. I have found it. Out of nowhere, a little book [ha, more than an 8 hour Amazon read!] had me glued to my bed and salivating!
I don't even have the words to do this justice. MMM, with so much angst, riddled in politics, with want, need and so entertainment that I need the other books in this series now. I am even going to invest in the world this trilogy is set in because, damn, this author, whom I know best as Tymber Dalton is erotica mistress!
(¸.★¨*.¸¸.•`★¤#mybestreadof2019¤★¨*.¸¸.*ˑ˞★
When I say OMFG, I mean, OMFG!!! 5+ stars, 5+ heat!!! This was beyond a 5 star for me. I was entertained from cover to cover. I cannot wait for the next two books in this trilogy.
I have been looking for that one book that would whip me left, right and center and carry the title of book of the year from my 2019 read. I have found it. Out of nowhere, a little book [ha, more than an 8 hour Amazon read!] had me glued to my bed and salivating!
I don't even have the words to do this justice. MMM, with so much angst, riddled in politics, with want, need and so entertainment that I need the other books in this series now. I am even going to invest in the world this trilogy is set in because, damn, this author, whom I know best as Tymber Dalton is erotica mistress!
dnf
February 1, 2020This is the book that never ends.
This book is way too long and the story just kind of meanders around instead of getting to the point. After finding out that book two is even longer than this one, I think I’m done. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of reading political books because political news from D.C. is already a 24/7 thing and I just want to get away from it all.
Having a book about a polyam relationship is interesting, but this book is opting for a very, very slow burn relationship and maybe it’ll pay off in the third book, but it’s just all backstory and misery and angst in this first book. I love me some angst, but this just isn’t executed well?
We have Leo who is drowning in angst because he’s been holding out for the Vice President Elliot for 12 years and Leo just lost out on his relationship with Jordan, who he’s been with for six. They supposedly tried to make their relationship work, but did they really?
After all this time, I still couldn’t tell you what Leo’s job was. A body man? There’s the secret service for the security detail and everything so what does Leo do??? Is he a fancy valet? WHO KNOWS.
This story is all from Leo’s POV and there are SO MANY time jumps from the past to the present. I just wanted some angst, and you get that from the chapters set in the present, but every other chapter jumps to the past, and I hated it. I very rarely like time jumps, but it’s just not executed well here. We start off by going 12 years into the past, where Leo first meets Elliot, but those chapters reference things that would only make sense “today”. Like, 12 years ago, Instagram influencers weren’t a thing.
The writing in this was also really weird? At the start of the book, Leo had to go around waking everyone up, but he was said to be going around to “awaken” the characters?? The book also has weird moments where Leo is addressing “you,” the reader or making off the wall comments. I would understand if this book was old and written years ago when the author was just starting out or whatever. But to have written over 160 books and this is one of the most recent books? Yeah, I’m not a fan of the writing style, and these books are too long with nothing really happening to keep my attention.
The author makes a note that the books are a standalone series that connects to another series, but readers don’t need to read those other series first. Except, I think this wasn’t really a standalone series at all since those other characters are very prominent in this book and there are lots of life-changing events that happened to those characters that constantly keeps getting brought up in this one.
There’s also stalking in this book? Just because we know the characters are going to be endgame doesn’t excuse Leo (the sadist and dom) for stalking Jordan (one of the subs) both during and after their relationship ended.
I don’t like how Leo is basically putting all the blame on Elliot and that Elliot needs to put himself for this triad relationship to work. Leo knew Elliot wanted to be POTUS since the day they met, so saying that everything hinges on Elliot wanting to marry him isn’t fair to Elliot at all.
DNF @ 27% but I also skimmed ahead and it doesn’t seem like this book even has a HFN, so that sucks. Is this even a romance at this point? With the struggle I had with how long this book is and it doesn’t even go anywhere at 400+ pages, I don’t have the patience for book two when that’s over 600 pages, and there’s supposed to be a book three in the works.
This book is way too long and the story just kind of meanders around instead of getting to the point. After finding out that book two is even longer than this one, I think I’m done. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of reading political books because political news from D.C. is already a 24/7 thing and I just want to get away from it all.
Having a book about a polyam relationship is interesting, but this book is opting for a very, very slow burn relationship and maybe it’ll pay off in the third book, but it’s just all backstory and misery and angst in this first book. I love me some angst, but this just isn’t executed well?
We have Leo who is drowning in angst because he’s been holding out for the Vice President Elliot for 12 years and Leo just lost out on his relationship with Jordan, who he’s been with for six. They supposedly tried to make their relationship work, but did they really?
After all this time, I still couldn’t tell you what Leo’s job was. A body man? There’s the secret service for the security detail and everything so what does Leo do??? Is he a fancy valet? WHO KNOWS.
This story is all from Leo’s POV and there are SO MANY time jumps from the past to the present. I just wanted some angst, and you get that from the chapters set in the present, but every other chapter jumps to the past, and I hated it. I very rarely like time jumps, but it’s just not executed well here. We start off by going 12 years into the past, where Leo first meets Elliot, but those chapters reference things that would only make sense “today”. Like, 12 years ago, Instagram influencers weren’t a thing.
The writing in this was also really weird? At the start of the book, Leo had to go around waking everyone up, but he was said to be going around to “awaken” the characters?? The book also has weird moments where Leo is addressing “you,” the reader or making off the wall comments. I would understand if this book was old and written years ago when the author was just starting out or whatever. But to have written over 160 books and this is one of the most recent books? Yeah, I’m not a fan of the writing style, and these books are too long with nothing really happening to keep my attention.
The author makes a note that the books are a standalone series that connects to another series, but readers don’t need to read those other series first. Except, I think this wasn’t really a standalone series at all since those other characters are very prominent in this book and there are lots of life-changing events that happened to those characters that constantly keeps getting brought up in this one.
There’s also stalking in this book? Just because we know the characters are going to be endgame doesn’t excuse Leo (the sadist and dom) for stalking Jordan (one of the subs) both during and after their relationship ended.
I don’t like how Leo is basically putting all the blame on Elliot and that Elliot needs to put himself for this triad relationship to work. Leo knew Elliot wanted to be POTUS since the day they met, so saying that everything hinges on Elliot wanting to marry him isn’t fair to Elliot at all.
DNF @ 27% but I also skimmed ahead and it doesn’t seem like this book even has a HFN, so that sucks. Is this even a romance at this point? With the struggle I had with how long this book is and it doesn’t even go anywhere at 400+ pages, I don’t have the patience for book two when that’s over 600 pages, and there’s supposed to be a book three in the works.
January 21, 2020
Very, Very Emotional
This story is very, very emotional story and you need to brace yourself with a box of tissues. This story brings many emotions to the front of your mind.
Watching the characters in this book you feel your heart strings pull for each and every one of the characters for different reasons. You feel your heart break when their heart breaks. This story makes you want to jump in and try to fix everything that is wrong with them.
I truly love these stories and I want to read them over and over again. You will fall in love too.
Until Next Time... Tabi
This story is very, very emotional story and you need to brace yourself with a box of tissues. This story brings many emotions to the front of your mind.
Watching the characters in this book you feel your heart strings pull for each and every one of the characters for different reasons. You feel your heart break when their heart breaks. This story makes you want to jump in and try to fix everything that is wrong with them.
I truly love these stories and I want to read them over and over again. You will fall in love too.
Until Next Time... Tabi
October 28, 2025
Yikes on bikes.
As a genderfluid individual who enjoys spice and BL / MLM books- this ain’t it.
12 + hrs of an audio book and 48 chapters later, I’m left underwhelmed and deeply concerned for the MC and love interests.
Leo Cruz is… abusive. There’s no gentle way around it. Initially I enjoyed the BDSM rep and found the dynamic engaging but after a while the flashing forward and back (up until the end where we’re fully in the present) left me wondering if the author was simply trying to see if they could break the record number of sex scenes in a novel or just simply couldn’t stop gooning.
There’s basically a scene every few minutes and there is nearly 0 plot. The “politics” take a major back seat to the sex and eventually the BDSM devolves into a stalker MC who doesn’t respect any boundaries and while in his 40s talks like a 16 year old that got a date to prom who later went with the QB.
There were many times after about the halfway mark I nearly DNFd this. Instead I forced myself to finish it and will very plainly say I’m never reading another book by this author again. If only so I don’t spend 1.5 work days listening to a badly written Secret Service agent beat his two boyfriends and intentionally give up a healthier relationship for an extremely toxic (and closeted) one simply to support a man who LITERALLY wastes the MC’s /ENTIRE LIFE/ (12-30 YEARS) denying them a public facing relationship (it is completely valid to be in the closet out of fear to be clear but if you’ve read this you know what I mean) WHILE SOMEHOW being the VP of the USA /AND/ the “best case next President”.
This book was awful. If you liked this or are the author, I’m sorry I can’t sugar coat this. And for the narrator, you did a fantastic job and I genuinely hated every character except Jordan.
Oh man, 1/5. It went from a 3 to a 2 pretty quickly after 6 hours and slammed into a 1 after the last 1-2 hours.
Yuck.
——————————————————————————————
Sorry for making you read all that.
Heavy spoilers for the first time in a long time.
If you’d like to read my reviews of other books (most not spicy) follow me at TheLibraryFromScratch.
We own over 1600 physical books and many more in other formats.
I’ve surpassed my 30 book goal and am now rocketing towards my stretch goal of 50.
Have a Spooky Halloween!
- Jillian
As a genderfluid individual who enjoys spice and BL / MLM books- this ain’t it.
12 + hrs of an audio book and 48 chapters later, I’m left underwhelmed and deeply concerned for the MC and love interests.
Leo Cruz is… abusive. There’s no gentle way around it. Initially I enjoyed the BDSM rep and found the dynamic engaging but after a while the flashing forward and back (up until the end where we’re fully in the present) left me wondering if the author was simply trying to see if they could break the record number of sex scenes in a novel or just simply couldn’t stop gooning.
There’s basically a scene every few minutes and there is nearly 0 plot. The “politics” take a major back seat to the sex and eventually the BDSM devolves into a stalker MC who doesn’t respect any boundaries and while in his 40s talks like a 16 year old that got a date to prom who later went with the QB.
There were many times after about the halfway mark I nearly DNFd this. Instead I forced myself to finish it and will very plainly say I’m never reading another book by this author again. If only so I don’t spend 1.5 work days listening to a badly written Secret Service agent beat his two boyfriends and intentionally give up a healthier relationship for an extremely toxic (and closeted) one simply to support a man who LITERALLY wastes the MC’s /ENTIRE LIFE/ (12-30 YEARS) denying them a public facing relationship (it is completely valid to be in the closet out of fear to be clear but if you’ve read this you know what I mean) WHILE SOMEHOW being the VP of the USA /AND/ the “best case next President”.
This book was awful. If you liked this or are the author, I’m sorry I can’t sugar coat this. And for the narrator, you did a fantastic job and I genuinely hated every character except Jordan.
Oh man, 1/5. It went from a 3 to a 2 pretty quickly after 6 hours and slammed into a 1 after the last 1-2 hours.
Yuck.
——————————————————————————————
Sorry for making you read all that.
Heavy spoilers for the first time in a long time.
If you’d like to read my reviews of other books (most not spicy) follow me at TheLibraryFromScratch.
We own over 1600 physical books and many more in other formats.
I’ve surpassed my 30 book goal and am now rocketing towards my stretch goal of 50.
Have a Spooky Halloween!
- Jillian
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2022
Leo Cruz, ex-Secret Service agent, body man to President Shae-Lynn Samuels, is involved in a totally secret relationship with vice-president Elliot Woodley. The main part of this story is how they met, and how they coped (or didn't) with their affair, even though Elliot thinks he's helping by wanting Leo to have "outside" interests. Leo is devoted to Elliot, so this directive rankles a lot, but even so, he's very lonely.
In comes Jordan Walsh (Ch 25), a 22 yr old grad student of Interior Design, to help Elliot put his mark on the White House, and Leo falls head-over-heels for him. The "Then" and "Now" aspects of each chapter recount the anxiety and stress they all go though, as well as the secret life they all have to maintain.
Cry as much as you like for Leo and Jordan; but recognising what a closeted prick Elliot is, also is tear-jerking.
Grief: such emotion. Difficult read.
In comes Jordan Walsh (Ch 25), a 22 yr old grad student of Interior Design, to help Elliot put his mark on the White House, and Leo falls head-over-heels for him. The "Then" and "Now" aspects of each chapter recount the anxiety and stress they all go though, as well as the secret life they all have to maintain.
Cry as much as you like for Leo and Jordan; but recognising what a closeted prick Elliot is, also is tear-jerking.
Grief: such emotion. Difficult read.
September 8, 2024
Every book i read in this world makes me love those books more and more.
I love the stories, i love the people, where the other people from other books keep having their part in the series. I love books written by Lesli Richardson.
Call me an addict😉
I love the stories, i love the people, where the other people from other books keep having their part in the series. I love books written by Lesli Richardson.
Call me an addict😉
June 7, 2023
I loved this series, it’s by far my favourite in the governor world trilogies.
The writing was great and everything was explained in detail unlike some other trilogies in this world.
The writing was great and everything was explained in detail unlike some other trilogies in this world.
October 30, 2023
Not very interesting for me , it was a long book with repetetive words and feelings
July 15, 2024
Though it can work as a stand-alone, these books work best if read after the "Determination" trilogy set in the world of the Governor series.
I loved the dual-timeline narrative that Richardson employs to tell the story of how Leo develops relationships with both Elliot and Jordan and where the three men are "now." It emphasizes the emotions between them while also ramping up the angst to extraordinary levels. This book is already not easy to read, which is compounded by (let's be honest) the emotional manipulation and abuse that Elliot puts Leo through. However, all of these characters are easy to love, which means that I'm in for the long haul for their happily ever after.
I loved the dual-timeline narrative that Richardson employs to tell the story of how Leo develops relationships with both Elliot and Jordan and where the three men are "now." It emphasizes the emotions between them while also ramping up the angst to extraordinary levels. This book is already not easy to read, which is compounded by (let's be honest) the emotional manipulation and abuse that Elliot puts Leo through. However, all of these characters are easy to love, which means that I'm in for the long haul for their happily ever after.
May 2, 2025
Gimme more
I really need to invest in tissue when I read Ms. Richardson's books. I fell in love with Leo and his internal monologues on the first page and now I need to know how long it's gonna take Elliot to in-game his ass.
I really need to invest in tissue when I read Ms. Richardson's books. I fell in love with Leo and his internal monologues on the first page and now I need to know how long it's gonna take Elliot to in-game his ass.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews