Tag Archive | MMA

Sweet Victory by Alley Ciz–Review

Nov11

Sweet Victory is the third book in the BTU series. I absolutely, 100% ADORED Tap Out with Gage and Rocky and didn’t think I would be able to find another couple that would excite me as much as ‘The Kraken’ and his therapist. I was wrong. Holly and Vince are a completely unique couple and their relationship is full of ‘the feels’.

Vince is an MMA legend in the making. Rocky from Tap Out is his sister and they both work/train at The Steele Maker. The Steele Maker is run by their father and uncle. Vince is heavily in training for the title fight when he is sent to retrieve some pastry for his sister. It is in this moment that he comes across the quirky, sassy, Christmas loving, baking enthusiast Holly. For Vince it is instant attraction that runs deeper than anything superficial. Vince is a true fighter in every sense of the word. He fights for his family, career, and for Holly.

Holly is desperately trying to restart her life and she hopes she has found it with her long-term childhood friend, Kyle. Kyle is the owner/operator (with his husband) of Espresso Patronum. She has secrets that she is trying to move past and forget about. With the Christmas starved fighter approaching her at every corner, it is almost impossible to fly under the radar.

Vince and Holly are explosive, sweet, a definition of true love, and willing to do anything for the other and their relationship. Even if it has themes of, ‘The Gift of the Magi’ at times. I loved how sweet this massive alpha male was not afraid to have feelings and emote them.

Sweet Victory is also so much more than Holly and Vince. It’s about the secondary characters who are all family, whether by blood or not. The Coven is loud and proud and very much present. They initiate a new member to their clan, which make things very permanent, because once you’re in, you’re in for life. The men of The Steele Maker and Espresso Patronum are not silent either. They throw their thoughts and feelings around, almost as much as the girls.

Some things that I loved about Sweet Victory are the main characters, the frequency EP has played a role in the storyline, The Coven, The Counterfeit Coven Conversations, the love and support of the secondary characters, but my favorite thing was the bonus epilogues. Oh my gosh, that made my heart so happy!! I can’t wait for BTU 4!!

Notable Quotes:
“Do not look at his a@@, Hol. Don’t do it. If you do, you’re getting nothing but coal in your stocking this year. Might be worth it if the back is as good as the front.”

“the bulge behind his zipper, the one she knew was like one of those giant candy canes filled with Hershey’s kisses.” (Never have I wanted one of these candy canes more in my life!! Where’s the Christmas candy?)

“You belong with me and now that I have you, I’m never letting you go.”

Tap Out by Alley Ciz–Review

Sep9

You know when you just have to read a book. Tap Out was that book for me. Firstly, it was because of Power Play. (If you haven’t read it, you must). It’s through that book that I got a good sense of her writing style. She’s sarcastic, her heroines are feisty, and some of the best use of ingenious jesting I have seen in a book, thus far. I laughed, cried (happy tears), had a spit take or two (Thank you, Alley😉), and just overall swooned. Secondly, I’ve been blessed in life to be able to work with athletes and Alley, truly, brought me back to that time. Her accuracy with styles of fighting, taping procedures, the overall fighting program/routine, and of course, equipment (uh-hum, wreck bag. 🤣🤣🤣) was completely true to life.

Gage is more than a man, he’s a mountain at 6’7”, 260 lbs., with corded, sinewy muscles…um, yes, please! 🙋. However, besides, his external physicality, he is sweet, family oriented, protective, and alpha protective to the core, with a true love for his MMA job. Straight up, Gage is a catch.

“She swallowed–hard–at the arm porn perfection now inches from her face.”

Rocky Steele. I must admit that I have a slight crush on her, because I want to be her. She is a Physical Therapist with many credentials behind her, hence, why she is ‘Alphabet Soup’. She comes from an MMA family and knows how to take care of herself. She is fierce, passionate about life and career, beautiful, and fit. She is not afraid to not only stand her ground but push you off of it and out of your comfort zone. The girl has mad skills. There is one small thing that is her weakness. Her childhood crush on Gage James.

“Just so you know…I have every intention of making you mine.”

Rocky and Gage are so passionate and hot, but they are truly the key to each other’s lock. I loved this couple so much. There are so many ‘goals’ in this book, that it was easy to fall in love with Tap Out. #RelationshipGoals #FriendshipGoals #FamilyGoals #WhoWantsToBeInACoven (goals).

Alley Ciz wrote with absolute perfection. Her timing, plot line, story line, topic accuracy, and pacing were all on point. The ability she had to absolutely swarm and encase me, completely making me feel as if I was the one sitting on the couch next to any member of the group, or ringside was outstanding. Tap Out, remember to put that on your TBR right now!! You won’t want to miss it!!

“The math totally adds up.”

“‘What math?’ she asked, already regretting the decision. ‘That you should bang.'”

“‘All I’m saying is P plus V equals O. As in orgasms,’ she whispered the last. ‘See…math.'”

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Flip Trick by Amo Jones–Review

Jul26

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Amo Jones is the master at dark romance and I love her for that. With, ‘Flip Trick’, she is expanding into the contemporary romance genre. So, color me intrigued when I found out about this.

Flip trick is about Amethyst and Maddox. Amethyst is the kind of heroine that you love to read about. She is quirky, spunky, sassy and oh, so fierce. She is a very strong female. Then you have Maddox. I believe some will either love him or hate him, but he is just a male lead that is slow to show himself. He has so many wonderful layers, it just may take you awhile to get his full character. However, once you reach that inner core, you will see how hard it will be to get him out of your head. I loved Maddox and it was easy to see that he and Ame belonged together.

Now, does this sound like a sweet and nice little book that will be easy to read? I’m here to tell you, heck no. There were so many twists and turns just like Hang Time roller coaster at Knott’s Berry Farm and ups and down like Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point. She continues to live up to her moniker as the ‘Mistress of the Mind F@ck.’

Flip Trick is a work of literary genius from such a linguistical master. She has such a knack to create an imaginary world that will suck you in. Her characters are complex with multiple layers just like her story lines. She has the uncanny ability to create a multitude of emotions and feelings that are pulled from the reader. There were many times I was cursing out her name, exalted in joy, pulled at my hair yelling, ‘What the f@ck’. If I had an endless supply of Kindle’s, I would’ve been throwing them left and right at the emotional upheaval she was writing about. Despite all this, Ms. Jones, wrote an incredibly wonderful tale of hopes, dreams, love, loss and the importance of family.

Flip Trick (contemporary romance) is a wonderful departure from her norm (dark romance). I will be looking forward to reading what she comes out with next. Well played, Ms. Jones, well played!!

Baby Girl by CM Stunich–Review and Blog Tour

Feb8

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“WARNING: Don’t open unless you’re prepared to ugly cry, but also ready to read a story of hope and new love, a love that was there all along but patient enough to wait. This is a book about grief, about loss, but also about fresh starts and new beginnings. The ride is sad, a tumultuous twist of feelings that gets ugly at times … but the ending is a happy one.”

So, yeah. This warning is what pulled me in, because I LOVE books with all the feels. However, I can tell I’m in the minority here in my review. I didn’t feel all the feels, in fact I just kind of didn’t feel much of anything. I SO wanted to feel the heartache, grief and utter despair that was promised and written about, but I just didn’t get that with Embry and Phoenix’s characters.

Did they go through something tragic at a young age? Absolutely. Were they unprepared and unequipped to handle the fallout? Of course. I just didn’t feel the heartache that they were going through.

I enjoyed Phoenix’s character for the most part. His creole/French verbiage was distracting and internally I just skipped over those little sayings that were thrown in. I felt that out of the two he matured the most. Did he still have demons he needed to fight? Again, absolutely. He had many areas of loss in the timeframe of a year, while still stuck in the town he grew up in. I loved that he became such good friends with Embry’s dad and mom, allowing an outlet to get over some of the grief together.

Phoenix is a big old teddy bear and has loved Embry, not so quietly, that Codrick even knew and encouraged them to kiss in front of him. It felt like the author almost wanted to touch upon a taboo topic of a triad relationship, but it was never fully developed in writing. It was slightly weird. I’m not against taboo relationships, I enjoy them, but either write it as one or don’t mention these little scenarios that were just thrown out.

“You know I want you to be happy—whatever that means.”

There was one underlying storyline on Phoenix’s behalf that just didn’t fit in. It was almost like it was filler for the main characters to do something. It just left me slightly confused and unsure how it all fit in.

Embry. What to say about Embry. I wanted to like her and feel for her, but I just couldn’t. Post-accident she is portrayed as a tough, emotionless creature that hasn’t shed a tear since the incident happened. When she is asked to return home for a family crisis, she almost reminds me of a bratty, juvenile child. Yes, I know she is nineteen, but she doesn’t act like one. I don’t know, I just didn’t really like her character.

I LOVED the development of Phoenix and Embry’s relationship. The love that is shown through Phoenix is swoon-worthy. Embry does go through a lot to get to the realization that, maybe she had the wrong soulmate or the possibility that there could be more than one.

“I’m feeling something for Phoenix Benoit that I … shouldn’t feel. Two things, actually. One is primal and feral and wild … and the other is deep and painful and sensual.”

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Bad Dad by Sloane Howell–Review

Dec29

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I have gotten to know Sloane Howell through his online presence. He is a comedian with multiple stories to tell. Now we get to Bad Dad and I wasn’t sure I knew what to expect.  I assumed it would be like his other books; the sports romance, suspense and erotica. What I read was SO MUCH BETTER!!

Is this a sports romance? Well, yes. Is this book suspenseful? Well, yes. Is it erotic? Well, no, but there are episodes of multiple schmexy times!🔥🔥🔥 Simply put, Bad Dad, can be boiled down to this. It is a rom-com that meets Rambo/Chuck Norris/Terminator that meets the ‘surprise twist’. The twist was something I couldn’t have even guessed, but Bad Dad would not have been as good without it. EXCELLENT!!

This band of characters consist of: Landon (be still my beating heart❤), Joe (Hulk meets Groot. Loved him), Cora (a local elementary teacher that has returned to her hometown), Gus, Janet and Logan (aww, man, I love that kid).

Landon is an uber sexy alpha male, who is extremely strong (almost Terminator-like), fiercely loyal and yet, so easy to love. (I totally call dibs on him🙋🏻‍)! He has not exactly had the ‘traditional’ upbringing and childhood as others. However, he is now a grown man with a child of his own, Logan. He is trying to raise his child right with family values, morals, a sense of home and teaching him what it takes to be a ‘real man’. Logan is growing up to be the ‘man of the house’ and is willing to protect his family, just like his father is willing to do.

‘I’m a warrior for my family’

Cora is a teacher at the local elementary school. Her first interaction with Landon is after an altercation between Logan and the bully of the school (as well as the child’s bully of a father). Unfortunately, this first meeting doesn’t go so well and Landon decides to pull Logan from school. Cora is undeterred from this and ends up at their house to convince him to let Logan return to school. Through these early interactions, Landon and Cora develop a relationship. A very intense, emotional, hot and sexy relationship!

I don’t know how I feel about Cora individually. There were times when she displayed some of the same characteristics as Landon. She was kind and caring, could appear fearless, yet at times appeared to be lacking a backbone. This mousy persona made her come across as ‘wishy-washy’, however, I do think that she was the yin to his yang.

As much as I LOVE Landon and Logan, there is another man that has stolen my heart. Joe. He and his lack of social skills, is flipping hilarious. He truly did remind me of a hybrid of ‘Hulk-smash’ and ‘I am Groot’ with a little Terminator thrown into the mix. He is rough and tough, lacks most common day social skills which allows him not to communicate well.

 ‘It’s showtime.’ He delivered the line like Jim Carrey from The Mask. Great. I was hiding the Tarantino movies from him when we got back.’

Joe is full of these movie-related quotes that are his attempt at integrating with those around him. These “Joe Moments” are the perfect comedic interlude. It completely reminded me of Bumblebee in Transformers where he spoke through radio songs. Only here, Joe speaks through movie quotes.

Sloane Howell’s book is packed full of extremely emotional, full of roller coaster moments, yet heartwarming and enduring when it comes to those you love and those that you call family. There are some definite jaw dropping moments, that I would have never seen coming. The plot and storylines are so well executed that you feel as if you are part of the story itself. I TRULY wish I could give more than five stars, but I can’t, so all I can do is to tell you to say five stars ten times fast and that is what I would give it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘I didn’t like being broken in front of my family. I was supposed to be the one taking care of them.’ Landon

Dear Landon, Logan and Joe,