Review: A tough tale but worth the read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 1, 2014
The author, N. R. Walker, has many books of the M/M genre listed on Amazon. I bought this book as my first read by her, and Breaking Point is book two in her series, Turning Points.Detective Matt Elliott feigns leaving the police force for an undercover assignment, infiltrating the world of Mixed Martial Arts fight clubs to bust a drug ring operating in this environment. To do this, Matt must keep his assignment a secret from his lover, Kira, and others. The reason: Matt wants to protect Kira from retribution by the drug gang. But, his lying has a baser reason: guilt, guilt that he is responsible for Kira's kidnapping and torture by a gang several months before. Matt's guilt and lying spiral out of control. He comes to see the grueling conditioning, the arduous training, and the brutal fighting as his punishment and atonement for what happened to Kira. In the end, Matt not only fights for justice, but for his life and reclaiming Kira's love.The pace is slow for the first two thirds of the narrative, but increases in the last. Considering the somber theme-- the destructiveness of lying spawn by guilt-- this pace fits. In the final third of the narrative, the redemption section, the police bring the drug lord to justice and Matt begins his reconciliation with Kira, so the pace increases. There are happy sections too: Matt's interaction with Kira's parents, especially, Yumi, Kira's petite and feisty oriental mother. Matt's relationship with Arizona, a member of Matt's fight club makes Matt more acceptable as Matt sees Arizona a partner, akin to a cop partner.The story is all Matt's point of view. The reader only sees Matt's mental turmoil, its effect on his actions, and its effect on those around him. What is surprising is Matt and Kira's sexual relationship: Matt only bottoms. This appears incongruous for an alpha male; however, it is consistent with Matt feeling unworthy to top. Kira hints to this unworthiness when he challenges Matt for wanting Kira to take him and take him hard, to hurt him.The writing is good with no major grammatical or formatting problems. There's violence, but it's tolerable, and the m/m sex scenes are tame.I give the book three stars because of the slow start, the plodding plot, and the HFN ending; I give the author five stars for accomplishing her goal.All said, I recommend it.