Review: This one was really a hard one for me to rate
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 14, 2014
3.5 STARSFighting For Irish is the 3rd book in the Fight for Love Series. I did read the first in the series, Seducing Cinderella, but for some reason I didn’t read the second. From what I recall about the first book though I don’t remember it being overly emotional. I had no idea going into this one that we were going to be dealing with heavy issues such as child abuse and even worse child rape. Maybe the second book alluded to this, but I didn’t see it coming and the book didn’t have a warning so I’m giving you one.Aiden “Irish” O’Brien is a former MMA fighter from Boston. After the death of a friend 5 years ago, that Irish blames himself for, he quit fighting and drinking and keeps everyone at arms length. When he finds out a friend’s sister is in trouble he takes off to Louisiana to see if he can lend a hand. The problem is he can’t let Kat know he’s there to protect her and help her get out of the mess she’s in. Irish is quickly drawn to Kat, but she doesn’t really give him the time of day… Kat doesn’t really seem to be giving anyone the time of day, but for good reason.Kat’s sweet little ass is in major trouble and she doesn’t want to put anyone else in the line of fire. She is on the run from a mob boss that her degenerate, jailed ex-boyfriend owes money. She changed her name and is trying to keep a low profile until she can somehow come up with the money. Then they find her and she is out of time. Luckily for her Irish is there to be her white and shining knight.Irish makes a deal with the thugs that he’ll get the money for them, but they have to make Kat think she is free and clear. He plans on entering a local fighting tournament to get the cash owed. If he doesn’t Kat is as good as dead… or worse turned into a whore. Irish keeps Kat close so he can keep an eye on her while he starts training to fight and these two damaged people start to get sucked into each other.The author did a lot of building in the start of the book. I was 25% in and was like “LET’S DO THIS ALREADY,” but in all fairness, I thought I was getting a smutty book with a side of decent story…. I had no idea the author was setting me up to smack me in the face with emotional heart break. Generally, this is my kind of anguish. I prefer my characters to have battered past we have to work through and that’s how the author taps my emotions instead of going the easy way and using jealousy.“I thought for sure I’d suffocate. Sometimes I wish I would have.”Both Kat and Irish have some damage in their pasts, but Kat’s is freaking shattering. When she starts to open up and give us her story its gut wrenching, I even had to put the book down for a moment. Kat has literally lived through hell. The author went into some details that were hard to digest, but in the end this drew me into Kat and caused me to love her and feel her pain. She is way stronger than I think I could have been and Irish makes it his goal to show her that. Irish was the perfect hero for Kat. He may look like a badass on the outside with his piercings and tattoos, but he is tender, caring, and hearthrobblingly loveable. I loved that he was pretty much gone for Kat at the first sight of her, but didn’t even realize it. It’s always sweet to watch as your hero slowly starts to see what you’ve known the whole time.“A big part of me died a long time ago, but on kiss from you and it started coming back.”I enjoyed watching these two fight for each other. It was easily my favorite part of the book: Irish slowly drawing her out of her shell, that I didn’t even see was there in the beginning. Both not thinking they are good enough for each other. I appreciated that it wasn’t done in a whiny way that worked my nerves. It was sweet and I truly did love and understand these characters. The author did an extraordinary job of connecting me with them.Now for the sex. This is an Entangled: Brazen novel …. the sex was tough. With the past child abuse Kat had suffered there were some issues to work through. The sex was just sweet and extremely realistic, but I’m not sure it falls into the typical Brazen books I’ve read from Entangled Publishing. The author did throw in some anal action which kind of didn’t work for me (don’t die of shock!) I will say as a standalone sex scene the anal was hot. I just felt like it really wasn’t the time for anal with already having to work up to the vagina sex a few days ago.This one was really a hard one for me to rate. While I enjoyed it for the most part, there were times I didn’t. I’m not sure If I was just a little off put because I didn’t realize what I was getting going in. But hey, if you’re reading this review and you know going in, it might work better for you than me. Simply put this is a story about two damaged people falling in love, working through their scares, and finding happiness with a side of sweet love making.