Review: "Fighting" is used in several different ways
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2014
I received and ARC of Fighting Irish in exchange for an honest review so here it goes...WOW! You totally can submerse yourself into this book like you can with the other two books of the series. Overall it deals with a simple storyline that many of us have read before, but how Gina writes it is definitely a refreshing twist. We're not just talking hot guy meets damaged girl and swoon her into his bed, makes love to her, gives her hope and there you go and they live happily ever after. In this story, damaged girl knows who she is, what she's gone through past and present but then FIGHTS to have better while needing someone to show her true intimacy and dare I say love. Insecurities and defense mechanisms are clearly there with Kat, you would have them to if you were emotionally and physically and sadly sexually abused growing up.Lets talk about Super Woman aka Kat...selfless and a survivor, her character was written beautifully. When learning about her as I read, she's aware of her past, puts it as far away in her mind as possible. Protects her sister, even though it kills her by having very little contact with her because she's totally aware of her situation her ex put her in and the scumbags she interacts with, she gets it, she understands it, and she keeps her sister far away from it as possible. You would think after all the bad hands she had been dealt with in her young life, she would have insecurities 10miles wide and just be cold and standoffish and maybe a little wishy washy right? Nope, she "gets it" and lives with those crap hands always and is constantly on the defensive, she knows she's missing out on love and normalcy with her life by confiding in someone but she cant afford to have it because that would be another person to watch out for not only to stay under the radar, but fear of endangering an innocent person or worse getting caught while on the run. Always the protector to not only for herself but for others.Now lets talk about Aiden aka "Irish" aka great book boyfriend material ;) Again, great character development, not too cocky or caveman or even too stubborn. Most male characters that are athletes can be just that, all alpha and cocky and has to learn to be compassionate and less forceful but not Irish. He's an alpha, don't get me wrong, but more of a protector alpha when seeing someone needing help and showing how he deals with hard situations. His hands maybe roughed with callouses, but the tenderness and patience he shows with Kat is sweet and very male. He knows not to push if Kat doesn't want to when first helping her overcome her blank out moments during an intimate moment. He understands that she can't just switch it off, but her mind has to be retrained into accepting a mans touch and help who's not asking for anything in return. He worries about her life getting right and her pleasure, my goodness does he go full tilt when it comes to her pleasure! He has a dark past to, something he will always carry with him, but Kat saw it as her chance to give back and help him like he has help her. In a way he wordlessly agreed to himself that her problems were now his problems no matter how much he wanted to fight it.Irish and Kat ignite the sheets, giving and taking equaling, trusting and expressing so much passion and it's never too much. Always balanced and not always the same thing which can happen. You could have multiple love scenes in a story, but if placed right and written a little differently you can easily recall them all because each one is a little different then the last. With Kat and Aiden they kind of needed to be because Aiden is showing Kat ways of expressing passion and love which later on gives Kat courage to be a little bolder each time and she sets the pace in some way to. Aiden may get alpha a little, hot and exciting by the way, but he's always communicating with her in some way whether by touch or looking at him, keeping her in the current reality which gets easier and easier as the story progresses.They work together to heal each others past wounds and to overcome the adversities that come their way when dealing with Sicole and his goons. Standing together not pushing each other away from each other when the situation gets tough or too much they make a great team and in more ways than one, the fight with everything they've got.