Fighting for someone’s heart is more challenging than fighting for a title.
For a time, many years ago, love had grown, love was made, and in the end … love was lost. The decision to leave had been the worst mistake Shelby Dawson could have ever made. However, at the time—ten years ago—she felt her secret needed to stay hidden, even if it broke her heart and the heart of the man she loved. Back then, he was all hers and she was all his, but now things have changed and he isn’t the same guy she knew.
He happens to be the well-known MMA Heavyweight champion and famous bad boy, Matt ‘The Destroyer’ Reynolds, who once before struggled to help his family pay the bills. Now, he has money flowing with each undefeated win and an insurmountable number of women filling his bed. Everything is perfect for the illustrious fighter, until one day it all changes. In walks the girl from his past, the same girl who promised to stick by him but left and never looked back.
Their second chance to make things right will not come easy, for when one mistake is made an unwelcome consequence soon follows. Someone out there wants to rip them apart and they won’t stop until Matt and Shelby pay the ultimate price … their love.
~ Katrina's Review ~
I was given an ARC copy for an honest review.
As you can guess, all of these books are about second chances, so the prologue starts off ten-years prior to give the reader a little snippet of the past. Shelby is a teenager getting ready to go to Berkley and makes a decision to end things with her boyfriend, Matt, of five years. She has her reasons, and in the prologue, it gives the reader a strong hint as to why that happened. The break-up and other events after are hard on her and, luckily, she has two best friends, Jace and Lexi, to get her through these hard times.
Fast forward to the present, Shelby is now working for a nationally popular sports magazine penning articles under another name. Life is good, except, she hasn’t moved on, she is still in love with Matt, but she knows she must, so she will make an effort. Then she gets word she is going to be writing an article on none other than the hometown-boy-turned-MMA-fighter she never thought she would see again, Matt.
Matt is all alpha you-don’t-touch-my-woman male, but he can reign that in when he has to, for the most part, and of course, hot-as-hell, right? Of course he is. He was heartbroken when Shelby broke up with him ten-years ago after being together for five years and so many “firsts.” Back then, he had to be the man in the family after his dad said “see ya” to his family and that left Matt helping support a mom and sister his last few years of high school. Now, he is a successful MMA fighter, with money and, except for the past six months, all the women his bed could handle, just not his heart, because, you guessed it: he’s still in love with Shel’s.
Ms. Dover pulled my heartstrings on this one. It kept my interest, it had funny moments, light suspense and I even wanted to pull a few MMA moves on a few obnoxious characters. This book also had some heat! Matt has a hot, naughty mouth! He knows what he wants, how to tell his girl and then carry it out! This book had me laughing, crying, smiling, mad-as-hell and fanning my face. Ms. Dover is very good with her depiction in her scenes. You can “see” what is going on and feel the emotions in each scene. In one part of the book, we get to read a character’s journals and I cried and didn’t even realize it for a while. I know part of it was because I had lived part of what was going on, so what was in those journals was the exact feelings I had felt. Ms. Dover got those feelings down well.
One thing that stood out to me that bothered me just a little was when she used the term “fifty shades of fucked-up.” Yeah, that should have been left with the original books and author and not borrowed for this book. Be original, I say. I was glad to see she didn’t go with the cliché “I wanted…no needed” which is so overused in novels. I would say 99% of adult novels have that in there, but I digress, so kudos to her for not using that one. The only other thing that came to mind when I first started reading this book was that it sounded real similar to the primes of another book about a writer and a rockstar that I read several months ago. Originality comes to mind again. However, the storyline was different enough that it was nothing like the writer/rockstar book I read, so even though they both met again and the writers had to write articles about childhood boyfriends, everything else was VERY different.
In this book, we get to know Lexi and Jace very well. While Lexi is engaged, Jace isn’t. We NEED more of Jace’s story! I don’t know if it would fit into this series, but, Ms. Dover, you have my interest piqued…just sayin’. *wink wink* I know there is a story there! Have Mercy! Now that was original!
This is the second book of the Second Chances series that I have read. These are all standalone novels, so I had no problems in reading book 1 and then skipping to book 4. I liked both books very much. If you like boxer/fighter books with lots of love, you will like this. Intercepting Love, Book 5 of Second Chances series is due May 2014 and is Cooper’s story, so I know that isn’t Jace’s. Oh well, I still have hope.
Rating: 4.5 Stars (Only because of some originality issues but the book is worth reading!)
10 Favorite Quotes from Fighting For Love
USA TODAY Bestselling author, L.P. Dover, is the author of the Forever Fae series, as well as the Second Chances standalone series, and her NA romantic suspense standalone called Love, Lies, and Deception. She lives in the beautiful state of North Carolina with her husband, her two wild girls, and her rambunctious kitten Katrina.
Before she began her career in the literary world, L.P. Dover spent her years going to college and then graduated to cleaning teeth, which she loved doing. At least until the characters in her head called her away. She has never been the same since.
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