Beat

by Amity Cross

I have read god knows how many MMA based books in the last year or so not that I am complaining because I have to be honest I absolutely love the genre.

The testosterone fuelled edge that, that environment gives to a storyline is just enough to make any hint of sexual tension fly off the page.

And this book ticks every one of my boxes because it has it all in bucket loads – but it has something entirely different from the other books – it’s very own female MMA – a proper kick ass woman, who not only lives around the guys that grace the octagon, but she puts herself front and centre and can lay it down with the best of them.

So what happens when two souls who would be better off saying apart, find themselves drawn like moths to a flame – the sparks fly, that’s what!

Ren spent her childhood, caring for her cancer stricken mother – never something that you want to hear about but when she explains that her father left them when she was 5, it is difficult to understand why we catch up with her years later; fulfilling her mother’s dying wish. To find her father.

Personally I would have found him only to string him up by his balls but maybe that’s just me.

Ren’s dad owns a gym and standing outside, it is hard for her to take that  final step but when she does a whole new future is opened up to her.

Early on, Ren meets the inimitable Ash, the former glory boy who got kicked out of the professional tour and vanished into the ether, until now that is because he is back and holy cow, he has it all. Ash is glorious both in and out of the ring but because of his ban he is mixed up in the illegal fight scene.

Ash is uber alpha but mysteriously closed off from all but Ren’s father – he doesn’t talk about where he has been and what he has been doing, but the only thing Ren really wants him to be doing is her, but it is never going to happen because with her beautiful half-sister around, Ren feels she has no chance of getting to know Ash.

But what does she know, because when they eventually get their hands on each other, they are dynamite!

Ren has been training with the guys in the gym as a means to keep fit and to find a focus, so when Ash takes her to one of his fights she can see why they have so much in common, she understands the rage that consumes Ash because she has it too and in that moment, she accepts that the only way she can expel her rage and anger is like Ash, to take her place on the card also and venture into the octagon!
Once they set the wheels on their relationship in motion, it takes on a life of its own, and despite the feelings of joy that you will have no doubted developed for them both, you just know that bad things are just around the corner.

Their relationship took root quickly but in a way it was right for them, Ash opened up to Rena and let her know what he had been up to while he was away, while she let him know what had been going on with her and how she grew up.

But when her half-sister sets her up and one of Ash’s rivals takes the bait – they are both left fighting not only for each other but survival.

There is so much more to this story that the second book cannot come fast enough, the ending left me wringing my hands and holding my breath for a couple of damaged souls who could make each other very happy… bring on Pulse , I am ready for round two!!