Title: Defying the Odds
Series: Battered Hearts #1
Author: Kele Moon
Genre: Contemporary Romance / Erotica
Goodreads
My Rating:
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Blurb
When struggling waitress Melody Dylan gives a handsome, lonely stranger a simple gift she has no clue her life is about to take a drastic turn.
The stranger ends up being Clay Powers, a famous UFC heavyweight fighter. Clay’s large build and dangerous fists have always intimidated. People in his hometown keep their distance and Clay is fine with that. Everything changes when a new waitress at the local diner buys him a piece of pie on thanksgiving. Touched by the gesture when it’s obvious she can barely afford to survive, her warm smile and lush body churn up powerful feelings that leave Clay wanting more from her than pie.
Melody is running from her past and the small, country town of Garnet is the perfect hiding place. With an ex-husband after her and scars from her abusive marriage etched deep, the last thing she expects is to fall for a man who makes a living with his fists, but she can’t resist Clay or the tender connection they share.
Finding love in the most unlikely of places, the passion is undeniable, but Clay and Melody know their haunted pasts and unpredictable futures leave the odds stacked against them.
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My Review
Defying the Odds is the love story of a gruff heavyweight UFC champion with abandonment issues and a struggling waitress with an abusive ex-husband.
Melody has no idea who Clay is, and what UFC is. She is working hard, trying to be strong, but also very tired. She is fearful and overwrought. Considering all these things and her dreadful past, it is weird how open and chatty she is, and trusts in Clay immediately.
Clay is lonely, gruff, and unsociable, lives only for the fight. He is idolized, but without real relationships, except his two best friends, Wyatt and Jules. He is touched by Melody’s care for him, and by her honest interest.
Melody and Clay both are lonely, and are about quitting the fight: Clay literally, from his career, Melody figuratively, from her fight of hiding, struggling, being strong.
Plot
The beginning was nice. I enjoyed the elongated phase of longing for each other. But later everything was rushed, not only the events, but the emotions as well. Sometimes I felt I missed something, the descriptions were too long, and thoughts were repeated.
Justin, the ex-husband’s appearance was inevitable, and as it was handled was the best part of the story.
The ending was great again, nicely frames the story.
All in all
It is a sweet, even sugary sweet romance, with a naïve but likeable heroine, with a rugged but tender hero, and great secondary characters. The erotic scenes are mediocre for me; I couldn’t feel the sparks and passion. The story has its good features, but it is far from perfect. Still, I’m absolutely up for the following books!
I enjoyed though the humorous scenes and witty dialogues, especially the ones with Wyatt. Actually, I’m more interested in his story (book 3), than in Jules’ (book 2).
“Oh God, I’m gonna puke.” Wyatt growled, rolling his eyes at the two of them. “First everyone’s fucking jolly for Christmas; now I gotta deal with this. If there’s a hell, I’m pretty sure it’s got tinsel and a lovesick Clay Powers in it.”
See my favorite quotes on my Tumblr page,
Daily Quotes by Exina.
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