Photo credits: DeeDee (pixabay), aranstock (pixabay), AKuptsova (pixabay) Edited by Vaishali Title: Shadowboxer Series: Tapped Out series #1 Author: Cari Quinn Publisher: Self published Year of Publication: Originally published in 2014 Format: E-book/kindle app Genre/Themes: NA Contemporary romance, MMA sports romance Review...If I were a fish, the premise to Shadow Boxer would have been a hook to my scaled skin. Truth be told, it was a hook to the skin. I saw the cover, read through the blurb and I was nothing short of eager to spare some time for this. A female fighter? A hero/heroine MMA face off? A hardcore, corded female MMA brawler and a scene that depicts the underbelly of an unsanctioned sport? A survivor who doesn't stop fighting outside of the ring and who remorselessly intends to lock fists with he who will soon become her hero? Consider me bought, bundled and sold. I wouldn't have required any peripheral convincing because my 'now now now' reflex had flipped its switch. Little would have impaired my craving to indulge in a read that spotlights a badass female fighter. Credits to the cover designer because the striking design was yet another reason for my buzz. Shadow Boxer isn't a bright light, it's also not blindingly dark but the story still manages a raw intensity that never leaves the story (or the romance) feeling unburdened by every obstacle. Mia encourages a style of character that's more abrasively assertive than carefully dominant. She's a survivor and a shadow on the sidewalk, pronged to the hilt, spiked to the tail and full well in belief that all she's destined for is the life of a walking shadow. She's a truly hard nut to crack and to even attempt such an thing would land one at the mercy of her closed fists. While most see the chill, nobody sees the pain because Mia's more broken than she'll ever confess to. But with scabbed knuckles, a fighter's gait and determination that clings to each swing, she's prepared to forget her fear to build and buy a better life for her sister. To rely on her body is all she's ever had and she's prepared to use it to secure something better, even as she delights in every painful punch, every incoming bruise. She knows her opportunity lies in bringing the fight to the fighting best and that's Tray Knox. He however, is completely in the dark about her plans to fight him. As a survivalist character, Mia's arc is both individual and a really interesting - even poignant - one at times as she fights her way from lifelong grief to a second chance. She's not easy to sympathise with, she’s absent of subtlety and nor does she always behave in acceptable ways but the author manages to - by way of some raw grit and prose that intermittently locks in the intensity - display who she is at the heart. She's messy, she's morose, she's fickle, she's flawed but a trove of grief is the caveat to beat. Though the story doesn't really give way to a healthy healing journey (because there wasn't a particular intention to address her trauma, and I don't believe love should moonlight in the role of therapeutic intervention), I sat back with the intention of letting her claw and roar in the ways she needed to, even if I’m not sure I liked the idea of violence and volatility being the accepted voice of reason. In that respect, I should address Mia's behaviour towards Tray. Tortured characters often fall into the cyclical trappings of transferring their trauma to those around them, and that can look like abuse, indecision, disassociation, repressed ire, outbursts, inability to form connections, reluctance to commitment and gaslighting. As a maladjusted character, Mia's socially untogether and not shy of airing her pain. She does do some debatable things like taking a forceful swing at Tray (an aim that lands true enough to leave a mark). That Tray seemed surprised but unbothered is less the point and though Mia was remorseful, though I absolutely don't dare nor desire to find fault with a survivor's tale a character should be more/do more than defensively lean on their backstory to explain away abuse caused by their own hand. Tortured heroes tend to mirror the same. If this is a to-read on your list, prepare for some very fickle fights, chronic back and forth and repetitious denial because there's an advent of that to witness. The cycle does admittedly get very exhausting. Shadowboxer was a story that I enjoyed in pieces and parts rather than as a whole. The writing has a dual outcome: prose-wises it periodically, precisely, exquisitely packs a solid punch but mostly I soldiered on through a sluggish narrative which - for me - really fatigues the story. I plodded on more than I felt engaged in what I was reading and the overlong passages fiddle with the pacing in a way that drags rather than drives. While the driving plot particulars were interesting, the plot itself always loses steam within each narrative corner the author takes it in rather than delivering a story that thrives in a full-steam-ahead sort of way. I'm always interested until I'm not. I liked the protagonists until I didn't. I liked where things were heading until I didn't. This was a slow work in progress and the plot gradually becomes thinner and reneges on promising outcomes. Case in point: the emerging fight. The biggest selling feature for me was the M/F fight (which doesn't happen). It's then backed by another promised fight (which also doesn't happen). There's only one on-page unsanctioned fight and that's Tray Vs Costas. To say I was deflated understates how deflated I was. As a protagonist himself, Tray was latter of a hit and miss for me. I found him to be a featureless accompaniment to the story. I also found that I liked him better from Mia's POV than I did from his own. He was alpha, sweet-gestured, long-suffering in the way he took every punch Mia gave and never gave up, a bachelor painted as a man who's had his fair share of women, a bit displaced in life and looking to put his fighting days behind him. He really tried in the persisting way I love a hero to be - he was all of that without being all of that. While he and Mia have their binding, emotionally-taut moments, those moments aren't quite moment-worthy. Tray comes from privilege but sought out a life far less polished. He's quick to say yes to any fight and any fighter that demands a few rounds with him. He's a big name in the illegal fighting circuit, hence Mia's thirst to best him particularly. He likes the ego trip of being someone to remember by men and women alike but his fire to beat and be beaten on. Both he and Mia use the sport to exercise their troubles but the difference is that Mia's in it to win. For this type of story Quinn's cast of characters are complementary to each other - even if I didn't love them. It’s fairly advocated that a survivor's story isn't meant to be a moralising tale nor something to ethically condemn, and with Mia I never once judged her choices made or the routes taken to get to where she now is. She's hardened, she's brave and she's tough as old boots for a woman at the ripe age of twenty-one. There's a lot of misfortune in that but also a lot of worn-in transformation. Mia’s not the perfect person and I believe that the author intended for her fallibility to be the centre-most part of her and the centre-most point of her arc. She got by how she could and I had so much respect for her in the very places she failed to see that. But of course, the way she treated Tray wasn't always admissible. But for me, the collapse was a lack of traction, a lack of plot, unexpected execution and a story and characters that lost me in a number of places. While I did feel drawn to Mia's arc and the places in the story where the author surfaces a more emotionally bare - connectable - Mia and a vulnerable Tray, I wasn't completely convinced or satisfied with the story. Throughout the entire book, whatever interest I picked up along the way always failed to sustain longevity. In just a few words, I wanted to put the book down more than I wanted to return to its resting point. I do appreciate what Quinn was trying to create but it didn't quite come together for me. An unexpected competitor comes knocking for Tray "Fox" Knox in this Brooklyn-set barbed romance. Interest made money, interest garnered attention and that's exactly what the women’s fighting faction doesn't have. Mia needs Tray, needs his loss to win, needs his failure to thrive. She's paid for a life with her body and her blood, her sweat and her soul, and though she's all fists, teeth, fire and pain, it becomes harder to keep her mind in the fight, on the future, in the cage and out of the gutter with a man who's all endurance in every way. Shadowboxer brings forth a shadow walk on the shadier streets of Brooklyn. With a marked-all-over fight-or-flight heroine who's no stranger to the darker side of life and a hero who loves to fight but wants to fight for love instead shadow fight their way out of the shadows in this opening to the Tapped out series. A wealthy hero/deprived heroine romance. Edged with a pure need to win turns into a pure need to deny Tray Knox. Both are prepared to take risks with their lives, neither are afraid of endangering their safety and it all boils down to a fight for the unexpected. 'All my life, I’d fought to believe that love healed. I’d heard it. I’d seen it. But I’d never felt it, all the way down to my bones. I’d never been the recipient of a love so strong that even I couldn’t break it. If someone had told me it existed even for someone like me, I would’ve laughed. I wasn’t looking for love. I wanted to fight. The irony that my need to fight had led me to love wasn’t lost on me. I’d only stopped running when I found something worth sticking around for. Not just Tray, but me. Me.' I gave this book 2.5/3 stars - Content Warning: Violence. Blood. Abuse. Poverty. Mentions domestic abuse, sexual abuse, past rape and kidnapping, past parent death. Misogyny/misogynistic attitudes. The narrative sometimes recalls Mia's trauma by way of flashbacks. Frequently describes injuries. Panic attacks and PTSD. --------------------------------------- M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read --------------------------------------- I love interacting with fellow readers, reviewers, bloggers and writers. Hearing about reader opinion is the fuel to my reader appetite, so get in touch and comment below! SHARE ON FACEBOOK Leave a comment and let's talk about |
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February 2024
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