Snag Holding Strong (Ultimate, #2) Penned By Lori Foster Available As Volume
provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Title:Holding Strong
Series:Ultimate
Author:Lori Foster
Release date: April,
Rating:DNF unrated
Cliffhanger:No
HEA:
Warning: minor rant review ahead.
When I got approved for Lori Foster's latest book on Netgalley, I couldn't believe my luck, I was extremely excited to start this and see where she takes us in this second book of her new MMA fighter series.
After about, I started feeling disquiet growing, By, the eyerolling begins, and, the WTFever stage has set in,
Where do I even begin
Now some of you might be saying I'm being judgyjudgy by getting this annoyed so early on.
I thought it might have just been me too at first, After all, I did just finish two intense and overwhelmingly good books so am I unfairly reacting due to a book hangover Then I started thinking about the characters, the story which was so rushed, it's not even funny and the sex which by the way, occurs atand was so cliché, I actually started skimming the scene.
Nope. Not me.
The MCs personalities were flat, the story was flat, the excitement was flat,
Tension Anticipation Conflict What's that
The book starts out with Denver sitting at the bar while lusting after Cherry who is across the room.
He's had his eye on her for months but refuses to do anything about it, Why She's too much of a flirt,
So let me get this straight, you can whore around and bang as many women as you want, like all the other fighter friends of yours that she is supposedly flirting with yet she's beneath him and not good enough to have sex with
He'd avoided her, refused to be drawn in by her tempting smiles, and all in all given her the cold shoulder since determining they wouldn't suit.
He had no right to judge her for having fun elsewhere, But knowing and accepting that as true didn't talk him off the ledge,
How in the flipping hell does that make any sense
Byin, she's all over him and given him the green light to take her back to her hotel room and tap that.
Damn woman! Show a little selfrespect! Throw yourself at his feet in a big red bow, why don't you So what if he's been cold to you He's ripped
and that's all that matters.
He reluctantly lowers himself to take her up on her offer, I need a strong heroine in my books, and my first impression of her didn't do her any favors,
At this point, there's conversations are like, "Totally deep and meaningful, For real. "
"I got the feeling you didn't like me, "
"I like you. "
"We're finally going to have sex"
"You know you're stacked, There's no way you could not know, But I've known plenty of built women, "
Ughhh. The mutual Body Admiration Club was in full effect, Because God help me, she had to go there, Not only is she "stacked" with huge tits and ass, he has a monster dick that she stared at in fear when he whipped it out.
Really Can't we do a little better than that Not only does she bring it up during sex, but she brings it up with her friends and then he grills her over what she said.
"What else did you tell her"
"You want to hear it all"
"Hell yes, " Though God knew there were other far more important things they should be working out while she felt up to it.
Need a little ego boost there, buddy And also, can you just stop talking please Okay, we get it.
You're hung, all right You, Are. So. Very. Impressive.
I'm not finding this topic hot, Who knew I would ever say that
By, I just decided to call it a day, The characters were too superficial, the progression in their relationship was instantaneous leaving me feeling no emotional ties to their connection, and both of their personalities were grating on my nerves big time.
I've read a lot of fantastic Lori Foster books, but sadly, I won't be finishing this one to find out if it improves.
It's clearly not working for me,
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Foster has been one of my favorites for years but I've gotten a bit behind on her books.
flails But! I'm working on catching up and that included Holding Strong, Totally on my BloggerShame pile, Again, flails I had a fab time with it, though,
The Gist: Cherry has been wanting Denver for long as she can remember but the man is damn stubborn and resists all her ample charms.
Until she flirts with another man one time too many and, . . he snaps. And, Cherry gets hers. Mmhm. Seems Denver's wanted her all this time, too, and there's only so much resisting a man can do, Woo! But a bit of drama from her childhood is about to put a damper on all their nekkid frolicking.
There's really nothing to not love about Denver and Cherry, They're a fun couple and individually just nice people, He's all alpha protective with a killer bodyI mean, hello! he's an MMA fighter and Cherry's just a sweetheart and life of the party.
I enjoyed them both.
Their romance was actually really easy even with all their resisting since most of that happened prebook, So things kick off with a naughty bang and them pretty much jumping in feet first and going at a romance full force.
I kind of liked that, They already knew each other so well and it just suited them, It was nice having an easy romance, And gah hotness. Yeah, they were steamy for sure,
There's some danger and turmoil as Cherry's past comes back to give her hell, Kept things on their toes and gave a good reason for them to stick even closer, Woo! The only thing I didn't totally love was some drama from Denver's family, I just didn't think it was handled quite right, But that was a small thing overall,
There's a good bit of humor with the other fighters in his club which I loved, It's a good group and definitely made me want to dive in to the rest of the series, They tease, give each other hell but always have each other's backs,
In the end, Foster's always a good time and just has the yummiest heroes,.stars
Full
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review,
Denver has had his eye on Cherry for awhile but since it seems like Cherry has her eye on everyone he has held himself back.
When it becomes clear that they only want each other, it's on, With family drama and trust issues plaguing our couple, they both must fight for what they truly want,
The hot sexy times come up a lot faster in this book but since the previous two books in the series Hard Knocks and No Limits featured Denver and Cherry's sexual tension and itch for one another, it didn't necessarily feel rushed.
This could definitely be read as a standalone, the beginning might just feel a bit rushed if you have no context for how Denver and Cherry have been dancing around each other.
As always, Foster's dialogue, chemistry between leads, writing, and characters make this an entertainingly fun read, The book did seem to run a tad long however, too much repetitiveness with Cherry not wanting Denver to get hurt and claiming it wasn't his problem when dealing with her foster family.
Cherry was a fun character to read, she was open and fun loving while Denver hit all the points of the trifecta hero, protecting, sexy, and strong I do wish a couple out of the hundred times he used "girl" could have been cut, though.
It was a little drawn out how Denver kept himself away from Cherry because of what he deemed her excessive flirting and side eye inducing when it was linked to issues pertaining to his stepmother.
Cherry's issues with her foster brothers leaned toward the melodramatic but where would the romance world be without some angst to keep our couples on their toes Cherry and Denver never quite swim in the deep end of the pool but they work well together and were amusing to read about.
Past and future characters make appearances in this, setting it nicely in the MMA world Foster has created.
I know what you all want me to say and yes, Armie makes appearances here, with one particular scene that will have your toes curling in anticipation for what is to come.
There is also a bonus chapter from Cannon's pov during his wedding reception that I shamelessly read three times over.
All in all, Holding Strong isn't the strongest addition to this series but I still liked it, It's a fun read that could be cut down but has some fabulous scenes involving the MMA men and world Foster has created that we all love to read about.
I'll definitely be on the lookout for the next in the series, DNF
I will be the minority in this, and that is perfectly fine with me, But for personal reasons this book and I didn't get a long very well, It was my own reaction to the characters that didn't sit well with me, but I kept at it thinking, something will change.
I chose to DNF because it couldn't keep my overactive brain to settle and concentrate on the story, Having judged the Denver from the very few pages, it was kind of a losing battle, I know it isn't fair, but the first impression is a lasting one,
Before this book, Cherry and Denver were pretty much inevitable from the beginning, but because of her flirtatious nature, he judged her, got upset and instead of talking to her, pushed her away.
First chapter of the book, leads us to now where all the built up desire, he gives in and decides to stake his claim.
. . and she lets him, although a little skeptical, she welcomes him with open arms and a guarded heart that already belonged to him.
She appeared weak to me, so desperate for his love, He means well, but they way they went about it just irked me, I found him to be a hypocrite as well, accusing her of not telling the whole truth or withholding information, but he himself said he has secrets she will never know about.
Oh well, I will take a loss on this and move on, Not even the I trouble that they have coming their way was enough of an incentive to stick it out.
I might be missing out on an epic ending but I can't dwell on that, I will say though, this one book doesn't put me off the entire series, it was just this couple, I knew it wasn't for me when I was happier with the secondary characters than the MC,
But please give it a try, these were my own personal issues and I know a few of my friends really enjoyed this one.
ARC kindly provided by Harlequin, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review,
What can I say about this one I loved it a such as th last one in the series.
Cherry and Denver were great together, Both had some trouble in their pasther more than him, and Cherry' s trouble was the problem in the book since it came looking for her.
Denver was a typical alpha male being all bossy and protective, He did get on my nerves a bit calling Cherry "girl", but the bonus scene from Cannon's point of view made up for it.
I love love love the interaction between the guys! I could read a whole book of thAt and just smile like a loon.
On to Vanity and Stacks, . . I feel like Lori Foster is usually walking this knife's edge of romance novels, Her heroes are very commanding and alpha, and it takes very little for them to tumble over the side into becoming, as the ladies at Smart Bitches have coined it, the Alphhole.
Unfortunately, in this installation, we seem to have an Alphhole,
This seems like a picky distinction, I know, But believe me when I say that there is a difference, There's a big difference between a man who's takecharge and a man who's controlling, Between being powerful and overpowering, Between wanting a relationship and being a jealous ahole, And in this book, our hero is on the wrong side of this distinction, He uses his physical power to control the heroine, In the guise of protecting her from danger, but still, He's possessive and jealous, and accuses the heroine of being a flirt for having conversations with men, Or just for having her roommate's brother's phone number in case of emergency, He can be dictatorial, making decisions and then doing whatever's necessary to ensure her compliance, And, worst of all for me, his nickname for the heroine is "girl, " I can't tell you how much I hate this, It's infantilizing and condescending, and every time I heard it I wanted to smash things into bits,
All of this added up into a lackluster read for me, and I almost want to go down to two.
But as a longtime Lori Foster fan, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt, Although if the next book in the Ultimate series isn't better for me, I may move on to greener pastures.
Also, fair warning: the suspense plot in this story involves some description of rather disturbing childhood abuse and rape threat.
So if that's a thing that you can't stand, . .
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley, .