Let me get this out of the way first thing: I’m not a fan of any kind of fighting. When I discovered the hero is a mixed martial arts (MMA) professional, I was skeptical. I’ve read and seen media stories about the controversies and violence associated with the sport. If not reading this for review I would have put it down after reading the back cover and that would have been a shame. While not easy, this was a memorable read and a promising debut novel.

Dominic Payette moved to Salmon River, Virginia to train with his old sensei in preparation for the welterweight MMA championship. Dom is reeling from a recent fight in which his opponent ended up in a coma. Dom lost his next three matches and is not mentally prepared for the championship.

While unpacking his moving van, Dom spots a young boy being bullied and steps in and stops it. The young boy is excited when Dom offers to teach him some martial arts skills; his mother is less than enthusiastic.

Fiona MacAvery and her 10-year old son Sean moved to town a little over a year ago after her marriage broke up and her husband was sent to prison. Fiona never felt welcomed by the town’s residents. It has been even more difficult for her son as he has no friends and has faced repeated bullying.

Fiona has tried to get Sean to use nonviolent means to stop the bullying. She doesn’t want Sean to fight the boys, and definitely doesn’t want him to be trained by an MMA athlete. Soon, events intervene and Sean does begin training with Dom and his sensei. In the process, Dom and Fiona spend more time together.

If you don’t like back-sliding and hesitation in a romance, this won’t work for you. Fiona has a serious problem with Dom’s career. Every time she’d take a step forward with him, something would happen to remind her of the violence of his professional life. I didn’t mind, because I had the same issues with his career. In fact, it’s only the fact that Dom is an honorable man, who trains hard, lives a quiet life, and truly fell in love with both Fiona and her son that made it work for me.

Dom and Fiona are far from perfect. Fiona is still recovering from her failed marriage and its aftermath. In addition to the lingering effects of his disastrous fight, Dom has issues with anger control. I found the author’s style interesting. More than once I thought she threw in an unnecessary character or situation. And each time within a few pages she used it either to clarify Dom’s or Fiona’s character, or add to their growth. And they both grew a lot over the course of the book, but still have work to do.

We readers often say that we want something different. But sometimes different isn’t easy. In the end, I liked this a great deal, but I am not sure I’d want to read another book featuring an MMA fighter as hero. However, I will definitely look for other books by the author.