Full Contact by Sarah Castille
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (4/7/2015)
Series: Redemption, book 3
Genres: Adult, Erotica, Romance
Source: Sourcebooks, through NetGalley/Xpresso Book Tours
Purchase links || amazon | bn || add to goodreads
Rating: ★★★★1/2
When you can’t resist the one person who could destroy you…
Sia O’Donnell can’t help but push the limits. She secretly attends every underground MMA fight featuring The Predator, the undisputed champion. When he stalks his prey in the ring, Sia is mesmerized. He is dominant and dangerous and every instinct tells her to run.
Every beautiful thing Ray “The Predator” touches he knows he’ll eventually destroy. Soft, sweet and innocent, Sia is the light to Ray’s darkness-and completely irresistible. From the moment he lays eyes on her, he knows he’s going to have to put his dark past behind him to win her body and soul.
about Sarah || New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author, Sarah Castille, writes contemporary erotic romance and romantic suspense featuring blazingly hot alpha heroes and the women who tame them. A recovering lawyer and caffeine addict, she worked and traveled abroad before trading her briefcase and stilettos for a handful of magic beans and a home near the Canadian Rockies.
{ review } .
My first Sarah Castille read was ROUGH JUSTICE, and while one is about motorcycle clubs, and the other about fighters... I just really enjoy her writing style. She manages to grip you from the beginning, and keep your attention from waning throughout the entire book.Granted, let me just repeat myself, I'm an epilogue reader, so I did pull myself from the land of Ray and Sia just to re-read their end, but I literally had to focus on pulling out of the story just to fix my happily-every-after/heart need. Because I'm silly like that.
This is the third in a series, yet I haven't read the other books. That said, it's certainly safe to say that the book can be read as a standalone -- but seeing the other relationships makes me want to go back and read the others, so I certainly will.
Sia has been attending underground (illegal) fights for the past year specifically to watch one fighter -- Ray "The Predator". Her brother, a cop and MMA instructor, wants her to have nothing to do with the underground world and tries to keep her away. He even tries to ban her from the gym, afraid of the things that could happen to her. But still, she goes.
Sia is shocked to learn that Ray has noticed her all these times of the year; she was convinced she was a faceless shadow. While she doesn't play coy with men -- in fact, she uses sex as a calming mechanism -- she's ok not being noticed by Ray.
Tag, Sia's brother, only wants to keep Sia safe, and for that, I do like the guy. He's fiercely protective of her and is afraid of failing her -- after all, in his head, he already has. And the last thing he wants is to see her with another teammate of his.
The problem is, Ray is pretty protective over Sia too. Sure, at first it's simply because he hears her telling Tag to 'stop' -- what, he didn't know, but he heard stop, and he believes that that means just that, Stop.
The thing with Ray is he tends to talk all cavemanish where Sia is concerned. Sometimes it's cute, sometimes it's roll your eyes worthy, but it's Ray, so you get used to it.
What I loved most about his Ray was his ability to see through Sia. He recognizes her tattoos, piercings, and colored hair for what they are, and wants to help her overcome her fears. Equally, Sia wants to help him over his.
These two have a slightly unhealthy relationship sex-wise, but it's not due to the two of them together, it's due to their pasts. So watching them overcome all of that was fun to read. When Ray first overcomes his need for pain, but then reverts back, it breaks Sia. When they finally get through Sia's barriers... oh gosh, crying during sex scenes isn't exactly typical, but the emotion in that particular scene... you'll want to read it.
Ray was a complex character. He was sweet and could-be-gentle with Sia, but he also was hard and could lose his temper, a fact that Sia isn't comfortable with. Equally though, this is a man who willingly watches Discovery Channel and enjoys the facts.
I was happy to watch these two overcome their pasts and fears. By no means do I think their road is going to be a rosey one, but I think these two have what it takes to keep going. In fact, I'm pretty excited to see these two (ah, really mostly Ray) in their newest roles in coming books...
...please tell me there will be more ;) Because I'm holding out for Tag and Jess to finally figure things out.
{ giveaway } .
Fighter romance books and motorcycle ones too are so popular lately! I need to give one a try! I like how character-esque this one sounds, and the grittiness of it all is right up my alley! Wonderful review, Mignon!
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