Review: Until You're Mine

Until You're Mine by Cindi Madsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Brooklyn Roth was born into a family of MMA fighters and her family owns an MMA gym/ training centre in San Diego. After living and breathing MMA her entire life she realised her father, three brothers and boyfriend Conrad all thought her dreams were subservient to MMA, and Team Domination, their MMA team. When Conrad cheated on her she declared enough was enough and left for San Francisco to pursue her dreams of being an artist. Shane left Team Domination and her family blamed her for mixing the family business with pleasure. Now her boyfriend Trey is the opposite of all those testosterone-fuelled alpha-male MMA fighters - and that's the way she likes it. Solid, dependable, safe.

Now, at her brothers' request Brooklyn is back to try to wrestle some kind of control over the finances of the business, apparently all four men are too busy to pay the bills and keep the books and have allowed a series of book-keepers to let the accounts get into a shambles. When Brooklyn arrives she finds her father still thinks her art is a waste of time and that she OWES the business - because Conrad cheating on her and then leaving the Team put the gym in a black hole. Basically Brooklyn is not a daughter, more of a business asset to attract and retain fighters and do the stuff the men can't be bothered to do.

When Brooklyn arrives her eye is immediately caught by a new fighter, Shane Knox. He's cocky, talented and pushy. No matter how much Brooklyn tells herself he's no longer her type, she is irresistibly drawn to him. But she's only in town for a few months to fix the books and she has a boyfriend.

Shane Knox was on his way to the big time when his mom caught cancer and he lost a few fights. Faster than a speeding bullet his girlfriend and his so-called friends and trainers deserted him like rats from a sinking ship. Now he's back and starting right at the bottom, but this time he won't let anything stand in his way. Although the boss' sassy daughter is certainly easy on the eye and he just lurves annoying her. But Shane has learned that people can't be relied on to stick around, and he can't risk his comeback on a woman who isn't planning on staying.

I love Cindi Madsen but I'm not a fan of MMA novels so I was interested to see where this novel feel - the answer is just about in the middle. I don't like alpha-male posturing as exemplified by Brooklyn's father, some of her brothers and her ex. This lacked the humour I associate with Cindi Madsen's other novels but, as I said, I'm not a fan of MMA novels generally so the above average rating is pretty good - if you like MMA novels you will probably rate this much higher.

Having said all that, I am intrigued about Brooklyn's brother Liam and his relationship with Chelsea - what happened there? So, maybe I'll request the next book in the series after all.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews