Review: The Knockout Rule

The Knockout Rule by Kelly Siskind
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Isla Slade is a physiotherapist, she works with athletes but has a hard rule - no boxers. Her father, Graham, was a famous boxer now trainer, and watching his fights gave Isla panic attacks, particularly after her mother left them. Graham has suffered his diagnosis for two years and never told a soul. He is paranoid about his illness and swears Isla to secrecy. He also refuses to talk about it.

But now Daddy-dearest has put Isla in a terrible position, he has Parkinson's and needs her to come to Las Vegas with him to work on a new boxer Brick 'Smash' Kramarov, Isla would be there working but also covering up if her father is unwell. Brick is everything that Isla hates about boxing, a huge Neanderthal with a violent persona and a catchphrase 'Brick Smash'. But the reality is somewhat different. Brick's real name is Eric and he is a sensitive man trying to look after his family who really wants to be a linguist, helping immigrants to gain access to justice and medical support.

Brick's agent, Preston, is a smooth-talking, nicely dressed man who wants to date Isla but she keeps turning him down, so he enlists Brick's help as a modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac to teach him how to woo a woman who likes poetry.

TBH, I'm not sure why I requested this novel because I don't have a good track record with stories involving boxing/MMA, especially those involving medical professionals. While Isla and Brick lasted longer than most before jumping into bed together they still broke that 'I must not sleep with my clients' rule. Also, I found Isla and Brick's habit of quoting poetry at each other was a bit NA/YA and cringe-worthy.

My other gripe was that everything had to be neatly resolved by the end. Graham's refusal to speak about his illness (which may have been caused by all the blows to the head that he suffered as a boxer), the reasons why Brick needed to fight, the conditions in his contract, all just pfff blown away.

So, better than many other books I have read of a similar genre but there were too many clichés to make it any more than a three star review.

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

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