Fighting the Fall (Fighting #4) by J.B. Salsbury

 The toughest fighters aren’t created in the octagon but are born of necessity. When life delivers blow after punishing blow, you fight back or get destroyed.

Eve Dawson has had her fill of bad luck. A string of unhealthy relationships has left her angry, bitter, and frustrated. She’s given up on being happy and settles for content. Swearing off men, she repels advances and makes herself a challenge to even the most persistent suitors. After all, how much can the fragile human heart take? But life isn’t finished with her, and when things can’t possibly get worse . . . they do.

Stay on your feet.

It’s Cameron Kyle’s motto, but with his fighting career ripped from his grasp, a child he wasn’t strong enough to save, and a marriage that even the brawn of a heavyweight couldn’t hold together, it’s getting harder and harder to stay upright. He takes on the position of CEO of the UFL, intent on hiding his biggest weakness in order to forge a path that leads him back into the octagon.

When an old rival mysteriously gets wind of Cameron’s plan to fight again, he comes out of retirement to settle old debts, but secrets, lies, and betrayal threaten to deliver the death-blow. The distraction of a sass-mouthed girl seventeen years his junior is the last thing he needs until a tragic accident shatters the firm foundation of his resolve and he realizes just how far he’s fallen.

Will they risk it all and fight to be together?

Or does defeat lie within the fall?

I really loved the first book in this series, but unfortunately the series has gone downhill in some fashion every book since. 

Cameron Kyle is the new CEO of the UFL.  He has a tragic past and is quite a surly man.  He has let no one touch his heart since a tragic accident changed him forever and tore his young family apart.  He blames himself and thinks he is to blame for everything bad that has happened.  When he meets Raven Slade’s best friend Eve, his interest is piqued.  He can’t stay away from her and a one night stand soon turns into more, even with a large gap in age.  Eve doesn’t think she deserves someone to love her, as she has a tragic past of her own.  Can these two damaged people who have lost so much come together and make each other whole again?

This book is kind of an enigma for me.  I didn’t hate it, far from it.  I found the characters and the general plot interesting, and the way the story is told really kept me reading.  However, there were some blaring mistakes that shouldn’t be in a book at this level in my opinion.  There was one particular part of the book that starts out as first person from Cam’s point of view, suddenly switches to Eve’s POV and then back to Cam’s.  I assume it’s unintentional, but it’s little things like that which really ruin the reading experience for me.  There’s also a part in the beginning where it says very clearly that Eve is wearing very tight jeans, but in the next scene when Cam gets her inside her rips her skirt off.  That’s just sloppy storytelling.  I hope they are editing errors that have since been fixed.

There’s another part of the book that bothered me, but I don’t want to give it away since it’s a major plot point.  I just really think that when you put medical conditions in a book that adequate research should be done in order to make it realistic.  I am not a medical professional by any means, but even as a layman there are things in this book that are too much of a leap for me.  Again, that just seems like sloppy and lazy storytelling to me. 

Now for the characters: I loved Eve.  Finding out more about here was great and I thought she was a fun, spunky and tragic character.  She was interesting to read about and I felt invested in her.  Cam, I’ll just be honest…he seemed like a cheap Kristen Ashley alpha rip off to me.  I wasn’t surprised in the notes at the end that the author thanked Kristen Ashley.  Let me just say this: no one can do alphas like KA, and no one else should try to make their alphas like hers because they will fail.  Jonah, for example, is a great alpha…and he was an original.  Because of Jonah, I know this author didn’t have to try and emulate another author’s style. Cam just really came off as trying too hard to be what he wasn’t.  I’m not sure if that makes sense but he just didn’t work for me.  I admired some things about him, but overall I was disappointed.

The plot was a little weak in parts, especially the subplot about Cam’s comeback fight.  I saw that one coming from a mile away.  But I did like the ups and downs of the relationship between Cam and Eve, and I thought that made the book a satisfying read.

Overall, even if it may not seem like it, I truly didn’t hate this book.  I just don’t think it has been as good as some of the others in the series.  But, I will read the next book in this series and hope this one was a fluke.  They can’t all be winners, after all.  3 stars.

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