Usually, I give book around a hundred pages before I throw in the towel. A lot can change in those hundred pages. But for Fighting Attraction, I made it to page thirty-nine before I noped on out of there. Before I get to the series of instances that seems to get progressively worse in the book, I want to issue trigger warnings for violence against women, self-harm, and issues with consent.
Now, this is billed as a BDSM sports romance. I love sports romances and I love BDSM romances. I’m always looking for new BDSM books, but I often struggle to find books I enjoy because while I love dark, psychological stuff, I’m a bit tapped out in terms of BDSM being used to deal with severe trauma.
Jack “Rampage” Caldwell is an MMA fighter. He’s an all around good guy with a Southern drawl, but what most people don’t know is that he’s a Dom at a BDSM club. Penny Worthington is a Brit with a huge crush on Jack, but she’s worried she’ll never see her as more than a friend. Additionally, Penny insists she likes bad boys and Jack doesn’t fit that bill. She clearly doesn’t know about his extra curricular activities. That’s the basis of the romance.
Jack has a fight with a dude whose nickname is “Juice Can.” This name isn’t explained in the bits I read and I’m dying to know how he earned it. Pen is attending the match. Jack wins and Juice Can leaves the ring, obviously pissed off at his loss. Pen is cheering for Jack while standing on her chair, which irritates good ol’ Juice Can.
“Fucking cunt.” Juice Can kicks the leg of my chair, and I lose my balance, falling into Amanda before I crash to the ground.
Not only does Juice Can call Penny a cunt for no other apparent reason than that he’s a sore loser, but he also commits an act of violence against her by kicking her chair out from under her. Penny winds up sprawled on the ground with her underwear on full display of the cameras broadcasting the event, so add in some awful humiliation to the mix.
In the scant number of pages I read, there was a lot of showing instead of telling. Penny frequently mentions her insecurities and how she isn’t deserving of happiness.
Yes, I think he’s hot, but hot sports starts like him don’t go for curvy, broken girls like me.
Listen, I’m sure we’ve all be in a situation where we’ve doubted out self-worth, but Penny lays it on rather thick. Being in her head was exhausting and it’s clear that she’s dealing with some issues that really call for a mental health professional. On page thirty-nine, the spot at which I decided to dip out, Penny reveals that she uses self-harm, in the way of cutting, to deal with things.
I don’t take self-harm lightly in books. As someone who loves a dark, psychological romance, I’m not afraid of more taboo subjects. However, I have very complicated feelings about self-harm in romance and at times, I feel like self-harm is used as a shorthand to show that a character is “broken.” Rarely have a I read a romance that fully captures the addictive cycle of cutting and how it can take a toll on a person.
Then there was this part:
Blade Saw and Amanda are chatting with Obsidian at the far end of the table. With a movie narrator voice, a drop-dead gorgeous body, and deliciously dark skin, Obsidian always attracts attention whenever we go out.
What made me uncomfortable with this description is that Obsidian is a Black MMA fighter and his real name isn’t revealed. Instead, we get his stage name, which I inferred is a reference to his skin color. However, several other fighters (even fucking Juice Can!) gets an actual name. There’s Jerry “Juice Can” Jones, Donald “Doctor Death” Drake, and Jimmy “Blade Saw” Sanchez.
It’s possible that Obsidian has a legitimate reason for keeping his actual name to himself, but I found it strange that other secondary characters, even the douche at the start of the story, get names. Plus, Obsidian’s name seems like a direct reference to a physical attribute – his skin. Jack’s stage name is “Rampage,” which I get because there’s an angry, intimidating factor to the moniker. In the case of Donald Drake, he’s a doctor, so “Doctor Death” makes sense. Blade Saw and Juice Can…I’m at a loss, but I highly doubt they have anything to do with how the characters look.
And then there’s the scene that really tipped it over the edge for me:
“Cell phones aren’t allowed in the club.” He rips open the envelope. “You agreed to that when you signed the waiver.”
“I was just noting the time. We need it for the affidavit of service.” I hope up the phone for him to see, and he gives me a cold, hard stare.
“You also agreed to be punished if you broke the rules, which you have just done.”
My blood chills, and I take a quick glance behind me to make sure the door is still open. Although Kitty has disappeared, the hallway is empty, and my escape route is clear. “I wasn’t taking pictures or recording anything.”
“There are no qualifications to the rule.” He skims the documents and tosses them on his desk. “And since you seem determined to put me out of business, I see no reason to exercise any leniency.”
“Whoa.” I take a step back and then another, my hands flying up in a defensive position. “First of all, I’m not a lawyer or the claimant in the case. I’m just serving the documents. And second, I haven’t done anything wrong. I didn’t agree to be punished for doing my job.”
Damien rounds on me, moving so quickly I stumble in my haste to retreat. “You did agree. Now, I’m wondering how best to teach you a lesson.”
“If you touch me, I’ll scream.”
Amusement flints in his eyes, and he reaches for my hair, tangling my ponytail around his hand before he yanks, forcing my head back. “Scream then, I love the sound.”
All right, got all that?
First, the heroine had signed a waiver to get into the BDSM club to serve the club owner a subpoena. ALWAYS READ THINGS BEFORE YOU SIGN THEM.
Second, here is another case of a dude being pissed off and taking it out on a woman – the heroine. Damien is angry at being served paperwork that could put his club out of business. Penny has no personal ties to the case; she’s just serving him as a favor to a friend. Now, I know nothing about subpoenas, but I’m sure there would be some repercussions if Penny didn’t follow protocol and note the time it was served. Which perhaps Damien knows? And perhaps that’s his motivation for being a total assmunch? Or it’s possibly the assmunchery comes naturally to him? I’m not sure which is worse.
And a BDSM club is all about operating on consent. And here’s this guy, assaulting a woman because she brought a phone in, despite signing something that she wouldn’t, because she’s trying to do her job, not participate in anything going on inside the club.
Let me remind you that this all happened in less than forty pages. The way things had progressed, I honestly didn’t want to see how much worse things could possible get in the remaining three hundred pages.
Besides, life is too short to finish a book you don’t enjoy.
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I can’t see that waiver being enforcable in her follow-up lawsuit for assault. Urgh. Life is too short.
Not to mention that ‘Juice Can’ (really?) should have been charged with assault for kicking the chair out from under her.
I read another book by this author and also DNF’d. My tipping point was the heroine calling the other women at a party sluts. As in there goes so and so with his slut and here is so and so dancing with his slut. I also remember the hero being a total douche canoe so unfortunately I think this is this author’s M.O.
And I don’t like that guy’s tattoos.
In a (verrrrrry) slight defense, a lot of BDSM clubs/conventions have very strict rules about no photography/recording devices. There are plenty of folks who enjoy these places but don’t want their friends, family, or co-workers seeing pictures of them there winding up on Facebook or other internet sites. (This is probably a bigger issue for celebrities, politicians, clergy, etc.) And considering how easy it is to take a picture or video with a phone, many clubs/conventions have a “better safe than sorry” and really restrict having any such devices open in the places. I’m not saying this absolves the numerous problems with the book listed in the review — but that one element is understandable.
Okay this sounds like an all around failure but can we talk about that fantastic gif!
Off topic, but do they still sell cans of juice? I remember those giant cans of Hawaiian Punch getting brought out at parties in elementary school. I would love to know why Juice Can has that nickname.
I may be alone in this, but all of the MMA hero books I’ve read have left me cold. It’s not a subculture that does it for me, I guess.
I find her calling herself curvy as a negative really weird. When I feel terrible about myself and filled with self-doubt, I think of myself as fat. I mean, swimsuit models are curvy, and I think most guys find them attractive. When we women want to insult ourselves, or when society wants to insult us, we’re called fat (whether or not it is true.)
@jenny, I see cans of juice in the grocery store all the time.
@jimthered: I’d really prefer not to see editorial commentary on the attractiveness of curviness or the unattractiveness of thinness here. And I’m especially uncomfortable with commentary on a celebrity’s bikini pictures, which isn’t relevant to this conversation. MoonJewel’s comment above is all about female internal monologue around body image – external comments on what you find attractive are neither appropriate, nor on-topic in my view.
Others are free to disagree, but your comment made me uncomfortable.
It isn’t all that relevant that a lot of clubs have “no cameras” rules. Breaking the rule about phones and cameras would mean she would be politely asked to leave, or if she refuses to go, less politely thrown out, and maybe banned from ever coming back. I don’t think anyone’s confused about why the rule might exist. It’s the fact that she’s not a member, and she didn’t agree to play with him (doms aren’t just allowed first dibs on anyone they see at BDSM event even if they own the venue), and he is trying to claim that she agreed to waive consent by merely entering the building.
Because even in a BDSM situation where someone has consented to giving up their choice to consent, they still have the option to say “no” or safeword and quit the game. Because once they are no longer truly allowed that option, that’s not a BDSM game, that’s actual assault. The waiver she signed is unenforceable
The whole foundation of healthy BDSM (the whole foundation!) is that both consenting adults (or however many are engaging) get to exert equal control over their partner’s actions and their own. The sub may be acting a role of weakness/submission, but she or he gets to help orient the fantasy, stop everything at any time, and refuse to perform any action she or he may not want to. Otherwise, it’s not BDSM. It’s just plain old assault, and that’s only sexy if you’re an asshole. Fifty Shades entering the cultural lexicon made this attitude so much more common.
Also, it looks like he got the book’s manuscript tattooed on his arm in Microsoft Wingdings.
She was doing her job. That’s the end of the story. She wasn’t there to play. She wasn’t taking photos.She wasn’t even there on a trial visit.
She was checking the time to do her job. If you cannot seperate consenting sexual encounters from a woman doing her job you have no place running a BDSM club. Gross.
*edit to add: didn’t mean to imply there was anything wrong with rape or assault fantasies (they’re really common!). Actually assaulting someone without their consent is not sexy.
Noooooope. Not for me.
I do have to say though that the GIF at the end is perfection.
Several years back, I saw a car parked in front of a Panera* with a bunch of MMA stickers about how he could kill anyone who looked at him wrong and a vanity license plate with ‘No Mercy’. I rolled my eyes continuously for about 10 minutes.
*With that car, wasn’t Panera a little tame? Shouldn’t Driver have been ripping apart game with his bare hands?
@MirandaB: Those bread bowls can be brutal.
Any civilian who says “I’ll serve that subpoena for you” is an idiot, and anyone who needs to serve a subpoena and does not hire an actual process server to do it is an idiot. Individuals don’t serve subpoenas, lawyers do, and lawyers do not ask their random friends to carry out this essential part of the legal notification process, which, if done incorrectly, can torpedo your entire case. Good god.
I am usually pretty laissez-faire about poor research-into-professions in genre fiction, but just in case anyone thought this book might have redeeming features, piling into the NOPE room here. To me that scene sounds like just another excuse to feature assaultive behavior.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK THAT!
I mean, no, no, no, and a big fat scoop of HELL NAH on top.
Sometimes there really are points of no return, and this is one of ’em.
If nothing else, though, this review gave me my favorite Term of the Day; Assmunch. Damn I love neologisms.
I DNF’s one of her other books. It was BDSM. It was going along okay and they got to a spot in the scene where the dom left the sub. Like purposely stepped away. Gave her zero instructions that he would be close. The sub was a total newb. I noped right out of there. It was a total asshole move. And, he didn’t have any huge, redeeming qualities that his asshole-ness was protecting, either. I’m usually able to forgive the asshole qualities if the hero is protecting themselves. I haven’t picked up another of her books since.
Ugh, why is Dom being interchanged with asshole and BDSM with therapy? Double Ugh. I read a short story once, a very nice, sweet guy who was also a Dom. Loved it and I’m not a fan of BDSM.
The serving of subpoenas by friends is more common than you think. Anyone over the age 18 not a party to the case and serve. Sometimes the party doesn’t want to pay a process server or they can’t find one. We once had to ask our client’s brother in law to serve because the only process servers in town (it was a small town) were related to the defendant, the Sheriff’s office couldn’t commit to anything less than 10 days, and the cost for an out of town server was through the roof. Unusually when I see it happen, the friend serves the subpoena at the workplace, for safety reasons. However, signing forms just to get inside, yeah that doesn’t make sense.
@Issa, do you remember the name/author of the book with the sweet Dom? That sounds like something I’d want to check out.
It was a short story in a paranormal anthology. There’s a ghost as part of it but’s its a very minor part. Have to think about what it was called. I do remember the author was Katherine Kingston
I know of “Beer Can” being used as nickname for a man with a (supposedly) beer can shaped/sized penis …
(The things I remember from “Orange is the New Black”!)
I read further past this book than Amanda did before giving up. I really should’ve checked here before reading. At least I got it out of the library.
A couple of incidents:
– Rampage beats up one of the other guys because the guy was sparring with Penny. In the jujitsu class he was teaching. Of which Penny was partaking in. Not because he did anything inappropriate. Just his job!
– The investigator at Penny’s law office complains to Penny that his wife won’t let him beat up people who look at her anymore. Yeah, probably because now that you have a child, she’s trying to keep you out of jail!
Also, the author describes Penny and at least one of the other heroines in another book as “clumsy”. I fucking hate it when heroines are described as clumsy. This author is definitely going on the “Never Again” list.
@Linda: Yikes! You have my condolences.