1 out of 4 stars
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Romance Knockout: The Pain and Gain of Love by A. K. Armstrong tries very hard to be an erotic romance. Unfortunately, I can't say either element of this book truly delivered. The book follows Destiny, who is attempting to find herself and get back into the dating scene after being raped by her abusive boyfriend. It also details her friend []'s love life, and her struggling marriage. These two plots are combined in a way that's often confusing, with sudden perspective shifts that often seem solely for the purpose of showing erotica. Overall, this makes for a somewhat disorienting experience.
The erotic scenes are somewhat stilted, with a heavy emphasis on actions rather than feelings, and they read almost more like directions for a movie than a passionate interaction between two people. The romance relies upon common tropes to work - when characters aren't having sex or thinking about sex, they engage in stereotypical romantic activities like bathing each other or, in two separate instances, feeding each other fruit. The relationships seem paper-thin as a result.
For all its faults, the book does deliver in one important aspect: drama. With two separate pregnancies, a multitude of abusive relationships, and characters showing up and disappearing just as suddenly, there is never a dull moment. I can see people who really enjoy soap operas liking this book, as this is the narrative format it most reminds me of, with its non-stop relationship chaos and characters that are never referenced again. Broader fans of romance are likely to be disappointed.
Probably the most glaring fault of this entire book is its editing. Not only does the author confuse homonyms, even going so far as to write "it's on" rather than "its own," some errors are so obvious that they completely distract from the writing. Two examples include substituting "quilt" for "guilt" and "peddles" for "petals." Amazingly, it even manages to spell the protagonist's name wrong in the opening line of the book.
At the end of the day, I can't rate Romance Knockout higher than 1 out of 4 stars. It has its merits, but the romance, something that's literally in the title, is held together by sexual attraction and not very much else. The typos are very hard to overlook. With a good editor and more focused character development, this could have been a riveting and dramatic novel. It's really a shame that potential had to go to waste.
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Romance Knockout
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