HEALING LOVE (Love to the Extreme #4) by Abby Niles-a review

Healing Love

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 15, 2016

Doctor Ella Watts wants her old life back. Desperately. But the past has returned for its rematch, and going back home—even telling anyone her real name—isn’t an option until she’s confident in her MMA abilities. Personal trainer Lance Black is the man to help her reach her goals. Not only is he toned, muscular, and gorgeous, he’s patient, a great teacher, and willing to treat her like a worthy opponent. Except his size makes her freeze whenever he gets too close. If Ella can’t learn how to overcome her fear of being attacked, she’ll never be able to move on with her life.

Underground fighter Lance Black knows there’s more to the mysterious blonde ninja than a beautiful woman determined to improve her fighting skills. She can best anyone close to her size – man or woman – but insists on working out with him, even though he’s got a good 70 pounds and several inches on her. Despite her reticence, he’s determined to get her to open up so he can help her get over her mental block. And if that means he can get to know her outside the gym, all the better.

As long as she never learns his secrets.

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REVIEW: HEALING LOVE is the fourth installment in Abby Niles’s contemporary, adult LOVE TO THE EXTREME romance series focusing on the men and women of the MMA. This is underground MMA fighter Lance Black, and Dr. Ella (Kelsey) Watts’s story line. HEALING LOVE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Ella and Lance) HEALING LOVE focuses on secrets, revenge, and taking back control. Ella is on the run and is hoping to remain hidden in plain sight. She is a strong woman who is hoping for some training time to improve her skills in the event that her past come looking for revenge. Enter Lance Black, a personal trainer and underground MMA fighter who takes on our heroine in the fight of their lives. What ensues is a building relationship between two people based upon a series of lies, omissions, and dark and dangerous pasts. Lance is a man caught between right and wrong; Ella is a woman caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The relationship between Lance and Ella begins accidentally when Ella steps in to save a man she knows nothing about. Three against one found Lance in trouble but rescued by a woman-a total stranger-did nothing to improve his attitude about everything that had gone wrong. Lance found himself spiraling out of control, and now Ella had been caught in the whirlwind of destruction. The $ex scenes are erotic, intimate and hot.

HEALING LOVE is a story about impulsive actions; impassioned need; and startling awareness about heartbreak and need. Our hero is a man whose past sins have caught up with his present; our heroine is a woman trying to survive one day at a time. The premise is encouraging but oft-times tragic; the characters are dynamic but it would have been nice to learn a little more detail about our leading hero; the romance is a struggle to a happily ever after-no one comes away unscathed or unharmed.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy