BREAKING PHOENIX (Underground Bruisers 2) by EC Land & Rae B Lake

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 18, 2023

Pain has always been my safe place. I understand hurt. I flourish in it. Phoenix Growing up in foster care I learned to roll with the punches and give as good as I got. I joined the Navy as soon as I could just to get away from the hell that was my life…of course the pain followed me there as well. Now I’m back home and all the years I’ve spent with my back against the wall fighting for my life has made me cold as ice. Impenetrable to the happiness and love others try to show me. Only Skyla, the popular girl from high school and the one woman who can break me with just a smile, can see through my mask. Too bad she doesn’t want me how I want her. Or so I thought. When a ghost from my past time in foster care shows back up in my life will I be able to survive the pain those memories bring or will this fight be the one to break me.

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REVIEW: BREAKING PHOENIX is the second full-length instalment in the contemporary, adult UNDERGROUND BRUISERS erotic, dark, MMA/boxing romance series co-authored by EC Land and Rae B Lake. This is former US sailor turned fighter turned renovator Phoenix Seller, and masseuse Skyla Harrell’s story line. BREAKING PHOENIX can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from dual omniscient first person perspectives (Skyla and Phoenix) BREAKING PHOENIX follows the building relationship between former US sailor turned fighter turned renovator Phoenix Seller, and masseuse Skyla Harrell. Phoenix Seller doesn’t do relationships, doesn’t date but his heart has been set on Skyla Harrell since they met in high school. Phoenix Seller grew up in the foster care system, a system that let him down too many times. Believing himself unworthy, Phoenix keeps his distance but Skyla tends to place herself in the direct line of fire, and Phoenix finds himself rescuing our heroine at every turn. Skyla is a serial dater but a woman who picks the wrong kind of man. Assaulted and attacked on more than one occasion, Skyla struggles with her attraction to Phoenix, a man she doesn’t trust, and he in return. What ensues is the building but tempestuous relationship between Skyla and Phoenix, and the potential fall-out as Skyla is targeted, and Phoenix finds himself facing the demons from his past.

The relationship between Skyla and Phoenix is a friends to lovers but a relationship in which both struggle with secrets and lies. Skyla has a stalker but is quick to accept dates from strangers, and keeps hidden the ‘gifts’ bequeathed by an unknown source. Phoenix believes he is unworthy of friendships and love, and in this, uses fighting to make himself numb from the pain but the only bright light in Phoenix’s life is the woman who battles between head and heart, a woman who is often a little bit TSTL (too stupid to live) finding herself in dangerous situations at every turn. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate.

There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including all of the couples we have met in the previous story lines: Rhett and Christine, Kai and Marcella, Karter, Haven and Brooklyn. The requisite evil has many faces.

BREAKING PHOENIX is a story of betrayal and trust, power and abuse, acceptance, forgiveness and love. The fast paced premise is heart breaking and infuriating; the romance is intense; the characters are broken, desperate and struggling in their daily lives.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Caging Dyer
Facing Kai
Finding Reese

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy