I walked into this book thinking that I was absolutely going to love it and I did breeze through it but so much of the book went awry for me. I think there is a good book in here. I enjoyed some parts. The secondary characters were great, the writing was well-done, and the MMA fighting aspect was interesting. But at times, it just seemed like mishmash of many of the plot points in other similar BDSM erotica books. I just wish it had been a bit simpler. If Max was just a normal dude who happened to fight underground in his spare time not a billionaire/underground fighter and if Makayla hadn't had the drama with the over-aggressive school loan collector and been an EMT with a healthy fear of blood, I think it would have worked much better for me.

I do think that while Against the Ropes fell a bit short for me, I will stick around for the next book, In Your Corner, because Jake and Amanda's story sounds so good.