BLOG TOUR REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Sweet Victory (Fighting for Love #4)

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Sweet Victory (Fighting for Love #4), by Gina Maxwell
Publish Date: February 27, 2017
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Format: e-ARC, provided by the author and Inkslinger PR
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 4 STARS

(Synopsis) Sophie Caldwell might not like asking for help, but help is what she needs if she’s going to save her family business from her uncle. Her grandma left one rule for Sophie if she wants to gain sole ownership before she’s thirty—get married. Yeah, fat chance of that happening since she hasn’t had a boyfriend in years, and now she can’t get her uncle off her ass.

British-born MMA fighter Xander James has never lost a fight, and he’s not about to start now. He’s on the brink of a comeback that could make him a UFC champion, but his landlord wants to take away his last chance by shutting down his gym. Hell, no. Fortunately, his landlord’s niece has a problem of her own. Time for a proposal she can’t refuse.

Gina Maxwell has become one of my new go-to authors when I want a quick, steamy story complete with a perfect, swoony HEA. Her heroes are alpha in all the ways I like the best, and her heroines can stand on their own two feet. None encompass these qualities better than Xander and Sophie. 

Sophie already marches to her own beat. Her green hair, tats and piercings set her apart from all the other women out there. She's fiercely independent after having lost her parents and now her grandmother is ailing from Alzheimer's. She owns her own bakery that was a dream she and her grandmother shared together, so she is determined to make it successful no matter what. But, her positively hateful uncle will do all he can to get her to give up her bakery so that he can build a strip mall.

Xander is in much the same boat. He has bought his own gym where he teaches MMA and trains to become the next UFC champion. He's just started feeling good about his chances when Sophie's uncle tells him he has to shut down for the aforementioned strip mall. After talking with Sophie, Xander learns that they just need two businesses to not give in, and the deal will fall through. Unfortunately, Sophie doesn't own her building, and she won't be able to until she's thirty or married. So, independent Sophie and commitment-phone Xander decide to get hitched. 

It's crazy that I love these spouses-to-lovers stories so much, but I totally do! There's something wildly romantic about falling in love with your husband or wife. In this case, both Sophie and Xander were crazy attracted to each other even before all this mess with their businesses. But, for their own reasons, they never pursued anything. This was the catalyst they both needed (although they didn't KNOW they needed it) to go after each other, and once they're married and living together, I loved how they were both shocked at how much they liked it. Which, was completely adorable. 

Xander is such a protector. He came up with this idea to protect Sophie from her uncle. It completely disrupted his life, but he did it because he knew this was something she needed. And then, when Sophie slowly integrates him into her life - like when she takes him to meet her grandmother - oh my sweet goodness. That man was so utterly wonderful, I found myself audibly sighing. And Sophie brought a lot to Xander's lonely life too. She gave him someone to come home to after a long day of training and someone to cheer him on from outside the cage. They complemented each other so well, and of course, they both fought that realization until it was nearly too late. 

Sweet Victory was told in dual POV. It was a quick read for me - it was easy to get into the story and stay there. It was fast-paced and super sexy. It also had a completely perfect finale featuring all the couples from this series in a spectacular way. It really was the perfect story for this sappy romance lover. 

Gina L. Maxwell is a full-time writer, wife, and mother living in the upper Midwest, despite her scathing hatred of snow and cold weather. An avid romance novel addict, she began writing as an alternate way of enjoying the romance stories she loves to read. Her debut novel, Seducing Cinderella, hit both the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists in less than four weeks, and she’s been living her newfound dream ever since.

When she’s not reading or writing steamy romance novels, she spends her time losing at Scrabble (and every other game) to her high school sweetheart, doing her best to hang out with their teenagers before they fly the coop, and dreaming about her move to sunny Florida once they do.

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