Knockout

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Synopsis

Nina Bowes has been crazy about Tony Capriatti ever since she used to regularly watch his band play at local clubs. She tried to talk to him but never quite got up the nerve. Then the band broke up and Nina thought she'd never see Tony again. But five years later, she chances to receive an email announcement of a solo gig Tony is playing and makes arrangements to attend his performance. She's determined to find a way to talk to him this time and either ask him out or get over him once and for all. As she's leaving her borrowed cottage, she literally runs right into the man of her dreams, accidentally knocking herself out in the process, and awakens to find him taking care of her. Once she's recovered from her fall, things turn steamy between them pretty quickly, and after several days of barely leaving the bedroom, Tony wants to introduce her to his family at his show. Nina knows she needs to tell him the truth about why he thinks she seems familiar to him, but she fears that if she does, he might think she's a weird stalker and not want to be with her anymore.

Review

Knockout is a stand-alone, contemporary romance novelette written entirely from the heroine's POV. Nina used to go see Tony's indie band perform all the time at clubs, essentially becoming one of his biggest groupies. She was totally crazy about the guy and kept trying to work up the courage to talk to him, but insecurities about her weight kept her from ever saying anything more than a weak "thank you" after one of his performances. Not long after that, the musical group disbanded and she hasn't seen Tony in years. Still, she's never forgotten him, so when she receives an email announcement out of the blue about Tony performing solo at a bar in New Jersey, she eagerly arranges to go there to see him play. As she's rushing out of her borrowed cottage in the rain, Nina runs right into a solid wall of muscle. The force makes her lose her balance and fall down, hitting her head and briefly knocking her out. She awakens to the man of her dreams tending her. Once he's sure she's okay, they agree to have dinner together, but before the meal is prepared, things turn steamy and they end up in the bedroom with Nina finally living out her long-time fantasy. They spend the next couple of days together and Tony invites her to his gig, wanting her to meet his family. But Nina hasn't been honest with Tony about them meeting before, and she's worried that if she tells him the truth, he'll think she's just a crazy stalker and won't want to be with her anymore.

Nina was pretty relatable with her insecurities about her weight. She's admired Tony from afar for years and thought she'd lost any chance she might have had with him when she couldn't bring herself to even talk to him. Tony is a sweetheart and a sexy lover. I like that he'd matured out of his playboy phase and was looking for something real. He's kind and sweet with Nina, finding all of her beautiful, and he's very good at romancing a girl. These two burn up the sheets pretty quickly after running into one another and can't get enough of each other. The love scenes are very well-written and there's enough of a connection between Tony and Nina that I got all the feels. My only small critique is that I thought there could have been a little more variety in sentence structure. Knockout also wasn't quite long enough to be entirely satisfying, but for a short-format story, it was well-done and enjoyable.

Note: I've categorized this novelette as an erotic romance, because the ratio of sex to page count is high, but other than a little explicit language, the content of the love scenes are more on par with steamy mainstream romances.

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Hannah Murray