Reviewed by Stephen K
TITLE: The Artist’s Boxer
SERIES: (Yours to Protect #1)
AUTHOR: Este Holland
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 230 Pages
RELEASE DATE: July 10th 2019
BLURB:
He won the championship. Now he must run for his life.
Winning the welterweight championship was everything Rake had worked for. Now it’s all come crashing down, and he has no choice but to flee his hometown of Las Vegas.
When he stops in a small town in Utah, Rake meets a man who makes him forget all about the danger he’s in.
Rio has a good life. He loves his family and career, but when Rake blows into town, something stirs in his blood…something like desire. Rio doesn’t do relationships, not since the last disaster, but Rake makes it impossible for him to say no.
When Rake comes clean about what he’s running from, Rio just might have a way to help. Now the two of them must fight to free Rake from the man who took everything…and stay alive until the end.
The Artist’s Boxer is the first book in the Yours to Protect series. It contains mature sexual content of hot adult men, intended for readers 18 and older, a one-night stand turning into several days, and a crafty old man who loves to butt into his grandson’s life.
REVIEW:
Rake is a welterweight boxer who goes on the run rather than submit to the extortion of a Vegas gangster. The same Vegas gangster that his dad works for. Without any real destination in mind, he goes to a small town in Utah and meets Rio a man of Apache heritage who is a woodworking artist.
As the two sort through Rake’s problems, with the help of a crew of U.S. Marshals, Rake and Rio get to know each other a whole lot more intimately. This is a fast-paced crime drama, with two fit and sexy main characters, who are anything but victims. The sex scenes are frequent. Though they aren’t as graphic as some I’ve seen, it’s certainly NOT fade to black.
On the downside, this one could have used a bit more clarity in the prose as it was sometimes confusing as to just whose viewpoint we were in and it was occasionally confusing as to who was saying what.
On the upside and adding to the charm of this tale, was the magical realism aspects added by the character of Rio’s grandfather. Also, the banter between this cast of quirky characters adds an enjoyable element that makes this better than just run of the mill.
I’m not a huge fan of the crime-drama law enforcement sub-genre in M/M fiction, but this one wasn’t bad. As a 230 page freebie, and a series opener, it accomplishes its job. I’m now curious enough to want to take a look at the later books in the series.
RATING: 
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