In His Corner by Vina Arno

Stand back people! We have an alpha male boxer with feelings over here! Sensitive feelings!!

What’s it About? 

No sex for almost a year could kill a guy, but when you’re the boxer known as the Juggernaut, it’s the price you pay for turning pro. Tommy’s fully dedicated to his craft, until he meets the incredibly gorgeous Dr. Siena Carr. Now he’s looking forward to taking on this prim and proper lady in a wet and wild work-out…

Siena has seen many patients come through the ER, but none as sexy as Tommy Raines. With a nasty cut over his eye, she knows he needs stitches, but after he takes off his shirt, she needs some air. With rock-hard abs and taut biceps, it’s clear this man takes care of his body. And all Siena can think about is letting him take care of hers…

First Impressions

Based on the synopsis, and short length of this book, it was easy to make an assumption of where this book would go. Uptight doc meets sexy boxer, and they do some crazy naked sparring beneath the sheets. Boy was I wrong! Although the premise of having a sexual god of a boxer and a straight-laced chica fall in love is a relatively common romance novel plot, I was surprised at how this book also covered a lot of real-life relationship issues that many of us can probably relate to. Yes, our characters are the perfect match in the sack, but they also connect emotionally, argue whenever their vastly different lifestyles get in the way, but they also fight to make it work.

The First Date

My goodness what an eye opening experience! Tommy and Siena don’t necessarily have the smoothest start to the evening, but they get along and have a definite chemistry. Before you know it he’s fingering her under the table, and she’s having an extremely intense orgasm in about a minute. At first, you think, “Oh yeah, that was sexy as hell!”.

But then we see Sienna think about the reality of what just happened between them. She feels ashamed, dirty, and like a “slut”. She’s never done anything like that before, let alone on a first date, so she pulls away from Tommy without really any explanation. I just found it so interesting that the author takes what is seemingly a hot and sexy romance novel go-to scene, and turns it on its head to look at it from a different perspective.

Change

Hands down the most fascinating part of this novel was reading the inner thoughts behind both characters regarding change. Siena wears Chanel. Tommy wears hoodies and cargo pants. She eats portobello paninis and drinks soba tea, whereas he eats grilled cheese sandwiches and drinks Blue Moon. At first, we see how Siena wants Tommy to dress nicer, eat better, listen to Verdi, etc. and Tommy makes these changes with seemingly little push-back. But when Siena refuses to watch him fight because of the violence involved, he reaches his breaking point, and yells at her for avoiding the reality of who he truly is and trying to change him.

Only then do we see her side of everything, and how these changes were only meant to be suggestions. She never went out with the intention to change him. We discover that she too has made small changes to be with him. Both realize that they’ve made compromises to please the other, but they wouldn’t want to change all their inherent quirks, because it’s what they each love about the other. I just love that this novel managed to have these deep discussions in only 139 pages!

*A copy of this book was provided for an honest review*

Series: A wonderfully quick read of a stand-alone.

Should you read it? Yes! It’s an interesting look at making compromises in a relationship, and how opposites can in fact attract. I wasn’t too thrilled with how many times Tommy thought Siena was a “prude” or a “snob”, but Siena was also far from perfect in her avoidance of talking things out with Tommy. We all have our problems!

Smut Level: Siena has the tendency to bite Tommy every time she has an orgasm. Every…single…time. Phew!

Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $0.99 Kindle Price. Lyrical Press. 139 Pages.