A review by duanur
A Contracted Spouse for the Prizefighter by Alice Coldbreath

5.0

*4.5*

I usually don't understand why any book (other than fantasy books) should be more than 350 pages. Especially when it comes to romances. (I guess this is because I hate the third act conflicts in romance books) But when it comes to Alice Coldbreath, the longer her books the more I love them. Her story telling and how she masterfully craft her romances amaze me. Her unconventional way of writing historical romances is a breath of fresh air for me. Not only her heroines are sensible and independent in their own ways but I also love her secondary characters and how they play into the story.
Most of the time her main characters start off by hating each other and I truly don't see how she can manage to make me believe they will fall in love. Even her characters don't believe how they can feel anything towards each other. Seeing them slowly but surely begin to respect and care for each other is so satisfying.
There are a few of her books that I didn't enjoy just because they were too short to truly redeem the heroes in my eyes or they ended just when the couple started to really care for one another. After reading her longer books, I feel like her books were edited too much.

In this book, I loved Clem and Dora together. I didn't particularly care about them individually but they complemented each other so well. Their interactions were so fun to read especially whenever Clem took care of Dora in small ways (all the while telling himself he didn't like her. sure Clem.) I also enjoyed the theater setting even though I normally don't care for books about any type of entertainment business. But there were some interesting stuff that I didn't even hear about before. Dora's sister's story was a bit lackluster but it was still interesting to read about. (I guess I am still into drama afterall.) The appearance of the prizefighters was so fun and I loved seeing all of them again.

I love this series and I hope she'll write more. In the meantime, I'll continue to read anything else she comes up with.