Until We’re More by Cindi Madsen

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: Until We're More
Author: Cindi Madsen
Series: Fighting for Her #2
Published by: Entangled: Embrace
Release Date: August 27th 2018
Format: eARC
Pages: 271
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Sports Romance, New Adult
Source: Wordsmith Publicity
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 Author Love Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Adult Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Big Summer Birthday Bash 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

Chelsea is smart, funny, gorgeous, and the best friend I’ve ever had. Ever since she left, I’ve been a wreck. I’ve been focused on keeping my family’s MMA gym afloat while I train and coach fighters, anything to not miss her more. But now she's finally back, along with her grumpy, possessive cat, and things are weird between us.

By weird, I mean I can’t stop thinking about her in that way. She’s in the room next door, and it takes all my control not to storm in there, sweep her up, and bring her back to my bed. Even stranger, I’m pretty sure she’d be into it.

And this time, I’m not going to stop fighting until we’re more.

Each book in the Fighting for Her series is STANDALONE:* Until You're Mine * Until We're More

My Review:

I received a free copy through Wordsmith Publicity in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4 stars — I was really looking forward to Liam and Chelsea’s novel after reading book one…the allusions to their friendship and Liam’s grumpiness just had me intrigued.  And this book totally fulfilled all of my hopes for their story…I just adore friends to lovers stories, you know?  It’s definitely a favourite trope of mine.

Chelsea was just plain adorable!!  I loved her “chatty” nature, or as I would call it: a bit rambly.  While that’s not my normal MO, when given the right opportunity, I can totally turn into a rambler.  She was just endearing and lovable.  I appreciated her mediating personality as well, always wanting to smooth things over and make others feel comfortable…THAT is TOTALLY me.  It made it rewarding watching her attempts to become more assertive and bold without losing the best parts of herself.  About the only thing I didn’t really connect with was her passion for her job…I was told she loved it, but I didn’t necessarily feel it.  I know that part of her love was her desire for a steady income, but I just didn’t get the passion part…only glimmers here and there when she was talking to Carlos.  Did I need more?  Probably not…it was just something I noticed.

Her family background hit me in the feels, especially as I know someone whose family uses them in a similar manner.  It just broke my heart to see such a kind-hearted person such as Chelsea neglected and manipulated in this way.  Strangely though, I felt like while I did connect with her on this, it also felt brushed to the side a lot in favour of the romance…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there was a part of me that wanted to explore it a bit more.  It just wasn’t quite satisfying…but that might be just me.

Liam was a conundrum for me!  I had a harder time connecting with him at times, but I think that’s because he was so conflicted about who he was.  He kept talking about how he was too rough for Chelsea, but when they were together there was NONE of that!  I think this mentality was a by-product of his broken family, and influenced by his parents.  I appreciated the struggles Liam went through with being influenced by his childhood, and the relationships he observed growing up, versus the reality of his relationship with Chelsea.  I was worried that his journey along that path wouldn’t have a satisfying conclusion, but it totally did.

I also loved that Liam was the opposite of Chelsea, in that he was quiet, stoic, didn’t let his emotions out…and just like society tried to put her down for being too chatty, Liam constantly struggled with others bugging him about being too reserved.  I appreciated that opposites connection they had, where the world tried to tell them they weren’t good enough as they were, but in the end it made them fit perfectly together.

And that’s where this story shines: Liam and Chelsea together.  I felt their connection right from the start, and I loved the way they were a safe place for each other.  I really understood their friendship, even as I felt the tension of more bubbling under the surface.  Occasionally I grew impatient with them, but in the end I appreciated the time it took for them to make those leaps, cross those lines.  I also loved that the story didn’t end when they went from friends to lovers, and that they didn’t hide their feelings from one another.  They had other communication problems, but we got to see them happy together.

As I said — solid friends to lovers story, with two equally lovable characters…not to mention a hilarious grumpy cat with gingivitis.  Can’t wait for Finn’s story now!