Monday, May 18, 2015

Review: Fighting To Forget By JB Salsbury

Every fighter is drawn to the violence, the release that a perfect hit can bring. 

But very few are drawn to the pain. 

Rex Carter lives behind a wall of indifference. The demons from his childhood act as an anesthetic, keeping him distant from emotional connections. Only the ache from a knock to the jaw, the sting of a tattoo needle, or the heat from a piercing can jolt him back from the numbness. The fiery pain is all he can feel, and nothing compares to the burn. 

Or so he thought. 

Working in a Las Vegas bar isn't Georgia McIntyre's dream. But she hopes it'll be an end to the nightmare. 

She's watched him, followed him and kept tabs, all in preparation for this moment: to make amends and share the secret she’s been carrying since she was a kid. But she didn't count on the feelings that seeing him again would stir up, the vacant look in his stormy-blue eyes, and his perfect body now mutilated by ink and metal. 

And she knows why. She's lived his pain every single day, since the day he left. 

Changed by time, Rex doesn't remember the girl from his past. If only she could do the same. 

Will she get the absolution she's spent her life seeking? 

Or will he continue Fighting to Forget?

Before I even get into my review I want to warn you guys.  Fighting To Forget deals with sexual abuse so if you have triggers please be warned.  There isn’t graphic details but it is emotional to read about and I cried a lot.  So just keep that in mind when you start to read it.

Like I said above I cried a lot during Fighting To Forget, this is an emotional read and I wanted to wrap my arms around Rex, hold him tight and never let him go.  I wanted to go back in time and protect him and Mac from every single instance of pain and abuse that they survived.  Yes survived because that is what both of them are, survivors but they are anything but healed. 

Rex finds what he needs in his music and when he is in the MMA ring.  He gets off on the pain, in a way it’s almost healing to him but he doesn’t remember exactly what it is that he is healing from.  You just read that right he repressed those memories and thank God he did. But deep inside he remembers, it effects personal relationships as well as causing serious OCD.  Everything you may have guessed about Rex from previous books isn’t anything close to the real thing.

Mac has secrets of her own, but hers can destroy Rex if he finds out on his own.  Mac has loved Rex since they were kids but she looks nothing like she used to so Rex doesn’t realize who she is.  What she is doing honestly wasn’t in any way shape or form meaning to be cruel or to hurt Rex, she wants to love him.  The information about his past and who she is has the ability to destroy him and when he finds out the truth his reaction is extreme and in a way rightfully so but Mac never intended to hurt him.  He throws Mac away and I hurt not just for her but I also hurt for the loss of their relationship.

I know I have said in previous reviews that love can heal old wounds and I truly believe that but sometimes that healing causes pain and lost time before that healing can begin.  Rex and Mac needed each other to heal and until Rex was able to open his heart to Mac he was unable to not only forgive but love her as well.  I have tears forming as I type this review because Fighting To Forget still brings those emotions to the surface weeks after I read it.


JB Salsbury has written a series that isn’t just about a bunch of guys beating the hell out of each other in the cage, or about who can have the dirtiest or kinkiest sex (although there are some very sexy scenes in all the books).  She has written about healing, second chances at not just love but life and that when you find that other piece to your heart that past pains can be healed sometimes you just have to fight for it.

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