wonderful, but not for the faint hearted

The Clinch by Nicole Disney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Clinch is an amazing voyagen into the mind of martial arts competitors.

Eden has been absorbing her grand master teacher Lin's spiritual approach, her competitiveness is fuelled by wanting to honour the person, who saved her from the street and teach what she has gained by becoming a champion.

Brooklyn has been formed by her parents strict religious convictions and the need to fight for her place among her insensitive brothers and her father. Her only real idol is Eden, whom she has to beat to fulfill her fathers ambitions to validate the "family name". Having only had three official fights, though, her brute physical strength is nothig by comparison to Eden's mental and spiritual ability.

What follows is a voyage into deep denial for Brooklyn and of an unfathomable challenge for Eden, as, physically injured as she is, she tries and succeeds to calm Brooklyn and get her to think as well as wrestle and learn how to punch in spite of her lack in reach. Brooklyn also teaches her Bazilian Jiu Jitzu.

Interference by money hungry managers finally breaks their complicity and forces them to fight a second time, this time neither being sure, if they even want to win that fight or fight it at all. External forces seem to win, though, until Brooklyn's newly developed personal strength surpises everyone, including Eden.

This is a wonderfully written romance, even though the fight scenes are more brutal than some I read in Bernard Cornwells medieval battle descriptions, so, nothing for sensitive souls. I have seen worse in reality, when I served as paramedic with the Red Cross Ambulance Corps in my youth in Hamburg, but it nevertheless brought back some memories I'd rather have avoided, so be warned.



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