Full Contact

February 23, 2015
Castille’s third Redemption contemporary (after In Your Corner), set in the world of mixed martial arts, never achieves the heights of its predecessors. The colorful members of the Redemption club sneak off to fight no-holds-barred underground battles. Thinking she’s an anonymous face in the crowd, tattoo artist Sia O’Donnell crushes on fighter Ray, a private investigator. Content to watch but relationship-shy, Sia isn’t sure that she can handle Ray, particularly since he seems very secretive and involved with dangerous people. Yet as their paths continue to cross after her tattoo parlor moves into Redemption, she begins to hope that their strong physical connection will lead to emotional intimacy as well. But first, Ray must extricate himself from his dark past while saving Sia from an old enemy. Once again, Castille offers two agile, energetic characters for whom missionary sex is passé, but the plot suffers as Ray, who grunts his dialogue like a caveman (“Man sees his woman standing by a window”), never gets fully developed. Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary Agency.