Official Review: Romance Knockout by A. K. Armstrong

Poppy Drear · Post by **Poppy Drear** » 20 Jun 2018, 23:13

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Romance Knockout" by A. K. Armstrong.]

1 out of 4 stars

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Romance Knockout: The Pain and Gain of Love by A. K. Armstrong tries very hard to be an erotic romance. Unfortunately, I can't say either element of this book truly delivered. The book follows Destiny, who is attempting to find herself and get back into the dating scene after being raped by her abusive boyfriend. It also details her friend []'s love life, and her struggling marriage. These two plots are combined in a way that's often confusing, with sudden perspective shifts that often seem solely for the purpose of showing erotica. Overall, this makes for a somewhat disorienting experience.

The erotic scenes are somewhat stilted, with a heavy emphasis on actions rather than feelings, and they read almost more like directions for a movie than a passionate interaction between two people. The romance relies upon common tropes to work - when characters aren't having sex or thinking about sex, they engage in stereotypical romantic activities like bathing each other or, in two separate instances, feeding each other fruit. The relationships seem paper-thin as a result.

For all its faults, the book does deliver in one important aspect: drama. With two separate pregnancies, a multitude of abusive relationships, and characters showing up and disappearing just as suddenly, there is never a dull moment. I can see people who really enjoy soap operas liking this book, as this is the narrative format it most reminds me of, with its non-stop relationship chaos and characters that are never referenced again. Broader fans of romance are likely to be disappointed.

Probably the most glaring fault of this entire book is its editing. Not only does the author confuse homonyms, even going so far as to write "it's on" rather than "its own," some errors are so obvious that they completely distract from the writing. Two examples include substituting "quilt" for "guilt" and "peddles" for "petals." Amazingly, it even manages to spell the protagonist's name wrong in the opening line of the book.

At the end of the day, I can't rate Romance Knockout higher than 1 out of 4 stars. It has its merits, but the romance, something that's literally in the title, is held together by sexual attraction and not very much else. The typos are very hard to overlook. With a good editor and more focused character development, this could have been a riveting and dramatic novel. It's really a shame that potential had to go to waste.

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Romance Knockout
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Sahani Nimandra · Post by **Sahani Nimandra** » 22 Jun 2018, 06:04

I can understand when you said this story had some confusing points specially when you mentioned that "The book follows Destiny, who is attempting to find herself and get back into the dating scene after being raped by her abusive boyfriend. It also details her friend []'s love life, and her struggling marriage". Who's struggling marriage are you talking about? And I can clearly understand your rating. Thank you so much for your review!

Post by **kandscreeley** » 22 Jun 2018, 07:59

Well, there are so many reasons why this is not the book for me. I'm sorry you had to suffer through. It's difficult to give a 1 star rating, but it sounds like it was justified. Thanks for your thoughts, but I'm definitely passing on this one.

kfwilson6 · Post by **kfwilson6** » 22 Jun 2018, 08:41

I am not a fan of soap operas; the drama alone is not enough to hold my interest. One fruit sharing scene would be enough; I really wouldn't need a repeat. The words romance and love are both in the title/subtitle of this book so I would think those two things would be pretty prominent in this book. Sad to read otherwise.

DathanReeves · Post by **DathanReeves** » 22 Jun 2018, 12:10

I can't imagine I would have the temperament for this book. I mean spelling your character's name wrong on the first page? Sounds like the author and publisher didn't really care if they could make that mistake.

JR Mercier · Post by **JR Mercier** » 22 Jun 2018, 12:27

*Gently pushes the book away with a ten-foot pole.*
You won't have me, disastrous book. I am faithful to great romance novels.

I'm sorry for my dorkiness. Great review!

liftedbooks · Post by **liftedbooks** » 22 Jun 2018, 15:17

When I saw that this book only has one star, I had to read the review to see why. After reading, I totally get it. Thanks for writing an honest review. Besides the fact that this book is in the romance (my least favorite) genre, the fact that it is not properly edited is off-putting. I will skip this one.

crediblereading2 · Post by **crediblereading2** » 22 Jun 2018, 15:35

Thank you for your honest review of this book. I am so sorry about all the flaws that you have encountered.

strawberrysab · Post by **strawberrysab** » 22 Jun 2018, 16:42

“Amazingly, it even manages to spell the protagonist's name wrong in the opening line of the book.” Oh, Jesus.

I’m not a fan of soap operas so this wouldn’t have been the book for me anyway.

Marissa Michael · Post by **Marissa Michael** » 22 Jun 2018, 23:30

I agree with your rating on this one. Thank you for persevering in reading this book, and thank you for the thorough review.

Kashosi · Post by **Kashosi** » 23 Jun 2018, 00:24

i am a really a fan of romance and i wouldn't want to be disappointed like this mostly when the key element of the story doesn't deliver as it should. Thank you for an honest review

mariacarolinea · Post by **mariacarolinea** » 23 Jun 2018, 18:17

It's such a shame the writer couldn't do this theme justice. I do think we need stronger representation on rape survivors, see them moving on and falling in love. Thanks for taking your time to leave a great review!

Samantha Simoneau · Post by **Samantha Simoneau** » 25 Jun 2018, 18:11

ViziVoir wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 23:13 The erotic scenes are somewhat stilted, with a heavy emphasis on actions rather than feelings, and they read almost more like directions for a movie than a passionate interaction between two people. The romance relies upon common tropes to work - when characters aren't having sex or thinking about sex, they engage in stereotypical romantic activities like bathing each other or, in two separate instances, feeding each other fruit. The relationships seem paper-thin as a result.

Probably the most glaring fault of this entire book is its editing. Not only does the author confuse homonyms, even going so far as to write "it's on" rather than "its own," some errors are so obvious that they completely distract from the writing. Two examples include substituting "quilt" for "guilt" and "peddles" for "petals." Amazingly, it even manages to spell the protagonist's name wrong in the opening line of the book.

Yikes! The problems in this book would have me cringing at every page, and a soap-lover I am not (whether from characters bathing each other or from drama, lol). I'll pass on this one. Great review!

KitabuKizuri · Post by **KitabuKizuri** » 26 Jun 2018, 16:56

liftedbooks wrote: ↑22 Jun 2018, 15:17 When I saw that this book only has one star, I had to read the review to see why.

I guess I came here for the same reason. This book sounds difficult to appreciate on many levels.

Poppy Drear · Post by **Poppy Drear** » 27 Jun 2018, 21:10

Sahani Nimandra wrote: ↑22 Jun 2018, 06:04 I can understand when you said this story had some confusing points specially when you mentioned that "The book follows Destiny, who is attempting to find herself and get back into the dating scene after being raped by her abusive boyfriend. It also details her friend []'s love life, and her struggling marriage". Who's struggling marriage are you talking about? And I can clearly understand your rating. Thank you so much for your review!

Oh no - I changed that in my original private post, I wanted to make sure I was correct with the spelling of her friend's name! I almost want to ask Scott to decrease my editorial score personally for that, yikes. I suppose we all make mistakes.

That said... I did not enjoy this book.