✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Jiffy Kate’s Knock Out, the final book of their Fighting for Love series in the Smartypants Romance universe ✍🏻

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: sunshine hero/grumpy heroine; sports romance; down-on-her-luck heroine; somewhat single parent

On entering Jiffy Kate’s Knock Out, I realized one thing: I had missed the Erickson clan. Since the advent of Stud Muffin, book 1 of the Fighting for Love series, I’ve been hooked on this MMA power family. It’s been a few Smartypants Romance seasons since we received a story from them, so to be gifted with Ozzi Erickson with their final book of the series was divine. 

This story is my favorite type of romance. A character has a difficult past; in this case, the heroine grows up in foster care. Her journey becomes one about learning to be vulnerable with people who can care about her. The other character is compassionate and has the sixth sense to “see” into the character with the traumatic background. Ozzi, this book’s main male character, is empathic and compassionate from almost their first meeting. The dance of Ozzi and Willow waltzes over the pages of Jiffy Kate’s story, and it steals your heart. I write that phrase quite a bit in my reviews, but it’s the reality of this book. As Willow struggles with the idea that she can be loved either by Ozzi or the Ericksons, you want to cry at the idea that she’s never felt loved unconditionally. When she takes on the task of the custodial care of her half-sister, you recognize the depth of her pain from past hurts. Ozzi, a wanderer and someone who eshews relationships, should be the worst person in her life. Instead, he helps her tap into her love stores. Willow’s journey is heartfelt, and her courage and strength, both emotional and physical, is the key draw of this book. 

It doesn’t hurt that the Erickson clan is in full force in this book. The Fighting for Love world has been one of my favorites in the Smartypants Romance universe. As the last book of this series, it’s difficult to say goodbye to these characters. I’m hoping we might revisit them again in Jiffy Kate’s next series, Fischer Falls. However, Ozzi and Willow’s story in Knock Out is the perfect roundhouse kick ending to their series of a loveable MMA family.

In love and romance,

Professor A