Until We're More

Cindi Madsen

Aug 2018 · Fighting for Her Book 2 · Sold by Entangled: Embrace

About this ebook

Chelsea is smart, funny, gorgeous, and the best friend I’ve ever had. Ever since she left, I’ve been a wreck. I’ve been focused on keeping my family’s MMA gym afloat while I train and coach fighters, anything to not miss her more. But now she's finally back, along with her grumpy, possessive cat, and things are weird between us.

By weird, I mean I can’t stop thinking about her in that way. She’s in the room next door, and it takes all my control not to storm in there, sweep her up, and bring her back to my bed. Even stranger, I’m pretty sure she’d be into it.

And this time, I’m not going to stop fighting until we’re more.

Each book in the Fighting for Her series is STANDALONE:
* Until You're Mine
* Until We're More

Ratings and reviews

UNTIL WE’RE MORE is the second instalment in Cindi Madsen’s contemporary, adult FIGHTING FOR HER, MMA romance series focusing on the Roth family- Finn, Liam and Brooklyn Roth who, along with their father Blake, own and operate the Team Domination professional MMA Club. This is MMA fighter Liam Roth, and PR consultant Chelsea Jessop’s story line. UNTIL WE’RE MORE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary. Told from dual first person perspectives (Chelsea and Liam) UNTIL WE’ RE MORE focuses on the friends to lover relationship between MMA fighter Liam Roth, and PR consultant Chelsea Jessop. Liam Roth and Chelsea Jessop have been friends since the day the Jessop’s moved next door to the Roth’s, and Chelsea has been in love with Liam since she was twelve years old. Six months ago, Chelsea was offered a prestigious management position in Denver, Colorado a position she was willing to forego if Liam Roth begged her to stay. With her return to San Diego for work, meant the opportunity to see the man who has starred in all of her fantasies and dreams, but a return that came with the anxiety and tumultuous relationship with her mother and step-father. When Liam offers up a room, to his bestie for the foreseeable future, Chelsea hopes to move past the friend zone into something more. What ensues is the palpable sexual attraction and denial between Chelsea and Liam, and the potential fall-out as Liam’s family history forces our hero to push Chelsea out of his life. Liam Roth doesn’t want to ruin his friendship with the woman that calls to his heart, a friendship that has spanned all of his adult life but a friendship that means more than any other relationship in his life. Living with Chelsea forces Liam to reconsider his friends-only rule, a rule that will be broken when jealousy, and family pressure push Liam into Chelsea’s arms. Chelsea Jessop’s earlier years were spent focusing on her less than attentive mother, a woman whose co-dependency on our heroine has been going on for far too long. Chelsea knows she has been enabling her mother’s dependency, and years of feeling beaten down and unable to push back, finds Chelsea taking a stand, one final time. A bookworm at heart, her less than aggressive, accepting personality finds Chelsea struggling to move forward on her chosen path. The relationship between Liam and Chelsea is a friends to lovers romance that struggles in the face of denial and the potential loss of friendship. Liam isn’t willing to risk his friendship for a temporary fling; Chelsea wants a chance at a happily ever after with the man she has always loved. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic, and passionate, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text. The secondary and supporting characters are colorful and charismatic. We are reintroduced to Liam’s brother and fellow MMA fighter Finn Roth; their sister Brooklyn and her MMA fighter boyfriend Shane, their father Blake, their mother Jennifer and her husband Larry Hendricks ; MMA promoter and fighter Carlos Guerra, as well as Chelsea’s cat George. UNTIL WE’RE MORE is a story of family and friendship; denial and acceptance; heart break and love. The premise is realistic and delightful; the romance is provocative and flirty; the characters are sexy, sassy and spirited. UNTIL WE’RE MORE is an energetic and uplifting tale of lovers and friends.

I received a free copy through Wordsmith Publicity in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion. 4 stars — I was really looking forward to Liam and Chelsea’s novel after reading book one…the allusions to their friendship and Liam’s grumpiness just had me intrigued. And this book totally fulfilled all of my hopes for their story…I just adore friends to lovers stories, you know? It’s definitely a favourite trope of mine. Chelsea was just plain adorable!! I loved her “chatty” nature, or as I would call it: a bit rambly. While that’s not my normal MO, when given the right opportunity, I can totally turn into a rambler. She was just endearing and lovable. I appreciated her mediating personality as well, always wanting to smooth things over and make others feel comfortable…THAT is TOTALLY me. It made it rewarding watching her attempts to become more assertive and bold without losing the best parts of herself. About the only thing I didn’t really connect with was her passion for her job…I was told she loved it, but I didn’t necessarily feel it. I know that part of her love was her desire for a steady income, but I just didn’t get the passion part…only glimmers here and there when she was talking to Carlos. Did I need more? Probably not…it was just something I noticed. Her family background hit me in the feels, especially as I know someone whose family uses them in a similar manner. It just broke my heart to see such a kind-hearted person such as Chelsea neglected and manipulated in this way. Strangely though, I felt like while I did connect with her on this, it also felt brushed to the side a lot in favour of the romance…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there was a part of me that wanted to explore it a bit more. It just wasn’t quite satisfying…but that might be just me. Liam was a conundrum for me! I had a harder time connecting with him at times, but I think that’s because he was so conflicted about who he was. He kept talking about how he was too rough for Chelsea, but when they were together there was NONE of that! I think this mentality was a by-product of his broken family, and influenced by his parents. I appreciated the struggles Liam went through with being influenced by his childhood, and the relationships he observed growing up, versus the reality of his relationship with Chelsea. I was worried that his journey along that path wouldn’t have a satisfying conclusion, but it totally did. I also loved that Liam was the opposite of Chelsea, in that he was quiet, stoic, didn’t let his emotions out…and just like society tried to put her down for being too chatty, Liam constantly struggled with others bugging him about being too reserved. I appreciated that opposites connection they had, where the world tried to tell them they weren’t good enough as they were, but in the end it made them fit perfectly together. And that’s where this story shines: Liam and Chelsea together. I felt their connection right from the start, and I loved the way they were a safe place for each other. I really understood their friendship, even as I felt the tension of more bubbling under the surface. Occasionally I grew impatient with them, but in the end I appreciated the time it took for them to make those leaps, cross those lines. I also loved that the story didn’t end when they went from friends to lovers, and that they didn’t hide their feelings from one another. They had other communication problems, but we got to see them happy together. As I said — solid friends to lovers story, with two equally lovable characters…not to mention a hilarious grumpy cat with gingivitis. Can’t wait for Finn’s story now!

Until We're More has a great formula for figuring out the mechanics of love. When dealing with heartbreak stay active, keep alert and if given the chance try to make things right. With an arrogantly aggressive cat, a determined ex and a suitcase full of untended baggage Cindi Madsen sets about making you smile while tempting your heart. Liam and Chelsea are hard to resist, but I'm sorry to say in my opinion were upstaged by a cat. It's hard not to love that.

About the author

Cindi Madsen sits at her computer every chance she gets, plotting, revising, and falling in love with her characters. Sometimes it makes her a crazy person. Without it, she'd be even crazier. She has way too many shoes, but can always find a reason to buy a new pretty pair, especially if they're sparkly, colorful, or super tall. She loves music, dancing, and wishes summer lasted all year long. She lives in Colorado (where summer is most definitely NOT all year long) with her husband and three children. She is also the author of the young adult novel All the Broken Pieces.