A grumpy sunshine lovers trope. A fun and steamy read. Fast paced and perfectly paced. The story never drags. The chemistry between the main characters was fantastic and believable. Lovers of bad boy romance will devour The Knockout Rule

Cyrano De Bergerac Boxer. Brick Smasher or an intelligent, cunning linguist?

Thank you #Netgalley and #Xpressobooktours #CDBooks for this E-ARC.

TW deteriorating affects of physical sports. Parkinson's disease.

Writing Style ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Character Likability ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Smut ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Isla Slade is the daughter of the legendary boxer Swinging Graham Slade. A physiotherapist building her new business, she knows all the ugly that came with physically demanding sports. And she want to help players feel strong and comfortable despite.
Eric Kramarovsky is Brick "Smash" Kramarov. The brute boxer known on media as a dimwitted neanderthal. But behind the cameras, he is an intelligent, hungry for knowledge linguist.
Isla's dad is Eric's trainer and Isla ends up going on a trip with her father to get Eric ready for his upcoming match. There's misunderstandings, then friendship, then a manager, who Eric feels indebted to, asking if he can help him get a date with Isla. So Eric helps Preston(manager) win Isla over only to fall for her on the sidelines.

Writing style 5 Stars
This book was so easy to read. So fast to get through because it was witty and fun and whole hearted and sexy, and yes, everything. The author did wonders on this book.

Plot 5 Stars
A Cyrano de Bergerac plot line but in Las Vegas Boxing arena! The boxing sport world is so interesting. Also, you get to see all the things that happens around the players. The money is good, but at what cost to their bodies and health. To me, this story was about love. Love of oneself to better yourself and to be better FOR yourself. Also, Love for another person. The deep connection that you cannot believe you can share and feel for another person. There's also another kind of love. Love for what you do. To know the consequences and still living your life to the fullest because you love being in it so much! There was a lot in this book.

Character Likability 5 Stars
Isla is so strong. She was traumatized with her childhood but she is so strong and continues to be better.
Eric is a cinnamon roll who is smart and funny and sexy. He has his media persona but you can see in the book how his intellect is just bursting. The secondary characters were all so good too. The blunt carefree best friend and the seemingly shallow manager who is actually a really great guy. All of the characters were so easy to root for! ahhh.

Smut 5 stars
WOW. Eric is such a turn on. Someone who would whisper sweet everythings to you in different languages?? That's ultimate for me. It was a little bit of a slow burn but when it clicks into it. It was hot! DUDE! super satisfied with the smut!

Overall 5 Stars
This has become my favorite Contemporary Romance so far! It was so satisfying. Everything worked. The conflict and the resolution. I'm so happy!

The basic premise of this book is Isla is a physiotherapist treating athletes, but not boxers. After growing up the daughter of a boxing champion she can barely stand to talk to a boxer much less love one. When her father tells her one too many blows during his career landed him with Parkinson's and he needs her help to hide it from his bigshot client she's angry. After she agrees and goes to Las Vegas with her father and the notoriously idiotic Brick 'Eric' Smash she realizes her issue isn't entirely to blame on boxing. Eric isn't all he seems and as he and Isla find they have more and more in common their friendship turns more to romance. Isla has to decide if she can love Eric enough despite his career

The plot of this story was interesting enough to stick around. The pacing was great and I never felt rushed to get through the book or like it was dragging.

I loved this book. It was incredibly poignant and heartwarming. The characters were incredibly well developed and I loved watching them come together. A slow burn forbidden romance where the obstacles keeping them apart felt realistic and deep.

I loved this story and the characters, I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down, it was simply amazing!

Isla and "Brick" are the knockout characters, but everyone in this book contributes to the charm. Even linguistics had never seemed so sexy before Kelly Siskind put her mark on it. Such a cute worthy romp!

The Showmen continues on with its 4th instalment and it definitely does not disappoint. A tall, muscle-y gentle soul boxer and the daughter of a former boxer who is starting her own business in helping athletes and others with physical injuries dance around each other and their feelings while having cute and touching moments. Add an adorable ‘ugly’ dog, cute niece and nephew and a big boxing match in Vegas, you have got an fantastic story that you will enjoy following.

I've waffled over the rating for this one and landed on 2.5 stars because the story premise is good. Unfortunately, underdeveloped characters and a goes-nowhere plot sabotage the best bits, and drop the grade down into C-/D+ territory.

The Knockout Rule is told from the dual PoVs of Isla Slade, a physiotherapist raised primarily by her father - a former boxer, and Eric Kramarov (aka "Brick Kramarov"), a a quiet Jewish boy who loves to read and study, but better known by boxing fans as Brick Kramarov, an illiterate brute with a loud mouth and big fists. These two meet not-so-cute after Isla's father - Brick's trainer - calls in a favor and asks Isla to travel with the pair to Vegas and work with Brick in advance of a prize fight.

Isla doesn't want to help her dad. After struggling to see her father hurt in the boxing ring and treating one-too-many boxers with painful injuries of their own, she's done working with boxers. Isla's almost ready to launch her own business (with financial help from her dad), and while she's looking for one or two professional athletes to help attract more clients, none of them are boxers. Not taking on boxing clients is fundamental to both her business plan and her mental health and happiness and she won't compromise on these fundamentals - even for her beloved dad.

Unfortunately for Isla, her dad REALLY needs this favor. He's been keeping a secret from her and since his money helped finance her new business, she decides she can't say no. EVEN THOUGH SHE REALLY WANTS TO. (but then where would this story go?). Isla has PRINCIPALS except when the author needs her to ignore them. Ahem.

Eric found boxing after he was bullied in school. The fight in Vegas promises a big payday - enough to help his family (his mom and a sister with twins) stop living paycheck to paycheck. Eric is as far from his public persona as it’s possible to be - he's brilliant, loves languages (and speaks several fluently), poetry and his family. He’s big and tough and dedicated to his career, but boxing isn’t his first love. It’s a means to an end and he intends to win this fight. He isn’t crazy about the last minute change in physiotherapist, but he trusts his trainer and his agent and goes along with it.

Eric and Isla get off to an awkward start when they meet on the private jet (that belongs to Preston Church, Eric’s agent) taking them to Vegas. Despite her surprise at Eric’s good looks (and his at hers), Isla treats him like the dumb boxer she believes him to be. Eric, annoyed by her assumptions, acts the part. Leaving him with his dog in the back of the plane, Isla returns to her seat convinced she’s somehow read Eric wrong - but not sure how. Fortunately, she’s distracted by Preston who’s determinedly trying to get her to agree to a date.

Well, you know how this goes right? Eric and Isla fight an attraction to each other...But wait! Not so fast. Isla doesn’t date boxers, but she is single and looking to mingle. Actually, she isn't. This is a convenient (and ridiculous) plot contrivance that allows Isla to rationalize dating Preston (who reps boxers and is a manslut), who relentlessly pursues her and it provides the author with a way for Eric to woo Isla without her knowing it. Preston solicits Eric’s help with poetry in exchange for cash to help his family.

The whole thing - the false persona Preston adopts, Eric’s creepy creeping on her dates, Preston’s “loan” in exchange for tricks to win a women with whom he has zero chemistry or anything in common - is ludicrous and only necessary in order for the author to find a way to bring together a pair who ALREADY like each other and are in lust whenever they’re together. CAN'T THEY JUST FUCKING LIKE EACH OTHER AND REALIZE IT MIGHT BE MORE? Geez. Develop your freaking characters instead of this bizarre charade of a plot. Moving on.

So obviously, while I liked the opposites attract premise, the author completely fumbles this love story. Isla has a very real problem with boxing.
Growing up with an adoring father for a boxing legend isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It looks more like hospital visits, bloody noses, and cracked ribs.
Readers can easily empathise with her reasons for trying to keep her distance from Eric. But once the author establishes this character baseline, love and lust completely cloud the issue. Isla becomes this boring, cardboard caricature of a daughter/girlfriend ruled by fear who nevertheless does and says things completely contrary to her character. She’s overbearing and slightly ridiculous with her dad - who essentially goes AWOL once they arrive in Las Vegas - and instead of liking and sympathizing with her situation, you just want to tell her to shit or get off the pot already. And the author's insistence on littering her PoV with poetry is completely distracting. The poetry is - alright? - but random and unnecessary, and the transitions that lead into these 'saying the exact same thing except in a poem,' are non-existent and awkward. Where is the editor? None of these are necessary and they detract from the flow of the narrative.

Meanwhile, Eric seems like the perfect boxer. Smart, physically strong and capable, dedicated...yep, that’s about it. He’s really smart. He’s a really good boxer. He loves his family. Beyond this trifecta of qualities we knew within five minutes of reading about him, there isn’t much more to this guy. Oh, he falls in love with Isla in the span of one afternoon in the mall.

This romance feels like two strangers meeting, falling instantly in love, and then being forced to wait while their writer spins an entire story around them in order to keep them apart. There’s little plot or character development, the dialogue is stilted, the poetry is distracting, and what seemed like a promising story stumbles and fumbles into a fairy tale happily ever after.

It’s boring folks.

It was an excellent story, full of good love and great poetry.
This is not the tipycal behavior of two people who don´t know to love well.
Isla and Eriw will show you how is the real, love besides every problem o circumstances.

I identified myself with some problems that Isla is living, some hard decisitions that you have to take in order to be happy.

I really enjoyed this book, their story and real characters, 100% recommended

Where are all my sports romance lovers at?🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏼‍♀️

It’s pub day for The Knockout Rule by @kellysiskind. Thank you @netgalley and @insertpublisherhere for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! Swipe to see the synopsis!

I really enjoyed this book! I was immediately drawn into the story! I truthfully know very little about boxing, but this book had some great points I didn’t even think about! Isla and Eric really had a great connection after a rocky start and I loved the Eric wasn’t what the media portrayed him as. I will say I started to get unhappy with how the book was ending, but I quickly got over it and loved it! This was my first book by Kelly Siskind, but it won’t be my last!

I recieved a free copy from natgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I liked this book for the most part.
Isla hates boxing. After watching her father box and the injuries that came with she resents the sport. But when her father asks her to work with the boxer he is training as a favor she agrees. What she does expect is to start falling for Eric.
Eric boxes to provide for his family and the last thing he needs is to be distracted by a woman who hates boxing.
I like Eric and Isla. I feel like the parts with Preston and the whole Cyrano drag on a little to long. I hated Rosa. She was irritating everytime she called Eric and she needed to woman up and deal with stuff on her own like a grown woman.
Worth checking out for a light read.

"Her tentative smile grew. 'Have I told you your humor hovers at a grade-one level?' 'Have I told you that you have no sense of humor?' 'I wouldn't know. I usually tune you out.'"

I don't think the synopsis quite captured the essence of this book, but it drew me to it nonetheless. The Knockout Rule is a love story (shocker) but it also is about Boxing, providing for one's family, and dealing with anxiety. I enjoyed the boxing plot line despite being uninterested in the actual sport. I couldn't put this book down after I first picked it up. It was easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable.

"She rested the back of her head on his chest. 'Am I the referee in this knockout rule of yours?' 'No. You are the knockout rule. You're the loophole that allows me to get back up and fight, for myself this time.'"

I love how the main character Isla is a driven woman. After spending years at various companies doing physiotherapy, she has set out on her own to open a new practice--one that she can control which customers she takes on. Basically, she won't have to treat any boxers. Growing up with a Heavyweight Champion father took a huge toll on Isla, and she still found herself dealing with the aftereffects years later in her adult life. I love the character development of Isla, specifically her emotional healing journey. It wasn't something that happened overnight or through having a boyfriend (lol). It took hard work, encouragement, and therapy to start healing from the pain of seeing her father's body breaking down.

"She was his knockout rule. His loophole to true happiness. Get up off the mat. Get her back. Get on with living a better life."

Along with Isla, readers easily fall in love with Eric "Brick" Kramarov. In reality, this boxer is a gentle Jewish man with a love for learning languages, his family, and helping others. Readers were really able to feel the internal and external struggle he had with boxing as a profession. His love for horribly cheesy jokes made me smile throughout the story. The ending of his story was satisfying and I really loved reading his POVs.

Isla is a few weeks away from opening her own practice, she is focused and has a lot to supervise. But when her dad asks her to accompany him while he coaches a boxer, she can't deny him even she has to work with a boxer, which is a sport she hates.

Eric is a boxer who is much more than he appears. He is a provider for his family, always putting them first even before his own wants.

Isla and Eric's first meeting isn't a cute meet but they both work to reacquaint themselves and once they do that they discover something so much more than they expected.

Their physical therapy sessions gives them the chance to spend time together and are full of sweet and heartwarming moments. The romance is a slow burn and with a lot of great tension.

This is sweeping story that captivated me from the very beginning. The characters are very well written, complex with a lot of emotions who overcome a lot personal troubles, which makes them seem very real.


* I received an ARC through Netgalley and this is my honest opinion.

One thing’s for sure with a multilingual heavyweight champion is that his words definitely pack a stronger punch than his fists!
The Showmen series has been a gift that keeps on giving! This time it comes with a physiotherapist who’d rather snort wasabi powder than deal with boxers, and a — you guessed it! — a boxer who spouts poetries in different foreign languages just as fast as he lands punches.

I think that alone gives you an idea on how this feel-good story is gonna go! Chaotic...but in the best way. Really enjoyed this one!

This was a cute book. It bordered a bit on insta love but the two characters communicated so well that it was believable. I really enjoyed how fleshed out each of them was and how they helped each other through their troubles.

The Knockout Rule by Kelly Siskind

****ARC provided by Netgalley for free review***
Isla Slade is a physiotherapist and opening her own clinic. She specializes in athletes but has one rule, no boxers! Growing up the daughter of a renowned boxer, she saw the ugly side of the sport and the damage it has done to her father. She doesn’t want any part of it. Then, her dad asks her to help train his newest client for his next fight. Her dad tells her a secret that leaves her shaken and needing to help him. While Isla is helping to train Eric “Brick” Kramarov, she develops a friendship and feelings for him but he has to stay focused on the upcoming fight so he pushes her to go out with his manager, Preston. Preston isn’t used to wooing girls of Isla’s caliber so Eric says he will coach him. Will Isla find out the truth? Will Eric win the fight while distracted by his feelings for Isla? This book was the fourth in the Showman series. I’m excited to read the previous ones!

Might be more of a 3.5 stars.

I quite liked The Knockout Rule. It is a dual POV contemporary romance following physiotherapist Isla and boxer Brick/Eric. Personally I think the summary including so much Preston is a bit of a disservice, I really wouldn't consider that vital part of the plot. I really enjoyed Isla's relationship with her friend I thought it was portrayed nicely.

Sex scenes were all right. Plot was predictable but in a loveable sorta way. I don't enjoy boxing but I still liked this haha.

trigger warnings: parent illness, childhood trauma, anxiety/panic attacks

I really loved it! I liked the romance, how it wasn't insta-love; it was very sweet and heartwarming. It made me feel very happy. It also has different topics like panic attacks, mental health, chronic diseases and therapy. I loved how each of these subjects were approached and how they really added to the story, they weren't there just because, they served a purpose. It was a great read and also quick. I loved it.

The Knockout Rule by Kelly Siskind follows physical therapist Isla—a professional boxer’s daughter— who refuses to work with all boxer’s due to her emotional bias towards them.
I found Isla emotionally immature and very self unaware. The romantic buildup between Isla and boxer Eric was minimal and felt very pre-pubescent, especially as they bonded over poetry together. *Not to say that I don’t love poetry, I do! Only the way they interacted over it felt odd and patchy.
Add into the mix the super immature trope of a person pretending to be another person to get someone to fall in love with them and you’ve entered into the paradox of boring, limited romance. Isla needed more character development and maturity, and Eric needed someone more balanced for him.
This book is a part of a series, but you do not have to have read prior books to read this one.

I received an ARC from the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review.

* ARC received through the author in exchange for an honest opinion *

The Knockout Rule was one of my most anticipated cute novels this year. The fourth book in the Showmen series is also a story independent of the others, but I highly recommend reading them all.

Growing up with a boxing father did not do very well for Isla and that is why she has a rule in relation to men: DO NOT DATE BOXERS. But that rule is complicated when she begins to get to know the real person behind Brick Kramarov, a persona created for Eric Kramarovsky.

Despite his mutual attraction, Eric knows that Isla loathes boxers. And with that thought in mind, he helps her manager, Preston Church, try to win her over. But when Isla finds out that the man who says things like "flowers follow her beauty" is the one she doesn't want to get involved in, she will have to choose between staying safe or taking risks in the name of feeling.


Unlike the other protagonists, Isla was slow to win me over. She had a whole thing about wanting to date intellectual men and a willingness to pre-judge people. Throughout the book, this view has been changing precisely because the physiotherapist realized her mistake in pre-judging Eric, who is possibly the most intelligent, caring and caring person she has ever met in the dating world.

Eric HATES the brute persona he has to represent, but he accepts it as it is the only way to bring money home and be able to support his family. Basically, the guy just wants to get along, reading his poetry and studying several new languages.

Isla and Eric are similar personalities. Both are a little proud and stubborn when it comes to taking care of their loved ones' well-being and have a hard time asking for help. At the same time, they are completed with their love of poetry. The two are very cute together and their interactions are watered with provocations and jokes without thanks, to leave a warm in the heart.

One character that surprised me a lot was Preston, Eric's manager. I stayed with both feet behind him because he was super solicitous and helpful in everything Eric needed, but in the end it was all without second intention, manipulation or blackmail. Like Eric, Preston is also a caring and very selfless guy, always willing to help.

I really liked how the author worked the consequences of boxing on the health of boxers. Athletes who are constantly hit on the head are much more likely to develop neurological diseases; here, in this case, Isla’s father developed Parkinson’s. The question of Isla not dating boxers comes from the fact that the sport caused a major break in her family life, which led to her having panic attacks. Kelly also knew how to develop the question of Isla is always surrounded by the environment that gives her triggers and how she reacts to it.

There is a small reference to the protagonist of The Beat Match, finishing connecting the stories, since Isla's father made a small participation in the previous book. The secondary characters are extremely captivating. Family is also the basis of support for the couple. As much as he has a frown, Graham (Isla's father) is a dedicated and loving father. And Eric's Russian family just wants him to be happy, doing whatever he wants.

Once again Kelly rocked in a cute and fun romance, with the right hint of sensuality. I finished the book with a taste of wanting more and even hoping for a story for Preston.