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I was SO excited to read this ARC and just couldn鈥檛 resist finishing it ASAP! I am a longtime Sarah MacLean fan and so I was thrilled to receive KNOCKOUT from NetGalley.

And I REALLY loved Tommy and Imogen. First of all, let鈥檚 talk about Imogen. She is an all-time heroine in my opinion鈥攈er interest in explosives is so unique and endearing. It serves beautifully as her central trait in the story on both a practical and metaphorical level. And I just loved her personality?? Despite being a virgin heroine, she is definitely the initiator in her relationship with Tommy鈥攁t least on the 馃敟馃敟馃敟 front. Her openness to him from the beginning just really worked for me as a reader; a sexually bold heroine is my kink in general and Imogen added a further lovely twist to this (thankfully) increasingly common histrom archetype. Her openness towards Tommy felt simultaneously erotic and emotional; she didn鈥檛 really have any walls up with him and that just drew him to her. This dynamic definitely delivered the #TommyGoBoom effect for me. Tommy just can鈥檛 get over the fact that THIS WOMAN wants him and isn鈥檛 making it a secret. Even with her love of explosives, Imogen has this vulnerability that reminded me of a vintage MacLean heroine in the best way. If you love MacLean鈥檚 Callie and/or Hattie, you鈥檒l be obsessed with Imogen.

And I straight-up adored the cross-class romance between her and Tommy. I thought the narrative tension in this dynamic was really taut, especially in a genre where a) it鈥檚 still way more common for the heroine to come from a humbler background than the hero, and b) often when the hero has begun life in a rough part of London or the working class, he has often made a gajillion dollars in the time between his childhood and the present day. While I am ofc trash for a self-made historical billionaire, I really enjoyed here that that wasn鈥檛 Tommy鈥檚 story. He doesn鈥檛 have an empire to offer Imogen and he knows it. This fact made the conflict keeping these two apart heart-wrenching. It also creates a real forbidden fruit situation and I was HERE for it 馃サ馃サ馃サ.

You really don鈥檛 want to miss this one. Preorder KNOCKOUT now!!