Fight Princess by M. S. Kaye

Blurb:

Things aren’t what they seem. Don’t get involved.

Celisse is too headstrong to listen. Her best friend’s boyfriend is dead, and she does not heed Cullen’s warning, slipped to her in a note as he’s being arrested for the murder.

Cullen tries to keep Celisse out of danger and also tries to avoid her, both unsuccessfully. He can’t deny his feelings for her anymore, but he knows he can’t have her. If she ever discovered the truth about his past, she’d surely hate him.

While struggling with her intense feelings for Cullen, Celisse uses her skills as an ex-prosecutor to investigate, all while continuing to fight for Ogden, the organizer of an underground fight ring. She eventually realizes things are connected—the ring, Ogden, Cullen, the murder, and herself. She races to uncover the truth before she’s arrested or becomes the next victim—or perhaps, the next culprit.

Review:

This is a really unusual review, because I read this manuscript before it was a book.  It was submitted to the publisher for whom I edit under another title—one that didn’t appeal to me.  I made a huge mistake not reading it immediately, and Ms. Kaye signed with another publisher while I dithered.  I am still kicking myself for letting this gem escape.  Fortunately, my publisher understood.  It came in during MFRW “Newsletter week,” and that deadline took precedence over the “slush” pile.

I got about half-way through Fight Princess when I asked my publisher to contact Ms. Kaye and offer her a contract.  The characters were engaging, already fully fleshed out, and the plot had my attention.  I could see one or two newbie issues, but they weren’t major.  In fact, this raw manuscript was cleaner than many supposedly-edited books I’ve read of late.  Normally, when a publisher tells an editor a book has been signed elsewhere, we put it down and go on to the next project.  After all, these books come to us in raw manuscript form and we have to read them on our laptops.  No Kindle conversions here.  I could not put this one down.  I had to know how things turned out for Celisse and Cullen.  I had to know who did it.  Of course, I had a theory about who the real culprit was.  And I was completely wrong!  This newbie author totally fooled me!

I haven’t even seen the edited version, which has finally come out.  I highly recommend you grab it.  Don’t dither like I did.

Length:  399 Pages

Price:  $5.99

Buy Link:  http://www.lsbooks.com/fight-princess-p824.php

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW