Tricia Andersen, $3.99, ISBN 978-1393047360
Fantasy Romance, 2020

Welterweight is the first entry in Tricia Andersen’s Hollow Brothers series, and it’s about MMA fighters that are also shifters.

Still, I’m intrigued because Caleb Hollow, our hero, isn’t some guy that just happens to be werewolf to facilitate the mate-mate-mate shortcut in the romance. He genuinely gets all woof and dangerous when the moon is full, so this is more like the kind of cool werewolf that I like.

Meanwhile, our heroine Meg Riley wants revenge on her cheating ex-boyfriend, so what better revenge than to have hot sex with Caleb, her ex’s opponent in the MMA ring?

Unfortunately, she catches something more dramatic than crabs—she gets a tattoo that shows up on her back and Caleb now tells her that, yay, she is his mate, he is a werewolf, and now she’s going to give birth to werewolf babies that will probably eat a dog or cat or old lady when they transform into a kiddie werewolf later.

Now, this story has MMA fighters. The author tells me that werewolves are dangerous when the moon is full.

Can anyone blame me for expecting this story to have adrenaline-charged fights in the ring?

I am thinking of a Jean-Claude Van Damme werewolf action-romance movie, with Caleb doing trademark split kicks and hot bare butt scenes, while teeth fly across the room and blood spurts from broken noses anywhere. Maybe the heroine can strut around looking hot with a pistol in each hand, mowing down enemies while saying, “All kneel before the alpha queen, bitches!”

Guess what I get instead.

That’s right, it’s the heroine learning about the werewolf thing, which means lots of exposition dumping. The hero will do the usual “I will orgasm-ate you into accepting that you’re really mine!” thing to have the heroine fall in love, and the whole thing resembles every other first story in a series of shifter dudes mate-bonding women to them.

So, the MMA is just window dressing, and the main characters here just mostly talk and hump.

Sure, the story is readable, but it reads like formula served without much cursory warm-up.

There is no hiding my deep, deep disappointment at how the author has set up things to appear action-charged, sexy, and dangerous, only to then unleash some sedate, exposition-heavy, and utterly sedentary-paced thing that can’t even charge up my molasses a little.

Hence, while not exactly dead weight, sadly, this thing is lightweight.