Knocked Out By Love is the fifth book in the adult series Love to the Extreme by Abby Niles. Each of the books in the Love to the Extreme series acts as a standalone and the books can be read in any order. The cover of the book was honestly a little scary and off putting to me, it made everything about the book feel very harsh, but once I started reading, I realized that was not the case at all. Brody is a big ole sweetie! I loved him, and I really enjoyed the story as well.

In Knocked out by Love we meet our main character Scarlett as she divorces her cheating ex-husband and goes on a vacation to the Bahamas for her sister's wedding. As part of her vacation, she wants to get her flirt on, which is where she runs into her ex's best friend- Brody. Unbeknownst to Scarlett, Brody has always had a huge thing for Scarlett, so when she tells him that she wants him to help her dating game, he has other plans.

I really enjoyed Scarlett and Brody together. it is clear that they have chemistry and that Brody has real feelings for Scarlett. He just never acted on them because she was with his friend. This book did suffer from one of my big pet peeves- a problem created by a completely avoidable communication issue. I just feel like that is a writing crutch that it too simple. I would have rather seen something a little more nuanced in their story but it wasn't too dire. And overall, I enjoyed their story.

I loved how Brody didn't give up on Scarlett. The friendship and love between the two made the whole book even more amazing.

Abby Niles continues her Love to the Extreme series with Knocked Out By Love and while it was a decent story it failed to knock me out. I went through this whole book and kept waiting for something more for that wow factor, but it never really appeared, however I did enjoy seeing the hero again and I am looking forward to the next book in this series.

This book starts out in the Bahamas and quickly moves back to their home base in Atlanta which in my opinion is where the story really starts to get going. Brody “The Iron” Minton finds out his best friend cheated on his wife, the woman Brody has wanted for a long time and while he wants a relationship with Scarlett he realizes she isn’t ready to jump right back in so they end up being friends who sleep together and sort of date. I’ll be real honest in that the way they went about seeing one another felt strange and a bit sleazy especially given that Brody wanted more and Scarlett sat around and pined for him when he was keeping his distance so as to not spook her. Given the way her marriage broke up, I would have expected Scarlett to be better with communication and not lying to Brody about something really important. This story just seemed very disjointed to me and with Brody’s family sticking their nose in to their “relationship” and Scarlett’s ex-husband going from a grade A jerk to a somewhat sympathetic character I kind of got whiplash from it all.

Things I really loved about this story was how easy it was for Brody and Scarlett to be together because they had a long standing friendship so the comfort they had with one another translated to trusting one another and enjoying each other fully. I liked that Scarlett was very supportive of Brody and believed in his ability despite everyone else thinking he was on the downslide of his career. I loved the Brody made it his mission to restore Scarlett’s self esteem that took great hits during her marriage.

While I liked Knocked Out By Love and it was entertaining enough for me to get through it, I felt it was lacking compared to the others in this series.

**Copy Provided by Netgalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC for an honest review**

This is almost like a best friends to lovers but with a twist. She was the wife of his best friend who turns out not to be such a great friend after all.

Scarlett is a woman scorned but she acts well to her ex husband, but has a mountain of hurt to get through first hence a vacation to the Bahamas with her best friend Delaney.

We have met Brody before in a previous book, however, now we get to see the real and very sweet him.

Its a really good book, but the interfering families pulled it back a little. Brody's sister was a little harsh and Scarlett's mother and sister needed to have their heads knocked together.

A good book to the series.

This was my first book by Author Abby Niles and book #5 in her Love to the Extreme series.

Brody Minton has loved Scarlett Harris for years. But she’s his best friend’s wife, so he’s worked hard to keep his distance. After Scarlett's marriage falls apart, naive and insecure Scarlett wants to get back into the dating game. Brody and Scarlett agree to have an "adult relationship" (or f**k buddies who go out before ending up in bed).

The "friend with benefits", lies, lack of communication story line has been done before. While I didn't hate it, I also did not fall in love with it. I liked how the author described how the struggles with infertility can affect a relationship.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC for supplying a copy of Abby Niles' "Knocked Out By Love" in exchange for a honest review.