Steele Lungren and Brice Diamond own an underground club. There are brutal boxing matches and the loser gets taken by everyone in the club. It’s all getting to be a bit too much for Steele to handle.   

The year is 2028 and Mafia lords and criminals run the show; they even have their hooks into Steele and his Punchback club. Steele wants out of the crime syndicate but doesn’t know how to get out.   

There are few good guys left and Detective Dane Shannon is one of them. He feels as if he is fighting a battle he can’t win against crime. When kids start showing up raped and barely alive, he’s sent in to investigate Punchback.  

The cops think the club is a front and a precursor to a mob war. Dane is being sent in to stop it. Dane finds himself attracted to Steele. How can he take down a man he is starting to love?   

Punchback by Cassandre Dayne is a rough and gritty book with strong alpha males.   It also has dubious consent.  Some scenes straddle the line between rape and consent in the brutality as well. I did find the story itself and the characters to be something I could not stop reading.   

Dane is a person who has lived through a lot of tragedy in his life, but he still remains a good person. Steele, despite all that has happened to him, has a good soul that transcends the pages of this book. I would say this book is not for the faint of heart; it is not warm and fuzzy in nature but if you like your men rough, hard, and ready for anything, Punchback is a must read.