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Underground
Getting in is easy—the tricky part is getting out.Robyn Monroe is the Valkyrie, one of Chrystal Valley's most notorious street fighters, and she never taps out. But she dreams of freedom for herself and her sister--a peaceful life where she can pursue her lost dreams of becoming a ballerina. Working off her late mother's debt to a corrupt bookie is taking a terrible toll, and things are changing in the city's underworld. The stakes keep rising, while her freedom proves more elusive every day.When first-year resident Dr. Andrew Alexander finds a half-dead Robyn in his ER, the cruel, merciless side of Chrystal Valley opens up before him. He's drawn to the street fighter's fearsome courage, but being near her awakens warring emotions of attraction and long-dormant guilt. Watching the fiercely independent Robyn get pulled deeper and deeper into this world makes only one thing If she keeps fighting, he'll lose her forever.As a dangerous tournament approaches, Robyn knows she won't survive it by herself. Andrew is more than willing to help, but can she let her guard down enough to let him?Fight Club meets Flashdance in this vibrant debut novel from up-and-coming talent Cecilia Johanna.Sensuality Sensual
277 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 28, 2016
About the author
Cecilia Johanna
2 books6 followersCecilia Sjölund, also known as Cecilia Johanna, is a young author who started her writing career online. At the age of 19, she uploaded the first chapter of a story called Underground. The response was overwhelming, and she soon had readers from all over the world. For several months, she updated the story every Sunday afternoon, spurred on as much by the positive feedback as the angry messages she received when she missed a deadline.
Almost two years after she posted her final chapter, a revised version of Underground was picked up by the small e-book publisher Crimson Romance. The novel was released in November 2016, turning the 22-year-old amateur writer into a published author.
Cecilia studies nursing at Uppsala University and will graduate in June 2017. She’s not politically active, but she’s always willing to take a stand for women’s health, LGBT rights and mental health awareness.
Almost two years after she posted her final chapter, a revised version of Underground was picked up by the small e-book publisher Crimson Romance. The novel was released in November 2016, turning the 22-year-old amateur writer into a published author.
Cecilia studies nursing at Uppsala University and will graduate in June 2017. She’s not politically active, but she’s always willing to take a stand for women’s health, LGBT rights and mental health awareness.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 29, 2016
I wholeheartedly loved Robyn. I was so excited to start reading this book and I was not disappointed. Robyn was a bad ass take no prisoners fighter that could take down the best of them. But she was also a super strong woman who was doing everything in her power to protect and provide her family. I had the utmost respect for her.
Dr Andrew took a major risk to help keep her healthy and started to admire her strength and tenacity too. The realness of these characters blew me away. I enjoyed this read and highly recommend it to anyone who liked a strong powerful woman that takes no crap and the man that cares for her.
ARC provided by the Publisher for an honest review, via Edelweiss.
July 18, 2017
In the category of four-star books, this one is a five-star book. That may seem a little confusing, but read it again; you'll get it.
The first third of the book is rather predictable, but bear with it, because it sets up the rest of the story, which is fast-paced, dramatic, and fun. These are characters you'll want to know more about, and a situation straight out of a police procedural show.
The first third of the book is rather predictable, but bear with it, because it sets up the rest of the story, which is fast-paced, dramatic, and fun. These are characters you'll want to know more about, and a situation straight out of a police procedural show.
February 1, 2017
2.5 A medical resident becomes enmeshed in the live of a tough-as-nails female street fighter, and becomes determined to bring the corrupt man forcing her to fight down. The focus is on plot, not character, here, and so I found myself skimming just to get to the end. Not as interesting as I had thought to read about a female fighter.
April 2, 2017
4.5/5.0
One of the most inspiring stories of the year, “Underground” tears open the seedy underbelly of street fighting, an incredibly unique topic.
Read full review in the 2017 April issue of InD'tale Magazine.
One of the most inspiring stories of the year, “Underground” tears open the seedy underbelly of street fighting, an incredibly unique topic.
Read full review in the 2017 April issue of InD'tale Magazine.
April 10, 2018
**3.5**
February 23, 2025
For the past few days, I have been reading this story called Underground and it involves a street fighter being friends with a doctor who is her support. But once you really get into it, it is really great because there is a good concept underneath its tropes of the fighting genre.
Summary for Spoilers: The story involves around a street fighter named Robyn Monroe, aka The Valkyrie, who is working to pay her late mother's debt under a corrupt bookie Swanson, but will anything to protect her family. With the help of an unexpected friendship of Dr. Andrew Alexander, she is determined to get out of the corrupted underworld of Chrystal Valley as far as she could with her younger sister Lucy in tow. But Swanson, wants control of her and will do anything to achieve the results he wanted.
Pros:
- An engaging concept that has readers get involved into the story immediately hook, line, and sinker.
- Engaging characters like Robyn, Andrew, Jason, and Cassandra. Those are the characters to look out for.
- A great theme involving the reality of the seedy underbelly of underground fights along with making the effort to get out of the fighting world.
- Great plot twists that leaves readers begging for more including its tournament matches and how the results can be corrupted right away.
- Decent, but effective villain in Richard Swanson, who isn't a groundbreaking one like many villains in novels but he gets the job done in being a threat to the protagonists. The idea of an old man walking with a cane to hide his threat level is great. As a matter of fact, his cane is what caused his downfall in the penultimate chapter before the epilogue.
Cons:
- The book is very plot-driven meaning that there isn't really enough time for character development between the rest of the characters as the only development shown throughout the story is Robyn and to a lesser extent, Andrew with a few of them having scraps including Drake.
- Side characters get dragged throughout the story and don't get the attention it deserves. including Drake, Lucy, Ana, etc.
- The lack of descriptive fighting that should have played a bigger part than what was shown in the book because the core concept of the story is about underground fighting and how the fighters do for a living.
-The world-building is rather underdeveloped and wished that it plays more into the story.
- Characters who are wasted potential such as Tyler and Mark deserve a lot more time in the story because they could have been great characters if given character development. For example, in my interpretation, Tyler could have been the friendly rival and a 'brother figure' to Robyn and Mark could have been the great tragic foil to Andrew as someone who is very independent, a trait that Mark lacks as Swanson's right-hand man.
- While the third person POV is good enough, I feel like it's much better if it's in first person POV because I believe that it would have the story a lot more better than it seems.
Underground isn't the best, but certainly not the worst. I can excuse all of this because this is the author's first story and it's bound to happen like that. Overall, it is a quick read that gets the job done in many ways and won't leave you disappointed.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Summary for Spoilers: The story involves around a street fighter named Robyn Monroe, aka The Valkyrie, who is working to pay her late mother's debt under a corrupt bookie Swanson, but will anything to protect her family. With the help of an unexpected friendship of Dr. Andrew Alexander, she is determined to get out of the corrupted underworld of Chrystal Valley as far as she could with her younger sister Lucy in tow. But Swanson, wants control of her and will do anything to achieve the results he wanted.
Pros:
- An engaging concept that has readers get involved into the story immediately hook, line, and sinker.
- Engaging characters like Robyn, Andrew, Jason, and Cassandra. Those are the characters to look out for.
- A great theme involving the reality of the seedy underbelly of underground fights along with making the effort to get out of the fighting world.
- Great plot twists that leaves readers begging for more including its tournament matches and how the results can be corrupted right away.
- Decent, but effective villain in Richard Swanson, who isn't a groundbreaking one like many villains in novels but he gets the job done in being a threat to the protagonists. The idea of an old man walking with a cane to hide his threat level is great. As a matter of fact, his cane is what caused his downfall in the penultimate chapter before the epilogue.
Cons:
- The book is very plot-driven meaning that there isn't really enough time for character development between the rest of the characters as the only development shown throughout the story is Robyn and to a lesser extent, Andrew with a few of them having scraps including Drake.
- Side characters get dragged throughout the story and don't get the attention it deserves. including Drake, Lucy, Ana, etc.
- The lack of descriptive fighting that should have played a bigger part than what was shown in the book because the core concept of the story is about underground fighting and how the fighters do for a living.
-The world-building is rather underdeveloped and wished that it plays more into the story.
- Characters who are wasted potential such as Tyler and Mark deserve a lot more time in the story because they could have been great characters if given character development. For example, in my interpretation, Tyler could have been the friendly rival and a 'brother figure' to Robyn and Mark could have been the great tragic foil to Andrew as someone who is very independent, a trait that Mark lacks as Swanson's right-hand man.
- While the third person POV is good enough, I feel like it's much better if it's in first person POV because I believe that it would have the story a lot more better than it seems.
Underground isn't the best, but certainly not the worst. I can excuse all of this because this is the author's first story and it's bound to happen like that. Overall, it is a quick read that gets the job done in many ways and won't leave you disappointed.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 9, 2019
Have you ever watched one of those "Most dominoes in the world at once!" videos? The ones where there's a five minute montage of someone setting up 250,000 dominoes in a pattern that they can see clearly but you only get the vaguest idea of to start, and as more get placed the pattern becomes more and more clear, until one little flick of a finger sets the whole thing in motion? That's what reading Underground is like.
The first third of the book does exactly what I mentioned above; characters and motivations are laid out, carefully, in a pattern you don't quite see at first. You know something's there, that there's something waiting to come to the surface, and you want to see how it will happen. Robyn's cold and standoffish demeanour, Andrew's over-protectiveness, their reasons are hinted at and teased and you want more.
And then the second act hits, and the whole design comes into focus. It hits you like a freight train, or a flying roundhouse kick to the jaw, or a kiss from someone who you thought would never notice you. Everything moves at such a breathless pace that you barely have time to recover from the action before you're kicking your feet in excitement and happiness for the characters finally maybe admitting that they care about each other (or, rather, that they accept that other people care for them.) Even the soft, tender, quiet moments - and there are so many of them - leave you gasping for air.
Then the third act comes out of nowhere, and leaves you reaching for dry land. Without giving anything away, the final confrontations leave you breathless and legitimately worried for what will happen, despite the fact that you know - you just have to believe - that everything that's happened won't be in vain.
Read this book, you're not going to be disappointed.
The first third of the book does exactly what I mentioned above; characters and motivations are laid out, carefully, in a pattern you don't quite see at first. You know something's there, that there's something waiting to come to the surface, and you want to see how it will happen. Robyn's cold and standoffish demeanour, Andrew's over-protectiveness, their reasons are hinted at and teased and you want more.
And then the second act hits, and the whole design comes into focus. It hits you like a freight train, or a flying roundhouse kick to the jaw, or a kiss from someone who you thought would never notice you. Everything moves at such a breathless pace that you barely have time to recover from the action before you're kicking your feet in excitement and happiness for the characters finally maybe admitting that they care about each other (or, rather, that they accept that other people care for them.) Even the soft, tender, quiet moments - and there are so many of them - leave you gasping for air.
Then the third act comes out of nowhere, and leaves you reaching for dry land. Without giving anything away, the final confrontations leave you breathless and legitimately worried for what will happen, despite the fact that you know - you just have to believe - that everything that's happened won't be in vain.
Read this book, you're not going to be disappointed.
December 27, 2018
“Getting in is easy—the tricky part is getting out.”
As soon as I read the summery, I was super excited to read the book. 10% In, i feel like everything starting happening really fast. Like the story felt a underdeveloped. The story revolves around Robyn who is a street fighter. She fights to pay off the debts of her mother and to look after her sister. In the process she meets Dr. Alexander, a first-year resident.
I just felt that the book lacked certain details, and it was rushed in some places. Other than that it was a quick read and I enjoyed the concept of the book.
As soon as I read the summery, I was super excited to read the book. 10% In, i feel like everything starting happening really fast. Like the story felt a underdeveloped. The story revolves around Robyn who is a street fighter. She fights to pay off the debts of her mother and to look after her sister. In the process she meets Dr. Alexander, a first-year resident.
I just felt that the book lacked certain details, and it was rushed in some places. Other than that it was a quick read and I enjoyed the concept of the book.
October 8, 2020
Really enjoyed reading about Robyn and Andrews romance and the fact that Robyn is a street fighter made things very interesting. One of the better sport romance I've read and I'm gonna look for more books by Cecilia Johanna.
February 16, 2022
The book read like a poorly written Wattpad book. I struggled to read it.
July 26, 2025
It's great to read about a couple where the female is the stronger one without the male feeling emasculated (too much).
Read
March 7, 2017The review for this book will appear in a 2017 issue of InD'Tale Magazine
August 27, 2020
Ohhhhh Robyn
3.5 stars. ⭐️
This book caught my attention when I was looking for romance book with a kicka** heroine who was a fighter! The cover said it all. 🥊
Heat level: minimal (just kissing really) 😘
Told in 3rd-person POV
The story of Andrew and Robyn was a good love story. No insta-love. Both backgrounds of why they were the way they were came into the story for trusting and commitment. The way Robyn wanted to protect and take care of her younger sister Lucy told you really all you needed to know.
Robyn became a fighter to pay off old debts her mother had accumulated while she was alive. She worked for a corrupted shady bookie who pulled all of the strings in the underground fighting ring. While meeting Dr Andrew Alexander at the ER the attraction started became a friendship of sorts...
This author had a good story line. I wish the fighting was more descriptive and played a bigger part that what it was. I wish Andrew was a little more Alpha than he had come off as. The author laid a story line out for future books, maybe one with Drake and Cassandra???
I personally would have liked it more if it was first person POV.
3.5 stars. ⭐️
This book caught my attention when I was looking for romance book with a kicka** heroine who was a fighter! The cover said it all. 🥊
Heat level: minimal (just kissing really) 😘
Told in 3rd-person POV
The story of Andrew and Robyn was a good love story. No insta-love. Both backgrounds of why they were the way they were came into the story for trusting and commitment. The way Robyn wanted to protect and take care of her younger sister Lucy told you really all you needed to know.
Robyn became a fighter to pay off old debts her mother had accumulated while she was alive. She worked for a corrupted shady bookie who pulled all of the strings in the underground fighting ring. While meeting Dr Andrew Alexander at the ER the attraction started became a friendship of sorts...
This author had a good story line. I wish the fighting was more descriptive and played a bigger part that what it was. I wish Andrew was a little more Alpha than he had come off as. The author laid a story line out for future books, maybe one with Drake and Cassandra???
I personally would have liked it more if it was first person POV.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews