Underground

Johanna makes a lackluster debut with this plodding, inelegant compilation of implausible tropes. In generic Chrystal Valley (somewhere in the U.S.), where “corruption” and crime are rampant and yet all the cops are honorable, 22-year-old Robyn Monroe moonlights as the Valkyrie, a street fighter with a growing reputation. Stuck fighting until she pays off her dead mother’s gambling debts and too poor to pay for proper medical care, Robyn lands in the ER when her self-administered sutures become infected. There she meets the instantly possessive, thoroughly bland Dr. Andrew Alexander. Determined to save Robyn from the dangers of street fighting, Andrew demands that Robyn come to him for private, off-the-books medical care when she’s injured. Then he bulls his way into her fighting life, and once enough plot has passed, they decide they’re in love. The story is overloaded with shallowly applied wish fulfillment (Robyn wanted to be a ballerina, and Andrew believes she still can!), unfathomably cartoonish villains, and painfully awkward prose. Even dedicated fans of the genre will likely be happier reading anything else. (Nov.)