Yesi & Karen Review Better When He’s Bad by Jay Crownover

Posted May 21, 2014 by Karen in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Yesi & Karen Review Better When He’s Bad by Jay CrownoverBetter When He's Bad by Jay Crownover
Also by this author: Jet, Rome, Nash, Rowdy, Better When He's Bold, Asa, Better When He's Brave (Welcome to the Point, #3)
Series: Welcome to the Point #1
Also in this series: Better When He's Bold, Better When He's Brave (Welcome to the Point, #3)
Published by William Morrow & Company on June 17, 2014
Genres: Dark Romance, Romantic Suspense
Format: eBook
Goodreads
five-stars

FTC disclaimer applies, please visit 'About' page

There’s a difference between a bad boy and a boy who’s bad . . . meet Shane Baxter.

Sexy, dark, and dangerous, Bax isn’t just from the wrong side of the tracks, he is the wrong side of the tracks. A criminal, a thug, and a brawler, he’s the master of bad choices, until one such choice landed him in prison for five years. Now Bax is out and looking for answers, and he doesn’t care what he has to do or who he has to hurt to get them. But there’s a new player in the game, and she’s much too innocent, much too soft…and standing directly in his way.

Dovie Pryce knows all about living a hard life and the tough choices that come with it. She’s always tried to be good, tried to help others, and tried not to let the darkness pull her down. But the streets are fighting back, things have gone from bad to worse, and the only person who can help her is the scariest, sexiest, most complicated ex-con The Point has ever produced.

Bax terrifies her, but it doesn’t take Dovie long to realize that some boys are just better when they’re bad.

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~ Yesi’s 5-Star Review ~

Better When He’s Bad has many selling points without ever opening to the first page… one, it’s written by Jay Crownover, two, the HOT cover, three, the phenomenal synopsis, and four, the wanting to know the difference between a bad boy and a bad man in books is a very intriguing concept. Are you sold yet??? You should be, this book is phenomenal and Jay Crownover’s best book to date. I absolutely LOVE her Marked Men Series and if you know me, you know Rule is my number one of all the men Jay has given us but, good Lord, Shane Baxter is in a class all of his own. I never in a million years thought I would fall for a bad, bad man, not a bad boy who is a jerk or screws anything in sight, no, an actual bad man. A felony record, prison time, and extremely questionable behavior, Bax, that’s what everyone calls him, and I fell for him, HARD. Jay Crownover made it impossible not to.

“She was the epitome of everything good that came from bad people and a bad place.”

This is the story of Shane “Bax” Baxter and Dovie Pryce. It is dark, gritty, emotional, and raw, yet beautiful, intense, and sexy as hell too.  Better When He’s Bad is told in dual POVs and honestly, that is my absolute favorite. I love getting both sides of the story and in this case it was absolutely necessary. Bax is a bad man, the life he leads is a direct reflection of growing up in the awful place known as the Point. The choices he has made throughout his life have led him to prison and now that he is free, he is hungry for answers and for revenge. He was betrayed and the only person who can give him what he needs is missing, his best friend Race. Right from the beginning I was completely drawn in to Bax and to his story. He is determined and on a mission to find Race and finally learn what really happened the day he went to prison. When he meets Dovie Pryce, he knows she is a game changer.  She is nothing like the women he is used meeting at the Point, she is wholesome and sweet, but feisty and strong as well. When their worlds collide there is no turning back to the life they have grown accustomed to. Dovie has a very special connection to Race and soon she finds herself on crazy and extremely dangerous ride with Bax. She also feels this insane attraction to him and she knows that nothing good can come out of that, well at least that’s what she thinks. These two together are explosive, in more ways than one!

“I’m not going to pretend I don’t like it when you’re Shane better, but Bax has his place and I can deal with him, just not in bed.”

I absolutely LOVED this story from beginning to end. The twists and turns, the danger and mystery, the very realistic life they lead, and the urge to find the good in Bax is overwhelmingly awesome. Jay Crownover is masterful in her writing and she can make you fall in love with the most unlikely man. I love how she brings her characters to life whether they are the focus or the supporting.  It is easy to build a connection to all of them. You will be rooting for the bad man that has some good in him and you will be cheering for the girl who won’t give up on him. A truly fantastic story that will stay with you long after you are finished reading. Better When He’s Bad is a MUST read! I now anxiously await Race’s story, the preview at the end of the book is one big tease and it left me wanting so much more! Well done, Ms. Crownover, well done.

“That was what undid me about him. He was unpredictable, he was a criminal he was hazardous to my sanity, but then he held me when I couldn’t sleep and he touched me like I would break. It was an intoxicating combination that I was having no luck in fighting.”

~Karen’s 5-Star Review~

Jay Crownover, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Mark Men Series, is set to release Better When He’s Bad (Welcome to the Point) onJune 17th. This new book is a game changer for Crownover, as she has jumped into the underworld of crime and darkness that inhabits the fictional location of The Point.  Her stalwart readers will love the character of Shane Bax, a man that in his own words puts the “bad” in bad boy.

“My name is Shane Baxter, Bax to most people, and I’m a thief…. If it isn’t nailed down or attached to you by unbreakable chains, there is a good chance I can make it mine.”

The term “bad boy” to Bax isn’t a persona; he is dark and twisted, it’s not a shell he wears as he is dangerous, deadly, and ruthless. This isn’t a guy who is pretending to be someone he isn’t; there isn’t a poet inside Bax waiting to rise to wax beautiful platitudes to the heroine aka Dovie Price.  This is a man who has had a hard childhood, and an even harder adulthood, stemmed in blood, poverty, neglect, and violence.  Better When He’s Bad, which starts out in a bloodbath, never lets go of the choke hold it has on its reader until the final page, and even then it has sucked the breath out of the reader’s lungs.   Bax’s name will become synonymous with the dark thriller, and nothing in this stellar read is untouched by the shadowy world of The Point.

The Point is not just a place where the characters live and survive, it’s the heartbeat of the story. The Point is mean, grim, and the covert underbelly of Crownover’s fictional city. It is as much a character in the story as any of the humans who inhabitant this fictional area.  It has molded and influenced who they are, and despite everything, it is home.

Even in the dark shadows of the hard streets of The Point, light shines in the form of Dovie Price; she is the light to Bax’s dark.  Dovie has also had a hard life, and she isn’t looking for a white knight to rescue her.  She is a tough and capable woman, so a white knight isn’t in her future; but a black knight may be right up her alley.

As Crownover left her mark with Rule, Jet, Rome, and Nash, readers and reviewers will find out how far down the rabbit hole she has gone as she has written a riveting, complete, and raw novel.  Readers flocked to Crownover before, and this new series will open the flood gates to an entirely untapped readership, those who like their men alpha, bloody, and ruthless.

 

Disclaimer:  Ms. Crownover is a former client of Literati Author Services which I am a partner.  Although we still have a personal relationship, we no longer have a professional working relationship.   A manuscript of Better When He’s Bad was provided to me, with no expectation of a review.   The opinions in this review are wholly my own and have not been influence by any previous professional or personal relationship I have with Ms. Crownover.  Cause trust me if the book sucked, I would tell you.  🙂 This one is bases loaded, Crownover at bat, she swings, you hear the ball hit the crack of the bat, the ball is going, going, gone, and it is a home’freaking’ run.  <<< if I swore my mom would come down from heaven and smack me.
five-stars

About Jay Crownover

Jay Crownover is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men and The Point series. Like her characters, she is a big fan of tattoos. She loves music and wishes she could be a rock star, but since she has no aptitude for singing or instrument playing, she’ll settle for writing stories with interesting characters that make the reader feel something. She lives in Colorado with her three dogs.

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