Jay Crownover's 1st book in a Brand New Series
Synopsis:
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, awakening feelings she never thought she’d have for a guy like him. But it doesn’t take Dovie long to realize . . . some boys are just better when they’re bad.
MEL's REVIEW:
*was given a copy by the author in exchange for a honest review
BETTER WHEN HE’s BAD by Jay Crownover is the first book in her brand new series called WELCOME TO THE POINT. Jay is best known for her Marked Men series which, in my opinion, is a brilliant series of fun sexiness centered around a group of friends, their tattoos and the women in their lives. The Marked Man series is about good men that look bad, the WELCOME TO THE POINT series is about bad men that are BAD!!!
We first meet Shane Baxter, aka Bax , as he is getting coldcocked upside the head. … SEE BAD GUY…NOT GOOD GUY. Bax has just come out of prison and is searching for his best friend, Race, that may or may not have had something to do with Bax’s incarceration. Race is nowhere to be found but Bax does find Race’s sister, Dovie Pryce. So the story is set up. You have Bax and Dovie.
BETTER WHEN HE’s BAD is a love story but it is not a typical love story. There are so many elements; the POINT, the car, the underground crime and fighting, death, carnage, sex, love of family, and love of two total opposites. I had so many emotions reading this book. At one point I was ugly crying, begging what I thought was going to happen not to happen. Jay Crownover does not disappoint.
BETTER WHEN HE’s BAD is beautifully written and takes you on a journey to a place of real ugliness but if you look around the beauty of a hard life shines through. The Point comes to life and is really its own character as you watch Bax and Dovie navigate through the city. Life is Hard. Bax is harder but Dovie might just make life sweeter.
BETTER WHEN HE’s BAD by Jay Crownover receives 5 out of 5 Platypires.
It is a must have now kind of read and you will not regret for one moment reading this book.
Texas Hugs and Happy Reading!!!!
EXCERPT:
I let out the breath I was holding and took another step closer to her. The water was splashing on the sleeve of my shirt as I reached up to grab both of her cheeks in my palms. “Are you scared of me?”
It was the start of the questions I had asked her what felt like a lifetime ago. Her answer didn’t change, but this time when she answered, she was holding back a smile that made my heart hurt.
“Terrified, but I kind of like it now.”
“Do you trust me?” My voice broke. I had never really trusted anyone but Race and now there was her and my brother and just all kinds of new things making my life so much more complicated and undeniably fuller.
“With my life. I trust all the parts of you, Bax. You need to know that.”
“You going to go to bed with me?” That made her outright laugh and she reached up to curl her hands around my wrists.
“As often as I can and anyplace in between when the mood strikes.” The rest of the blood racing around my system went solidly south.
I dropped my forehead so it was resting on hers and the water from the showerhead was cascading down around us. I was making a mess, but I didn’t care because I had her, and she was my home. “Do you love me?”
The words sounded so foreign, but so right, when I was saying them to her. She brushed her full lips across mine and the last three months without her faded away.
“Do you want me to lie to you or tell you the truth?”
I smiled against her mouth and kissed her back twice as hard as she had kissed me. “Lie to me.”
She reached up and put her arms around my neck and took a step back, dragging me all the way into the shower stall with her. The water was lukewarm at best, and it made me shiver. So did the fact that she started to impatiently pull the tail of my shirt up over my head. A task made increasingly difficult considering I was now soaked head to toe and the material was clinging to me.
“Of course not. You’re the last person in the world I could love.”
Bax's Top 10 Things He Missed While Locked UP
10. Having hair. I had to shave it off the first night in lock up. Hair doesn’t work in a fight.
9. Smokes. Yeah it’s a nasty habit but I’ve done it for so long it’s just second nature. Sure you can get a pack in the joint but it’s never easy and often not worth the effort.
8. My mom. She’ll never win any mother of the year awards, but she’ll always be my mom.
7. Being able to close my eyes and getting an actual, restful night’s sleep. Do that in the joint and chances are you might not wake up. Monsters creep in the dark, in prison and on the streets.
6. Girls. The way they smell. The way they move. The way they sound. Being around a bunch of dudes 24/7 gets old really fast and I’m not just talking getting laid. I never noticed how much nicer life was with a gaggle of girls around until it wasn’t an option anymore…and yes that time I mean getting laid.
5. My idiot brother. Sure he was the one that put me behind bars in the first place, but we all have reasons for the things we do.
4. My city. The Point would just as soon eat me alive and spill my blood as it would miss me from the streets and back alleys, but this broken kingdom is and has always been my home. And even at its worst it’s still a thousand times better than being behind bars.
3. My dumbshit best friend. He had his hands all in how I got locked up. He screwed up-BIG TIME, but I was prison bound regardless. Race just sped the process up and he’s the only friend I’ve ever had, the only guy I could ever rely on having my back so even though I wanted to strangle him every single day I was locked up, I still missed his dumbass.
2. I know I’m gonna get a load of shit for not saying my girl was the number 1 thing I missed and hell, maybe if she had been mine the first time I went away she would be. I love her, I miss her when I can’t have her and I worry about her when I don’t have eyes on her but the first time I went away I didn’t know what it was like to have something like that. I didn’t know what it was like to have something to lose. If I ever go away again….which I’ll try hard not to mostly because the idea of being away from her burns something hot right in the center of my chest, Dovie will absolutely be my number 1.
1. My car…my ride…my baby. Come on now, did you really expect any other answer. If you did then you don’t know me at all…..