Release Day Launch, Review & Giveaway: Better When He's Bad by Jay Crownover

 

I'm thrilled to be part of the Release Day Launch for BETTER WHEN HE’S BAD by Jay Crownover, because I loved this story!  BETTER WHEN HE'S BAD is the first novel in her Welcome to the Point Series published by William Morrow, and imprint of HarperCollins. This book, and the series to come, is one you don't want to miss!! As part of this post I have my review, an excerpt, and a very generous giveaway!

Better When He's Bad (Welcome to the Point #1) by Jay Crownover

Publication Date: June 17th 2014 by William Morrow

Purchase Links:   Amazon US ** iBooks ** Barnes and Noble ** Kobo

About BETTER WHEN HE’S BAD: 

  New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jay Crownover returns with a heart-stopping new series… Welcome to the Point. 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.  

My Thoughts:

Better When He’s Bad sucked me in from the first page with its oh-so-sexy antihero, Bax!  Danger, a fiery hot romance, and captivating characters start this series off with a bang!

Shane Baxter or “Bax” has just been released from a five year stint in prison knowing he’s been setup.  Revenge and payback is high on his list of priorities.  But the first person he goes looking for is his best friend, Race.  When Bax finds out that Race went missing the minute Bax got out, he sets out to find him, but it looks like Race is running from some trouble and Bax isn’t the only one trying to track him down.  His search leads him to Dovie Price, Race’s sister, a seemingly innocent and untouched girl. She’s completely not his type in any way, but there’s something magnetic about Dovie, the redheaded spitfire, and he can’t keep away:

That red hair wasn’t a lie. She was all kinds of fiery and full of fight. I shouldn’t like that nearly as much as I did.

Dovie Price knows how to keep her head down and survive. She’s been in and out of sketchy foster homes until Race, the brother she never knew about, rescued her from bad situation.  Race is everything to Dovie so when he goes missing she makes it her mission to find and help him. Bax is just the type of guy she tries to stay away from, yet without his help Dovie’s chances of finding her brother are slim at best.  As they work together, she finds herself more and more drawn to the dark, broody, and dangerous, Bax:

He was scary hot, and having him that close, being that intimate with him, was terrifyingly encompassing.

Dovie sees the rough side of Bax, but she also gets parts of him that make her feel precious and protected.  Both parts attract her wildly, and Dovie can’t help but fall fast and hard.  Their matchup was unexpected, but so very steamy! 

It was impossible for me not to fall for Bax even when he was unapologetic for the life he led, because underneath all his grit and questionable morals was a big heart.  Bax is loyal and willing to protect the few that he loves and cares for.  Dovie seems to make it on that list fairly quickly, and what follows is an intensely passionate romance!

Jay Crownover has a way of making you love the imperfect characters she creates, and Bax is no exception.  Dovie was just the right amount of sweet and pure to inspire him to be a better man, not completely good, but that works for these two.  I can’t wait to read this next one!

Favorite Quote:

“I’ve never had very clean hands, but the first time I touched you, that first gasp out of that perfect mouth, the first time I thrust into you, God, Dovie, you made me feel like I was the king in the land of second chances.”

 4.5 Suns

  

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.”

 

About Jay Crownover: Jay Crownover is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men series. She will also be introducing the dark and sexy world of The Point in a new series this summer starting with Better When He’s Bad. 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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GIVEAWAY: There is an international giveaway. It includes 5 prizes for 5 individual winners! 1st $100 Amazon gift card and a signed BETTER WHEN HE’S BAD for 1 winner 2nd $50 Amazon gift card and a signed BETTER WHEN HE’S BAD for 1 winner 3rd $25 Amazon gift card and a signed BETTER WHEN HE’S BAD for 1 winner 4th BETTER WHEN HE’S BAD swag and a signed BETTER WHEN HE’S BAD for 1 winner 5th BETTER WHEN HE’S BAD swag and a signed BETTER WHEN HE’S BAD for 1 winner

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