Title: Better When He's Bad
Author: Jay Crownover
Series: Welcome to the Point #1
Publisher: William Morrow Impulse
Release Date: July 17, 2014
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Dark Romance
More Info: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon US
Purchase: Barnes & Noble
Purchase: iTunes
Purchase: Kobo

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

My Review

So I wouldn’t necessarily say I was avoiding starting this series, but it was more like I was saving what I knew would be a sure thing for a rainy day. You know, when you get in such a book funk that nothing will pull you out? You need something that even though you may have not read it before, you just KNOW with every fiber of your being that this book will pull you out. I’ve never been wrong with these choices before, and I didn’t start now. This book was just…WOW. The emotional pull between right and wrong transcended and bled throughout the pages from the first until the last. If you are looking for a perfect anti-hero, look no further than Shane “Bax” Baxter. This was a man, that though at times may have seemed a little jaded and had an Eeyore “Oh bother” esque attitude about him, you just knew it was from what he had experienced growing up in the Point. Life had gotten this man down, but rather than letting it beat him, he just accepted things the way they were. There was no telling him that life could be any differently, until he met his anti-Bax in Dovie. If ever a book needed a breathe of fresh air, she was it. Her light flew from the pages, and though she had the same abandonment issues and rough upbringing Bax did, life hadn’t gotten her down completely. She still saw a light at the end of her tunnel (no, that wasn’t a sexual innuendo 😉 )

My love for their story knows no bounds. As I write this, I am only 70% through, but I know regardless of the ending, my love will stand true. I love how right from the get go, we are introduced to all the players that will be in the subsequent books. That was one of the things I loved the most about Crownover’s Marked Men series; how she built a strong foundation without shoving every character down our throats. It’s quick, yet gradual at the same time. It’s a slow burn that allows you to slowly fall in love with them. It’s a drive that forces you to forget a time when these characters didn’t exist in your life. This story is raw and gritty and completely unlike her debut series. Both have their merits, but I don’t feel like they are even in the same category. My love for them is a separate entity entirely and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If you tried to compare the two, you would come up disappointed. Which is fantastic in my opinion. Even when you fall in love with characters and a series, if an author were to write the same thing over and over it would become boring and problematic. I applaud Crownover for taking a chance with the subject matters tackled in this series. Even when times are as bad as you think they can get, she still allows a little silver lining and hope to fetter through. There was never a time when I lost faith that something good would come from this. Still, with 30% left of the book, I hold hope. I can’t at this moment see how it will end well, but I’m okay with the fact of where the characters are at even now. Because I feel like they came into each other’s lives for a reason. Bax teaches Dovie how to let go and stand up for herself. He teachers her how to live free. She teaches him how to truly let love in. How to accept the bad with the good and be proud of both. How no matter dire the situation, there is always a way out, even though you may not see it. I love the strength they find in each other, even if the other doesn’t realize it. I’m not completely sold on Race yet, but I have a whole other book to fall in love with him, so at this point, the feelings are moot.

Having now finished, my opinion has not only NOT changed but has grown. This book was just phenomenal from start to finish. I love that Dovie didn’t try to change the person he was, merely make him see the man be had become. There’s nothing wrong with good and evil; it’s the balancing act that can get tricky. Our main characters navigated this flawlessly, with only a little mess here and there. But that’s life; messy. Messy makes you appreciate what you have more. Messy makes you treasure those you love more. Messy makes life interesting. For anyone on the fence, give this book a shot. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

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 The Welcome to the Point series takes place in a fictitious inner city I just nicknamed “the Point.” The idea being it can be in any city, any rough part of town, and any run-down neighborhood the reader can see or relate to in their mind’s eye. The locale is the ultimate “wrong side of the tracks.” This series is a little darker, a little grittier, and a whole lot more fanciful than my Marked Men series.Better when He’s Bold

(Welcome to the Point, #2)

Amazon US

Some men are just better when they’re bold.

Welcome to the Point…

In a dark and broken kingdom, a ruler has to be fearless to control the streets and the ruthless people who run them.

Race Hartman is just bold enough, just smart enough, and just lost enough to wear the crown. Places like the Point will always have bad things and bad people, but the man in control of all that badness can minimize the devastation. Race has a plan, but can he prevent total annihilation without destroying himself?

Brysen Carter has always seen her best friend’s brother for what he is–too pretty, too smooth, and way too dangerous to touch. Basking in Race’s golden glow is very tempting, but Brysen knows she’d eventually get burned.

When she starts receiving threatening texts and someone tries to take her out in parking lot, the only person interested in keeping her safe is the one man she can’t allow herself to have.

Sometimes being bold is the only way to stay alive. But can she let Race save her life . . . if it means losing herself to him?

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Better When He’s Brave

(Welcome to the Point, #3)

Amazon US

Coming August 11th!

In New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jay Crownover’s third novel in her sexy, thrilling Welcome to the Point series, a woman’s search for repentance leads her to the one man from her past she can’t forget as they join forces to save their city—and the explosive love neither can live without.

Titus King sees the world in black and white. Right and wrong. Which is why as a teenager he left behind the only family he’d ever known to make a better life for himself. Now a police detective in one of the worst cities in the country, he can’t deny his life has turned into a million different shades of gray.

The new criminal element in The Point has brought vengeance and destruction right to Titus’s front door, and the difference between right and wrong is nothing compared to keeping those he loves alive. To add to his already strained moral compass, the beautiful and mysterious Reeve Black has made her way back to town, and she might be as dangerous to Titus as the guy trying to destroy the Point because he needs her—in more ways than one.

Reeve knows all about how ruthless this new threat to destroy The Point can be… and instead of running away, she wants to help. She has a lot to repent for and saving the city, plus the hot cop that she hasn’t been able to forget might just be the only way she can finally find some inner peace.

With an entire city poised on the brink of war, Titus and Reeve stand in the crossfire—and it will take two brave souls to fight for the ultimate love.

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