Review by Dottie: Better When He's Bold by Jay Crownover

Better When He's Bold

A Welcome to the Point Novel, Book 2

By Jay Crownover

Genres:

Romance, Mystery & Suspense

****

Teasers

 ****

 ****

Synopsis

There’s a difference between a bad boy and a boy who is bad. . . . Welcome to the Point.

In a dark and broken kingdom, a ruler has 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 the real Race—a guy too pretty, too smooth, and way too dangerous. Basking in his golden glow is very tempting, but Brysen knows she’ll eventually get burned. She has enough problems without the risky danger and mayhem that comes with a guy like Race. Too bad Brysen faces a threat close to home that might be more dangerous than anything The Point has ever produced.. And 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?

Dottie's Star Rating

(4 Stars)

Review

 Book two of Jay Crownover's Welcome to the Point series is the story of Race (whom we met in the first book in the series, Better When He's Bad) as both Bax's best friend and Dovie's big brother. This guy comes from money but has been disowned by his family and is battling to take over the running of the underworld of The Point. Book one ended with bad-guy and previous ruler of the underworld of The Point, Novak, going down. And since someone had to take over, Race spent a considerable amount of time and energy setting himself up for the top spot. He's a good guy underneath his skin but has to do what he has to do to get a handle on the crime and dirt so prevalent in The Point. But Race has a crush on a girl. The girl is Dovie's best friend - Brysen (whom we also met in book one as she worked along side of Dovie in the restaurant). And Brysen treats him like crap, but since Race loves a challenge...

Brysen does treat Race like badly, but she treats him like that to hide her huge crush on him. Her life is falling apart; she's had to move back home to a mom not participating in life in general, a dad who's there but he's really not, and her little sister, Karsen. She just doesn't have the time and energy for a man in her life right now so she hides her feelings for him and tries to resist the pull she feels when she's near him. She is just staying home long enough to get her sister graduated from high school and into college so she can get away from their parents. She's working hard to make enough money to pay for college and her car and she comes home to a mom she has to tuck into bed each night. Brysen is doing it all out of love and doesn't regret the sacrifice she is making for her younger sister.

The end of book one brought us, the readers a small preview of the start of this book with Race pulling Brysen out of a rare (for her) college party when an idiot starts waving a gun around. He gets her out and they share a mind-numbing kiss and then he has to disappear before the cops arrive. They both walk away from that kiss realizing there truly is something between them. The attraction between them, the sexual tension, becomes unbearable to withstand and they find themselves drawn to each other over and over again. Finally, they can no longer deny what each of them wants - each other...

Excerpt:

"...Let me take care of you for one night, Brysen. I promise you won't regret it."  Of course I wouldn't regret it.  I wanted him, was entrapped by him, and after I ate it all up, took everything he had to give, lived in the pleasure and passion he broke loose inside of me, it would for sure kill me to know I would never be able to have it again. I blew out a breath, lifted a hand to wrap around his thick wrist, and fully intended to tell him no, that it just wasn't worth the impending heartache, but what came out of my mouth was: "I don't know what to do with you, Race."  His warm hand slid under the fall of my hair at the back of my neck and his head lowered toward mine. His mouth hovered right over mine and my lips parted in their own invitation. "Yes, you do."

And you know how it goes...one night is never quite enough. They ease each other's woes. They come from similar backgrounds, but each of them is now living in a very different circumstance; forced to live in situations not necessarily of their own doing yet are still obligated to live within the walls those situations created. They find they have more in common than either of them realized. They discover love where they each thought they'd never find it:

I had to be mindful that she was fragile, breakable, and all too human.  I couldn't unleash on her all the things I normally did when I took her to bed.  Normally she was my port in the storm while everything raged around us, but tonight she needed care, she needed delicacy and for me to show her she was safe with me.  I trailed my tongue down from her belly button and across the jutting ridge of her hipbone as she squirmed impatiently underneath me.  She already had her legs open to accommodate where I was sprawled between them, so it was no work to get my mouth on all the parts of her that were already wet and slick with desire.  I loved that she was ready for me as I always seemed to be for her.  There was passion, there was hunger, there was desire that made my balls tight and had my mouth watering for a taste of her...I held myself up over her on braced arms and waited until those sky-blue eyes peeled open and locked onto me.  She had a hot flush on her cheeks and a soft smile on her mouth, and never had anything looked more beautiful.  I would give up any fortune, fight any war, and bleed over and over again if she was my reward.

The Point has become a virtual war zone, unseen enemies wanting to take over the newly vacated power vacuum that Race has recently seized. He is the new king of the underworld. He knows whom he wants as his queen, and she wants him right back...

..."I told you all along I want all of you; that includes this part of you.  I get it, Race, you do what you have to do, not always what you want to do, but with me, that can't be the case.  I always have to be what you want to do, not what you have to do.  You bring it home with you and we'll battle through it together just like you told me."..."You've been what I wanted to do since the beginning, Bry.  How could you even question it?"

I'm really loving this series so far...it's gritty and dark but it's also a shot of light in the dark; love stories where love shouldn't thrive and yet it does. It shows love can exist in the unlikely places and although the world is harsh at times, love can soften those rough edges when you're with the right person. I loved the first in this series and gave it five stars. Both Bax and Race are anti-heroes and yet, as much as I enjoyed Race, I found I loved Bax and his story even a bit more. I am looking forward to this series continuing and will anxiously read them all as they are released.

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