I tend to binge-read by genre. Recently I dove deep into Romantic Suspense. Adult, contemporary, dark and edgy. What happens after a 2-month bender is that most of the books start blurring together in my mind. Since I know I'll never review all of them (not even tempted) I figured I'd look at the titles & covers in my Kindle library and rate the stand-outs. Jay Crownover's book more than qualifies. I couldn't scroll through the pages fast enough. I loved the characters and the seedy world they inhabit. And I adored how untraditional the hero was. In fact, he skated the edge of anti-hero, which made the romance storyline less predictable to say nothing of enjoyable. This is the first of a series & the 2cnd one isn't out yet. But I'm counting the days. What I love about Jay's books is her love of sketchy guys. She has great empathy for them. Her characters are multi dimensional and interesting. She's great at giving an essence of a character. I debated on giving this book three or four stars. As an author I moved it up to four stars - since I know how much blood, sweat, and tears it takes to create. I found the beginning of the book a turn off. Why would I even care to read a book about this terrible young man. The middle of the book was excellent - great characters, great action, great suspense, but the end of the book was boring. *** spoiler alert *** he is given a body shop and now has the means to live happily ever after...Really Jay...make him work more for it.
What do You think about Better When He's Bad (2014)?
Not your typical bad boy with a very dark element! I loved it!! Cant wait til Race's book.
—shanu
