5 Smooches
Synopsis
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.
Review
“My name is Shane Baxter, Bax to most people, and I’m a thief.”
Better When He’s Bad is the first book in a new series, Welcome to the Point by Jay Crownover. Can we just say how completely and excitedly giddy I was to get this book! OH MY, a Jay Crownover man who is actually a bad guy, Yes for sure I needed this immediately. This was a departure from the normal male in her other series, Marked Men, who are all unique and different from the norm of society but all truly good guys who work at making the right decision. Shane Baxter is not a good guy and often chooses the easy decision not the right one and oh boy did I love him.
“Some boys . . . they are just better when they’re bad.”
So not only is Bax not a good guy he is proud of this fact and points it out often. So how bad is Bax . . . well he did just get out from a FIVE YEAR stint in prison. Why does this excite me so much, I mean really I might need mental help because Bax just did some crazy things to my lady parts. Now that Bax is out of prison he has two missions, 1. find and pay back those who put him there, 2.find his only friend, Race, who is missing. It is this second item on his short to do list which lands him in a seedy apartment with a frying pan wielding red headed Dovie.
“I had to hide an amused grin as she glared at me. That red hair wasn’t a lie. She was all kinds of fiery and full of fight.”
Much like Bax, Dovie grew up in the slums and her childhood was nowhere near picture perfect. Unlike Bax, Dovie is a good girl and is working hard to support herself while she goes to school and tries to constantly make the right decision and be a good person. So how do these two very different people get involved . . . well for that you will need to read the book but lets just say Dovie in interested in locating Race too and does not mind that she might be in Baxs way and even a little unwanted in the search. It doesn’t take long once these two are around each other for things to go from awkward ( he thought she was too innocent and like a plain farm girl) to OH MY steamy. Things heat up fast and these two have some crazy undeniable chemistry.
“You going to go to bed with me?” I sucked in a hard breath through my nose. I wanted to look away but he wouldn’t let me. “Probably.”
The part that I loved the most in this book was how accepting of Bax Dovie was. He was never going to be a straight laced guy who takes the hard road and made all the tough choices. While she wanted him to stay safe, she also wanted him, the him she met, the him she cared for and the him who was fiercely caring and protective for those who mattered. Better When He’s Bad was a much grittier and heavier book than Jay’s other series, and while I will always love my Marked Men and desperately need more of them, I am so glad that Jay decided to take this leap out of her comfort zone and prove she can wrote a different kind of hero who is still incredibly appealing.
“She was right. Bax was nothing but bad news, but Shane . . . well, Shane could be sweet, thoughtful, and there was more going on with him than met the eye.”
I loved how this story proved that no one is fully good or fully bad. When you live a poor and hard life sometimes doing the wrong thing is not really wrong or at least it somehow becomes more understandable. Bax was not a good guy, he fought, stole and mostly just looked out for himself but we also got to see him grow and become caring for another and so protective that there was literally nothing he wouldn’t do to keep Dovie safe, including keeping her away from him and the trouble that follows him around. The storyline in this book was intricate and exciting and while Bax is not a good guy we quickly find out there are much worse ones out these and at the moment they do not like Bax and Dovie. This book was much more action packed than her other series and I loved the whole mystery element. While the characters and great sex hooked me into this book it was really the incredibly well written and thought out story line that made it a 5 star read for me.
“The only coherent thought I had after that, as the very edge of her teeth scraped over my most sensitive flesh was oh fuck. I prided myself on keeping it together no matter what the situation was, and she had just undone me.”
Starting this book I was worried, how could I love a self proclaimed “bad guy.” I knew it was possible, I’ve fallen for them before, but still writing a character who is bad enough to earn the title and still someone people can fall for is a tough job and not a ton of authors have done it so successfully. Better When He’s Bad was for me equal parts gritty, suspenseful, wicked, fun, sexy and just down right a great story. The plot was exciting and constantly had me wondering how it would all turn out. By the end of the book all I could think about was how I wanted to see more of this side of Jay’s writing personality!
~miranda
