Review: Charged by Jay Crownover + Giveaway
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Charged by Jay Crownover Series: Saints of Denver #2
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks on May 24th 2016
Pages: 384
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From the New York Times bestselling author of the Marked Men books comes the second installment in the Saints of Denver series featuring a bad girl and a by the book attorney who could be her salvation…or her ruin.
Avett Walker and Quaid Jackson’s worlds have no reason to collide. Ever. Quaid is a high powered criminal attorney as slick as he is handsome. Avett is a pink-haired troublemaker with a bad attitude and a history of picking the wrong men.
When Avett lands in a sea of hot water because of one terrible mistake, the only person who can get her out of it is the insanely sexy lawyer. The last thing on earth she wants to do is rely on the no-nonsense attorney who thinks of her as nothing more than a nuisance. He literally has her fate in his hands. Yet there is something about him that makes her want to convince him to loosen his tie and have a little fun…with her.
Quaid never takes on clients like the impulsive young woman with a Technicolor dye job. She could stand to learn a hard lesson or two, but something about her guileless hazel eyes intrigues him. Still, he’s determined to keep their relationship strictly business. But doing so is becoming more impossible with each day he spends with her.
As they work side-by-side, they’ll have to figure out a way to get along and keep their hands off each other—because the chemistry between them is beyond charged.
Rating~ 3.5 – 4 stars
Avett Walker is a walking talking magnet for trouble and not the good kind. Her kind of trouble lands her in prison. Avett despite having loving parents had troubling teenage years filled with mistakes that left her feeling that she deserved every pain and hurt and punishment in her life. After a harsh wake up call she realises that punishing herself leads to just more pain and hurt to the people she loves and just maybe she doesnt have to keep hurting herself for penance.Â
I finally met the right guy; it was a shame I would always be the wrong girl for him. ~ Avett Walker (Internal monologue)Â
Quaid Jackson seems like the guy who has everything together from his work to his emotions but he doesn’t. Quaid is the hired by Asa to represent Avett in her case and is completely intrigued by the pink haired sprite. Not only because she completely different from his other clients but because she is honest and doesn’t blame anyone for her problems and is a refreshing woman who doesn’t seem to want anything from him. Quaid had a difficult childhood which made him to be determined to be better at everything and have all the things that he never had as a child.Â
She was the beginning, middle and end of the best story I had ever been lucky enough to be a part of. ~ Quaid Jackson (Internal monologue)Â
I liked that their relationship is extremely honest and loving and that there wasn’t much angst from that end because there was already so much of stuff going on that more angst from any of their issues would have made the book more difficult than it needed to be. I really enjoyed reading their interactions maybe because they seemed to see each other exactly how they were without any misconceptions in the way. Â They are completely different from each other and on paper their relationship probably doesn’t make any sense but in reality they are perfect for each other. It does appear that the couple falls under the opposite attracts trope but really they both have much more in common for example the actions of their younger selves still driving their actions today.
“You’re the best bad decision I ever made, and you are, by far, my favorite story to tell” ~ Avett Walker
“You’re the best decision I made period, Avett. Our story is only at the beginning so I hope you want to tell it for years and years to come” ~ Quaid JacksonÂ
The romance is great but also this story is pretty much saying that you’re not the person you were yesterday and to quote christina Perri “we are not the weight of all our memories”. I think which is a great message that you can change and do the right thing and its never too late to try. I think the author did a great job of making me like and enjoy a heroine that for all purposes has done bad things or really did nothing when she could have.Â
Quibbles: I don’t know what happened but at a certain point about when the less than a quarter of the book was remaining some of Quaid’s internal monologue become very flowery which didn’t match his earlier thoughts, does that even make sense?? I could understand the change obviously because he was in love but it just felt off in some places maybe its just me. I also would have liked more of their interactions because it felt like some points that there relationship moved a bit too fast and I felt I missed some of the development of their relationship. Lastly I feel like some of what Avett went through not only with her friend in her teenage years but also in her relationship with her boyfriend and all the events following that she would have had some sort of counselling help, maybe some therapy.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and the characters and I’m really looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
About Jay Crownover
Jay Crownover is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men and The Point series. 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.
I’d love to put a purple streak in my hair and wear mini skirts…at almost 50, I think I’m too old for that. though. LOL