Welcome to my tour stop for Jay Crownover's HONOR, due out next Tuesday. Check out my review and an excerpt from the book - I'm so excited for you to read this incredible book!
Honor (The Breaking Point #1), by Jay Crownover
Publish Date: October 18, 2016Publisher: William Morrow
Format: ARC, provided by the author and Inkslinger PR
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Rating: 4.5 STARS
(Synopsis) Don't be fooled.
Don't make excuses for me.
I am not a good man.
I've seen things no one should, done things no one should talk about. Honor and conscience have no place in my life. But I've fought and I've survived. I've had to.
The first time I saw her dancing on that seedy stage in that second rate club, I felt my heart pulse for the first time. Keelyn Foster was too young, too vibrant for this place, and I knew in an instant that I would make her mine. But first I had to climb my way to the top. I had to have something more to offer her.
I'm here now, money is no object and I have no equal. Except for her. She's disappeared. But don't worry, I will find her and claim her. She will be mine.
Like I said, don't be fooled. I am not the devil in disguise… I'm the one front and center.
Nassir Gates is a bad boy. I'm not talking the figurative bad boy we see in romance novels - he's legit a bad dude. He's the biggest, baddest crime boss The Point has ever seen, but not in the same way the previous bossman, Novak, was. Nassir's control and power is absolute and his word is law. But, he does have a code. He does have a heart. And it belongs to Keelyn Foster.
I think I loved Honor so much because Nassir is the best kind of contradiction. It's true that he's not a good guy. He's violent and ruthless to those who cross him. He has killed many people. He is super rich, and he's made his money running strip clubs and sex clubs. He's certainly not above blackmail to get what he wants from the upper echelon of society. He is not normally a man I would love.
But the way he is with Key - I swooned HARD every single time they were in each other's orbit. From the very first chapter when they run into each other after six months apart until the very last chapter after they both go through some rough situations, Nassir is completely and utterly devoted to this one woman. The way he loves her and takes care of her makes it easy for me to forgive everything else that he does.
I wanted all of her, and once I had her, I was keeping her forever, but for that to happen she needed to give herself to me for safekeeping. She didn't have to trust me, but she did have to love me.
Most of the characters seen in Honor have previously appeared in Jay's Welcome to the Point series. We get appearances and mentions from Bax and Dovie, Race and Brysen and Titus and Reeve, as well as some other peripheral characters. Certainly Nassir and Key were mentioned in Better When He's Brave, and it was clear even then that they had a connection that was anything but usual.
I was strong on my own but even stronger with him by my side. I walked my own path but I never would have been able to take those steps if he hadn't been ahead of me clearing the way. I would rather have Nassir for a heartbeat than never have him at all, all the while spending however long either of us had left fighting an unseen future. I would rather fight with him and make up over and over again than keep fighting against the inevitable impact he was going to have on my life and the forever place he had in my heart.
Nassir knows who he is. He has not delusioned himself into thinking he's some good guy. But, he knows that Key gives him a measure of peace. Key herself is no angel - half the town has seen her naked as she danced on a pole for years. But, she is incredibly confident and after so long, she knows what and who she wants. And she won't let any situation or any person stand in her way. It took her awhile to get there - she was worried that, in giving her her whole self over to Nassir, she would lose it. But now that she's by Nassir's side, she's determined to not let anything else remove her from that place.
Jay has this uncanny ability to write about truly bad guys and bad girls that you can't help but love. Nassir and Key are excellent examples of this. Nassir especially has done some bad things, but his humanity shone through, and that made him so incredibly likable. I can't wait to see what else comes out of The Point.
NASSIR
She harrumphed and slid off the desk so she was towering over me in those killer heels. I was glad she was back in her right skin.
“Business only?”
I nodded solemnly and ran a tired hand over my face. It was a deal with the devil, but we both knew she was going to make it anyway.
“Very lucrative and profitable business only, and if for some reason the cops shut me down, I’ll return your investment plus fifty percent of my own.”
“How much did you sink into this place? And how much do you expect me to buy in for?”
I shrugged. “I spent enough to make it what I wanted and you can pay in the same Race did. Two hundred K. I’m the primary backer, so my word is law, but if you see something now working or a way I missed to bring more money in, we can have a discussion.” Race had actually put in double that amount, but I wasn’t about to tell her that, and no one had ever accused me of being honest.
She whistled. “That’s a lot of money.”
“You have it.” She would hate to know that I knew exactly what her bank balance was. It paid to have a computer hacker on the payroll. There wasn’t much about her I didn’t know, both inside and out.
“I do have it. I just don’t know if I want to give it to you.” It sounded like she was taking about a lot more than money.
“We open this weekend, so you don’t have much time to decide.”
“I feel like I never had a choice. The second you showed up in Denver, this was all bound to happen because you always get your way.”
I shook my head slightly. “Not always.” We both knew that.
Her eyes sparked with charcoal flecks and she took a step closer so that she could bend down and put her hands on the arms of my chair. She leaned closer and closer until her mouth was hovering a mere millimeter away from mine. When she spoke, the words danced across my lips and tasted like victory and fate.
“No, not always.” Her lips pressed into mine and I had to curl my hands around the arms of the chair to keep from grabbing at her.
She teased the clamped seam of my lips with her tongue and lightly scraped her teeth across my bottom lip. I wanted to toss her backward on the desk and bury myself inside her with no finesse, just pure, animalistic lust. She brushed her lips back and forth and laughed lightly as I bit down on my already injured tongue to keep from reacting. If I mauled her now, it would undo any progress I might have made with her.
She pulled back and reached out to run her finger over each of the high arches of my eyebrows. It was the softest, gentlest touch I had ever felt from another human being and it made my focus on her pulse even more heavily in my veins.
“Fine. I’m in. I’ll write you a check.”
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Thank you so much! ~Jessica, InkSlinger PR
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