Saturday, May 9, 2020

Better When He's Bad by Jay Crownover


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.

(Synopsis from Goodreads). 

My Thoughts:
For years, I've heard great things about Jay Crownover's books. Everyone in the romance book community talks about how incredible the books are. I decided recently that I wanted to try to binge read her books because I own quite a few of them. A friend recommended that I start with Better When He's Bad, the first book in the Welcome to the Point series. Unfortunately, I didn't like it.

I don't even know where to start with what I didn't like about Better When He's Bad. There are so many things. First of all, Dovie and Bax have such a toxic relationship. It's incredibly problematic. There's a certain sex scene that sticks out in my mind just because of how much it bothered me. There was no regard for consent whatsoever. Dovie tells Bax no multiple times, and he continues anyways. It just left me with an icky, gross, uncomfortable feeling as I was reading it. In addition to that, Bax was also extremely emotionally and mentally abusive. He was controlling about where Dovie went, and who she spent time. It set off red flags for abusive signals in my mind. I thought that Dovie could do so much better than Bax. In fact, I was rooting for them not to be together because her being alone would have been better than having to endure that abusive behavior.

Unfortunately, I didn't like Better When He's Bad. Dovie and Bax's extremely toxic relationship made me severely uncomfortable the whole time I was reading. In my opinion, Bax was emotionally, mentally, and physically abusive to Dovie. I do plan on giving other books of Jay Crownover's a chance because I own a lot of them, and don't like to form opinions on whether I like an author's writing based on one book. However, I won't be continuing the Welcome to the Point series. I own most of the books in her Marked Men series and I've heard it's a lot tamer, so I think I'll try that next.  


I give Better When He's Bad: 2/5.

Want to know more about the author?
Website: https://www.jaycrownover.com/about
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJayCrownover
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jaycrownover
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jay.crownover/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6875794.Jay_Crownover

I received this book from the publisher, via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

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