Rome - Jay Crownover

Book - Rome (Marked Men #3)
Author - Jay Crownover
Publication Date – January 7, 2014
Type – Can be read as a Stand-Alone/Series (no cliffhangers)
Rating – 4 Stars out of 5

ARC provided by William Morrow via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis

Cora Lewis is a whole lot of fun, and she knows how to keep her tattooed bad boy friends in line. But all that flash and sass hide the fact that she’s never gotten over the way her first love broke her heart. Now she has a plan to make sure that never happens again: She’s only going to fall in love with someone perfect.

Rome Archer is as far from perfect as a man can be. He’s stubborn and rigid, he’s bossy and has come back from his final tour of duty fundamentally broken. Rome’s used to filling a role: big brother, doting son, super soldier; and now none of these fit anymore. Now he’s just a man trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life while keeping the demons of war and loss at bay. He would have been glad to suffer it alone, until Cora comes sweeping into his life and becomes the only color on his bleak horizon.

Perfect isn’t in the cards for these two, but imperfect might just last forever . . .

Reading Order

Rule (Marked Men #1) – Story of Rule and Shaw
Jet (Marked Men #2) – Story of Jet and Ayden
Rome (Marked Men #3) – Story of Rome and Cora
Nash (Marked Men #4) – Story of Nash and (secret revealed in #2)

Review

What a little slice of heaven this book is….Rome is a sex god…. and ladies….he doesn’t have a problem with love!! Well, maybe after battling the demons he has festering in his psyche. I loved Cora (aka Tink) and her “no holds barred” personality, especially for being such a little pixie.

This was another great story in the lives of “The Marked Men” and not only is this a story of finding love but it’s also a story of “self-discovery”. Both Rome and Cora will venture outside the safety of their protective walls to trust and try to experience life without their life-jackets. They take the plunge into each other along with the support and love of their family and friends.

Cora

We have met Cora in the previous books since she is the “body piercer” at the shop. She is tiny but she is a bull who takes no crap from anyone. She is everyone’s surrogate “mother” who is always there to give advice, listen or help to any of the guys or her girlfriends. Cora may help everyone else but she doesn’t take advice from the others when they tell her that she is on a useless mission by waiting for “Mr. Perfect”, but Cora won’t listen because her past was too painful with the lying cheating bastard (aka her ex). Cora refuses to settle for an imperfect guy because she is just too scared of the past repeating itself.

Once Cora gets wind of Rome and instant dislike bubbles in her stomach and she nicknames him “Captain No-Fun” because of his surly attitude. The more time Cora spends with Rome though, the more she sees inside his battered mind and heart…plus being the motherly figure she is….you know Cora just has to step in there to ease his pain. Since I can’t give any spoilers away, I’m gonna keep this short and just say that Cora has a TON of soul searching to do and she has to battle a few obstacles thrown her way before she realizes that Rome is her “imperfect perfect”.

Rome

Wow…he has so many demons to battle before he can live a normal life. Not only does Rome have to deal with PTSD from serving in the war but he also has to fight his anger and guilt over losing his brother, Remy. Rome has always been the father figure with the group and now that he is wounded with PTSD, he feels like a total failure. Rule and Rome are constantly going at it because of Rome’s surly attitude and drinking binges, but it isn’t until Rome gets knocked on his ass by this little Tink….(or half-pint) that he realizes it’s time to clean up his act.

There is also a guardian angel looking over Rome in the form of a bar-owner who takes Rome under his wing and helps him heal, one soldier to another. Through hard work and therapy, Rome realizes that he actually did have something to come home to. He is needed and he is loved and not a worthless soldier drowning his sorrows in alcohol. But don’t get me wrong, Rome has many obstacles to hurdle over through the book and it may even take the ultimate sacrifice to get Cora to understand how serious about the future.

Wrap-Up

By the end of the story – the next book in the series is already being set up with Nash and a mysterious angel from the group’s past. Read on to find out more about Nash and his love future. Will the boy finally settle down with one woman?

A definite must read if you enjoyed Rule and Jet!!

About this Author

I'm supposed to share interesting details about myself so that my readers get to know me so here we go in no particular order: I'm an natural redhead even though I haven't seen my real hair color in years, I'm a big fan of tattoos and have a half sleeve on either arm and various other pieces all over the place, I've been in the bar industry since I was in college and it has always offered interesting insight into how men and women interact with each other, I have 3 dogs that are all crazy, I live in Colorado and love the snow, I love music and in all reality wish I could be a rock star not a writer or a bartender but I have zero talent so there is that. 

I love to write, love to read and all I'm interested in is a good story with interesting characters that make the reader feel something.

Thanks for taking the time to check my stuff out....

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