Honor by Jay Crownover Pages: 368
Series: The Breaking Point #1
Genres: Dark Romance
Also by this author: Asa, Built, Charged, Retreat, Riveted, Salvaged, Shelter, Unbroken, Justified, Unforgiven, Blacklisted, Fortunate Son, Prodigal Son, Son of a Gun
Goodreads
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.
Honor is a spin off of Jay Crownover’s Welcome to the Point series. I will admit, Welcome to the Point wasn’t my favorite series so I was a bit hesitant to grab this book. But, its Jay Crownover, so there was no way to pass it up!
So, you get a peek into how Keelyn/Honor and Nassir met; she was a stripper and he saved her from a patron groping her. Then, the story jumps years into the future where Keelyn has left The Point to try and have a normal life. Nassir wants her back in The Point as part owner of a club he is starting up. He also just wants her.
Now, this book is dark. Nassir is NOT a good guy. He isn’t a guy who is trying to clean up his act. He does illegal things and plans to continue to do them. Keelyn isn’t perfect either. She isn’t this delicate, virginal flower who needs someone to save her. She is a bit trampy and she owns it. My point? This story isn’t for everyone. Nassir is kind of the quintessential anti-hero. Don’t go into this book looking to see a bad boy become good. It doesn’t happen.
What I enjoyed about Honor was the gritty realness. If you have ever lived in a place like the point, you know what I mean. Its scary and you know you could be the victim of a crime on a daily basis. But, its your reality; its all you know. When you leave a place like that after its all you have known, its difficult to adapt into life where things don’t operate on the same ‘rules’. Some people can adjust. They can figure out the new ‘rules’ of their new city and adapt. Some people never figure it out. Its not a slight against those people; its simply the way it is. Thats why I found this book so intriguing. From an outsider, you can’t imagine why anyone would WANT to live in The Point. To people who grew up there, its all they know. Its not about moving out to get a better life. Its about carving out a better life in place you understand. There is a type of beauty in that.
Jay Crownover has always been one of my favorite authors. Rule was one of those books that totally stuck with me and I was hooked. The Point series is different: darker, less optimistic. However, its still wonderfully written. Crownover has a style that doesn’t feel fake or forced. The characters don’t come across as stereotypes. Its one reason I love her writing.
- POV: Dual
- Tears: no
- Trope: anti-hero; dark
- Triggers: View Spoiler »
- Series/Standalone: stand alone (Spin off from Welcome to the Point Series)
- Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
- HEA: View Spoiler »
King, Tyrant, Lawless, Soulless by T.M. Frazier, Fighting for Flight by JB Salsbury, The Darkest Link by Scarlett Cole, 9 minutes by Beth Flynn…then you will probably like Honor!
Honor
Welcome to the Point Series:
From Honor:
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.”
Thank you so much! ~Jessica, InkSlinger PR
My pleasure!
Ohh your review is so good and I always enjoy Jay’s books! I totally loved Rule 😀 I’ve only read Better When He’s Bad though, do I have to follow the reading order?
No, this is actually a ‘spin off’ from Welcome to the Point series so it really can be stand alone. It just takes place in the same city and the characters from The Point have mentioned Nassir in the past.
Yes, I’ve found it hard to make it through the Point series, but I really want to try this story.
Yes, Welcome to the Point was not my favorite from her. But, this one is kind of a different spin. Nassir and Keelyn are not upstanding citizens and they have kind of embraced the seedier world they live in!