Author: Jay Crownover
Genre: New Adult
Publication Date: January 7, 2014
Publisher: William Morrow an imprint of HarperCollins Publishing
Event organized by: Literati Author Services, Inc.
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 . . .
Melanie says...
There was something happening between us—more than chemistry, more than wistful longing, and more than a little crush. - Cora
Rome is the third book in Jay Crownover's Marked Men series. I could be read as a standalone, but I wouldn't recommend it because each book builds upon each other and helps the reader have a better understanding of the characters.
This is Rome & Cora's story. We first met Rome in book one, as Rule's older brother who is in the military. After a career ending injury from an IED that killed everyone in his vehicle, he returns to Denver a lost and angry man. He has no idea what he is supposed to do with his life outside of the military and is trying to keep the bad dreams away with a bottle of vodka. He is angry at the world and drowning in survivors guilt.
I just wanted to bury my head in the sand and go back to a point in time that felt comfortable and familiar. I hated feeling like a visitor in my own life, and no matter what I told myself when I woke up in the morning each day, I couldn’t shake feeling like everything I had come back to after my contract with the army was up was a life that belonged to someone else. My family didn’t feel right. The new dynamic in my relationship with Rule didn’t feel right. Trying to get used to Shaw being taken care of by my wayward and reckless little brother didn’t feel right. Crashing with Nash while I tried to get my shit straight didn’t feel right. Not having a job lined up or any clear direction of how to support myself doing something other than fighting a war quite possibly felt the most wrong out of it all. - Rome
Cora is that manager and body modification/piercer of The Marked where Rule is a tattoo artist. She is very headstrong and is not afraid to tell it like it is. She had her heart broken by the man she thought she was going to marry and has since decided that she will not settle for less than perfect because she is afraid to be hurt again.
... to prevent myself from giving my heart away so carelessly, I was bound and determined to wait for a guy who was all in with me. I wasn’t settling for anything less than perfection, even if I had to wait forever to find it. The idea of compromising and ending up as lost and broken as I was when things with Jimmy didn’t work out was too terrifying to consider. - Cora
Cora is full of protective instincts and always wants to help her friends. When she receives a call from a bar owner saying that someone needed to pick Rome up from The Bar, she decides to help him and she takes him home to her house. The next day they cannot fight the attraction that they have for each other any longer.
It suddenly felt like we were the only two people in the world, like this room was standing still in time. I was starting to feel like what I thought perfect meant was absolutely boring and I was an idiot forever thinking that was what I wanted. Wild and unleashed seemed so much more exciting than steadfast and firmly planted. Now I just needed him to get on the same page as me with it. - Cora
Jay Crownover writes a good book. The men are sexy, multi-faceted, and lovable whether she is writing about a pierced, tattooed man-whore, or a lean, passionate tatted rocker, or a beefy, muscular ex Army Staff Sergeant with PTSD. With every Marked Men book she writes, she introduces us to these complicated men that are way more than what people see on the outside and sends a message to not judge people by the way that they look, because you never know what is really going on with someone and under all of those tattoos, piercings, and scars. I would take any one of these guys over safe and perfect any day of the week.
4 Super Hot Stars!
Jamie Says...
Holy freaking amaze-balls! This is the 3rd book in the marked men series and even though the first book will always be my favorite because I fell hopelessly in love with Rule but I truly did love this book too! You really need to read all 3 of these books because even though this probably could be read as a stand alone all these characters were introduced in the first book and you could be a little lost, not only that you have to meet RULE and JET! Yes I loved Jet too but Rule will always have my heart!!! Rome was a close second 
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This was Rome's story, Rule's older brother. He is a military man that is finally out of the Army but he can't seem to function in the real world because he has nightmares about his brother Remy that died and about all the things that happened while away at war. He is an amazingly hot, brooding, sexy as sin man with solid muscles and even though he doesn't have any tatooes like his brother Rule he is marked in a different way from all the war wounds. He deals with his nightmares by drowning away in alcohol and being an arrogant asshole. Could a woman that he calls a pixy because she is so vibrant and colorful literally change him? Is she strong enough to tolerate this brooding man with all his past, can he love someone that is so different from him, she is so tiny and has coloring all over her skin and piercings not his typical woman he goes for but is it her heart that gets him in the end? Will an unplanned pregnancy help him see his ways? Can he find a mission in life now that he is out of the army?? He knows he loves her deeply but will she every voice that to him?
Cora (Tink) is the manager at the tattoo shop that Rome's brother works at. She moved to this town to get away from her ex who destroyed her. He cheated on her multiple times and she would never love a man again like she did him. She finds out he is getting married at the end of summer and she is so torn about it that she doesn't realize that life is passing her by. She is determined to hold out on trying for any kind of love until her perfect man comes along and finds her she isn't going to search. She knows for sure that her perfect man isn't the brooding sexy man Rome (aka captain no-fun) as she calls him because he is always angry and she can't have a man like that. Will one night change her mind on him and unplanned pregnancy bring them closer. She knows she is falling for him but can she every tell him that she loves him, will one tragic day help her see and voice her love for him?? Or will her ex showing up and stopping his wedding change things for her?
Rome:"Sometimes things are just meant to be. I never thought about having kids, never thought about the kind of girl I would want to settle down with, never thought much beyond the next mission, and then when I got home it was beyond the next endless day. Everything was all shades of gray and I was just disappearing into the fog. I thought I needed direction, needed something to define me. I didn't. I don't. I can just be a guy, a guy that messes up, but as long as I'm accountable, that's okay."
" Because I'm freaked out that whatever I say might be the wrong thing. And right now, being with you is the one thing that feels solid and real...You're so full of color so vibrant you never get lost in all the gray in my head. I don't want to lose that."
"I know you see me, Cora. But do you just see me as this kid's dad? Do you just see me as a guy with a shit ton of problems slowly trying to figure it out? Do you see me as someone that is just okay for now because you know how much I care for you and that baby and something better might come along? Or do you see me as yours, as someone you are going to be with for the long haul? Because if you are just riding this out until your Mr. Perfect comes along, I got news for you.... he's going to have a hell of a fight on his hands getting through me."
Cora:" I see all of it, Rome, and whatever it ends up looking like is already perfect. This"-- I put my hand over his heart and made sure he could feel me squeeze him from the inside-- "is as perfect as it gets. You're my guy, no one else does to me or for me what you do, and that's all there is to it. I didn't know what perfect meant until you."
"My turn to save him" That's what we did. We saved each other. He forced me to see the living in fear got me nowhere and that holding out for some unobtainable ideal of perfection was just silly. I made him realize that whoever he wanted to be and whatever he chose to do was enough. He didn't have to be anything anymore. He wasn't perfect, I wasn't perfect, but the love we had for each other....nothing was more perfect than that.
This story had some twists and turns and it shows you how true love can prevail and no matter what obstacles stand in your way! I can't wait for the next book in this series because even though each book ends with a HEA it will continue because of all the characters that need an HEA and man oh man I can't wait!!! Thanks for 3 great Marked Men so Far!
Purchase Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Indie Bound
About the Author
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.
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