From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men books comes an electrifying new spin-off series,Saints of Denver, featuring all the characters fans have been dying to read about.
Sayer Cole and Zeb Fuller couldn’t be more different. She’s country club and fine-dining, he’s cell-block and sawdust. Sayer spends her days in litigation, while Zeb spends his working with … Zeb spends his working with his hands. She’s French silk, he’s all denim and flannel.
Zeb’s wanted the stunning blonde since the moment he laid eyes on her. It doesn’t matter how many smooth moves he makes, the reserved lawyer seems determinedly oblivious to his interest—either that or she doesn’t return it. Sayer is certain the rough, hard, hot-as-hell Zeb could never want someone as closed off and restrained as she is, which is a shame because something tells her he might be the guy to finally melt her icy exterior.
But just as things start to heat up, Zeb is blindsided by a life altering moment from his past. He needs Sayer’s professional help to right a wrong and to save more than himself. He can’t risk what’s at stake just because his attraction to Sayer feels all consuming. But as these opposites dig in for the fight of their lives, battling together to save a family, the steam created when fire and ice collide can no longer be ignored.
more
Love it!! Jay has done it yet again!
“It made me want. It made me feel. It made me nervous and it made me very, very afraid.”
“None of came from families that taught us to love and to care about other. All of put backgrounds were fractured and cracked. It was a flat-out miracle we had all found one another and through fight and persistence now had a soils foundation of real family and love to rebuild on.”
Jay Crownover writes damaged people with a depth of emotion that fills the page and your heart and makes you root for her characters to find their way out of the hurt and into love, acceptance, understanding, and the happy-ever-after everyone deserves. Sayer and Zeb will pull you into their love story. Zeb is a man who knows what he wants…Sayer. She’s not sure who she really is after an emotionally abusive upbringing. Raw honesty and smokin’ hot sex break down all their walls so they can build a solid future.
Title: Built
Series: Saints of Denver #1
Author: Jay Crownover
Publisher: Harper Collins
Edition: Kindle
Amount of Pages: 353
Genre: New Adult, Romance
Cliffhanger: [No (hide spoiler)]
HEA/HFN: [ HEA (hide spoiler)]
Cheating: [ No (hide spoiler)]
Triggerwarnings: [ NO (hide spoiler)]
Love Triangle: [ No (hide spoiler)]
Insta Love/ Insta Lust: [ No (hide spoiler)]
Single Parent/Kids/Pregnancy: [ Yes. Zeb finds out he has as son in the beginning of the book. (hide spoiler)]
Date Read: 18-02-2020 – 19-02-2020
Favorite Quote: “After everything the past has tried to bury us under, we owe it to ourselves to be brave, to do more than float.”
Review:
I bought this book on a whim. I originally planned on reading another book from Jay for Apollycon but my eyes fell on this one and I decided to read this book instead. I am glad I did. I really liked it. When I started reading this book I was sure I would give it 5 stars and that I would buy it to get signed. Sadly something happened that took that feeling away from me. Nothing bad! Nothing like that, just something I personally don’t like that much. If you want to know what then have a look at the spoiler section above.
Other than that, I still really enjoyed this book. Zeb is a great guy, he is loyal, strong, and quite charming. I liked Sayer as well. I could relate to her and what she struggled with.
What is this book about:
Sayer is the sister of Rowdy, who is from the Marked Man series. She is a lawyer and when she found out she had a brother she dropped everything and moved to be closer to him. She meets Zeb, a friend of Rowdy’s, who has his own reconstruction company. Zeb works really well with his hands (pun intended), he buys and restores houses. Sayer hired him to restore her house. Ever since meeting him Sayer couldn’t help but think about the big and hot guy. But she knows it could never work between them. That doesn’t stop Zeb from pursuing her anyway. Zeb want more than just her though, he got himself in a situation and needs Sayer’s expertise to help him.
What did I like/love:
I love Zeb. He is such a great guy. Yes he has been through allot in his past but he has done his best to move past that. I could totally relate to what he did and why. Anyhow, he was really charming and very patient. Instead of going after Sayer relentlessly he gave he the time she needed and made her come after him if she wanted him. I really liked that. Zeb deserved to be chosen. And it really shows that you can’t force people to get better or see them the way you see them. You can support them and be there for them but at some point they have to do it themselves.
I really liked the other characters in the books as well. Makes me want to continue the Marked Men series. I started it but haven’t read past book one yet, don’t hate me.
I’m also curious about Poppy’s story. She deserves a happy ending.
What did I dislike/hate:
/
Rating:
4.5 I loved it Stars
Nothing about Zeb Fuller is ‘typical’. The rugged and handsome exterior doesn’t hold a clue to what lies beneath the surface. While Zeb spends his time renovating old homes for a living, he is always trying to prove that he isn’t a circumstance of his past. A choice years ago ended up changing the course of Zeb’s life. That moment is a constant shadow that hangs over Zeb even though he has paid his dues. Regardless of how it sounds to potential clients, Zeb always shares the truth about his past before beginning any job.
Zeb has crossed paths with Sayer courtesy of her brother, and there was an immediate attraction that was pretty hard to ignore. With a home renovation project on the line, Sayer hires Zeb to tackle the job in spite of his checkered past. Spending her days as a family attorney, Sayer is no stranger to tragedies that haunt a person’s life. Determined to make her renovation one of his best projects to date, Zeb finds it hard to get the beauty out of his mind.
What neither could have predicted was the way both of their lives were about to change. Zeb is faced with the realization that another choice from his past has lasting consequences. When push comes to shove, Zeb turns to the one person that can handle the rigors of a life in upheaval. The only question that remains is where will Sayer and Zeb stand when all of the pieces to this puzzle have been connected?
Built is the first book in the Saints of Denver series by Jay Crownover. This series places a spotlight on some of the characters from the Marked Men series that you were just dying to learn more about. Personally – I couldn’t get enough of Zeb. With his past constantly hanging over his head, Zeb always manages to take the opportunities he has been given and make the most of them. Sayer was hard as nails on the outside, but a jumble of confusion on the inside. The two balanced each other out perfectly.
With such an interesting couple to start off the series, I can’t wait to see what transpires with the coming novels. Oh – did I mention your favorite characters from the Marked Men series will be making appearances throughout the series? Make sure you add Built to your Crownover collection today!!
Could not put it down
I have been waiting for this book and it was definitely worth the wait. I finished it in 24 hours which is sad because now I have to wait in anticipation to see who will come out next. I’m so happy to find such an amazing series and author!
I’ve read many of Jay Crownover’s books at this point, but this one hit me square in my heart. I love authors that give us female characters that aren’t perfect and loving, soft and sweet. Sayer has been hurt so much that she has to get out of her own way so that she and Zeb can come through together at the end.
Jay, you are an advocate when you write one woman finding her own HEA. You are showing the rest of us how to write our own success story. Thank you.
I’ve been a fan of the extraordinarily talented author known as Jay Crownover since she first released the Marked Men series back in December 2012. I never wanted the series to end because they just got better and better every time and I became more and more invested with these characters. So you can only imagine how sad I was to see the series come to an end. Surprisingly the sadness only lasted for a moment when I realized that a spinoff series was in the works. Not only were we going to meet new characters and finally see their stories come to life, but we would still get to see all of our favorite characters from Marked Men in the brand new Saints of Denver series. This was one element that I loved and was absolutely excited to see come to life in the first full-length novel – Built!
Zeb and Sayer’s story is so unlike anything I had ever read from this author. I mean sure they both had undeniable feelings for one another, but the heroine of the story was apprehensive to let him in and let him love her the way she deserves. While some readers may be bothered by this aspect I certainly was not. I absolutely adored how Zeb slowly helped Sayer break down the walls she’s been putting up since her mother’s death. It take awhile and a little boy named Hyde (you’ll have to read the book to find out who this little guy belongs to) to break the final barrier, but when it happens it’s pure magic. These two deserved this story and I was so glad that they were the first couple (besides Lando and Dom’s novella – Leveled, which helps to establish the crossover, spinoff series) to start of the Saints of Denver.
First of all, I’d like to talk about Jay Crownover and her super amazing talent. Not many author touch me with their stories. Doesn’t mean there are not a lot of authors and stories out there that I love, but very few actually reach in and connect with me on a personal level.
Somehow Jay manages to do this EVERY SINGLE TIME! Jay has this ability to really connect with her readers. Even if I haven’t had the same struggles as her characters, there is always just something about them that will make me connect with them so that I can take a very personal journey with them throughout the story.
Now let’s talk about Zeb and Sayer.
Oh #MrFixIt. Where do I begin? I think Zeb is just about every woman’s dream man. He works well with his hands. J He is a straight-shooter and not much for heart and flowers. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to swoon a lady, but he does it with his own style of charm. I was also really amazed with Zeb for the amount of patience he had in trying to break through to Sayer. He knew he wanted her, he knew she wanted him, so he waited for her to be ready for him.
Sayer was so relatable to every woman out there in my opinion. She has insecurities that I think any of us could develop even without her troubled past that had a hand in helping doing her head in. She knew she wanted Zeb, and knew Zeb wanted her, but she was just so stubborn in believing it would never work out.
I loved this story, and I loved how real and raw it felt to me. Jay nailed each character with their personalities and the dialog was spot on.
Thank you once again Jay Crownover for touching my soul with your characters!
I didn’t think there would ever be another Jay Crownover alpha hero who would be able to usurp Rule’s number one position as my favorite book boyfriend, but Zeb Fuller has done exactly that…everything about Zeb is honest and real. He speaks from the heart, and he loves with every piece of himself, which is a massive amount since he’s a giant! He owns his past, and he’s done everything in his power to leave his mistakes behind him, but he never hides what shaped him and what he learned from his time in prison. He’s an amazing man and an incredible builder, and it’s a darn good thing that Zeb knows how to strip everything down to its core and build it back up, completely new and stronger, because that’s exactly what he needs to do with Sayer Cole, and it’s going to be the hardest rebuild of his life, but also the most worthwhile because the payback will last a lifetime.
Sayer is a complex woman, and I’m sure she’s going to rub some readers the wrong way because of her hot/cold demeanor when it comes to her reaction and feelings towards Zeb. Her life, pre Denver, was all about trying to achieve “unreachable standards,” resulting in constant disapproval and contempt. Sayer worked hard to shut down her emotions growing up, not allowing anything to penetrate the shell around herself because if she allowed that to happen, she would never recover. Leading with her head and always being in control is how Sayer survived; it’s how she coped with her father. But it’s also why Sayer finds passion and overwhelming emotions so dangerous…why she’d rather be frigid and unreachable because anything else is too much for her to handle, which means that Zeb Fuller in all is mountain man goodness is about as threatening as any man could be to Sayer’s perfectly constructed and emotionless world.
There are a lot of ups and downs when it comes to Zeb and Sayer making a go at a relationship. Sayer is extremely guarded and Zeb does things to her that she’s never let herself feel before, so Sayer tries to toe the line of a lawyer/client…restorer/client relationship while Zeb wants to bulldoze that same line and prove to Sayer exactly how good it could be between them if she allowed her feelings for Zeb to direct her life choices.
Zeb’s one guiding principle throughout the entire story is being patient. He seems to personify that term as he works to rebuild his life after prison and construct a new, fuller one even after life throws him even more curves.
Zeb is as steady as a man can be and that’s why I love everything about him and everything about this book! He may be a tattooed, blue-collar, ex-con, but he’s also a vibrant, expressive, and passionate man who is willing to give everything that he has and is in order to have the life he wants, and what woman wouldn’t want to be a part of that!
A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
5+ Poison Apples
“Everything about him was so big and hard. He really was the epitome of what a man should be, and I had no clue what to do with any of it…”
My favorite book by Jay Crownover next to Better When He’s Bad so far. I didn’t know if I wanted to read this book but thanks to all the great reviews I decided to give it a chance. Seriously how AWESOME is Zeb?? I could just picture him perfectly in my mind and I got all swoony over him. He is in my opinion one of the best book boyfriends to have: he is honest, loyal, strong, protective, persistent, HOT, has a beard and tattoos!! He fits the profile I have in mind when I think about my dream man.
“She was like the best treasure, the greatest gift I had ever been handed, and I absolutely planned on appreciating every single part of her.”
“I didn’t want to be the thing that made her shatter. She might be a problem solver but I was Mr. Fixit. I didn’t break things, I repaired them.”
There was insta-attraction between both Zeb and Sayer. Zeb was the one doing the chasing though but not in a stalkerish way. He realised from the get go that he needed to take baby steps if he wanted to get close to Sayer. Both characters have been through some things in the past and both are still paying the price. Especially Sayer was struggling a lot and didn’t want to have any man get close to her. For the first time in her life she felt the amazing attraction to Zeb, but didn’t really know what to do with it. She really did make Zeb work for it, but not in a whiny and annoying way. I really understood why she was so cold and distant. She didn’t want to break Zeb’s heart!!
“My truth is that you could never be anything other than fascinating and amazing, Sayer, and I f*cking hate that you think you are anything else than all of that.”
There is a small twist in this book that made the book so much better for me. I really enjoyed it a lot! It was also great seeing the old crew as well and also we get a glimpse of the couple that will feature in the next book in this series. Jay already has me very excited to read their book. Also if the third book will focus on the couple I have in mind then this series will be a homerun!
Other quotes I loved:
“All I could think while I held her was that there was no falling in love with this woman, there was only being in love with her. She had owned me from the very start; now I just needed her to take possession and keep me forever.”
“The walls are gone. The ground is leveled. You can build whatever you want. I’m a blank slate.”
“The shore is in sight and I’ll keep kicking but I reached you, and that was what I have been swimming toward since we met.”
I’m kind of a romantic soul, so I do believe in a fact that for every one of us, there is a person that completes us in every way. And for every block of ice, there’s a heat that would melt it. That’s how I saw the matching of Sayer and Zeb. A block of perfect, polished ice and the fire that was burning hot and bright too close to that ice.
Even though at first glance Sayer has been through much less than other Jay Crownover’s heroines, it gets clear pretty soon that she suffered a lot of emotional abuse through her life, and then some. And she was still trying to break from the reigns of that abuse.
“She looked like silk, but if my guess was right about her, it was silk wrapped around steel.”
Than there’s Zeb, a handyman, a tough and dangerous looking guy, a man with a criminal past, but in the end… a guy who was only too passionate about those he loved: trying to protect them the best he could. The fire in this guy… it’s the passion with which he loves. When he loves, he loves relentlessly. Completely. He loves with fire.
“I wanted to feel her to see if she felt as smooth and polished as she looked. I wanted to leave streaks of dirt on her perfect face to mark the fact that I had touched her, that she let me touch her.”
The two of them, the most unlikely of all couples, and still the one that feels the rightest.
“He was the reason she was here. In that split second that I laid my eyes on her I wanted to be the reason she stayed.”
Contemporary romance at its best; Jay Crownover kills it once again.
If you love romance, you’ll love the book. Simple as that. Recommended.