New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Jay Crownover returns with her most complicated hero yet, in the first book in the romantic suspense series The Breaking Point. 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 … 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 standing front and center.
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This book took me longer than normal to finish since I did not want it to end. I wanted to hold on to it as long as I could.
“Maybe that was the point. There wasn’t a right or wrong way to love, there was just understanding that was there and trying your best to treat it like the fragile, valuable, precious thing that it was.”
“That was what it was like to be a dishonorable man with a horrific past in a wrecked city. The consequences never seemed t o end and I had a lifetime of them gunning for me.”
” It takes a brave woman to love the kind of men we love, Key, but they have to be just as brave to love us back. We’re fighting the same fight. It’s just as scary for them to lose one of us because of this life. That’s why they work to make it better as hard as they do.”
“When has anything between us ever been easy?
This book is by far my favorite Jay Crownover book she has ever written.
I love this book!
The slow build up to Nassir and Keelyn’s story was amazing. By the time you got to their book you were dying to know how their story would end. These two in depth characters that you see in other books as not so nice people blew my mind. Their love story no matter how gritty or how rough it started was the absolute best, take out the grittiness and take out the rough past and you have a classic love story of a boy waiting for a girl to find herself and eventually fall in love. My two favorite characters thus far in the series!
Wow! What a ride! Intense, gritty and hot. Nassir Gates is the devil himself. Jay Crownover shows us the evolution of a man, born in a country torn between causes.
“I was a man born into a fight for things I didn’t understand, things that have no value to me even as I grew into adulthood. Money, oil, land, power, prestige, the right religion, the proper beliefs… they were just words. They were the battle cry that tore from my lips before I even knew how to speak in full sentences.”
The background development of Nassir was both fascinating and heartbreaking.
He was shown no love by his mother and his father died for the cause. Eventually his mother turned him over to extremist to train as a child soldier. When he finds himself sick of the things he does he looks for a way out. He fought for survival – his own survival and self-preservation – realizing that there was only one side. His side. The side of the fighter.
“Gaining my freedom without losing my life became my only goal.”
Talk about an amazing character development!
Eventually, Nassir ends up in The Point where the battleground is asphalt and concrete instead of sand. He quickly became a man of power, a man feared.
He meets Keelyn (Honor) and his whole world changes.
Nassir Gates is a patient man and waits. He waits for Keelyn to grow, to mature and to be able to handle what it will take to be with a man like him. At first Keelyn runs from Nassir. She feared her connection with Nassir, feared that she would become one of his possessions. She also feared that she would lose all of the effort she had put into building her own life. Little did she realize that Nassir had already considered her an equal……
He offers her a business opportunity to be his equal and she accepts.
She turns to Nassir and what follows in The Point is an amazing story of money, love, trust and consequences.
I was on the edge of my seat as I watched to see if the devil would make it to see another day.
Amazing, raw, gritty…..
5 stars!!!!
#Honor #JayCrownover #WelcomeToThePoint #NassirAndKeelyn #AlphaMale
What a way to become a real boy !!!
There’s never been a character who’s personified the setting in which he lives like Nassir Gates. Even without his backstory, it was crystal clear that he belonged in the Point…he belonged in a place that was shrouded in death, darkness, and destruction, and he used its evil components to build an empire…to become the devil himself…half monster/half man with the sins and scars of his past to fuel his future – one that made him feared…made him a target, but also made him a hell of a lot of money and allowed him to take the keys to a devious and demented kingdom and control all aspects of it with only one look…with only one order.
But power breeds enemies and despite how unaffected Nassir is by the soulless environment he lives in, he has a weakness, and it comes in the form of a feisty vixen who has owned him body and soul since he first arrived on the scene, ready to make a name for himself and become the devil he was meant to be. Nassir and Keelyn have danced around each other for far too long and now that Nassir is in a position to build his kingdom up, he needs the right queen by his side, and he won’t settle for anyone but Key because even if she doesn’t realize it yet, she’s Nassir’s equal in every way…she’s his perfect match and while they’ve taunted and tormented each other for years, Nassir understands that the only way to solidify Key by his side is to prove to her that she’s strong enough to stand next to him and that he won’t treat her like a possession or take away her independence, he’ll just claim her as his and offer her the keys to his devilish empire.
The Point might not look like an environment where honor can be acquired, but it’s exactly for that reason that righteousness has its place in the city’s sludge and indecency, and while it’s definitely not most people’s view of the word, those people who are willing and able to fight for something they believe in, regardless of what side of the law it’s on, will find a way to make their own kind of honor in a dwelling that seems to do nothing but chew people up and spit them out, leaving them with nothing.
Nassir has garnered respect from others, even if fear is the motivator, of his intelligence and abilities, and he uses that to manipulate and mold his empire, looking out for himself and those who mean something to him. Key is the center of Nassir’s world, even when she was fighting to not be, so his honor comes in the form of his care for her…his protection of her…his love for her and his ability to become “a real boy” despite his past…despite his devilish ways.
Nassir epitomizes all of the Point’s nastier aspects and he wears them well, refusing to be someone he isn’t and finding a way to use what was forced upon him and what he was taught in order to call his own shots and work for his own cause.
Key also uses the Point’s dark allure for her own gain, and even though she didn’t want to take a walk with the devil, there’s no other journey she would take because he accepts her for who she is and what she wants out of life and they both fight like hell to achieve the power and respect that solidifies their rule as the King & Queen of the Point.
I absolutely adored Nassir and Keelyn’s story. Jay Crownover did an amazing job of characterizing just how anti-heroic Nassir is in a way that actually allowed him to be a man of scruples just on his own terms and in his own way. The storyline was exactly what I was hoping Crownover would give her readers. Nassir has already been through hell and he continues to dominate that setting with a multitude of enemies gunning for him, but Crownover doesn’t create any elaborate power plays against him or exacerbate situations that put Nassir and Key in any greater risk than they already are just because of who they are. The issues and events that do occur are justified and make sense due to Nassir’s position and Crownover clearly illustrates how sins of the past can easily damage the present/future in ways that were never recognized, forcing Nassir to realize that there is always a choice to be made and consequences to deal with regardless of which path is taken.
A copy was provided by the publisher via Edelweiss.
5 Poison Apples
Honor is the first in a new series from Jay Crownover and I can not wait for more.
I have to say I don’t usually read dark books and this book is an dark story, but it was so beautifully written that the darkness and suspense pulled me in and tore me apart.
Jay put my emotions through the ringer from the prologue on and I loved every second of it.
4.5 stars
“He was both my hero and my worst enemy. He had always been my savior and my captor. He was everything I ever wanted and everything I shouldn’t allow in my life, and there was absolutely no one I loved to hate more than him.”
Honor was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it didn’t disappoint. The prologue was so intense and powerful, I couldn’t wait to learn more about Nassir and his life. I just knew he would be this unique and intriguing character and I wasn’t wrong. I already wanted to know more about him when I met him in Jay’s previous books, because I have a thing for anti-heroes, and Nassir is definitely that. Honor was amazing and what I loved most about this book were the characters Nassir and Keelyn. They were so interesting and unique, and I loved the developments they both went through in this book, as individuals and eventually as a couple.
“I never wanted him to know he was my greatest weakness even though he had never hidden the fact I was his.”
I have a new book boyfriend and his name is Nassir. He was everything I look for in a (book) boyfriend. He was such an alpha male but was so much more than just a broody, dark, strong, aggressive, and controlling man. He was also very protective, loyal, understanding and supportive. He was imperfectly perfect in my opinion.
As for Key, the first impression that I got from her was that she was more on the silent side and someone who doesn’t know what she wants. But I was very wrong, Key was such a strong and sassy woman. She didn’t let Nassir push or order her around, she had her opinion and made it very known to him. Key was the only person that could melt Nassir. Nassir never played around and made it known that he wanted Key from the start, which was a major turn-on for me. She was the only one that could soften him. It was just beautiful to see how she did that. I loved how they were together. They were one strong power couple. The connection and pull between them was very powerful, it was obvious they were meant to be.
“She called me her devil and I called her my everything. We clung to each other, sweaty, spent, and forever entwined.”
I loved this book. The writing style was phenomenal. I love Jay Crownover’s darker books so this one is definitely my favorite so far. I really enjoyed and was intrigued by the backstory of both characters. I especially loved the development of their relationship, it was so heartbreaking and beautiful to read. I couldn’t get enough of them. The only thing that was missing was an epilogue (I am a sucker for epilogues). But I know for sure that we will at least get to see what they are doing in the future books in this series (at least I hope so). In Honor we were introduced to potential two future couples, and I really hope they will get their story told in the next books.