REVIEW: Rome (Marked Men #3) by Jay Crownover

Title/Series: Rome | Marked Men #3
Author: Jay Crownover
Published: January 7th 2014
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Format: eBook | Pages: 387
Genre: NA, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Amazon
★★★★★ (5/5) Stars!!!!

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Sometimes the wrong choice can be just right . . .

Fun and fearless, Cora Lewis knows how to keep her tattooed "bad boy" friends at the Marked in line. But beneath all that flash and sass is a broken heart. Cora won't let herself get burned again. She's waiting to fall in love with the perfect man—a baggage-free, drama-free guy ready for commitment. Then she meets Rome Archer.

Rome Archer is as far from perfect as a man can be. He's stubborn, rigid, and bossy. And he's returned from his final tour of duty more than a little broken. Rome's used to filling many roles: big brother, doting son, supersoldier—but none of those fit anymore. Now he's just a man trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life while keeping the dark demons of war and loss at bay. He would have been glad to suffer through it alone, until Cora comes sweeping into his life and becomes a blinding flash of color in a sea of gray.Perfect may not be in the cards, but perfectly imperfect could just last forever . . .

Upon finishing Rule I was certain of two things. First, Jay Crownover is freaking brilliant and there was no doubt that I was falling in love with this series already. And second, I couldn't wait to get to Rome's book because I was definitely crushing on this guy. I was also freaking out quite a bit. Rome is special and he couldn't be paired up with just anybody. I won't read the blurbs in series like these before I open the books because I want to be 100% surprised. So I didn't even have a guess as to who it would be. I had my hopes though. There was only 1 single girl left in the group at this point and Cora was just all kinds of awesome. I mean we're talking serious girl crush here. So I crossed my fingers and opened up the book and the first thing I saw underneath the words chapter one was...Cora. I squealed and did a little chair dance then immediately tweeted Jay Crownover to tell her how freaking amazing she is to have put these two together. Yeah, you could say I was just a wee bit happy.

"Tinker Bell. She looks like a punk-rock version of Tinker Bell."

From the first moment Cora Lewis makes her appearance in Rule I have loved this girl. She is so freaking funny and feisty as all hell. She not only runs the tattoo shop, Marked, that Rule, Nash and Rowdy work in but she also does all the body piercings. She's also taken on the role as the big sister of all the guys with the exception of Rome whom she's only met once to this point. She may be a tiny little thing but you do not mess with someone she cares about. It doesn't matter if you're a foot taller and have 100 pounds on her she will get right up in your face and let you know exactly what she thinks about you with no fear. She is just awesome all around and I knew before I started she would be perfect for Rome.

I bet if he ever bothered to smile, panties across the nation would melt.

To all the book boyfriends I've ever loved before... Sorry but you've been replaced. Sigh. Rome Archer... first of all how sexy is that name? Anyway, Rome is Rule's older brother. He's an ex-sergeant in the army having served 10 years. He's always been everyone's rock. He takes care of everyone, makes sure Rule stays out of trouble, always trying to save everyone. For all of Jet's book he's overseas finishing out his deployment and more often than not soldiers who come back from war don't always come back the same person they left as. I don't just mean physically, mentally too. Watching Rome come back and not only have to fight his demons both from the desert and family stuff, but to have to try to redefine who he is and what his new role is in everyone's lives now that he's not needed as the protector, it was painful and at the same time beautiful. I couldn't have been more happy with his character.

In all my visions of what I was doing, of who I was waiting for, there had never once been a glimpse of anyone like Rome Archer.

When you look at the fact that you have 2 very strong personalities and very stubborn people you almost have to wonder how on earth it could work. They both like to maintain control so you would assume that it would be a constant clash. But somehow, thankfully, it just works. I was very surprised with the way the storyline went knowing that fact. This book was not at all what I was expecting and I think I loved it even more so because of that. This book was so full of passion and raw, powerful emotions there were times I was all tied up in knots. It gives us a perfect build up into Nash's story and I can't wait! Though I think I need to sit and stew in the wonderful world of Rome and Cora for a while before I move on. I seriously think Jay Crownover's imagination is my new happy place.

See I did sorta freak out a bit :D