Book Review — Dignity by Jay Crownover

“I know I fucked up the first time you gave me your trust, but I’ve done everything I can think of to prove to you that I won’t let anything happen to you. I will keep you safe. Trust me.”

If the idea of anti-heroes with hearts of gold who fall madly in love with strong women intrigues you, then you should definitely check this book and series!!

I personally love reading about characters that have a touch of moral ambiguity. They’re so intriguing! They can be good guys or bad guys depending on how you look at them. On one hand, you know they’re breaking conventional rules, but you also realize they’re really saving the day in a way few other people would even dare to try. This book was part sexy swoony romance, and part almost a gritty spy action adventure. It was definitely different than my normal style of book but I love this world and love these characters and it was so much fun to dive into this book!

Looks can be deceiving.

I knew that most people took one look at the ink and the impossibly big and strong body it covered and decided I was a brawler…a bruiser…a beast. However, I was hardwired to be a thinker, not a fighter.

I should have chosen to use my brain and talents to be one of the good guys, a hero, a man with dignity and worth.

I turned my back on dignity and sold my soul to the highest bidder, deciding to dance with the devil, instead.

I couldn’t figure out how to help myself, so there was zero chance I knew how to save someone else.

That someone else was Noe Lee. She was the unkempt, unruly thief who was just as smart as I was and twice as street savvy. She was annoyingly adorable beneath the dirt and grime, and she was in trouble. In way over her head, I told myself it wasn’t my job to keep her from drowning. In the Point, it was sink or swim, and I wasn’t the designated lifeguard on duty.

I shut the door in her face, but now she’s gone…vanished…disappeared without a trace. It took less than a second for me to realize that I wanted her back.

When a woman comes along that melts all the frozen, hard things you’re made of; you’ll do anything you have to, to bring her home.

What you see is not always what you get…and with a man like me, what you get is more than anyone ever bargained for.

I don’t think I can do better than that awesome blurb to set the story up, so I’ll just talk about the characters. Stark was a brilliant hacker with a strong sense of vigilante justice. He especially didn’t like it when justice was overlooked or women were hurt and he had the technical expertise to balance the scales without ever stepping foot outside his home. He helped those who couldn’t help themselves and while his methods would be considered questionable by our normal society’s standards, it was hard to argue with his raw sense of right and wrong.

I would never go so far as to call any of these men altruistic or moralistic, but there was no denying they all had their own kind of honor and thread of dignity that ran fast and deep. They didn’t play by the regular rules that society laid out, but the ones they did play by, they followed to keep the ones they considered their own safe.

Noe fascinated him in a way that caught him off guard. He’d spent so much effort to emotionally distance himself from everyone that he was surprised by how strongly he felt drawn towards her. She was strong and fearless, but his moment of indecision had cost her dearly and he took full responsibility — doing everything in his power to make amends.

“I’m sorry you felt like I was shutting you out. I get focused on a task and lose track of the real world. I didn’t mean to ignore you or make you feel like you aren’t a part of this, but I can’t stand the idea of him getting his hands on you again… He’s never going to be able to put his hands on anyone again when we’re done with him. If you feel like you need to take steps to make that happen, then talk to me, smack me upside the head, stomp on my foot, or maybe pull all your clothes off and stand in front of me so I can’t ignore what’s happening around you. I’m here to walk with you, not force you to go around me.”

It was totally endearing to see this stoic, emotionally disconnected, and yet badass guy fall in love for the first time… struggling with all these feelings that he’d spent his life trying to shut away.

I’d been born to be one of the best, but I was broken. With her, I was something in between those two things, and for the first time in my life, I wondered if I had found what ‘normal’ looked life. If I had found the place where I could just be… be whatever this woman needed and who I needed to be in order to find happiness.

Just like with reading Honor, I found myself highlighting so many quotes from this book. It isn’t just another contemporary romance. But it also isn’t what I’d consider a dark romance either. However, it’s set in a much grittier world than normal and the edge it gives the entire story and characters really brings out that badass.

There was so much relief and regret in that steely gaze that it stole my breath for a second.
He hadn’t helped me when I needed him and now he looked at me like he was never going to let me out of his sight again.

This is the second book in the Breaking Point series that is a spin-off of the Welcome To The Point series, but each of the books can be read as standalones. They all take place in this fictional town and each book is centered around a different couple but the characters are all kind of connected. I personally have read Honor and now Dignity, but I never read the original books and I’ve never been confused so it’s up to you how you want to go about reading them. The reason I chose to read them like this was purely personal preference as it was these two blurbs that intrigued me the most. So if you want to just dive into Honor and Dignity, you can. But if you’d rather read Better When He’s Bad, Better When He’s Bold, and Better When He’s Brave first, you can too. There’s no wrong way to do this.

If you’re looking for a strong, sexy romance with a gritty edge and a little thrill of action, definitely check this out!

Rating: 4+ stars! Contemporary Adult Romance, can standalone.

Note: This book releases in a few days but if you pre-order a copy, it won’t be charged til release and will automatically download to your eReader the moment it goes live so you don’t accidentally forget about it!