Review – Riveted by Jay Crownover – Bookalicious Babes Blog

Show me the most damaged parts of your soul, and I will show you how it shines like gold. ~Nikita Gill

When you begin and end a book in tears, you know it’s a game changer of a story that’s ruled not only your head but your heart.

Riveted by Jay Crownover slammed into my soul with a force I never saw coming, but one I felt with every word from beginning to end. I had no choice but to fall into the words that bled into me – becoming me – because each word that Jay Crownover pens shines like gold, as powerful and as penetrating as the sun.

TRUE STORY: I typically start and end a Jay Crownover story in tears.

Riveted was both my sun and rain, the perfect storm and rainbow. Riveted was my light and dark, shades of grey that mix the gloom with the great. Riveted was my happiness and my sorrow. Riveted was so many things. Riveted was everything…MY EVERYTHING.

TRUE STORY: Jay Crownover’s introductions and dedications to her books engage my emotions—feelings in full force—as much as the stories themselves.

The introductions and dedications Jay Crownover writes are as moving as the stories themselves, relaying the reasons for and the background behind the books but so much MORE. These introductions and dedications are pieces of this author poured into the books, glimpses into what makes Jay…‘Jay’…and what hits her heart and surfaces in her soul. Life lessons are poured into these pre-book pieces, ones that make you really ponder your life. With each of Jay’s beautiful and brilliant books that I’m inspired before I even start the story.

You don’t believe me?!? Here is a quote from Jay’s Introduction, which resonated with me:

No matter what kind of armor we wear, all of it has a chunk, a dent that speaks to a battle we fought and lost.

This quote is LIFE!!!

TRUE STORY: Jay’s words are not just emotions but inspiration. I can’t help but ponder the meaning of life with the lessons Jay teaches in her words.

Dixie Carmichael is the red-haired beautiful bartender at Rome’s bar who has had her eye on the bar’s gorgeous and gruff bouncer, Dash ‘Church’ Churchill for many months.

He was effortlessly a whole lot of eye candy and there was no denying I had one hell of a sweet tooth.

An eternal optimist and forever romantic, Dixie sees life as sunshine and rainbows while the muscular, former soldier, Church sees more darkness and storms.

She shone as bright as the sun every single day but I was a man that knew all too well that too much time in the sun could lead to some serious burns.

TRUE STORY: I try my hardest every day to be like Dixie—to be the sun to someone’s shadow—because negativity is a real downer, and I don’t want to bring others down.
Dixie has been waiting for Mr. Right, Church, to claim her, but her Prince Charming thinks he’s Mr. Wrong.

I might have now known he was for me, but it was evident Church didn’t have a clue.

Church thinks the world of Dixie and would love to claim her as his, but he doesn’t want his dark to snuff out her light.

She lived in the light and I was far more comfortable hiding in the dark.

Dixie is done waiting around for the former soldier, Church, to realize that he needs her sweet sunshine in his gloomy world.

I’d never had him, but I was far from ready to let him go.

TRUE STORY: As a military wife whose husband has gone to war a few times, I could relate to the former soldier, Church, as some of those battle scars truly never heal. Those kinks are still in that armor, as even the brave battle a few internal wars too.

Just as she started looking for another Mr. Right, Church asks her to return to his home in Mississippi as a friend to help him sort out some loose ends. Denver was supposed to be just a temporary stop on his quest back to the South…his home.

This cross-country trip reveals some truths, some hard, some harrowing, and some happy. Dixie is determined to shed some sunshine onto Church’s storm, even if it means risking it all.

She kissed me. Her lips touched mine and she destroyed me.

This book?!? Riveted DESTROYED ME, decimating every piece. This story hit my heart like a hurricane. Riveted SATURATED AND SHRED MY SOUL.

To Dixie, Church is not just a hero with a huge heart and her friend, but more.

Maybe I wasn’t the girl meant for happily-ever-after.

To Church, Dixie is the girl he wants but can never have as he will destroy her with his darkness, suffocating her sunshine.

I felt Riveted’s light shine through me while reading. I felt the dark too that DECIMATED MY EMOTIONS, a dark cloud over my soul threatening to storm.

I knew the sun could burn when you let it shine on your unprotected skin for too long. That’s what it felt like after giving Dixie so much and having her still look at me like I was something special.

Riveted is an ALL-CONSUMING and AWE-INSPIRING roller coaster of a romance that dances between dark and light, shredding the soul and hypnotizing the heart. Oh is Riveted SPECIAL!!! This perfectly imperfect story scorched and saturated my soul, teetering between storms and rainbows. This former soldier and bartender were magical together, a bold fusion of dark and light, two heroes whose story I’m glad Jay Crownover told!

Riveted is over, but I’m still riding the high from this moving and memorable story. Tears are still etched in my eyes, this brilliant and beautiful book fresh in my head. Jay Crownover’s wondrous words wrap themselves around me each time, daring me not to feel…EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

Sometimes all people can see is what’s different, but those differences are what make us who we are.

I don’t see life as black and white; I see varying hues of grey. Jay Crownover’s books are grey: not black…not white…not quite dark…not quite light…but sooooo bold and beautiful. Since I met first met Rule years ago, I coined a few Jay-isms that apply to each since story of hers. Jay Crownover is the master of writing fierce and flawed heroes, heroes that since Rule I’ve called ‘bad ass boys with big ass hearts.’ I know these boys, all of her heroes, own my heart for life as do her beautiful and brave heroines.

Riveted was my ADDICTION…my ACHE…MY ALL. This heartwarming and soul-searing story will fall in a long line of Jay masterpieces with all of The Marked Men, The Point, and Saints of Denver. All of these stories hold a special place in my heart and most are signed beauties on my shelf.

TRUE STORY: Jay’s books are my drugs. I call this addiction, which began with Rule and hasn’t stopped, ‘Crownover Crack.’ The Crownover Crack gets me every time.

Jay Crownover’s books have marked me for life, each story an intense imprint on my soul. Riveted left its mark, a mark that has lifted this story to a top February 2017 read and a best book of 2017. I just can’t turn the feels left in the wake of Hurricane Jay off and I don’t want to; I want to keep living through her wondrous words that are LOVE AND LIFE.

TRUE STORY: There were tears in my eyes as I wrote this review, the story still moving me though it’s been over for many hours.

★★★★★★ raw and riveting stars

View all my reviews

Everyone else in Dixie Carmichael’s life has made falling in love look easy, and now she is ready for her own chance at some of that happily ever after. Which means she’s done pining for the moody, silent former soldier who works with her at the bar that’s become her home away from home. Nope. No more chasing the hot as heck thundercloud of a man and no more waiting for Mr. Right to find her; she’s going hunting for him…even if she knows her heart is stuck on its stupid infatuation with Dash Churchill.

Denver has always been just a pit stop for Church on his way back to rural Mississippi. It was supposed to be simple, uneventful, but nothing could have prepared him for the bubbly, bouncy redhead with doe eyes and endless curves. Now he knows it’s time to get out of Denver, fast. For a man used to living in the shadows, the idea of spending his days in the sun is nothing short of terrifying.

When Dixie and Church find themselves caught up in a homecoming overshadowed with lies and danger, Dixie realizes that while falling in love is easy, loving takes a whole lot more work…especially when Mr. Right thinks he’s all wrong for you.

A MUST ONE-CLICK!!! —> Amazon: http://amzn.to/2kCnjlE

iBooks: http://apple.co/2d76qOu
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2dDic1L
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2drRVAe
Google: tinyurl.com/hd2jzvf

Jay Crownover is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men, The Point, and the Saints of Denver series. Like her characters, she is a big fan of tattoos. She loves music and wishes she could be a rock star, but since she has no aptitude for singing or instrument playing, she’ll settle for writing stories with interesting characters that make the reader feel something. She lives in Colorado with her three dogs.

Website: http://www.jaycrownover.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJayCrownover?ref=hl

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/JayCrownover

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Crownover