[Review] Rome by Jay Crownover [18+ Contemporary]

Rome
Marked Men # 3 | Goodreads
See my reviews of the previous 2 books
Rule (book 1) | Jet (book 2)

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 . . .

Review

I was so excited about reading Rome's story that I skipped Jet after reading Rule. What? I tried to read it, but my eyes kept wandering to my bookshelf where Rome was starting at me going... "Hey Girl. I'm a sexy wounded hero. READ MEH!" And who am I to say no to that. So I read it. And I loved it. (: 

I fell a little bit in like with Rome when I read his brother's book. I mean, where Rule was a petulant, insensitive asshole, his brother, Rome was understanding, levelheaded, and a big teddy bear protector of his entire family. That appealed to me more than his brother's horn- dogging and drunk for no reason ways. Don't get me wrong, I loved Shaw in book 1 and Rule was okay. I want to give the author props for being able to write such an incredibly and horrible flawed character on purpose. And then turn around and write another character so fundamentally different from him. (I did want to punch Rule in the face in this book for being such a hypocrite to Rome, though. I mean, in this book Rule is all, be a great guy and be perfect. I was rolling my eyes, saying, yeah because you weren't a completely unlikable person 2 books ago. Rome is just going through a rough patch. He has a reason to drink himself to sleep. You were just a dick. *Shrug* Sorry, I have not written a review for Rule yet, so I have a little bit of residual opinion from that book still in me... I shall focus on Rome now.)

I also really liked Cora from the first book and her crazy, caring ways. I found it interesting that both Rome and Cora had those protective tendencies towards their close- knit group of friends and was fascinated to see how they would mix. I liked that they are sort of the.. I don't know.. figurative big brother and big sister of the group. 

Well, this book takes place a bit after Rule's story, so there is a lot that has happened to Rome since then and he was not the snuggly understanding man I met in book one. But that man was under there somewhere and I enjoyed watching Cora find him. No, their love story is not perfect. No love story is perfect. It was paved with disasters, misunderstandings, and hot sex. Oh, wait. That's not a bad thing... (: Anyways, I loved the conflict and drama in this book. 

And omg, Rome was such a sweetheart. Where Rule and Shaw's story was [Rule trying not to be such a Dick and managing to somewhat do that every now and then, then Shaw being OMG yay!] Rome and Cora's story was about Rome and Cora finding out that there is no such thing as perfect, but there may be something just as better. And in this one Rome and Cora are great and talk things through and it is just a sweet love story (with hot sex) with the moments where the couple has real and understandable hiccups and disasters due to Rome's PTSD and Cora's past. Neither of the two main characters were complete idiots. They each had their own shit to get through and they each worked at it and tried to get through it independently of each other and with each others help. It was a splendid story with flawed, imperfect characters who were realistic and made the story work. 

Would definitely recommend to adult contemporary lovers.