Rule: A Marked Men Novel

I read this series from beginning to end – no breaks. Having read Built (Saints of Denver, #1)  the mention of previous characters and some story lines that obviously had been started in the Marked Men series had me wanting to go back and read it. I am so glad I did as I had not only missed a great series but also meeting many of the secondary characters and their issues which is who the Saints of Denver is about. This series mainly takes place around a Tattoo shop where a man called Uncle Phil took in a group of men who were walking the line and gave them a job and purpose.As I read these back to back I am going to write one review for them all. This is what I call an ensemble series – each book builds on the next one. Each book does have its own couple that get their HFN/HEA but some things started in one book may not get a resolution until another.<b><u>Rule (Marked Men #1)</b></u> – This book is one that starts a side plot/story that isnt finished until the 3rd book in the series. The Archer family had three boys – oldest Rome and twins Rule and Remy. Even though Rule and Remy were identical twins they couldnt be more different. Remy was the good one and Rule broke all the rules. Shaw Landon entered their lives when she was 13 and they became her surrogate family. Shaw and Remy were very close but Rule is the one she has secretly loved since first meeting him. Even though they are all adults now Rule is still wild and out of control. That got worse when Remy died. Remy's death fractured the Archer family and Shaw is doing her best to try and keep it together. She does not succeed. But Rule finally see's her and does his best to try and make up for his past and be the man she deserves.<b><u>Jet (Marked Men #2)</b></u> - Jet Keller doesnt work at the Tattoo shop but he is good friends with the men who work there. He is the lead singer of a band and writes songs for both his band and others. He is very talented but has refused to leave town to expand his career due to trying to protect his mother from his father. Problem is she doesnt want his help and has no plans of ever leaving him. Ayden Cross (best friend of Shaw) is a woman with ugly past she doesnt want anyone to find out about. She left her past behind in Kentucky and wants to just finish college. One thing she doesnt want is the attraction she has for Jet. He tempts her inner bad girl too much and scares her that she could easily go back to that person she is trying so hard to forget. In this one we met her brother Asa who has no redeeming qualities (until his book which is the last in the series)<b><u>Rome (Marked Men #3)</b></u> – Rome we met in his brother book. He has always been the glue in the family and in on his 8th year of 10 in the Army. During that book he didn't deal well with a family secret when its revealed and that left him estranged with his family. When he gets done with his last tour and leaves the Army he is lost and suffering from PTSD and dealing with all his demons in a bottle and being angry at the world. Cora Lewis runs the front desk of the Tatoo shop along with doing body modifications. She is a fouled mouth take no crap little pixie who also plays the role of momma bear. These two were an odd pairing but fit together perfectly once they worked through some big issues.<b><u>Nash (Marked Men #4)</b></u> – This was the weakest of books to me. Neither Nash who works at the tattoo shop and Saint Ford who is a ER nurse were as interesting as the other characters but it does introduce us to Royal Hastings a cop that is the main heroine in the last book of the series.<b><u>Rowdy (Marked Men, #5)</b></u>  - I think this was my favorite book because it introduced us to the cast of characters that are in the new series Saints of Denver. Rowdy ended up in foster care at a early age after his mother died. The foster home was next door to Salem and Poppy Cruz. Salem's father was a fire and brimstone Texas preacher that was a tyrant at home. Rowdy, Salem and Poppy all became close with Rowdy putting all his hopes and dreams into them. When Salem who is a couple years older finally takes all she can take with her father and leaves home she breaks Rowdy's heart and he then hitches all his happiness on Poppy. That also ends in heartbreak and now as a grown man Rowdy still uses his broken heart over the Cruz sisters and a reason to never thinking he will ever find the one. When Uncle Phil on his deathbed decides to play matchmaker and offers Salem the position of running a new Tattoo branch she waste no time in taking the job hoping to get a fresh start with Rowdy. Problem is he wants nothing to do with her. But its not long before these two start a sexual relationship but trust is a huge issues between them and when Poppy shows up in bad shape all the secrets from years ago come to light. I cannot wait for Poppy's story which will be told in the Saints of Denver series. She soo deserves a HEA. This is where we also meet Zeb Fuller and Sayer Cole (Rowdy's sister) who are the couple in Built (Saints of Denver, #1)<b><u>Asa (Marked Men, #6)</b></u>  - Asa Cross has gone through quite the transformation from the book Jet. He was almost killed and since coming out of a coma is trying to live on the right side of the law. Rome took a chance on him and gave him a job as a bartender. Asa beats himself up a lot through out this book and doesn't think he is worthy of happiness and thinks he is just one con away from returning to his old self. Royal Hastings is the cop we met in Nash's book and she has always had the hots for Asa but he turns her down every time. After her childhood friend who also happens to be her partner on the force is shot multiple times Royal goes into a tailspin over the guilt. Asa finally gives into Royal but doesn't know how a cop and an ex criminal are going to work out.Through out each of the books we get previous couples weddings and births of children. Every book had great epilogue. I really enjoyed this series and this author is defiantly a must buy.

"Remy was my other half, both figuratively and literally. He was my identical twin, the light to my dark, the easy to my hard, the joy to my angst, the perfect to my oh-so-totally f***** up, and without him I was only half the person I would ever be. Remy was everything I wasn't."Meet Rule our resident pierced tatted bad boy who is so far from "the norm" it isn't funny. Our hero was a complicated mess of contradiction. Rule doesn't make apologies or excuses for his "my way or the highway" attitude, with him what you see is what you get. Rule lives life his way and doesn't care who gets trampled in the process."Rule was complicated; he was brash, mouthy, careless, thoughtless, often cranky, and generally an insufferable pain in the a**. But when he chose to be, he was charming and funny, artistically brilliant, and more often than not, the most interesting person in the room. I have been head over heels in love with both sides of him since I was fourteen years old."Next up is Shaw, our sweet sophisticated leading lady, who wants nothing more in life than to be accepted and loved for who she is and not for the person her rich overbearing parents are molding her to be. On the surface, Shaw portrays the perfect fabricated "good girl" persona, but underneath that carefully constructed facade lays a girl dying to live life the way she wants. She doesn't want to date the man her parents think would be the perfect match for her and their stature. There is only one thing Shaw wants in life for herself and it just happens to be the exact opposite of what mommy and daddy expect of her...Rule Archer.Now that you have met them individually, let's introduce them as a couple. Shaw has only ever had eyes for Rule and in typical male fashion, Rule has absolutely no idea she exists outside being his brother Remy's girl and his buffer for those dreaded Sunday brunches with his family. He is oblivious to her growing attraction, until Shaw's 20th birthday when she decides to take things to the next level changing the dimensions of their relationship, as they knew it forever."You have to promise not to bail on me when I get lost, Shaw. You have to promise to just wait it out until I can find my way back. I need to know you're at the end of the tunnel when everything goes black."I instantly fell hard for Rule with his devil may care outlook (his tats and piercings didn't have anything to do with it, oh hell who am I kidding...they had everything to do with it). I love that he is so flawed, hmm, maybe flawed isn't a strong enough word to describe him. Damaged and broken maybe more like it. He is determined to screw things up while trying his hardest to navigate that untraveled road called relationships. Girls are interchangeable play toys to him; their sole purpose equals pleasure and a means of escape...that is until Shaw makes an unexpected appearance in a killer hot work uniform snagging Rule's complete and utter attention to the one girl he has always been oblivious too. My favorite personality trait about this bad boy is his ability to own up to his mistakes; he doesn't try to hide them from his girl or deny them. Rule told her straight out when he screwed up and begged Shaw for her forgiveness, with the promise of more mistakes in the future while he learned what it was like to think of another and not just himself."I'll always take care of you, Rule. In fact, I like doing it because it makes me happy and it feels good, but I'm not ever going to let you use me to work out your demons like you did with all those girls who came before me, so you better learn the difference."Shaw is the perfect girl for Rule. Her sweet go with the flow temperament balanced out his crazy out of control one. I adored how strong and loyal she is. Her patience and love when it came to that man knew no bounds. Rule was in need of love (although this proved hard to do) and worthy in her eyes. She took a lot of abuse (no physical) from Rule with his behavior and reactions as she stood by his side over the years defending him, however, she didn't accept his crap. Shaw was forgiving but she most definitely was not a pushover. Didn't matter how crazy his behavior got; Shaw refused to live with Rule's BS, and our girl called him out! This is one heroine who definitely sits high on my favorites list!"Opposites don't just attract they freaking catch fire and burn the entire city down."Rule Archer and Shaw Landon definitely fit that descriptive quote. No other two people filled the role of sinner and saint as well as they did, in my humble opinion. Rule is the epitome of bad boy; Shaw adored that about him. Rule is Rule; he doesn't feel the need to be pretentious, nor will he explain away his attitude/personality with justification. His take the world by the horns, f*** the consequences, mentality was a major seduction for a fourteen-year-old girl surrounded by artifice. Rule was exactly what Shaw wasn't or couldn't allow herself to be. He was in your face with his realness, you never had to worry about where you stood with him. Whereas, Shaw pushed her own happiness and needs in the background at the expense of others. She played the part as she hid within herself in order to keep peace amongst those she loved. Shaw always accepted Rule for who he was without expectations of change and he turned out to be the one person Shaw could always feel safe and confident with as she found the strength and direction in her own personal growth.I loved watching the main characters level each other out on so many different levels; there was no sense of masquerade between them. Shaw and Rule stumbled and matured both in their personal lives and with their relationship. It was a roller coaster of a ride that left you wanting to bang your head against the wall. There was absolutely nothing instant or easy about these two. Their journey was emotional trial of give and take.Jay Crownover is one h*** of an author. She has made a permanent fan of this girl. Rule's book contained rich developed characters, delicious chemistry, and an emotional journey that left me clamoring for more. I know that prior to the author becoming published there were issues with editing; rest assured that the author has fully taken care of this. So please don't pass this book up any longer, I insist that you one click and settle in for one h***of a ride!Thank you Avon Original and edelweiss for the opportunity to read and review Rule in exchange for my honest opinion.

Well... this turned out cute and sweet as I wanted. The only regard I have for the story is how much time it actually passed, but besides that I had a lot of plot twists I did not saw coming. Definitely curious about the next book.

I am officially in love, with both this book and this author. 'Rule' has been on my TBR for a long time now, but it's been there because I know it's a book that I'd really enjoy, and you can't read a book for the first time twice. So I put it off, just waiting... and waiting... and waiting, until I couldn't put off reading this book anymore, and it was PERFECT! I've read books where there's an "opposites attract" attraction before, but never one like this one. Our two main characters, Rule and Shaw, define opposites attract, and they couldn't be any more different from each other even if they tried, yet when it came to being in a relationship with each other, they made it work. But like with every love story, it wasn't all smooth sailing, and their road to a happy ending was definitely a bumpy one.Rule and Shaw definitely had their ups and downs throughout their relationship, mainly because being in a relationship is all so very new for them. Rule is a manwh*re and doesn't seem ready to change his spots anytime soon, and Shaw has had boyfriends before, but they've never been the guy she's always wanted. For all the years that Rule and Shaw have known each other, Shaw has been completely and irrevocably in love with Rule Archer, but since Shaw was best friends with Rule's twin brother, Remy, the whole Archer clan always saw Shaw as Remy's girl - because there's NO WAY a guy and a girl can be JUST friends (note sarcasm) - and therefor, Rule has been completely blind to her feelings for him. But all it takes is one night... just one, passionate night together for everything to change for them.So much happens in this book - make-ups, break-ups, and make-ups again, psycho exes coming into the picture to try and ruin our main characters' happiness, and secrets from the dead - and from start to finish I was completely hooked to this story. I never knew what was going to happen next; whether I wanted to throat punch our main characters, or hug them to me and never let them go. There were times where I wanted to throw the book across the room when Rule could be a jerk, and then there were times where, no matter what, I just could NOT put this book down.Everything about 'Rule' was just so real. Neither Rule nor Shaw were these "perfect people", and they both made their own mistakes. Mainly, it was their lack of communication that caused the most problems in their relationship, and that's something that really annoyed me with them, because if they'd have just talked it out, it could have saved them both a lot of trouble and heartache. But besides that, this book was perfect. I adored Rule and Shaw's story, and they definitely made the whole opposites attract thing work, and showed that you CAN have next to nothing in common, but so long as you work it out as best as you can, it can work out in the end. This book had me laughing my head off in a lot of scenes, and loving every character we were introduced to, because every character we were introduced to here is unique in their own way, and meeting them now has me more excited and ready to get my hands on their own books and get started on reading their stories next.

Shaw is the consummate good girl - works hard, loyal friend, walks the straight line. She does all the right things, as she's desperate to be loved and accepted for herself.Rule doesn't follow the rules. Tattooed, pierced bad boy with a revolving door of women, he's never been interested in a relationship. He's always walked his own path and is deeply misunderstood by his parents.Rule and Shaw tolerate one another. However, Shaw's dislike and disinterest is a facade. She's been in love with Rule since she met him as a teen, but he's never seemed to like her. She has always seen the real Rule. She's always loved him for the person he truly is.Rule has always thought Shaw was beautiful but off-limits and unattainable. She was his dead brother's girl. However, one scorching, unforgettable night changes the dynamic between them.Shaw sees the chance to make her dreams of Rule a reality. Rule recognises that Shaw is different and worth changing his ways for.The path of true love is rocky, filled with doubt, mistrust, naysayers, and fear. Only the truth will set them free, as secrets and misconceptions come to light, and Shaw and Rule's love and commitment are tested.Fantastic story! Loved it!

Opposites definitely attract and when they collide they explode with force! I have to say it was the cover that drew me to this book, can you blame me? After reading the book, the cover is PERFECT for Rule.. I doubt there's one better to match. Here we have Rule, tattooed bad boy, pierced up to hell and then Shaw who's been pining after him since she was 13.A tragic accident robs them both of someone they love and Shaw becomes the glue that hold Rule and his family together. The chemistry between them is intense and raw and I was drawn to both characters right away. How will it work? Shes a straight A student and he's a hot headed manwhore (to put it lightly). It doesn't look like it would work but it really, really does and I was captivated by this story. I completely fell in love with Rule, he had a heart of gold that was shadowed by his appearance and he could sometimes be over looked.I loved the dialogue and overall behaviour between Shaw and Rule, it made me laugh and love them even more. Neither were afraid to stand up to each other and those around them. There is a thin line between love and hate and you're bound to step in each one some time. Rule hates the rich kid, Shaw hates that when she sees him he's always naked or half naked with a different girl. Why cant he love her like she loves him? So she walked away.. and he followed her to try and work out this thing between them. Could they make it work?Although a romance story there is a lot of depth and elements that make up these characters and the situations around them have influenced them in profound ways. The book itself was addictive and I always found myself wanting more. I couldn’t put this book down, all Shaw wanted was Rule, she didn’t care he wasn’t perfect and even though he knew he wasn’t perfect, Rule was determined to be perfect for her. Sighs

I'm ashamed to say that I got this when it was on offer for the simple reason people seemed to enjoy it and it kept popping up on numerous blogs and Facebook pages that I visit. I however didn't actually fancy reading. I don't know why, maybe because I thought it wouldn't be too different from other things I read or maybe the cover didn't appeal to me too much. whatever the reason it has been sat on my kindle for a while. I finally decided that maybe I should just read it and oh god in wish I had read it sooner!I absolutely adored this book. It wasn't your typical bad boy meets good girl. For me this book had hidden depths. The characters were so well thought of and so different and the storyline was just brill. Rule and Shaw were polar opposites from the beginning, you would never think that they'd be good together. You wouldn't even think that they'd be on each others radar. throughout the book, as the author dug deeper and deeper into the characters you could see that Rule and Shaw had more similarities than you originally thought, yet they were still different enough that they were their own people. I think Shaw may even be one of my favourite female characters. she was just so lovable, always trying to do the right thing for other people, to make them happy. she was loyal to no end. even keeping a secret that was destroying her relationship, because that's the type of person she was. Rule, he was the tattooed punted up bad boy that all the girls wanted. He was rebellious and acted like he didn't care but by the end of it, you could see everything he'd been holding in the last few years. Together they were like a puzzles pieces fitting together (yeah I know very cliché but it's true).I honestly did love this book and will be going on now to the next marked men. I can't wait to see where this author takes me next!