Rome by Jay Crownover

Marked Men #3

     "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 . . ."

Holy Jesus, more men need to be made like the Archer boys. I swear each book gets better and better. Cora and Rome are my new favorites. And Rome sounds so so so ... sexy. I normally don't like the idea of huge bulging muscles, but damn if this character doesn't sound like something I wouldn't mind seeing shirtless.

Rome is still reeling from the bomb that was dropped before his last deployment about his dead brother Remy, the anger at his parents for treating his other brother Rule like the red-headed stepchild, and adjusting to civilian life. And he's taking it out on everyone around him.

Cora has barely gotten her life back together when her ex sends her an invitation to his wedding with the woman he was sleeping with when they were together, and it starts to unravel all the work she did to get past the hurt.

Sticking two very headstrong people together has a possibility for a very bad outcome. But since both parties are also equally damaged, but in different ways, and both parties also have a habit of helping those that need it even when they don't ask for it, they just end up having a lot of chemistry. After Rome has a nasty run-in with some bikers and the stress and memories of being on the war front get to him, Cora comes to his rescue only to end up in a somewhat compromising situation with Rome.

They are a great balance of each other, and while at times I don't generally think that books like these are very realistic when it comes to how quickly they fall in love, but it just might be the cynic in me that feels that way. Either way, I love this series, and I can't wait to read Nash's story.