Title: Charged
Author: Jay Crownover
Series: Saints of Denver #2
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Published: May 24th, 2016
Source: Digital audiobook downloaded from public library
I've finally reached the point where I am having to wait on the next book in the series by a new favorite author. I was able to breeze through the Marked Men series at my own pace, but got all of them read/listened to in one year, or actually less than a year. This book is actually the second in a spinoff from that series. So I love that we get to see tidbits of all our favorite characters from before, mixed in with new people to decide we love.
The two main characters in this are Avett and Quaid. We know Avett because her dad owned the bar that Rome took over in his book. And she worked there for a while, but she was not a character that you really liked too much. I mean in Asa's book, you felt sorry for her knowing that her boyfriend did hit her, not to mention that she got beat up by drug guys that were after that same boyfriend. She stole from the bar, and again in Asa's book, her boyfriend shot Asa's girlfriend. That is what led to where she and Quaid happened to meet. Asa took money he came into at the end of his story and used it to hire Quaid to help Avett with her own court case for being part of the robbery and shooting at the bar, because she drove her boyfriend there. Asa believes in Avett's innocence, and wants to see her get a chance, probably because we know he was not a good guy for most of his life, and he wants to take the chance to help her get out of all of her trouble.
Quaid we know from the first book in the Saints of Denver series, Built. He was introduced to us as a kind of slimy, womanizing lawyer, who Rowdy's sister Sayer knows as she is a lawyer as well. One thing I really like about this series so far, is that the books are kind of all taking place over the same time period. There were several scenes in the first book that are replayed again from Quaid and Avett's points of view, instead of Zeb and Sayer's points of view. Quaid is at the top of his game, because he will defend anyone, even guilty criminals, and he has one of the best winning records at getting those people off. At first he doesn't want to know anything about Avett's case more than what he needs to get her a deal. But Avett refuses to plead guilty, because she knows she isn't. Now, Quaid must help her fight to prove her innocence. Quaid comes from a poor background, working towards where he is just to prove that he could. He even went through a horrible divorce recently. Now he is on the path to hopefully becoming a partner in his firm. But his bosses expect him to continue to defend the same types of people he has been.
Avett's decision to plead not guilty, and to testify against her boyfriend, puts her in danger with the drug gang that is why her boyfriend did what he did in the first place. They think Avett knows where the drugs are, and so they are after her. It puts her family in danger, to the point that her dad's house even burns down. It is at this point that Quaid and Avett are really starting to feel the attraction to each other and give into it. And when Quaid gets asked by his bosses to defend a man who is charged with lighting his own house on fire when his own child was even in the house, Quaid can't stomach taking that on.
The chemistry between Quaid and Avett is definitely hot. For being such a "straight-laced" upstanding lawyer guy, Quaid seems to have a few things he wants to try that Avett is willing to do in order to make him happy. Something at the end we get to read about. Avett has a bad thing in her past, something that has caused her to feel like she doesn't deserve good things to happen, and why she seems to make bad choices. Quaid has to push past these walls she's built.
I also loved when we tied back to the characters in the little pre-story, Leveled. I loved getting more info on Wheeler, and I can't wait for his book! There was a third narrator on this audiobook, and it turns out it was a third person, Church, a friend of Rome's. I think the next book in the series is going to be Church's. Not sure if I'll be able to listen to that narrator, as he has a very deep, almost Barry White type of voice, that sometimes is hard to understand what he's saying, and might be too distracting for me. So I may end up actually reading the next one, instead of listening. But I'm ready to get that story!
Once again, I love another story by this author. And a week from today I should be getting to meet the author and be all fangirl about how much I love her stories. Look for pictures of me with her after I go to New Orleans.