From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jay Crownover, comes the second book in a combustible new series, Welcome to the Point, that is sexier, darker, and better than ever.

There’s a difference between a bad boy and a boy who is bad. . . . Welcome to the Point.

In a dark and broken kingdom, a ruler has be fearless to control the streets and the ruthless people who run them. Race Hartman is just bold enough, just smart enough, and just lost enough to wear the crown. Places like The Point will always have bad things and bad people, but the man in control of all that badness can minimize the devastation. Race has a plan, but can he prevent total annihilation without destroying himself?

Brysen Carter has always seen the real Race—a guy too pretty, too smooth, and way too dangerous. Basking in his golden glow is very tempting, but Brysen knows she’ll eventually get burned. She has enough problems without the risky danger and mayhem that comes with a guy like Race. Too bad Brysen faces a threat close to home that might be more dangerous than anything The Point has ever produced.. And the only person interested in keeping her safe is the one man she can’t allow herself to have.

Sometimes being bold is the only way to stay alive. But can she let Race save her life . . . if it means losing herself to him?

The front door of the restaurant opened and Brysen’s superblond hair glinted off the glass doors. She had on a tight T-shirt and a short skirt, and obviously hadn’t bothered to change after her shift. A tall Latin guy was walking next to her. She was laughing at something he said and tossed her head back. She really was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. There was just something so easy about her, so effortless, that it made my heart thud heavy in my ears. She put her hand on her escort’s arm and pointed to where the Mustang was sitting. The guy nodded at her, bent down to kiss her on the cheek, and turned around to walk back inside.

Brysen started walking toward me, so I kicked open the car door and rose to my feet. I don’t know where the headlights came from, don’t know how I missed another car idling in the parking lot, but the next thing I knew, there was a squeal of tires, the smell of rubber burning, and a sedan barreling right at her. I saw her still as I broke into a run. There was too much space between where she was and where I was and the car was headed right toward her. I saw her throw her hands up as the engine revved up even higher. She didn’t scream, didn’t make any kind of noise, so I called her name. Her head snapped around to look at me and I hollered, “Move!” at the top of my lungs.

Right before the impact, right before I had to watch her end up splattered all over the windshield, the guy who had walked her out suddenly hit her from the side in a flying tackle that had both of them careening hard to the asphalt. I heard her shriek when she hit and turned to try and grab the license plate off of the fleeing sedan. I frowned as I reached the huddled pair on the ground because the plates on the car were missing, making this feel very deliberate and not like an accident at all. I nudged the Spanish guy on the shoulder and he looked up at me.

“Move.”

He huffed at me and rolled off of Brysen. She peeked up at me from between the fingers she had clamped over her eyes like that was somehow going to prevent her from getting run over by a speeding car. I reached down to pull her to her feet and felt my back teeth click together when I saw the bloody mess her arm and legs were from where she had hit the ground.

Here is the thing I love about Jay Crownover. She knows how to make you connect with her characters. She knows how to drawl you into their world and make you feel everything these characters are feeling as you embrace the journey she takes you on.

Now, it had been a minute since I journeyed through The Point with Bax and Dovie, but as I came back to visit with Race and Brysen I was soon swallowed up in all the same intensity and suspense that comes along with The Point. You don’t know who is really a friend or foe when you are in The Point. You have to treat everyone as the enemy and always be a step of everyone else; which keeps me holding my kindle tight as I wait to see what’s going to happen next.

Jay certainly did an incredible job building up Race’s character as a very believable new ruler of The Point. Race certainly has the brain power to run the point and is always be not one, but ten steps a head of everyone else. He knows how to read people, anticipate their next move, and he’ll always put the best interest of The Point ahead of himself. Even if it means losing a girl like Brysen.

Better When He’s Bold starts off probably right were Brysen just might be at her breaking point with all the crap she has recently been dealt. Race comes in wanting to take care of her, but Brysen knows Race is no white knight coming to rescue her. If she accepts Race into her life, then she accepts everything that comes with being a part of The Point as well.

Reading Brysen and Race’s story was emotional at times in the way the characters connected and touched me, and it was also impacted with suspense to keep me on toes and biting my nails over what would come next.

Jay Crownover is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men and The Point 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.