Salvaged by Jay Crownover

by Tera · June 24, 2017

Rating:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jay Crownover continues her delightfully sexy Saints of Denver series with the next thrilling standalone, SALVAGED! Order your copy today!

Hudson Wheeler is a nice guy. Everyone knows it, including his fiancée who left him with a canceled wedding and a baby on the way. He’s tired of finishing last and is ready to start living in the moment with nights soaked in whiskey, fast cars, and even faster girls. He’s set to start living on the edge, but when he meets Poppy Cruz, her sad eyes in the most gorgeous face he’s ever seen hook him in right away. Wheeler can see Poppy’s pain and all he wants to do is take care of her and make her smile, whatever it takes.

Poppy can’t remember a time when she didn’t see strangers as the enemy. After a lifetime of being hurt from the men who swore to protect her, Poppy’s determined to keep herself safe by keeping everyone else at arm’s length. Wheeler’s sexy grin and rough hands from hours restoring classic cars shouldn’t captivate her, but every time she’s with him, she can’t help being pulled closer to him. Though she’s terrified to trust again, Poppy soon realizes it might hurt even more to shut Wheeler out—and the intense feelings pulsing through her are making it near impossible to resist him.

The only thing Poppy is sure of is that her heart is in need of some serious repair, and the more time she spends with Wheeler, the more she’s convinced he’s the only man with the tools to fix it.

Stephanie’s 5 Blush Up all Night Review

What an amazing story! Jay Crownover really pulls out the big guns! Jay states in her introduction that when she first introduced Poppy in Rowdy (Rowdy & Salem’s book) she had no idea that she would be the character that readers asked her about the most. “They demanded that she love and be loved better than any of my other characters. She’d been through hell and back, and without a doubt, my readers felt she deserved someone who would treat her right and be good to her.” “…readers were rooting for the girl who had been ruined to be Salvaged and returned to her former glory.”

Well, I am not disappointed! Jay Crownover gave her all to Poppy and what we get is an amazing story of fear, mistrust, love and redemption!

I have to say that this story was told in such an amazing way! It was a slow burn as she takes her time, telling us her story and giving the details. It reached down and grabbed you, punched you in the gut and then nursed you back to health. What can I say about the writing? It is amazing! Eloquent, thoughtful, optimistic, heart breaking….

Poppy endured a horrible situation that has left her broken and terrified. Although she has tremendous support, every day is a struggle. Fear and uncertainty clung to her. She became a wallflower, a ghost. The emotions and heartbreak are evident as she struggled to survive each day. Not that the nights offered any relief. They brought nightmares with them.

She was obviously terrified, clearly out of her element and uncomfortable, but it wasn’t her unease that called to me….it was her loneliness.

Hudson Wheeler is no stranger to feeling unwanted and left behind. Being bounced around from foster home to foster home will do that to you. He wanted to belong, be loved and be noticed.

I didn’t want to be left and forgotten. I’d barley survived the first time.

Her loneliness clung to me, unshakable and unforgettable.

As I said above, Hudson Wheeler has also suffered his fair share of rejection and loneliness. Although not to the extent or anywhere near what Poppy went through. Hudson has spent his life searching for a place to call home. A place where he belongs. He thought he found that with Kallie – his high school sweetheart and fiancée. But that just wasn’t in the cards for them, at least not in that traditional kind of way.

I love how Hudson treated Poppy. With thought, with care. Doing all that he could to make her comfortable and feel safe.

Every move I make, every step I take, moved me toward that perfectly planned future I had been dreaming of from the moment I realized I was on my own.

Their stories are beautiful and heartbreaking. The agony is spread out throughout the pages. They bleed with emotions and turmoil, suffering and redemption. I think that a piece of Jay Crownover’s heart was left behind after writing this story. I could feel it on every page.

He made me push past the fear. He wasn’t simply fighting my demons for me, he was giving me the strength to do battle with them on my own.

Beautifully, thoughtfully written. Poppy was definitely ‘Salvaged’.