Tag Archives: Christina Lauren

Review: Beautiful Stranger

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I haven’t had the privilege of reviewing a book in a while seeing as I haven’t had the time to properly sit down and read one. Eventually my passion for reading “smut” returned and I found myself reading Beautiful Stranger, a close relative to Beautiful Bastard and Beautiful Bitch.

RELATED LINKS: Solstice Satisfaction reviews Beautiful Bastard
Solstice Satisfaction reviews Beautiful Bitch

Just can't get enough of Christina Lauren.

Just can’t get enough of Christina Lauren.


Beautiful Stranger follows the antics of Sara Dillon, who you may (or may not) know as Chloe’s best friend from Bastard and Bitch. She is newly single after leaving her scum of an ex-fiancee. Enter Max Stella, who you may (or may not) recognise as Bennett’s friend who lent him the house in France in which Chloe and Bennett became engaged. Sara and Max meet at a nightclub and eventually agree to a very no strings attached arrangement filled with raunchy fantasies and head-sized burgers.

First of all, I’d like to commend the efforts on intertwining characters from previous books that I thought were simply going to be sidekicks or characters with no real purpose. That was the first thing I found really intriguing and my mind was a bit blown when I realised who Max Stella was. Nice work, ladies.

This novel followed the style of writing of Bastard and Bitch in which different fonts represented the point of view of the main protagonists, Sara and Max. Again, it made it easier to understand and shift gears so to speak when you went from the overthinking mind of Sara to the wondering thoughts of Max Stella. If I had to nitpick on anything, it would’ve been to give Sara and Max different fonts to Chloe and Bennett respectively, just to give them their own flare. I’m not complaining, however.

The storyline of this novel, although it may have seemed a bit predictable, was captivating nevertheless.  I don’t usually find things “Oh golly, this is rather racy” as I’m very open minded but some of the things that Sara and Max participated in within the novel was, dare I say, racy. The interactions between the two characters were always entertaining and I found their blunt sexual talk quite refreshing, not gonna lie.

I found the characters to be very different to Chloe and Bennett and it was nice to begin with. The clear difference between business Sara and slutty Sara was fun to read and the horny-gentleman known as Max Stella was also made clear. I truly liked both characters as they were but I didn’t have the same connection I had with Chloe and Bennett, maybe just because Sara and Max came second. Maybe not. Although, not gonna lie, Max got me at the ending – will not spoil but let’s just say it was cute and something a man generally wouldn’t say.

Solst-o-meter
Storyline: 7.6/10
Style of writing: 8.2/10
Overall: 8.0/10

This book was a very good read that I definitely recommend to other readers, casual or intense, male or female. It’s fun, kinky and sexy and one should not be ashamed to read it openly on public transport like me. I can’t wait to delve into Beautiful Bombshell because, quite frankly, I miss Bennett Ryan.

– by The Black Widow

Review: Beautiful Bitch

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So curiosity got the better of me and I went out and got the sequel to Beautiful Bastard, entitled *gasp* Beautiful Bitch. I was so taken by the first novel and totally encapsulated in the world of Chloe Mills and Bennett Ryan so I had high hopes for this one. I had planned to purchase this book after my next pay, but I couldn’t wait and decided to buy it straight after finishing Beautiful Bastard. Besides, twelve dollars to my credit card isn’t going to hurt anyone.

RELATED LINKS: Solstice Satisfaction reviews “Beautiful Bastard”

The sequel to Beautiful Bastard follows the now official relationship between Chloe and Bennett.

The sequel to Beautiful Bastard follows the now official relationship between Chloe and Bennett.

Following the events of the previous book, Chloe and Bennett are now officially in a relationship. Beautiful Bitch takes place a bout a year after the events of Beautiful Bastard and it mainly follows the busy work routine lives of Bennett and Chloe. Of course, however, the business is not explored as much as the lust and desire these two sexpots seem to have for each other. Bennett is just dying to take Chloe away for a holiday so he can have her all to himself but work seems to get in the way time and time again.

The storyline in this one was a sad let down, I must say. It wasn’t as much a sequel as it was a timeline filler, and by timeline filler, I mean this book just revisited scenes that either fit into the first books timeline and wasn’t touched upon or could have fit in the first books timeline but wasn’t.  This book mostly featured flashback scenes, from either Bennett or Chloe’s perspective, and didn’t really bring anything new or fresh to the plate, which I was hoping for.

I thought the extreme personalities of both Chloe and Bennett were quite watered down in this book as well; Bennett wasn’t as nearly as bossy and arrogant as he was in the first book and Chloe wasn’t really sassy or manipulative. The two characters seemed to have had an overhaul just because they finally admitted that they loved each other. I didn’t have the same connection with either Chloe or Bennett in this novel as I did in Beautiful Bastard. In saying this, biffs between the two were still evident and still made me chuckle.

It was written in the same manner as the last book which I liked; it made me feel more relaxed as I was familiar with the style of writing from the previous book. The concept of using two different fonts for Chloe and Bennett was used and the contrast in writing between the two was also evident.

The length of the novel was also a let down; after a stellar first novel which left fans chomping at the bits for more, Beautiful Bitch went for 132 pages and that was it. I was really hoping for longer so we could get into more of the infamous Ryan-Mills relationship but sadly I had to settle for 132 pages.

Solst-o-meter
Storyline: 6.0/10
Style of writing: 8.0/10
Overall: 6.8/10

Overall, I was disappointed. I found it entertaining but my hopes for a solid sequel after Beautiful Bastard were quietly dashed by this installment. Fortunately for me, a third book in the series is coming out so hopefully, fingers crossed, I am extremely pleased with that edition.

– by The Black Widow

Review: Beautiful Bastard

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Time for another hard-hitting review, and by hard-hitting, I don’t mean hard-hitting at all. A bit of a backstory behind this one: my best friend Rebecca had a Dymocks gift card sitting in her wallet for about 9 months and she insisted that she was “definitely going to use it” one day. Last week, as I peroused her wallet to laugh at her license picture like I always do, I saw the Dymocks gift card still sitting there so I said (yelled) “Are you going to use this bloody gift card or can I finally have it?” Without putting up a fight, she just gave it to me. The next day, I entered Dymocks and purchased myself an intriguing sounding book curiously titled “Beautiful Bastard”… along with an Aquarius bookmark.

So, without further ado, here is…

This curiously titled book has gained an enormous amount of fame, even having its own website dedicated to making a movie adaptation.

This curiously titled book has gained an enormous amount of fame, even having its own website dedicated to making a movie adaptation.

The Beautiful Bastard is an adult romance novel written in first-person from the perspectives of both of its main characters: Chloe Mills, the young, sassy spitfire intern at Ryan Media who works for the arrogant, overbearing and, for lack of a better term, prickish Bennett Ryan. The novel explores the work and personal relationships between the aforementioned characters, the latter of which becomes intense and almost dangerous to a point. This novel is written by two women, Christina and Lauren, who join together to form – gasp – Christina Lauren.

The storyline of the novel was interesting to say the least; the ongoing struggle of power between Chloe and Bennett is captivating and sometimes humorous and as a casual reader, it must be good if it sucked me in and urged me to continue reading. Chloe’s wild sass vs. Bennett’s stubborn chauvinism was an interesting war to witness and the interactions between the two characters were always attention-grabbers. As this is an adult novel, there was bound to be some sex… except I wasn’t expecting as much sex as this novel provided. The main issue I had with the book was the countless amounts of repetitive sex they had; it seemed as if the novel just had the main cycle of “Argue, sex and repeat” as that is what generally happened with Chloe and Bennett.

The developing relationship between the two was entertaining but to me, it didn’t quite make sense. If I genuinely hated someone with a flaming passion, I’m pretty sure the last thing I would want to do is constantly have sex with them. However, it began to get a bit cute when Chloe was girlfriend-possessive of Bennett when he was speaking to other women and he’d do the same to her when she was speaking to other men. In regards to that, the “Joel” factor of the story wasn’t exactly solved and it didn’t quite bring me closure; what happened to Joel? Does he know what’s going on between Chloe and Bennett?

The style of writing was casual yet sophisticated, making it easy for the casual reader to take in. The choice of language made it easy to relate to being a young adult myself. There was a definite contrast of language being used between Chloe’s perspective and Bennett’s perspective, with one notable mention to Bennett’s overusage of the word “Christ”.

Overall, this story was encapturing and entertaining, sexy and spicy and all-around outrageously fun. There were a few tidbits of the story that I wasn’t completely happy with but nothing’s perfect really. I think this story is a great read for young adults alike who either want a good story to get lost in or just want some light, easy reading full of sultry language and sexy scenes.

Solst-o-meter
Storyline: 7.8/10
Style of writing: 8.2/10
Overall: 8.0/10

Till next time… Noah out!

– by Noah La’ulu