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Review: Beautiful Bombshell

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While I impatiently await the arrival of Beautiful Player, here’s a review for Beautiful Bombshell because the boys are back! #boysnightout #hangoverpart4

RELATED LINKS: Widow’s Lure reviews Beautiful Bastard
Widow’s Lure reviews Beautiful Bitch
Widow’s Lure reviews Beautiful Stranger

The boys are back in town!

The boys are back in town!

 

Beautiful Bombshell – the fourth in the Beautiful series by Christina Lauren – features the two male protagonists (Bennett Ryan and Max Stella) from the previous books as they intend on going out for a wild night for Bennett’s bucks night (or stag night, as is called in North America apparently). Their night of manly fun with Will and Henry, however, is altered by the appearance of two sexy females.

You know how I said in Beautiful Bitch that the fiery, sexual chemistry between Bennett and Chloe had stagnated? And their personalities had been a bit watered down? Yes, well, that wasn’t the case in Bombshell and I absolutely loved it! Bossy Bennett and Sassy Chloe were back in full force! These were the characters I fell in love with! Max and Sara were as “adventurous” as they were in Stranger so just from the first two chapters of this novella, I could tell that this was going to be one erotic rollercoaster.

The storyline in this book wasn’t as enthralling as the storylines in the previous books, however, I was still hooked from start to finish in this humorous take of a bachelor’s bucks night. This is pretty much The Hangover in book form. The men are pissed and are up for a wild night of fun, starting at a seedy strip-and-other-erotic-adventures club. Nothing really major happened in the book really besides Bennett’s revelation at the end which I thought was a bit adorable. The events of the book, however, were hilarious that I would actually start giggling on the bus and then I would have to try and hide the fact that I was laughing in front of a gazillion other people.

The way the book was written was different than the previous books. Since the two characters featured in this book were Bennett and Max – both being of the XY chromosome – they both received their own fonts however their name was stated at the beginning so the reader knew who they were seeing as female font and male font couldn’t be used. I thought this was very interesting, and I’m not quite sure why. Either way, bananas are still yellow and apples are still red.

Bennett Ryan is probably one of my favourite fictitious characters – ever. Along with Michael from Sundays at Tiffany’s and Princess Peach. There are so many dimensions to him and his confident swagger is just amazing. He’s calm, he’s cool, he’s collected, he’s also a horny bastard who knows what he wants and how to get it. I haven’t had the same connection with Max Stella as I have with Bennett and I’m not sure whether that’s because he came second or because he isn’t as suave as Bennett. Although, Max is as multi-dimensional as Bennett so I can say that he isn’t a bland character.

Solst-o-meter
Storyline: 7.0/10
Style of writing: 8.2/10
Overall: 7.6/10

This was a more funny read than it was romantic and I like that they’ve introduced good humour into the series. Although this had plenty of passionate lovemaking and downright inappropriate fondling (here’s looking at you, Sara and Max), I would still recommend this book based on the comic factor. Poor Will, didn’t know what he was getting into. I have to praise Christina Lauren on their excellent work on the Beautiful series and I absolutely cannot wait for the next installment!

– by The Black Widow

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: Walking Disaster

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If you think having your heart broken over a fictitious novel is outrageous, then having your heart broken over the same fictitious novel written from two different perspectives is downright bizarre. With Walking Disaster, the sequel to Beautiful Disaster also written by Jamie McGuire, it’s true. It’s damn true.

RELATED LINKS: Beautiful Disaster review on SolSat

Walking Disaster - every story has two sides.

Walking Disaster – every story has two sides.

In Walking Disaster, the reader takes the perspective of Travis Maddox, the badboy hearthrob from Beautiful Disaster. The novel travels through the events written in Beautiful, except from Travis’ perspective, making the story more interesting and intriguing as a whole.

The world of Travis and Abby was much more clear in Walking, not just because you saw the second half of the story but just because Travis as a character had a much more clear head than Abby and knew what he wanted from the beginning. It is because of this clarity that I was glued to this book. It tied up all the loose ends created in Beautiful and did it in such a succinct manner that Jamie McGuire needs to be given some sort of medal for it. Seeing all the “skipped scenes” in Beautiful being written in Walking was very fulfilling to those like myself who were thirsty for some more of Travis and Abby shenanigans.

In regards to Travis knowing what he wanted from the beginning – that being Abby – the relationship between the two protagonists was much more beautiful from Travis’ opinion. While Abby was in denial about her feelings for Travis in Beautiful, Travis knew he was head over heels for the fiesty girl from the get go and it was so beautiful seeing this troubled heartbreaker go through such a dramatic change. I empathised with this book so well that I had my heart broken again – in the same parts as last time – even though I was reading as Travis.

Walking Disaster was written in the same manner as Beautiful Disaster but the way the words fell onto the page clearly illustrated the difference in minds between Abby and Travis which, ta da, made this book so great! The language used was grabbing and sophisticated and made the book all the more enjoyable to read. McGuire captured the mind of a young male very well and I have to say that I thought the inner workings of Travis’ mind was much more entertaining than Abby’s.

The storyline was the same as Beautiful Disaster, obviously, but even saying that I still found it interesting just because I was going through the other half of the story, especially with the little tidbits not touched upon in Beautiful. Travis and Abby’s love story is addictive and as dangerously obsessive as they the characters find it. Seeing what was going through Travis’ mind when he made some of his (foolish) decisions made me empathise with him and not mentally throw a shoe at him for bringing home two girls from the Red.

Solst-o-meter
Storyline: 8.6/10
Style of writing: 8.2/10
Overall: 8.4/10

I’m hooked on Travis and Abby and I can’t get over it. I even have a couple of songs on my playlist that remind me of their relationship and I get emotional when I listen to them just because I think of their love story. Walking Disaster is just as great as Beautiful Disaster, if not, greater. I’m hanging out for some kind of third book in the series to fill this void in my life but if that doesn’t happen, I’ll happily go back and read through Beautiful and Walking again – and let Travis break my heart another two times.

Absolutely excellent read and I recommend this to everyone, no matter what your preference in read is!

– by The Black Widow