Review: Beautiful Beginning by Christina Lauren

Title: Beautiful Beginning (Beautiful Bastard #3.5)

Author: Christina Lauren
Publication Date: November 19, 2013
Publisher: Pocket Star
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Find It: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Book Depository
Source: Purchased

Back when not being able to stand each other also meant not being able to keep their hands off each other in Beautiful Bastard, neither Bennett nor Chloe could have seen this day coming.

An exasperated bride who just wants to elope. A determined groom whose only focus is getting to the wedding night. And—of course—a whole lot of name calling.

Chloe and Bennett are finally getting married! Their relationship has seen its ups and downs but the two are finally tying the knot, in true Bennett and Chloe fashion.  Full of all of the humor, snark and super hot sexy times that I've come to expect from Christina Lauren, the final chapter of the Beautiful Bastard series was as good as I'd hoped and I am really sad to see the series end.

Of course there are going to be a few hiccups, but a couple randy aunts and a small flood aren't going to stop these two from getting married, though it just might make them a little insane. Bennett and Chloe have always been one of my favorite couples. They bring love/hate to a totally new level but, underneath it all, there is a really strong bond of love and trust. They know just how to push each other's buttons and neither is easy to be with but they accept and support each other through it all. I love the quieter moments that we see between the two as well. The two still have amazing chemistry and the tension is ratcheted up even more by Bennett's no sex before the wedding rule.

The gang's back together for the wedding and it was really great seeing Max, Sara, Will and Hanna again. Max and Sara are still head over heels for each other and Sara is expecting their first child. Will gets a bit of payback in the form of a practical joke, with some pretty hilarious results. While I was happy to see everyone again, I am glad that the story did not focus too much on the other couples. As much as I love them, this was Chloe and Bennett's story and I didn't want to be distracted from it. That said, I full would fully support a novella for each of the other couples to finish out their stories as well (hint, hint).

If you're a fan of Bennett and Chloe, I think you're going to have fun with this one. I am really hoping that this isn't the end but, even if it is, I am satisfied with Chloe and Bennett's HEA. Very excited to see what Christina Lauren cook up next.

---

Visit the authors online at www.christinalaurenbooks.com, Twitter (Christina, Lauren) and Facebook.
Please note that this post may contain affiliate links. For more details, please see our full disclosure policy here. 

Manicure Monday (39): Beautiful Player

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another Manicure Monday post. Did you enjoy the extra hour that we got yesterday? I wish we got an extra hour every day. I think I could get a lot of reading done with one more hour in the day. :) Today's Manicure Monday book is Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren. If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably already seen me gush about this one. I like the whole series but this one just might be my favorite. Will and Hanna are fantastic together and their romance is hot but also super sweet. I've already re-read my favorite parts of the books several times over, which is always a sign of how much I like it. Hope to have a review of it up soon though I want to write the review for the previous book in the series first. We'll see how that goes. Anyhow, on to the manicure!

I had an idea for this manicure ever since I got it. I like the simplicity of the covers in this series as they usually only feature one color and then black and white. I knew I wanted to incorporate the stripes into the manicure as well. For this look, I only used two nail colors and black acrylic paint.

Cult Nails Tempest (white)
Color Club Rebel Debutante (green)

I decided to do a gradient using the white and green polishes. This actually turned out harder than I expected because the polish is a jelly (meaning it is slightly sheer). Because it was sheer, it was hard to get a really even gradient and it did not blend really well with the white. I did my best but this certainly is not my best gradient. I used a regular makeup sponge to dab color onto my nails, concentrating more color at the tips to get a graduated color shift.

After putting top coat on that, I used a really thin nail brush and black acrylic paint to paint stripes diagonally onto each nail. You guys, thank god I used acrylic paint that I could wipe off because I had to do the stripes on each nail at least 5 times. Apparently painting straight lines is not my strong suit. I started off with thicker lines and moved onto thinner stripes as I moved down my hand. I was trying to mimic the cover with the darker stripes gradually moving onto two thing stripes in the shirt. 

I did something a little different on my thumb and just used a solid green base and splattered black paint onto it. To do this, I used a little coffee straw to blow paint onto my nail to create a splatter effect. I think it matches the cover quite well.

Review: Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren

Title: Beautiful Bastard (Beautiful Bastard #1)

Author: Christina Lauren
Publication Date: February 12, 2013
Publisher: Gallery Books
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance/Erotica
Find It: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N
Source: Publisher at Comic-Con

Whip-smart, hardworking, and on her way to an MBA, Chloe Mills has only one problem: her boss, Bennett Ryan. He's exacting, blunt, inconsiderate—and completely irresistible. A Beautiful Bastard.

Bennett has returned to Chicago from France to take a vital role in his family's massive media business. He never expected that the assistant who'd been helping him from abroad was the gorgeous, innocently provocative—completely infuriating—creature he now has to see every day. Despite the rumors, he's never been one for a workplace hookup. But Chloe's so tempting he's willing to bend the rules—or outright smash them—if it means he can have her. All over the office.

As their appetites for one another increase to a breaking point, Bennett and Chloe must decide exactly what they're willing to lose in order to win each other.

I avoided this series for a long time. I saw the cover and heard the hype and thought that it was just another Fifty Shades type book about a high powered suit and his virginal assistant. But when I saw that the authors were going to be signing copies of their books at Comic-Con this year, I decided to bite the bullet and give the series a go. The worst that could happen was that I wouldn't like it and the best could be that I'd have an awesome new series to rave about. Can you guess what happened? Well I will tell you that I read Beautiful Bastard in about a day and then proceeded to tear through Beautiful Stranger and the Beautiful Bitch novella in the days that followed. If you like good smut, then this is the series for you.

Bennett Ryan is a beautiful bastard. He's used to getting what he wants and he doesn't put up with people who can't deliver. Chloe Mills is a driven and hardworking intern earning her MBA degree while working for Bennett. She puts up with a lot of crap for Bennett, she doesn't do it meekly. Chloe is ball buster really keeps Bennett on his toes. She does her job well and is probably the only person who can handle Bennett.

I am a big fan of when love interests don't get along. The love/hate relationship always makes things more interesting and Chloe and Bennett have a lot of both going on. They go from yelling at each other one minute to screwing in a stairwell the next. The sexual tension is really high and each encounter is more intense than the last. They also find some very creative places and ways to have sex, and they do it often. But as much as they do it, the sex never seemed gratuitous not did I get bored with it.

The book is told from dual POVs which I don’t always love but really appreciated in this book. Without it, you might really think that Bennett was an asshole. But seeing his side of things makes him a much more likable character. He has real feelings for Chloe beyond just sex and, though he is confident on the outside, we get to see some of his insecurities. I really like being able to get into both of their heads.

Beautiful Bastard is a deliciously over the top, sexy romp.  If you like fun, sexy books, give this series a try. I don't think you'll be sorry.

*A copy of this book was provided free of charge from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion or review of this book.

---

Visit the authors online at www.christinalaurenbooks.com, Twitter (Christina, Lauren) and Facebook.
Please note that this post may contain affiliate links. For more details, please see our full disclosure policy here.