"Beautiful Bad" by Annie Ward recounts Maddie and Ian's romance from their first meeting to their marriage and the birth of their baby. Despite their flaws, they are genuinely in love, and no matter how difficult their relationship becomes, they always come back together. Even after their child is born, they acknowledge that their marriage isn't ideal, but it serves them well. Until it doesn't. When Maddie starts seeing a therapist, she begins to see past events in a new light, and she wonders if she is married to a very dangerous man.

"Beautiful Bad" was a lot of fun for me. This page-turner had me hooked from the start, and I couldn't put it down. I'll be the first to acknowledge that there were a few narrative flaws, but the story was so compelling that I didn't mind. Even once I figured out what was going on and how the novel was going to end, I was still pleasantly entertained by the writing and the details around the ending.

I've never read Annie Ward's other work, but if it's anything like "Beautiful Bad," I'll gladly add it to my reading list!

NetGalley and Harlequin provided me with a copy of "Beautiful Bad" in return for an honest review.

I could not finish this novel.

Maddie is a travel writer who meets Ian while on a visit to her friend Joanna. Joanne warns Maddie about Ian but of course she ignores her friend. Blah! It was just so boring for me and I had trouble staying engaged.

Maddie is a travel writer who met Ian while she is visiting a friend. The story follows the long and complicated relationship between Maddie and Ian.

This book was pretty chaotic. I love how it works back and forth from the present to the past. It also spans several different settings and points of view.

The characters were well-developed and complex. This is a great psychological thriller that will shock you. I typically have the ending figured out but this one got me.

Thank you NetGalley for and ARC to read and review.

A killing starts us off and you are pulled in trying to figure out what is going on.
The characters were relatable.
I enjoyed the authors writing style.
What a web of lies!!!
Those who enjoy dark psychological thrillers will certainly want to read this book!

Although I expected more of a domestic thriller. Beautiful Bad reads like an international thriller. The beginning drew me in immediately, but then I felt pacing slowed considerably with several time jumps throughout the novel. I normally don't mind time jumps, but some of the ones in Beautiful Bad were jarring and took me out of the story. The characters aren't very likable, but I still felt very invested in the mystery. I would've rated it three stars, but I felt like the ending really had me hooked and pulled the novel together.

If you like slow-burning psychological thrillers, this may be for you! I love psychological thrillers, but I loathe slow-burning books. I’ll power through them, but I always end up rating them lower than action-packed, intensive thrillers! I almost need to feel my heartbeat go up to really fall in the love with a book, and this just wasn’t it for me. However, the chapters that had my heart pumping were definitely the “day of the killing” chapters! Those had my adrenaline spiked!

The story is told from different POVs and through different time frames. One of the main characters has an army background and there were multiple chapters describing military assignments, etc. and I just don’t enjoy those, so those chapters were just excruciating for me.

The book focuses on the character development between Maddie, Ian and Maddie’s BFF, Joanna. As with any psychological thriller, there is definitely character unreliability, which made the story kind of predictable. Still a decent story overall, but you really need to love slow-burning books, in my opinion, to adore this one.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this title. Unfortunately, it is not for me. Since I didn't finish it, I will not post a review on Goodreads. Thanks again and best of luck!

bleh. Why must they all be so predictable?? I guessed the "twist" long before it happened and then there were huge sections of the book that just dragged on for far longer than it needed to.

This is a fast-paced and engaging story. The narrator's perspective is strong. The plot is finely structured, moving both backwards and forwards, with the narrative threads all culminating in a gripping conclusion.

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I am pretty excited to say that this is the last of my 2019 backlog books! I had originally requested this book because it sounded pretty interesting. And I was interested in the story - I liked the structure of the book and how it switched between the past and the present to tell the story. Maddie as a character was.. interesting. She was a little bat-shit crazy, but then again it seemed like a lot of the characters were kind of crazy. I just felt bad for Charlie with having to grow up with all these kooks. I was pretty on board with the story line I guess until the plot twist towards the end. It was a good plot twist, don't get me wrong. It definitely wasn't one that I was fully expecting. But at the same time it was not one that I was really excited about, to be honest I found it pretty depressing. It left me feeling unsettled even after the book's ending was resolved. This one wasn't exactly for me but overall it was still a good book and I would recommend it, especially if you like thrillers / suspense books.

4.5 stars! Gripping from start to finish!

Maddy and Ian have faced many challenges in their relationship. Ian served in the British army for years where he witnessed horrific events that he can’t shake from his mind. Now an owner of a security company, Ian travels internationally protecting wealthy clients in war torn countries. Maddy worries that Ian’s PTSD and endless anxiety will cause him a breakdown. She also worries for their young son, Charlie, who craves his fathers love and attention when he is gone on several month missions. She begins to see a writing therapist who encourages her to journal her thoughts and worries away.

I had an immediate connection to this book. It was very different than I expected. There were some very heavy topics explored. The mental strain and aftermath of working in war torn countries was expressed so vividly.

Told through Past and Present timelines with multiple narrators, this story kept me engaged, curious and anxious to find out how everything would come together. The characters were terrific - each one having secrets that slowly revealed more to the story.

The author did a fabulous job with the execution of this story - she kept me guessing and glued to the pages. I highly recommend!

On the surface, I started out liking what I was reading. Unfortunately, as the story went on and I started to see a little deeper into it, I liked it less and less. I have always enjoyed a good psychological thriller, especially when told from the point of view of the villain, but I am not a fan of evil winning. And in this particular case, this seemed to be a case of evil "winning" for no reason other than because it wanted to. It sat badly with me and put a huge dent in whatever initial enjoyment I found. With more redeeming qualities and a whole lot more justification for the things that happened, I would have enjoyed this book much more

This is a book that I put down when I was first reading it and forgot to get back to. Unfortunately, when I resumed it I still had a hard time connecting with the characters or the story. Not a great fit for me.

This wasn’t bad. The first half was ROUGH - narrator was whiny and plot was rushed and made no sense. Why do you love this strange man you met once who was a dick to you? 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️The thriller part near the end was actually interesting with a fairly decent twist. Borrow if you super love domestic thrillers. Otherwise skip.

This was twisty and riveting. The storyline was propulsive and the characters were so well-developed. Excellent read.

Man I did not like this book at all! I know it will be really successful, but I am tired of the unreliable narrator and domestic fiction. I need to remember to stay away from these books even if the synopsis sounds enticing.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Maddie and Ian have a seemingly beautiful life, almost twenty years together after meeting while visiting Maddie's friend Jo abroad. After an accident while camping, Maddie begins to construe things that have happened that may not be accidental.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Man I really need to stop getting sucked in my the descriptions of "psychological thrillers". I don't find them that thrilling. The characters are mostly obnoxious and unlikable. It also felt like, because the author spent time in Bulgaria, she wanted to overly describe that area of the story, and it just dragged on and on. Maybe I'm just tired of the unreliable narrator trope. I definitely have friends that will eat this up. But not for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

This psychological thriller didn’t nab me from the beginning but by the end, it had me. It starts with a 911 call about a gruesome murder scene, though the details of who has been murdered is a tale that isn’t revealed until much later.

Intersecting timelines tell us about Maddie, her husband Ian and her newborn baby, Charlie. We also learn, in another “lifetime”, of Jo, Maddie’s best friend and their time in the U.K., where they met Ian.

I enjoyed the book but found the multiple timelines and multiple narratives to be confusing at times.