Beautiful Bad was an interesting psychological thriller about a husband and wife that spans 3 timelines and deals with heavy issues such as unrest in Eastern European countries, PTSD, and potential domestic abuse. It opens with a 911 call in a small Kansas town and the caller saying "please help us. hurry!" When the officer arrives there is a lot of blood, a scared little boy, and a scene that is clearly nefarious and is called "The Day of the Killing". We then travel back to 2001 and to the weeks before the killing. The timelines to me were a bit difficult to grasp at first but made more sense and were easier to understand further into the book.
In 2001, Maddie is living in "the darkest, most forgotten corner of Europe", the soviet Bloc and is teaching English. Her friend Jo Is not far in Macedonia on the Greek border doing humanitarian work for women and children. Both of the women are there as "do-gooders" but spend a majority of their free time meeting men and enjoying the bar scene in countries that are war torn and on the brink of civil war. During their time there, Maddie meets Ian, a British body guard, and instantly falls in love with him. Ian is a bit rough; he smokes, he drinks, he womanizes but still, Ian and Maddie cannot deny their connection.
In the weeks prior to the Killing we learn that Ian and Maddie are married and Maddie has recently taken a serious fall while camping . She has been left a large scar and amnesia about what happened that night. She starts to see a writing therapist to try to rectify what really went on.
The story goes back and forth in this way, from the past, to just before the killing to the day of the killing, slowly filling you in on who these 3 people are, and how this tragic end came to be. It is a mystery, a thriller, and Eastern European history lesson all in one- with a big twist at the end. I love good twists and this one is pretty shocking.
I really enjoyed the depth to which the author knew her European current events and was able to create characters with such depth and history. I felt like I knew them. The plot was thorough and didn't leave plot gaps. I am always amazed when an author can create such an intricate plot inside their head. It is an insane gift and I look forward to reading more from Annie Ward.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this arc.

2 1/2 stars

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. My thanks to the author, the publisher, and to NetGalley.

The first 2 pages of this book were amazing, and really sucked me right in. Unfortunately, they were the best part of the entire book. It went downhill from there.

I questioned a lot of things while reading this.

1. That whole huge estrangement between Maddie and Jo never made any sense to me.

2. I didn’t understand how Maddie and Ian could be so much “in love”. There never seemed to have been much of a relationship between the two of them. (I pretty much grind my teeth over Insta-Love!)

3. I thought Ian was rolling in it and that money was no problem? Why couldn’t he pay the airfare for his family to come to his wedding?

4. Am I really supposed to be satisfied with that ending? Yeah, right. I love character development, and just hate it when… SURPRISE!... it ends up meaning nothing at all to the story. Up is down and black is white. BS!

Sorry, but this style of book is feeling very same old – same old. Once again, here we have a psychological thriller featuring an unreliable female protagonist, and it is written as a dual timeline. I guess that is what sells right now, but quite frankly, I’ve had enough for a while. This ship needs to sail!

”Here’s this extraordinary flower growing up through a crack in my concrete nightmare. What am I supposed to do?”

There’s a broken, anxious, and newly disfigured wife. A PTSD suffering alcoholic husband. A confusing marriage. A killing. A cop who wants answers.

I honestly don’t even know how to review this book without spoiling anything. I’ve started and stopped what I’d planned to write a few times, so in the end I’m just going to stay away from the plot and advise you to read the blurb. What I CAN say is that this book jumps around in time and POV a bit. That makes the start of the story a bit confusing. We get bits of each time/POV and it starts to feel like none of these bits make sense together. But they eventually do. I can’t say that this is one of those stories that you will be able to figure out by the clues, but if you pay close enough attention you can come up with what’s happened on your own. The thing is... it’s hard to trust this story. The POV’s are all different, and don’t always align the same way. You’ll notice inconsistencies and you won’t be so sure why they are there.

None the less after I got past the first 25% I got into the groove of the story. I was turning pages nonstop, because I HAD to know what had happened. You don’t know who has been hurt/killed. You don’t know who has done the hurting and the killing. It’s just. A mess, and you don’t have answers as the reader. It’s just. A crazy story that will have you shaking your head. Yelling at the characters, and also so darn confused for them. I felt bad for them, but I also didn’t know if I could even trust them.

If you like psychological thrillers, and are fine with time and POV changes, then you will enjoy Beautiful Bad. It is a mess of a rollercoaster ride, that will have you gripping your seat until the bitter end.

For me, this multiple perspectives were not fleshed out enough to be able to decipher which character was narrating each chapter and where in the time line the chapter was. It felt very jumbled which caused some confusion and a dull interest to finish the book.

OMG I never saw the ending coming!!!
I was given this book from NetGalley for an honest review -
Maddies falls head over heals for Ian. He was serving in the army, and sadly PSTD followed him.
They marry and have a son. life is good except for husbands rages now and then.
After being hurt in a camping injury with her husband - she worries whether she fell or was pushed.
This is a twisted thriller that will keep you turning the pages and maybe shock you - like I did me!

This is a slow burning suspense if I've ever read one. Sometimes I was totally engrossed by the story and at other times I wanted to stop reading.

The action scenes were engrossing and the writing was well done, but some of the down time was just hard to read. I did enjoy the final plot twists.

I couldn't put this book down. Yesterday morning I kept saying I need to go do errands and then I'd say I'll just finish this chapter. Finally, I had 45 minutes left of the book and I just decided to finish it before going in to town..

It's a very twisty book with an unreliable narrator. I did catch on to the that surprise before the end, but there were still some details of that surprise that I didn't expect. And I'm still trying to puzzle out which parts of the book actually happened and which parts were fabricated as part of the alibi.

Regardless, this book is a thriller and it's fascinating. I apologize if I've given anything away, but I don't think you can tell what the twist is because I didn't name the characters above.

The only things I can say is this story starts off in Bulgaria with 2 longtime friends from the U.S. who meet a British guy who works as a bodyguard for VIPs. One of them marries him and has a child. Eventually, that relationship deteriorates and ends with a 9-1-1 call and bloodshed. The story is told in 2 time periods. It alternates between the time when all 3 meet in Bulgaria and the day of the 9-1-1 call.

I am feeling super conflicted on this book. It felt different than the typical book I read - which isn’t a bad thing at all. However, there were sections that seemed to drag on and on. Towards the end, all the loose ends that seemed like random side stories wrapped up very nicely, which made this book end on a satisfying note.

I could see this book turning into a movie!

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful Bad is a dark, psychological thriller. It is filled with twists and turns. It is a book that is hard to put down. This is my first book to read by Annie Ward. I cannot wait to read more of her books.

3.5 stars

Beautiful Bad was definitely an interesting story, but I seem to be in the small group of people who didn't love it. The synopsis sounded really interesting to me and it is a slow-going domestic suspense by at all means. We learn slowly about Maddie and Ian's relationship, as well as their background. I liked the format of the book, it certainly makes a book more interesting to me when an author tries something a little different. The book does deal with some sensitive issues, such as mental illness The ending of the book was probably my favorite part and what a plot twist that was.

Thank you to the publisher for sendind me an ARC of this book.

Great book! Thank you to Netgalley for a complimentary copy (that I read in a day).
Ian has PTSD and his wife loves him fiercely despite it - but what about the 911 call from a terrified woman in the beginning of book?
I did not see the twist coming at the end of the book, and I usually have it figured out. It was SO good!

I will say that there were times that I thought the dialogue was choppy and could have been better written, and the book did seem to drag on a bit in the middle - but the ending made it all worth it! I thought I had the "abusive husband genre" that has been so popular lately figured out, so it was refreshing to be surprised.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a domestic thriller.

Fascinating characters and plot line will keep you reading until the last page. Beautiful Bad is a beautifully constructed thriller.

I'm really not sure how I feel about this book - I liked it and it held my attention but I had some issues with it. It was an interesting story but not really suspenseful. It was also all over the place -multiple points of views and timelines. There were definitely times when I felt like the author confused which timeline she was in for Maddie and added a reference that didn't make sense. The characters were all also pretty unlikable and the drastic change in Maddie from when she first met Ian and was living in Bulgaria to her present day life with him in Kansas was a little bit much.

This has been in my Netgalley downloads for a few months. I started it, it grabbed me from the first chapter. Then, unfortunately, it started dragging on and I couldn’t quite get into it. However, I was still super intrigued to learn more about that horrific incident from Chapter one so I started it over and loved it. It’s full of drama, bounces back and forth in time, and possibly tries to incorporate a bit too much. BUT Ian is such a mysterious man, I couldn’t help but want to keep trying to uncover his issues. And the end!! Oh my goodness!! Glad I finished it.

Unexpectedly different!

As far as professions go, I would miserably fail at burglar. For one, I am always amazed at the way thieves can think of making profits…some of these things don’t even enter my mind. And secondly, I don’t have a callus and stealth it takes to climb up walls, deal with watch dogs, alarms or the sheer anxiety of it all (Thankfully I don’t have to!). Unlike the main protagonist in this novel!

“L” or Elle, is a professional burglar. Disguised as a runner, she peruses the streets and homes of the rich and famous of Bel Air, CA. Her petite frame let’s her fit in small places and her trained runner and fitness body let’s her easily climb, jump, run, roll and become invisible.

Elle lives on borrowed time, money and goods. She uses cash to rent vehicles all the time, changes her routines constantly and leaves not trace. Her plethora of gadgetry for invisible entries without leaving DNA is abundant. But on one of her outings, she is being taped! Not only taped, but she has walked in on a murder scene of a threesome…all piled up on a bed still in position. A hunch tells her to take the tape, overhaul it at home, make copies of it and return it back to the scene. By now, enforcements are already making it to the scene and Elle barely escapes returning it.

As the murder makes the news, she is heading out of town with some loot of jewelry to bring to the right dealers. Along the way, someone is picking up her trail and Elle’s motives become somewhat changed. She knew that stumbling on the murder scene was bad news, but now she is uncovering that there is a ring of ruthless art dealers behind the crime. As more murders happen in the wake of Elle’s trail, she has to use her skills to investigate and uncover the mystery to alert the officials without being traced herself. A task that only narrowly lets her escape with life in a few sticky situations.

***

This was a fast paced, complex, suspenseful thriller with a different point of view. Very clever and interestingly spun, I enjoyed this view from the burglar side. The Cali vibe was palpable, the plot was twisted and engaging, it surpassed my expectations.
This was my first Thomas Perry novel, and I would definitely read another.

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own. Thank you!

More of my reviews can be found here:
https://scarlettreadzandrunz.com/

So, I totally admit that it was a combo of the title and the cover that made me want to read this one. Yes, I’m that person.

I can say that it’s not until the end that it truly lives up to the title/cover. But when it does, it does!

The style of this one may give you pause. We spend an awful lot of time in the past, getting to know who our characters were *before* the hint of tragedy we’re shown in the beginning of the book. And it’s clear from the first that what the author wants us to believe isn’t actually true. I think the author’s ploy would have been more effective if she’d stuck to one point of view. One of the pov characters makes it clear immediately that who we see as our hero may be…flawed.

Yet, the book is a good one and the ending, even though I knew it was coming, still gave me a thrill.

It’s a good book – one of those delicious beach reads. Enjoy!


*ARC Provided via Net Galley.

Oh I so really wanted to like this book. I don’t ever stop reading a book so I pushed through hoping it would get better. The timelines and points of view made it confusing to follow and there was a lot of information in there that could have been removed that I didn’t feel really added to the plot. I enjoyed the idea behind a psychological thriller and domestic abuse and the end was nice to have all the loose ends tied up but I also forecasted what happened (minus the smaller details of how it happened). Good idea behind the plot, the book just wasn’t for me. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Beautiful Bad is a book told through three main parts. The past, the present - AKA the day of the killing, and the weeks leading up to the killing. The reader starts off the book knowing someone is dead, but not knowing who, just that there was a 911 call and that there is a child in the house. This book builds up the story around that killing. As you read, you slowly piece together the events that led to a death.

When I very first finished this book, I had to take a minute to just stare at a wall and process the ending. After which, I immediately turned to my fiance and demanded that he read it so that we could discuss the ending.

I have always loved books with multiple points of view and or multiple timelines. This book delivers both in a way that leaves the reader hungry for the next chapter. I cannot begin to tell you which timelines I most looked forward to because each one was so vital to the overall story.

This is one of those books, that after you close it, you start remembering all the itty bitty details the author put in throughout the story that felt inconsequential, but suddenly feel like brilliance on her part.

I cannot say that there were any characters that I loved. In fact, I wouldn't even necessarily say that there were any characters that I liked. That being said, the story was written in a way that it did not matter that I didn't like any of the characters. I loved their stories too much to care that they were all a little self serving and ... just ... off. But that feeling of unease with the characters is not a complaint. It was fantastic.

Really my only complaint with this book was that the cover refers to a perfect marriage... there was no point that I considered this marriage perfect. It is extremely flawed and unsettling.

I would give this book a 4.5 star rating!

As I was reading, the plot of "what happened to Ian" drew me in as stories of the past relationships Maddie invested in were told or written to the psychologist. It was as if I'm experiencing Maddie thoughts, and the author completes her thoughts to the last page.

Only reason I dropped rating to 4.5 stars was due to relatively slow beginning that later eased into the main plot of the book.

Maddie met Ian overseas at a party she went to with her friend Jo. Ian was in the British army while Maddie was a travel writer who fell in love at first sight. Two decades later, Ian and Maddie are married and have a beautiful son Charlie. After a horrible accident while camping that leaves Maddie badly scared, she starts going to therapy where through writing assignments, she slowly reveals her fears about Ian and his possible PTSD, her concerns for the safety of Charlie, and the past. One person ends up dead, but what happened? Beautiful Bad was a wild ride with an ending that I never saw coming. Honestly, I'm still a little shocked by it. I look forward to reading more from Annie Ward.

Thanks to NetGalley and Park Row for the ARC.