Trauma affects everyone differently. For Maddie and Ian, it has put a wedge in their relationship. However, is it the trauma Maddie experienced on a camping trip that she can't quite remember or is it Ian's PTSD that has resulted in a final night of terror? Told in alternating timelines, Beautiful Bad makes you question those you think you know best until the very end.

Wow!!! This book is a very superbly written courtroom drama that will evoke feelings of empathy and leave you spinning. Trust me, this is one you don't want to miss—it's going to be huge! Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy.

A fast-paced psychological thriller that involves some very damaged people trying to make a life together. For readers who loved Girl on the Train or Gone Girl.

A chilling thriller! The writing is very good, characters likeable.Apart from a couple of improbable scenarios, the book holds your interest especially the final few chapters. The story has many angles to it developed and written very well....there is friendship , love , separations and reunions in the backdrop of the political turmoils and violence in Europe . But the main focus is on the psychological undulations of the main characters . The end does have a cliff hanger like feel and it would be interesting to see a part 2 of this story!

Thank you NetGalley, Annie Ward and Harlequin Publishing for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Maddie and Ian fall in love in a chance encounter at a party overseas; he was in the British Army and she was a freelance writer visiting her best friend Jo. About two decades later, Maddie and Ian are married with a beautiful little boy and are living their perfectly quiet lives. Then a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred and begins attending writing therapy. There she feels safe to let someone else in on her fears of Ian and her concerns that he isn’t safe to be around for either her or their two year old son. It turns out the couples past is more complicated than we know.

I found this book very slow throughout almost the entire thing and there was a lot of background on both of their pasts, which while helpful, is also fairly monotonous in this story. I did enjoy that they alternated between the past of Maddie and Ian and then the crime scene where you don’t know who is injured and who broke in. I liked the mystery of the crime scene chapters and how clever the author was in making you very eager to get further into the novel to read more about this and find out who is in trouble. I did enjoy Ian actually and all that he went through to make sure he could provide for his family. I wasn’t shocked by the ending and I found that I had it figured out very early on. Overall, I didn’t find it much of a thriller, but there definitely were interesting parts.

Out March 5th, 2019!

Maddie and Jo are best friends and are both working overseas. They both find handsome Ian charming. When Maddie starts dating Ian, her and Jo's relationship hits rocky ground. Years later Maddie and Ian are married and living in Kansas with their little boy Charlie. Maddie, Ian, and Charlie are camping when Maddie has a terrible fall. But was it a fall? Did Ian hurt Maddie? Months later when 911 receives a call from Maddie and Ian's house what happened? This is a super fast thriller of a book that keeps you reading until the very last page. I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Harlequin Park Row.

This book started well with a good premise, but, it was just too easy to see exactly where Ward was taking us. The characters, while well drawn, were just not likable. I am a stickler for consequences in almost all cases, and there were none in this case making for a very unsatisfying ending.

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward has many twists, turns, and surprises. Ms Ward tells the story by going back in forth in time and some occasional change of the point of view. Because of so much jumping around it took me awhile to become invested in the story, that's the only reason for 4, rather than 5 stars. I was given an early copy to review.

There have been very few books that have floored me with their ending, and this just so happens to be one of them.
The story starts out with you meeting several characters but there are three main characters that the book follows. There is Maddie, the one that the story revolves around. Then there is Ian, her one true love, or so it appears. Last but not least is her best friend Joanna A.K.A Jo. The book starts out with a murder, but you don't know any details about who was murdered, or even who was involved. I won't give any more details for fear of ruining the story, but this book is 100% worth reading.

Definitely made me keep turning the pages and halfway through I couldn't put it down. What you see is not always what you think you see, or know. That goes for people as well, perhaps even more so. 3.75 stars.

was unable to get into the storyline in order to read the book, the jumping around in the beginning confused me.

Debut psychological triller. Story is told in 3 timelines....countdown to the killing, the killing itself, and Maddie/Ian/Jo relationship. Maddie is teaching English in Bulgaria and goes to visit her bff, Jo, in Macedonia. They are young, single and fearless. They meet Ian, soldier/bodyguard. Both are attracted to Ian. Relationship between the three is messy and complicated, and ultimately leads to death. This book will keep you guessing as all characters are flawed, twisted. Book delves into TBI, PTSD. Ending left me feeling uneasy and concerned! Thoroughly enjoyed this thriller....hard to read at times, but harder to put down!

Told in three different times 10 weeks ago and 20 years ago and is told from multiple points of view....this thriller builds slowly. But at the same time sucks you in from the beginning . This book opens with a 911 call featuring a frantic woman begging for help and a terrified child shrieking in the background. The house goes is in a high scale neighborhood . What a great book for a book club!

This book was very interesting to me. So many twists and turns. It shows you the background of humanitarian work overseas in combat zones, as well as what body guards and contractors do overseas. After you feel for these characters, the real work begins. They have to come home and live in the US with their pasts in the back of their minds. They have PTSD and other mental issues going on. You get to take a ride with these characters that has the biggest twist of them all in the end. This is a great read!

I highly recommend this thriller, make you think book!

This book is told from several points of view, and times I found it complicated . That being said I still found it intriguing. I give this book 3.5 stars , thanks to NetGalley .

I struggled with this book, honestly. It contains a lot of flashbacks and different viewpoints, which kind of took away from the majority of the book. I did not like this format until pretty close to the end when I wanted as much information as possible. With that said, I did end up getting sucked into the book, but it took me quite awhile to reach that point. The ending was almost worth it, though.

This is a hard book to review. I had a love/hate relationship with this book from the beginning. I loved it when I first started reading it but then it went downhill from there for me. There were too many POVs and too much switching back and forth in time and place. I would love it in parts and then parts of it did not hold my interest at all. The characters were all pretty much unlikable and most of them were weird except for Detective Diane Varga. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

WOW! This was one heck of a jaw dropper!

An intense, complex and twisted story with a cast of characters that are equally complex and filled with flaws.

The story takes place in 3 main time frames, the past, present and 10 days before the killing, 9 days, etc. With that being said, and not wanting to give away even the slightest spoiler, I kept turning the pages since I wanted to know who the victim was and the possible suspect. However, there was even more that was chilling, and that was the motive.

A story that will have your heart pounding and shaking your head! It will grab you from the first page and suspenseful to the last word!

If you enjoy psychological thrillers, then this one is for you.

(11/29/18 posted to GR https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2518887087 )
(12/04/18 posted to my blog https://wp.me/p370vC-4ZC )

Thank you so much to Harlequin and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this in advanced!

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward was not what I expected! We follow the love story of Maddie and Ian as they navigate meeting to being happily married with a son named Charlie. Such a typical romantic story, but with a twist. In the first chapter of the book we learn that Maddie is worried that something is wrong with her. She's scared of everything, especially when it pertains to Charlie. Chapter two is titled Day of the Killing. This is clearly not your typically romantic story. Something sinister is right around the corner!

I must admit, I had a bit of a hard time getting through the first half of this book. The flash backs to 2001 killed me. They seemed boring in comparison to the chapters that took place closer to the killing. I wanted to know what happened! BUT they became VERY important towards the end! And I'm so incredibly glad I stuck with this!!! This book had some twists in it that I never saw coming!

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone and everyone that love a good psychological thriller!

Could not stop reading!! This sucks when you work til Midnight and have to be back at 6...... but that's what happened. I would put it down and pick it right back up! I loved all of the different POV's, but really enjoyed Maddies' the most. Very dark and twisty but came together very well! Look forward to more from Annie Ward! Thank you, #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!