Psychological thriller with a surprise ending. This story bounces around quite a bit from character to character and past to present. Lots of buried secrets through the years which will be revealed quite slowly. This book was not what I had expected. From the opening 911 call, I did not expect to jump back in time to Eastern Europe. I found the characters very unlikable which made the story hard to read.

This thriller engaged me right from page one. It is the story of Maddie, a young mother living in the far south suburbs of Kansas City, who has twice survived life-threatening accidents and has the scars, both mental and physical, to prove it.

She is married to Ian Wilson, a British soldier of fortune who has spent more than his share of time in war-torn, unstable countries and has seen some pretty horrifying things. He says now he just wants to live in peace and quiet with his family. But does he? Can he leave the violence of his job experiences behind?

The story is told in various timelines centering around 'the killing': there is 'weeks before the killing', 'day of the killing', 'day after the killing' etc, but intermixed in this is the backstory of how Maddie and Ian met in Macedonia in 2001 and much later, become a couple.

Most chapters are told from Maddie's first person pov but I noticed a few times when it switched to third person omniscient pov, I suppose so the reader would better understand the entire picture.

Maddie's best friend is Joanna Jasinski. They met while teaching in Spain and have been inseparable while working various jobs throughout Europe until Ian comes into their lives. And always lurking on the fringes is Ian's crazy bipolar ex-girlfriend who still sends him sexy selfies.

So as one reads this thriller, one is constantly wondering who is going to be killed and by whom? The answer to that may surprise you. Nicely done!

I received an arc of this new thriller from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks for some enjoyable reading.

Beautiful Bad is an outstanding, multilayered and impressive work by Annie Ward. The story takes the reader across multiple continents and delves into many issues including, mental, illness, abuse and PTSD. At first it took some getting used to the back and forth of the time periods and multiple narrators, but it eventually made sense and had a nice flow to it. But I have to say that the last third of the book is what made it 5 stars for me. The ending was brilliant and completely unexpected and absolutely worked in making this an outstanding work of psychological fiction. I look forward to more from Annie Ward!

Many thanks to Netgalley, Park Row and Annie Ward for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward starts with a frantic call to 911 followed by a bloody crime scene. It totally pulled me into the book and intrigued me enough to want to keep reading!

We then go to ten weeks prior to the night of the murder and meet Maddie, our main character who primarily is telling her story. The book goes back and forth from present day to the early 2000’s where we follow Maddie and her best friend through the time in Eastern Europe. This is where we meet Ian, the love interest of both women who becomes Maddie’s husband. One of these characters was murdered, but we need to read on to find out who...and why.

This book started out great, but there were a lot of parts of the book that just felt really drawn out. I wanted to know more about the murder and less about the past. Yes it was necessary to know about the way the three main characters interacted to understand why Maddie and Jo were estranged, but there was way too much backstory that was not necessary to progress the book forward.

There were a few parts told from Ian’s point of view. It didn’t make sense to me to switch POV only for a handful of chapters.

I didn’t figure out the twist which does say a lot to me about a mystery thriller so I definitely give Ward credit for that. Once the book stays in the present day I thought it was really good. I liked the ending and was glad it kept me guessing.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin-Park Row Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Maddie and Ian and their young son Charlie seem to be your average family. But no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors and in sick minds.

A chance meeting overseas when they were young, Maddie and Ian soon develop a mutual crush, even though Ian has a girlfriend. Maddie's best friend Jo warns her that there is something off about Ian, but Maddie is not heeding the warning.

Years later Maddie and Ian reconnect after a few failed attempts, much to Jo's angst and anger. Their relationship becomes strained and then ends with Maddie losing her best friend.

The couple move to Kansas and have Charlie. Both their worlds revolve around him. Although their worlds are very different from each other's. During a family camping trip Maddie has a terrible accident. Due to a head injury Maddie begins to see a therapist and realizes she fears her husband and is frightened for their son Charlie.

Then there is a murder and a very suspicious police officer.

Not everything looks the way it seems does it? A story with twists and turns and an ending I never saw coming! Beautiful Bad is a psychological thriller you won't be able to put down.
#NetGalley #ParkRowBooks

Thank you @NetGalley @ParkRowBooks @Annie Ward for the advanced copy. Beautiful Bad is available now.

Beautiful Bad, and how good it is to be bad! I am a sucker for psychological thrillers especially stories involving married couples. Beautiful bad has everything your looking for, and I could not put it down. Perfect marriage? Perfect crime? So many twists and turns and an ending that completely shocked me. So well written.

What blows my mind about this book is that it actually started out as a memoir so the majority of the happenings actually did take place. If more memoirs were written in a novel type/somewhat fictionalized way then I'd probably read more... then again, they wouldn't quite be memoirs anymore now would they?

Maddie and Ian have had a hard time getting their relationship started. Considering the handful of times they met, the long distance and non-communication for several years, they somehow managed to find each other again. I didn't quite understand the attraction here or how they could pine over each other considering their limited interactions... HOWEVER, I do understand that sometimes people just get under your skin and you can't wash that away as easily as some people might expect.

There were a couple of things that I wish had a more polished finish - things with Fiona is one of them. And boy, what a character she is! Another is the camping accident... I need to know more! I felt wanting. Speaking of finishing, I definitely enjoyed the ending. While somewhat predictable, there was that extra twist that I didn't see coming.

I actually really do enjoy domestic thrillers. Though a lot have the same format and typical bad relationship turn deadly plot lines, when you include your actual life into one, it tends to read better for a reader like me. I'm always fascinated with the truth over fiction... meld them together and well, color me intrigued. Definitely a must read for domestic thriller lovers.

I'm a little on the fence on this one. I was pulled in from the opening scene with the 911 call but sometime after that, it just seemed to drag on a bit. I know that the reader needs to get a backstory of the characters to understand what has happened or will be happening at the conclusion of the book. In this case, I just felt that there was way too much backstory. The ending surprised me a little bit as I actually did believe there would be another person involved (don't want to give anything away) but it didn't leave me saying, "wow." Even though I felt it dragged on in the middle, it was still a fast read and I never thought it would be one I wouldn't finish.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

This book looked so good. Crazy and creepy and all the good stuff I love about psychological thrillers. I was not let down,t his book lived up to every expectation. The story was great, the creep factor was there, the mind screw was there. It was so amazing.


Maddie has had an up and down relationship with Ian for a couple of decades. She met him overseas and their paths never really lined up. Something was always keeping them apart. At one time it was even Maddie's best friend, at another it was the military, oh and then there was the time Ian had a girlfriend. So things just didn't go smooth for them. Until one day it did. So they both thought. Unfortunately it was not smooth sailing, Ian had some major PTSD from being overseas in the military and this caused some stress on their marriage. It then went well for a while once they had a child. Now things seem to be going downhill again. Maddie is attempting to get help. But something goes bad real bad.


This book was so good. I loved it all. The story is mainly told in alternate time lines from when Maddie and Ian first meet to the present day. There is the past where the story goes together. There is the past as in right before it all went wrong, and there is the present... which is the after. The story is told in pieces and in the process of getting the entire story, I was able to really get to know all the characters. The ones from way before and the ones from the current life that Maddie and Ian live. The story is told from Maddie's perspective for most the book so it was easier to get to know her and her story... however there are a few chapters from Ian's point of view that I truly enjoyed.

To say this story had some crazy moments, some shocking moments, some oh hell moments, that is an understatement. I was not at a lost for surprises and oh crap revelations in this book. Which I love. I love when I totally didn't see it coming. This book did it to me. It wasn't til the end when I was like oh snap that just happened. So it had me on my toes, in suspense. I love it when it's told in multiple time lines too... it gives my mind time to really think about what is going on and wonder where it is going. I wondered a lot in this read and I never saw it coming.

The characters were well built. Like I mentioned before I didn't connect with Ian as much since I was really going off of Maddie's thoughts and feelings for most of the book. The thing about Maddie, I liked her even though she was broken and toxic for those around her... as well as letting those around her be toxic to her. She loved having those relationships that were just bad for her. Co-dependent but for different reasons for each person. She was pretty messed up but I still liked her. I rooted for her and wanted her to find her way.

The read was paced really well, not rushed and never slacked. I was pretty content throughout the entire read. I didn't feel that I needed to know everything at once but I was still eager to find out what happened. I was happy with every little thing that was revealed.

This story isn't a happy story, or a story that has rainbows and unicorns. It's dark and twisted and full of broken and crazy people. It was addicting. It had feeling. I loved every moment of it. I didn't need the sunshine. The dark was just fine with this book.

The ending really blew me away. I think I saw a bit of it coming right before it all came together... but before that moment. but it was still mind blowing.


Loved it to peices. So grand so thrilling!

Already being called one of the most explosive thrillers of 2019, Annie Ward’s BEAUTIFUL BAD combines volatile settings, painful secrets and shocking violence for a gripping read that will keep readers on the edge of their seats right from the first page.

When we meet Maddie, it is 12 weeks before The Day of the Killing. Like so many of us with an internet connection, she is filling out a questionnaire that supposedly will confirm whether or not she should be seeing a therapist. But Maddie is distracted by her husband, Ian, and it is clear that she does not want him to see what she is looking at. As she ticks off the boxes and answers the questions, her anxiety and paranoia leap off the page as Ward forces her readers to consider what has happened between Maddie and Ian to make her so afraid.

BEAUTIFUL BAD then jumps to the scene of a grisly crime and a harrowing 911 call in Meadowlark, Kansas, a setting that starkly contrasts the terror of the moment. As an investigator arrives at the upscale neighborhood where the call came from, she scoffs at the opulence and decides that nothing too terrible could have happened --- until she peers through the window of one of the larger houses and sees a pair of giant black boots next to a glittering pool of blood.

From this point on, BEAUTIFUL BAD alternates between past and present, often crossing continents and cities to paint a full picture of Maddie and Ian’s relationship. The two meet in the early 2000s, when Maddie is overseas in the Balkans with her best friend, Joanna. Maddie is in Bulgaria working as a travel journalist, while Joanna is stationed in the far more volatile Macedonia, where she works with women and children refugees. One night, Maddie makes the dangerous journey to visit Joanna to attend a Red Cross fundraiser with her; it is here that they meet British soldier Ian. Tall, dark and handsome, Ian seems like the perfect target for both single young ladies, but it is initially Joanna who captures his fancy. Maddie is suitably jealous, but with the wine flowing and plenty of available young men around, their friendship suffers no real hits.

When Maddie visits Joanna again, though, something has changed. Joanna is cagey and wants nothing to do with Ian or his comrades. Young and naïve, Maddie is more or less oblivious to the change and thinks only of seeing Ian again. When she does, the fallout between her and Joanna is as explosive as the landscape around them --- bombings and massacres are becoming more and more frequent, and the whole world seems to be on edge. The tension only serves to make Maddie’s attraction to Ian all the more alluring, but when the attacks of September 11th occur, the two are pushed apart, and Joanna resurfaces in Maddie’s life as her only constant in the tumultuous Balkans.

Jumping forward to the near-present, we reunite with Maddie 10 weeks before The Day of the Killing. She has found an unusual, albeit competent, therapist in Cami J, a rhinestone-studded, yoga-pants-wearing older woman who treats her clients by asking them to write out answers to her questions. Although Maddie is hesitant to reveal any potentially damaging details, she soon explains that she was recently involved in an accident that left her face bludgeoned and scarred. All she remembers is that she and Ian were camping and drinking wine when she went off to use the bathroom and came back covered in blood. Ian claims that she fell and hit her head on a branch, but the doctors and police remain firm in their assessment that her wounds could not have come from a simple fall, and instead were the result of blunt-force trauma.

As Maddie continues to see Cami J, we are given a full portrait of her relationship with and marriage to Ian: the sweet highlights, like visits in England and their beautiful son, and the disturbing idiosyncrasies, such as Ian building a secret panic room in the basement and teaching their son where to shoot to kill. PTSD seems like the likeliest cause for Ian’s concerning behaviors, but is he truly deranged enough to have killed Maddie? And if not, whose blood is it that the investigator sees through the window of their beautiful home? Through careful, slow-burn pacing and expertly timed dramatic reveals, Ward details the true events of The Day of the Killing and how a beautiful couple can turn so bad so quickly.

It is easy to see why BEAUTIFUL BAD is being heralded as one of the best thrillers of the year, but what sets Ward’s debut apart is her unique and worldly settings, and her thrill-seeking characters. I am sure there exist books set in the Balkans just before and around 9/11, but Ward’s focus on such youthful, exuberant characters with their own flaws and mistakes feels particularly original and fresh. I loved seeing the ways that Maddie, Ian and Joanna each sought out thrills and risks --- by crossing borders, meeting strangers and simply living. At the same time, the friendship between Maddie and Joanna is just dramatic enough to feel real, without any of the frills and bells lesser authors might employ. The contrast between their youth and the versions of them that we meet in the weeks before The Day of the Killing is wickedly sharp and masterfully constructed. As much as BEAUTIFUL BAD is a story of a marriage gone wrong, it is also about the highs and lows of female friendships, and Ward makes some brilliant discoveries in this regard.

This is one thriller where I can truly say I could not have predicted the ending, and I feel certain that I will reread select passages so I can fully appreciate Ward’s choreography at work. That is how expertly plotted and smartly twisted it is. Whether you read for the settings, characters or pure thrill, BEAUTIFUL BAD is practically perfect on all counts, and a novel you will not want to miss.

3 Stars!

“The water poured into my mouth and down my throat. It took over and that was it. Everything was different.”

Maddie is married to Ian and they have a son named Charlie. There is a 911 call made to Maddie's house and the detectives get there right away to invest. Theres blood everywhere and a lot of questions to be asked.

Maddie and Ian's love story started overseas. He was in the British Army and she is a writer who is traveling with her bff Jo to different places. One night they meet, have a little playful banter and end of falling for each other. One day Ian asks Maddie to come visit him. She gets there and finds out that he has gone on assignment and left her. Years pass before they get in contact again. They reconnect instantly and start their life together as well as their family. However, during this time Maddie has an accident where she falls and things seemed to change after that. From there, their relationship plays out and something bad happens...

I really struggled through this book. I know it's been hyped up and I was so excited when I got an advanced readers copy. I typically give books up to 100 pages to really pull me in but this one was harder for me to get into. I thought this was going to be a thriller and it was definitely more of an emotional suspense. Maybe because I went in with the thriller mindset it ended up falling short. However, the story itself got boring at times. All the military and overseas background wasn't very interesting to me. I see how it added some to the story but I really could have done without most of it.

I may be in the minority here with my rating but it was just an OK read for me. Thank you to Bookishfirst and Park Row books for my review copy!

When I finish reading a book but before I write my review I like to read what other thought of it. Currently the book has a 3.8 in Goodreads which is a very respectable rating. The reviews are also very positive. I feel that I must have read a different book.

I was not attached to any of the characters and they were all unlikable. The relationships all seemed toxic from the beginning and none of the actions of the characters shocked me like I think the author intended. The pacing was painfully slow at times and I questioned why a lot of it was even in the book. It did not prgress the plot or build any of the charters. The foreshadowing felt heavy handed. The jumping between characters and time lines was just an added headache to the book.

I do feel that the story was more originally than most book in this genre but it could have been done better in my opinion. BUT I clearly do not share the same option as other reviewers and you may love this books so give it a go.

Maddie fell hard for Ian, British security detail, when she taught English in Bulgaria and her BFF Joanna was a humanitarian working in Macedonia before and during their civil war. He’s hard to pin down, even after she marries him despite Joanna’s inexplicable hostility toward him. He insists on moving from NYC to her small, Kansas hometown, though he spends much of his time in the Eastern bloc, working in a security business he started with his brother after leaving his government position. The story unfolds in layers as it goes back and forth in time and around the globe to explain the horrible murder. Ward does an excellent job evoking sympathy for Maddie, who appears to be on the receiving end of Ian’s PTSD. This novel portrays young American idealists who get caught up in tragedy, differences in maturity levels of best friends, and how lack of self-awareness contributes to obfuscation, as a mismatched romance leads to its horrifying conclusion. I was fortunate to receive this brilliant story from the publisher Park Row Books through NetGalley.

The review is scheduled to post on March 18, when I will also share on FB, Twitter, Goodreads, and B&N.

3.5, rounding up to 4 stars!

Maddie and Ian’s romance first began when they met overseas many years ago. They were both young and attracted to each other. Ian was serving in the British Army and Maddie was a travel writer. Brought together in a chance encounter thanks to mutual friend, Jo, the two can’t seem to get each other off their minds.

Almost two decades have passed since they first met. They are now married and raising their son, Charlie, in your standard suburban town in Kansas. Tragedy strikes the family while out on a camping trip. Maddie has a terrible accident that leaves her face badly scarred and unable to remember what happened. She being writing therapy as a way to heal and to make the memories of that night come back to her. Her fears start to come to light about Ian’s PTSD, the safety of their son, and what might happen in the future. Then the night of the 911 call happens and suddenly this family is down to two members. What exactly happened that night? Who doesn’t make it out alive?

BEAUTIFUL BAD falls into the domestic suspense realm of the crime fiction genre. Annie Ward does a fantastic job of building the story of Maddie and Ian for the reader through the use of alternating timelines, alternating narrators, and flashes to “The Day of the Killing”. Three different writing devices can be an overwhelming mix, but Ward effortlessly blends everything together to make a cohesive story about this couple. I’m typically the reader who would rather focus on present day situations between a couple, but Ward succeeded in actually making me interested in the backstory of how Maddie and Ian met. The couple’s origin story was quite intriguing and certainly necessary knowledge to understand their present day mindsets.

One of my favorite aspects of this story was the suspense created around the “The Day of the Killing” passages. Ward doesn’t immediately tell you what has happened, but tosses a partial bombshell at the reader from the start. I found myself anticipating these sections and getting to the truth of what was happening. Ward smartly backtracks the reader to a few weeks before the day in question as a way to keep the reader’s mind guessing.

I loved everything about this book, until I got to the ending, which is where things started to fall apart for me. There were some obvious clues about what have happened and I was able to guess the final situation. Not every single detail, but enough to know where things were headed. The ending itself got to be a bit too far-fetched for my tastes. While I appreciate what Ward’s end goal was, I would have preferred certain pieces to have been different. I’ll leave it at that to avoid spoilers.

Despite not loving the ending, I do think that BEAUTIFUL BAD is a book worth reading! There are plenty of twists and flawed characters to keep you entertained by this story. It’s definitely a book you’re going to want to discuss with others, so while you’re picking up your copy, snag one for a friend too!

I am struggling with how to explain how I feel about this book without giving too much away. Up until almost the very end, I would have given the book 2 stars. It somewhat redeemed itself at the end, but still left a bad taste in my mouth. I was annoyed by Maddie's assertion that she knew Ian was damaged but that she loved him, wanted to marry him and have a child, and then would go from there. Characters like this deserve what they get! I also could not understand the attachment between Maddie and Ian. So by the time I finally waded through the long, long set up and got to the end, I was more interested in being done with the book than enjoying the ending itself.

Beautiful Bad is an absolute top read of 2019 for me! It’s so unique in the way it’s written and kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole thing. Every time I thought I knew where it was going it took a different turn. At first I was struggling with the book because of all the different times and places and then it made more sense as I kept reading. But once I got more into this book I couldn’t put it down and ended staying up all through the night to finish it but totally worth the book hangover! I would normally give a detailed review a book explaining characters but this would ruin this book! It’s a five star book and I highly recommend this book!

I don’t typically read anything that gets categorized as thriller, mystery, and/or suspense. My reader wheelhouse spins around historical fiction, magical realism, and maybe a contemporary romance or an occasional cozy mystery. But there was something in the publisher’s blurb for this book that piqued my interest. It might have been the Eastern European backdrop or the centrality of post-traumatic stress disorder to the storyline. Whatever it was in the blurb that caught my attention, I’m glad that I read this book, as it will haunt me for some time to come.

I really could say that the author could have done much more with her book, as the settings and characters themselves could have been more richly developed. But at what cost? The book started innocuously enough, with one of the central characters questioning whether she should see a therapist, then flashed forward to the day of the killing, and then flashed back to weeks before the killing, and then continued nonlinear until the end. Information about the characters and their relationships was carefully parsed out through nonlinear development and alternating points of view. That made the book reminiscent of a little freight train: it took a while to gain steam, but once it was off and running, it was almost impossible to stop.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury are integral to the storyline, but in different ways. The portrayal of post traumatic stress disorder was predominantly portrayed through third party observation, with the character afflicted by the disorder adding to the complexity by vomiting his feelings through dialogue. I would have wished for that character to have first person narrative to enrich the complexity of the post traumatic stress disorder element to the story. Traumatic brain injury element didn’t emerge until almost halfway through the novel, but quickly gathered steam from there. Its portrayal through inferences and clues scattered throughout the novel seemed very subtle and appropriate to the book.

Without spoiling the plot, I can say that this book definitely has an “Oh my! How did I not see that coming?” moment. And that definitely makes me want to reshelve this book for a reread. I’m curious as to whether knowing the end of the book will help me see all the clues that I may have missed throughout the way. Then again, there are unreliable and manipulative narrators throughout the book, so the reread may not be as enlightening as I hope it might be.

Loved this book!!!!! It has a lot of characters to remember in the beginning but once it gets started, it keeps you on your toes !

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review!

Beautiful Bad is definitely one of the top books I have read in awhile. It was so captivating and had me pulled in immediately. I just loved this book. The characters were real to me. I could picture the settings. I felt genuine sympathy for the main character, Maddie. This was just so well written and shocking. I would totally read more by this author. I can’t say enough good about this book!

Thank you Park Row for the copy of this book - all opinions are my own.

I completely devoured this book - this has to be one of the fastest-paced domestic suspense thrillers I have read in a long time. I had read some mixed reviews of this book going in, and I wasn't at all surprised to find myself firmly on the "LOVED IT" side of the discussion when I hit the last page.

Annie Ward does a magnificent job of creating a tension on the pages and between the characters. I love a book that moves back and forth between timelines, especially when it's done as well as it is in this story. Jumping between the day of the killing, the early days of Maddie and Ian meeting, and the many years between the two dates, the way that the story unspools a bit at a time had me on the edge of my seat guessing while finding myself totally surprised over and over again. Even when I had ideas of what twists might be, they were never quite what I expected, and I that is a mark of a terrific book in my world.

As usual, I won't offer a single spoiler for this book. I will say that its a fantastic character drama, and a very well done suspense novel, and that I cannot imagine a thriller reader out there who won't be entertained by this one!