Beautiful Bad is an entertaining piece of escapism. A tad predictable, yet still absorbing albeit with a slightly jerky pace.

I really enjoyed the book. Loved the story plot and twists. Approachable characters, realistic situations. Some descriptions or story „fillers” were tiny bit too long, but in overall - very good book and I’d read more by the author. Thank you, great job!

Great thriller, could no put it down through all the twists and turns. Would highly recommend to fans of this genre.

A twisted story that kept me interested but totally gripped. That said, the characters were believable and the storyline was good.

I really enjoyed this book and would read more from this author. May have been first but won't he the last.

The task of repopulating the senior library has been an exciting and daunting task aS in a boarding school our aim is to encourage all members of the community to read. Because of this, I have been searching down a wide and diverse range of books to read that will entice a wide cross-section of the school to come in, browse and find books that they love.
Books like this will ensure that the senior students in the school see the library as a diverse, modern and exciting place with books that speak to them and they want to recommend to their friends, classmates, teachers and tutors.
It is an engrossing and exciting read with fully-formed characters and a plot that ensures that it's hard to look away. It is as far from formulaic as it is possible to be and kept me up far too late in order to finish it. I immediately wanted to read all of this writer's other books as I loved their voice and found that it really drew me into the story and made me think about it even when I'd stepped away from this tale.
This is a thought-provoking read which I'm sure will be a popular and well-read addition to our new library; I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to read it and I know that the students are going to absolutely love it too!

Maybe I can blame it on an oversaturation of domestic thrillers, but after a solid start the story lost momentum and soon got so bogged down that I lost interest. I left it sitting on my shelf for a year and tried a few times to finish, thinking that I may start enjoying it, but in the end I am just conceding that it wasn't a good fit for me.

This is quite dark. The story of an abusive marriage, and the years leading up to its implosion. Engrossing, twisty and a good read.

This wasn’t a bad read but not brilliant either, at times I struggled a bit with what was going on.

A great read. This is an entertaining and enjoyable psychological thriller with a twist that takes you by surprise.

Beautiful Bad was marketed as a 'twisted psychological thriller' and 'explosive', yet i found it to be anything but. The back and forth in timelines was very disjointed, some bits were just not explained fully and were we to really believe this love at first sight thing between Maddie and Ian? There was no indication at all as to why these two would fall for each other? He was an arrogant arse right from the get go and Maddie just threw her closest friendship away at the drop of a hat for that? Both characters were just bland and unpleasant for me.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Quite enjoyed this book, it was thrilling, quite gory and sometimes went off on a tangent but overall and excellent storyline

Dark, sinister, twisted, compelling.
I could not put this book down. The twists. The turns.

This is told over many timelines and from different points of view.

Maddie is overseas and through a friend she meets Ian. Ian is a bodyguard and through his life, has seen and experienced things that have truly made him the man that he is today.

Maddie and Ian marry and following a fall, Maddie is terrified. She does not remember how she fell and she decides that therapy may help.
But the mind is a powerful thing and during therapy something is bought to the front of Maddie's memory.

This was a very addictive novel and I read it very quickly. I found the plot interesting because a lot of the action happened in Eastern European countries and I have never encountered this kind of setting before. This is a story about friendship, lies, war, toxic attachments and murder.

I found some of the chapters more captivating than others and I thought some of the things that happened in the story were a bit unrealistic but then again, this is a novel which main purpose is to entertain and entertain it did.

There is a very good twist at the end that even though I thought I could see it coming, it surprised anyway.

I will keep my eyes wide open to see what Ward writes in the future, definitely!

I could not put this down! Beautiful Bad kept me on my toes from start to finish with lots of twists and turns and an unmissable ending.

A very dark twisted story. When Maddie meets Ian she understands that the things he has seen in war torn places has made an impact of his life and after years of no communication the two finally reconnect, they end up getting married and having a son, however things are not turning out to be happy ever after and one fatal night changes everything.
A very sinister story with many twists along the way.

Harrowing but gripping. After an accident a woman decides she needs therapy. But it brings up something she wasn’t expecting: her husband. They met when she was a journalist and he was in the army. I absolutely loved this!!!
5/5. I’d give it 6 if I could!

Enjoyed it but the back n forth was sometimes confusing, the characters are well rounded and have you rooting for them one minute and despising them the next! Quite fast paced but then slow in places but in all a good read

i can't recommend this book enough! if you want a book that is so different from many others with so many twists this is the one for you.
i had no clue about what was going to happen on the day of the murder

In 2001 Maddie, a writer supplemented her income from writing travel books by teaching English in Bulgaria. Her best friend, Joanna, worked for a charity organisation in Macedonia, helping in the refugee camps. Ian is stationed in Macedonia along with three other members of British Personal Protection. They are responsible for the safety of the British Ambassador.

Maddie falls head over heels in love with Ian, from the very first time she meets him, but it will take years before he is able to return the love that he too felt from that first meeting. He wanted to ensure that when he did finally declare his love, he was in a financial position to provide her with stability.

Present time; The police receive a phone call. A child is screaming and a woman begging for help. When they arrive, they find a body, a very traumatised little boy and two women with wounds.

The storyline takes us from the present, the day of the killing, back to 2001, the first time Ian and Maddie meet and then follows them between 2001 through the years and weeks leading up to the murder.

Annie Ward has written a superb novel which left me shocked and horrified that a psychopath could be so scheming and cool-headed without ever letting anyone see the terrible side of their nature.

If you want to read something that is so entirely different with many twists, then I can highly recommend this novel. I honestly never for one minute suspected what was going to happen on the day of the murder.