I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review. Here is the blurb

"Maddie and Ian's romance began when he was serving in the British Army and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend Jo in Europe. Now sixteen years later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America.
But when an accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian's PTSD; her concerns for the safety of their young son Charlie; and the couple's tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.
From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas, the years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of shocking crime."

I quite enjoyed this book and how it is written. The book is mainly from Maddie's perspective however, we do get chapters written from Ian's to give perspective. The writing jumps between different time frames which usually I find annoying but I found this actually helped the story along. Not everything is as it seems in this story, however, I did suspect the outcome, not that this ruined by enjoyment of the book. If you like the usual psychological thrillers that involve relationships you will enjoy this book and not be disappointed.

This is a book that flits between now and then starting with the day of the murder and then building the story of how it got to this point, exploring he main characters backgrounds but with many twists and turns especially in the final chapters.. Ian, suffering from PTSD after years of being in the army and witnessing the atrocities that war brings meets Maddie who falls for and eventually marries him and Jo, Maddie's best but often complex friend have their lives woven together throughout the book. Not knowing from the start who the victim and perpetrator were was intriguing and kept me second guessing to the very end, my thoughts changing as the story developed but still taking me by surprise at the end. I did find it difficult to get into the book and there were times I rushed over bits I found a bit long winded but having said that, it was a very good plot with a gripping end.

We start out on ‘the day of the killing’ but it’s very unclear who’s been killed and under what circumstances. As the story unfolds we begin to see how Maddie came to live abroad in war torn countries and flit back and forth across European borders meeting her best friend Jo. We also go back in time and read how Maddy first met Ian her now husband.

The book is told primarily from Maddie’s point of view, however, later in the book there’s also insight from Ian and the lead police officer working the case. The story does jump around a bit timeline wise, there are parts told in the present, some chapters set in the weeks leading up to ‘the day of the killing, but for the most part the story takes you back to where it all began some years in the past.

Sometimes when books jump around in timelines like this it can be hard to keep track of what’s going on, however, that’s not the case with this book. As there are only a few key players I rather enjoyed stepping back in time to see how they all met each other and how their lives were connected.

This is one of those books that simmers with tension because you know straight from the opening chapters that whatever occurs had led to a murder. It was really gripping stuff and whilst I was reading I was constantly trying to work out what was going to happen to lead to ‘the day of the killing’.

My only criticism is I felt there were a few sections that I personally would have liked to explore more as a reader. I can’t really say too much as I don’t want to give any spoilers but there were a few questions left for me once I finished reading. However, there is a good twist at the end which I hadn’t seen coming and it finished in a way that all good psychological thrillers do leaving a tingle down my neck!

Very different, with a lot of twists. It does jump around time wise a little, so can be a little hard to follow at first, but that soon becomes easier as you get drawn more into the story. Well written and kept you interested right until the end.

"Beautiful Bad" starts with a frantic 911 call and it was a great opening, what with the bloody crime scene and the overwhelming feeling of tension. It then switches to 10 weeks before the murder and we are introduced to the main character Maddie who's currently finding herself in the writing therapy after suffering a head injury and not being able to remember what has happened. She was told by her husband Ian that she's slipped but the police believe that domestic violence was involved. And so we slowly learn how Maddie and Ian got to know each other in 2001 through her best friend Joanna - the narrative follows this relationship, as well as other significant events that happened in Maddie's life and makes us ask many questions: why did Joanna always try to convince Maddie she shouldn't get involved with Ian? Has Maddie really slipped or has there been more to this accident? And whose blood is it, on the kitchen floor?

The story is told from several points of view. Maddie is a travel writer specializing in the countries of Eastern Europe. Her best friend Jo is a relief worker - but I simply couldn't buy this friendship, there were no warm feelings, no honesty, the relationship lacked in substance - and she introduces Maddie to Ian (who, I must be totally honest, am not sure, he was - a bodyguard?). Ian had visited many countries that we'd usually avoid visiting, seen things that we'd never want to see and this all has affected him in great ways - he was dangerous and aggressive and also addicted to alcohol. Nevertheless, there was an immediate spark between Maddie and Ian and when the story takes us to the present times we see that they're married and have a son Charlie. However, their marriage doesn't look like a bed of roses and all signs point to domestic violence.

My main problem was that I simply couldn't connect with the characters and the plot. It felt as if the first - and very huge - part of this book was an introduction, and then came the sudden end that, at least for me, wasn't that surprising. Yes, the writing style was beautiful and lyrical almost and it had me under its spell but I wasn't hooked to the story itself. The characters were not likeable, and I know, you don't have to like the characters to enjoy the book, of course you don't have to, but here it simply didn't work like that - I still need some kind of emotional depth, foothold, I want to be able to immerse myself in the story and characters' lives, no matter if they're likeable or not - and I missed this here.

There was a lot happening in this story but still it felt too superficial to me. I've never connected with the characters, haven't been on the same wavelength with them and I mostly felt impatient with the way the story was built. It touched upon many heavy and difficult issues, and I always appreciate that, of course. There were lies, toxic friendship, secrets and also murder, and the author has presented us with the terrifying accounts of the civil wars in different places of the world as well. There were some twists and turns on the way but they didn't blow me away - and honestly, the unravelling of all of them and the secrets has been overshadowed with presenting the reader with tons of information that, as it turned out, were simply not necessary. Nevertheless, it was interesting psychological story. It was descriptive, and written in a beautiful writing style, with complex - maybe too complex - plot and full of flawed characters. Even if it didn't work for me it might be a perfect read for you, so just give it a go.

Thanks to Net Galley and Quercus Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Wow! This is a page turner, a psychological thriller with a few unpredicted clever twists.
The police have been sent to an emergency call, a child could be heard, there is a lot of blood, whose is it? what will the detective entering this messy crime scene find?
Jo and Maddie are best friends, they both travel as part of their jobs, they meet up a lot, go dancing and drinking, they get friendly with a group of bodyguards and that’s when a man, Ian, comes between their friendship. Maddie is used to being second choice as Jo has the looks and personality that guys go for, but she can tell that Ian is interested in her, Jo tries to warn Maddie off, fills her in on Ian’s background, ex military PTSD, drinks a lot of vodka, but Maddie is smitten by the tall dark and handsome Ian.
The story is told in multiple time lines and points of view, in the present time Maddie and Ian are at last married with a young son, but there are many signs that all is not well between them, Maddie had a fall some weeks ago, causing a head injury and scarring to her face, was it Ian who hurt her, she can’t remember.
This is a fast paced psychological thriller which will keep the reader guessing right to the end. A brilliant read.

Maddie and Ian first meet in 2001 in Eastern Europe, where they are both working. Over the next few years they continue to bump into each other, and eventually get together. Many years later, married and with a young son, they are settled into suburban life in Kansas. Unfortunately a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred and with severe anxiety, and she seeks help. As we learn more about Maddie and Ian’s past, we slowly work our way forward to the present day, where a frantic 911 call brings police to a shocking crime scene.

I found this a little difficult to get into at the start. For the first few chapters I felt like this was just another book cut from the same cloth that seems really popular these days. I had a strong suspicion on where the book was going and what the potential twist would be, and although I was hoping I was wrong I just didn’t feel it.

I think one of the main issues I had was that I didn’t engage with or get the characters. When Maddie first meets Ian they barely manage to have a conversation nevermind anything else. I don’t understand why or how Maddie becomes so obsessed with this man. I keep thinking something profound must happen for her to be so in love, but it never does.

I also felt like the chapters written from Ian and Diane’s points of view were unnecessary. Because most of the book is written from Maddie’s point of view, the other chapters just don’t fit. If there is going to be multiple points of view or narrators of a story I think there needs to be a better balance. I didn’t feel like Ian’s chapters gave us any better insight into his character, and the chapters by Diane were totally superfluous.

All that said I did get drawn in to the story, particularly with the chapters that are closer to the day of the killing. There is a sense of unease all the way through, and that builds as the story builds. I started to really question Maddie’s reliability as a narrator, and then my theory in what had happened. Then I would second guess myself again, which is always a good sign with this sort of novel.

Overall I’ve given this one 3*. It isn’t a bad book by any stretch, and it was a quick read with a good pace to it. For me there was just a few things that didn’t add up, and because I never understood the relationship at the base of the book it was difficult to be fully invested in how it went wrong. I felt like there was some aspects of both Maddie and Ian’s characters that the author could have explored further and added extra depth to the story.

I do think these sorts of ‘twist you’ll never see coming’ type thrillers are flooding the market at the moment, and I have read a lot of them. To be honest it’s probably time for me to take a break from reading them for a while as they are starting to all seem very similar. If you are a big fan of the genre this will definitely hit the mark for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book , so different from the usual novels . I love the way it kept the tension going by hopping from the past to the present day . Interesting reading about the bodyguard roll in war torn areas and the obvious trauma it caused , would really recommend this book

Wow!! I couldn't put this down when I got started. Twists and turns, the end is unexpected. All along you are thinking poor Maddie! More like poor Ian!! I Hope there is a second book and they find Maddie and Charlie make her acknowledge what she did. I also think she poisoned Jo's cat to make her lean on her more a n d maybe s he was just hoping the baby of Jos was Ian's to make her feel better for murdering him. I would definitely recommend this book especially if you are a fan of psychological thrillers.

Overall: I did enjoy this read, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations HOWEVER, the end was fantastic - like really WOW, which is what hiked the overall scoring up considerably! During the final part of the book, my heart was literally racing and it was a very dark, twisted and haunting storyline. 

A bit on the story, the plot is centred around Maddie, an ordinary girl from Kansas who decided to work in Europe as a travel writer. The writing is excellent and Annie has totally nailed the different perspective, and the descriptive scenes. The book is split into chapters that focus on:

the past (early 2000s) as Maddie meets up with her forever best friend, Jo, in a war ridden Europe, and meets Ian, an ex military come ‘bodyguard’, and how all their lives then intertwine. 
The imminent lead up to/day of ‘the killing’.

The storyline had so much potential, but it seemed to drag on quite a bit in the past. I get why Annie went there, and it was essential to build up the back story of the characters and paint a very real portrait of how PTSD can affect people, but for me it was just too much. I can’t completely knock it - I enjoyed the book very much, and it was a page turner, I was obsessed with piecing together Maddie’s and Ian’s lives and finding out what changed, what went wrong - or as the title suggests, what went beautiful bad.

I ended up having a love/hate relationship with this book.

The start is hugely compelling, a blood soaked home, a death, a family in turmoil. We begin to see the events over the many years that have lead to this moment and there are huge parts of this story that are fascinatingly thought provoking. 

The underneath theme of toxic friendship and toxic love is clever, a focus on PTSD works well, the writing is excellent. 

However it wasn't without its issues - many of which are subjective if you read widely in this genre- but still, for me, they were there. 

The "unreliable narrator" trope which can create an unexpected journey was a bit too obvious. It didn't take me long to see who the problem was here so the ultimate resolution was a little flat. The friendship between the two women, Maddy and Jo, despite the wide ranging settings, was a little shallow. Jo's actions particularly don't really feel realistic given how little we find out about her. This despite her being extremely central to the plot.

The other issue I had was the lunatic ex girlfriend. She served no purpose whatsoever except to offer the reader a "suspect" and really it didn't work. There was no need for it.

On the plus side Ian is a character you engage with, his parts are the most powerful, his personality flawed by his experiences and the world around him.

Overall I enjoyed the read and I'd definitely read more from this author. I feel though that some opportunity was lost here in the attempts to make it twisty. 

Worth a go for sure. Lots to recommend it as well as those odd things that didn't work for me personally.

This is a dark, psychological thriller which looks at how PTSD can affect relationships. It opens with a murder scene but with little explanation of what has happened. It moves forwards and backwards in time as it explores the relationships between, Maddie, Jo and Ian. Maddie is a travel writer, Jo, an aid worker, and Ian, a British soldier. It is set in the Balkans during the war and in Kansas. It is about destructive love and residual hate.

Whilst I quite enjoyed the story there were elements that didn’t really hang together such as the unrequited love between Maddie and Ian for over ten years. As a British reader I did baulk at the use of ‘petal’ as a term of endearment and the greeting ‘top of the morning’. We really don’t speak like that!

I found the exploration of the psychological effects of war quite poignant and sympathetic but the story as a whole was a little unrealistic.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

I’ve mixed feelings on this book. I found the start and ending very strong but felt it slightly lost pace in the middle. The plot is pretty ambitious because it switches between times, locations and viewpoints, but Annie Ward pulls that aspect off with aplomb. From the start we know that something terrible has happened at the Kansas home of Maddie, her British military veteran husband Ian and their young son Charlie. The book then flashes back and forth in time to the early days of Maddie and Ian’s relationship in the Balkans, and the more immediate build up to the terrible events at their home. Not one for people who don’t like a narrative that jumps around in time, but a terrific ending that makes it worth the slightly slower paced middle. A solid three stars nudging towards four. {NetGalley review copy}

Beautiful Bad is an appropriate title for this story of beautiful people who are fundamentally damaged. The plot centres on the courtship and marriage of two people who have lived with violence and trauma. From the start the reader knows that some kind of tradegy occurs and throughout the remaining chapters, we are led through how inevitable the sequence of events are. The author allows the story to unfold as the tension builds and there are several shocking twists.

While I was engrossed in the story and never once thought of abandoning it, I can’t say I liked any of the characters. I expect that was the author’s intention.

Omg what I have just read..... Amazing book you fall in love with the characters I normally don't like books that jump back and forth let alone jump back in time, but this book was so addictive to read. The twists really are twists your left breathless as your want to read.more and more.

Although a graphic, compelling read, the story is set in different time scales and at first, I found it difficult to become involved with the characters. It was interesting finding out about the long-standing friendship between Maddie and Jo, although Ian’s character is complex, bitter and difficult to define.

The first part of the story focuses on Maddie and Jo’s friendship while they are both working in war-torn far-Eastern countries, when Ian becomes involved the friendship changes and becomes difficult. The book also explores the present time where Maddie is married to Ian, and they have a son Charlie. She has experienced a bad accident and is seeing a therapist Cami J to help her overcome anxiety and recurring panic attacks.
The third time frame is the present, when a murder has been committed and the police have become involved and searching Maddie and Ian’s home.

Chapters of the book alternate between past and present, concentrating too heavily on the past in my opinion. The author’s skill at detailing the characters and deplorable conditions during this time is well researched, and brings the deprivation, terror and poverty alive. Learning about their background and how they became who they are gives insight and depth. However, there seems to be little happening to move the story forward, and I kept wishing that the story would continue to the present. What did the police find? What led up to the crime?

This is a well researched and complex story, with a thought-provoking ending.

4.5 rounded down.

In a small town in Kansas, a 911 dispatcher receives an emergency call involving a possible home invasion or domestic disturbance – a woman’s voice, screaming for help, a shrieking child heard crying in the background. Diane Varga is the first officer on scene. She rings the doorbell, yells, “Police!”. Receiving no answer she looks through the window, and sees blood – a lot of blood. Something terrible has taken place at this quiet residential address in a nice neighbourhood. Rewind to Macedonia, 2001, where American Travel Writer, Maddie, meets British Security Officer, Ian, and a toxic relationship begins.

Whew, I had firmly settled on a 4-rating, but those last approximately 50, mind-altering, pages saw me upping it to 4.5. Talk about shocking! Definitely a few surprises I didn’t see coming. This one’s more of a slow burn – character rather than action driven – delving deep into the psychological ramifications of Maddie’s relationship with Ian, and what motivated both characters to end up the way that they did. The flashbacks set in Europe did get a bit tired after a while, but the last 20% showed just how important and relevant every scene that took place back then was, so pay close attention, the payoff is worth it!

I feel it’s important to state that even though this book is advertised as domestic noir (which parts of it definitely are), a large chunk of it takes places in Eastern Europe – Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia – with graphic depictions of poverty, violence, and war, which could be disappointing to readers expecting a straight-up domestic thriller, and may not be the right read for others. But as I said above, those events are crucial to the plot. This isn’t much of a spoiler, so I will also mention that there is some animal cruelty in the form of a cat being poisoned. It takes place off site though, and when mentioned, doesn’t go into any kind of vivid detail, so cat lovers should be okay.

You’ll need to be on the ball, because there are three separate timelines to keep track of – the day of the 911 call, titled ‘The Day of the Killing’ (Officer Diane Varga POV), twelve weeks beforehand, working forward (Maddie POV), and the years leading up to that day, beginning in 2001 (Maddie, and on occasion, Ian). Side note: Annie Ward excelled at writing a young child (Maddie and Ian’s son, Charlie). Some authors either make the mistake of having their preschoolers whine and be annoying, or remain silent in the background, barely speaking, but Charlie was well-characterised, intelligent and funny, with age appropriate dialogue and behaviour.

Recommend to my fellow psychological thriller fans. I’d be keen to read more by Annie Ward.

I’d like to thank Netgalley, Quercus Books, and Annie Ward for the e-ARC.

US Publication Date: 21st March, 2019.

Review posted on Goodreads and Instagram. Will be uploaded to Amazon on publication day.

A murder mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. Beautiful Bad is a great book by Annie Ward.

Another cracking title from Quercus. Loved this and couldn't put it down. I really found the cover pulling me in and I am so happy to be able to get a chance to read this. Will recommend to friends.

A very twisted tale that took long time to unravel and contained a few suprises. Characters were very well portrayed,but not very likeable.