Beautiful Facade is a novel about a young woman named Winter Starling her struggling with trauma from her past in Melbourne, Australia. The story is a new adult novel that focuses on Winter examining her trauma as a teenager and trying to heal as a now 27-year-old adult.

The writing in this novel is so lyrical and beautiful. I also really liked the sweet ending - which is something I think most people will like if they do decide to read the story. It's important to note that there are two love interests in Winter's life. While I couldn't stand Liam and Kai also seemed mean at times - Winter's relationship Kai felt very light heart hearted.

There were a few things that were a miss for me with the story. The first being the way the cheating aspect of the story was done. I can't say much without spoiling it, but I wish the story focused more on how to heal from the trauma that occurs with cheating too, I felt like that was a good place to show that; that healing can happen between people who have cheated on each other so that they can move on, but it felt brushed over in my opinon.

This is story is definitely for people who are looking for second chance romances while also examining trauma. Trigger warnings do include sexual assault, mental health, drugs, and some violence so be mindful of that.

Thank you to net galley for the arc, I was intrigued by the cover and synopsis, I also think its cool that the book is set in Australia. I think I enjoyed reading. One of the reasons why I started reviewing at net galley was to better get myself familiar with e-books and while I had some lengthy slow spells I think the book was engaging. However I can't help but feel conflicted about a few things. One was with the other girls in the book when they interact with Kai. It just rubs me the wrong way, I just don't like it when female characters are written just to be slut shamed. Another is the cheating in this book. While Kai and Winter were both drugged and had only kissed, it was still cheating. There was also another close call before, them sending each other photos, and just a lot of emotional cheating. Winter and Kai never get held accountable for this. I would have liked it at the very least that Winter confessed that she wasn't completely faithful either. And if I could revise one thing, it would be how Liam and Winter break up. Instead of a sex tape making the choice for Winter, I think it would have been nice if it was WInter's choice. That she was just straight up and honest that she likes Kai and leave Liam. Because the sex-tape just feels like a way to 1.Make Winter's cheating look less worse and 2. not force Winter to just make the choice herself.

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Review of Beautiful Façade by Kathryn S. Rose
Name: Beautiful Façade
Author: Kathryn S. Rose
Genre: Drama, Romance, Mental Health, Contemporary
Rating: 3.5/4

Review:

Beautiful Façade is a vulnerable calling-out song for all the ladies out there, who keep living under a beautiful façade of perfection. it encourages us to be more of ourselves than to be anything else. Enticed with a troubling past and mental health problems, this book is a beautiful tribute to all the women, telling them to love themselves more.

The protagonist, Winter Starling seems to be living a perfect, successful businesswoman, fiancée of a popular soccer player. Winter has it all, a beautiful home, success, love! But her ideal life starts falling apart when she reunites with her first love, Kai.

Reuniting with Kai brings back old memories, memories she would rather forget. Winter delves into her troubled past, suffering from insomnia. Kai seems to be the problem and the solution to all her problems at the same time. Especially when she is still attracted to her childhood sweetheart, Will Kai's return bring back old scars or heal them all the way?

The writing style is fluent, lyrical, and wonderful. The story is heart-touching, especially the way the protagonist has developed in the story. I find the protagonist to be relatable, though I felt she is really annoying at times. She is so confused throughout the story, her character development was better. The writing itself is good, enjoyable and engrossing.

There was potential for it to be better. The start of the book was captivating but I feel that the writing couldn't capture the raw emotions of the characters as well.

thanks to netgalley for this e-arc.

i found the first half or so of this book enjoyable and i actually saw myself liking it. then the rest of the book hit me like the most predictable and convenient story plot ever. it completely took me out of the story and consequently ruined it for me.

Beautiful Facade was written well. I wish there was a bit more to the backstory on Winter and Kai, more of what they shared together in their teen years. I'm not big on women changing themselves to be closer to a man, or change their beliefs or habits to better accustom their partners views. A relationship is a two way street, not a one way street. Over all, I just didn't connect with the characters.

I thought this book was just okay. The staff was so slow and didn’t seem to really build up to the meat of the story very well, but once I got past that, I enjoyed it.

4.5 I really liked this one! There's something about aussie contemporary that is just a breath of fresh air.

Winter is living a seemingly perfect life when her high school BFF reenters her life. Kai is now a rising musician and rock god, and he's still the person who knows Winter best. When she starts to see cracks in her life, she starts to question what she wants from life.

I loved the closeness and chemistry between Winter and Kai. You can feel their connection and how much they care about each other. The steamy bits are few but GREAT. Also, Kai is a sweetheart and I absolutely loved him.

For some people the middle part may be frustrating. The 'I have zero connection to my fiance but I'll marry him anyway' lasts a bit too long, but for me I was so into the story that it was ok.

Overall, I extremely recommed Beautiful Facade to anyone looking for contemporary NA with well developed characters, hot bffs and LONGING.

~I was provided with this ARC on netgalley in exchange for an honest review~

Coisas que gostei no livro:
-Protagonista que uma boa rede de apoio (Kai é sempre uma pessoa compreensiva)
-A importância da saúde mental e buscar por ajuda profissional (todos temos nossas lutas internas)
"The two women in my life have been through hell. One asked for help, and no one could protect her. The other never felt safe to ask for help in the first place.”

Coisas que não gostei:
-Demorou para me envolver com os personagens e o enredo, se você não se interessar até o Cap 9 então não insista
-Falta de desenvolvimento de alguns personagens (Principalmente o relacionamento Winter e Liam)

Avaliação Final:
O livro foi interessante em alguns momentos, mas no geral foi somente OK.
Kai foi simplesmente o melhor personagem, por que as atitudes imaturas da personagem principal as vezes eram irritantes

TW: sexual assault + aftermath (non-graphic), slightly controlling/unhealthy relationship

i really enjoyed the first third of this book! i had to stop because of some personal triggers that appeared BUT i fully recommend this book to anyone that is reading this review. it's well-written, the character is understandable and relatable, and the love interest is super intriguing. i'm hoping to come back to this book some time soon!

thank you netgalley for the ARC

Beautiful Facade is a refreshing yet intense love story. One of those stories like The Notebook, but with a deep and tough past. I had to take my time to read it completely, seeing a protagonist close to my age (Winter) with a sexual assault history had me trembling for more than half of the book. Even if the argument of abuse is not the only and main thing the author talks about in the book, it still made me rethink a lot of my difficult past. I originally wanted to stop reading, it was too much emotions all together, but my brain told me to push myself and get to the end, and I am happy I did. The love story between Winter and Kai reminds me a bit of the never ending love story between Rory Gilmore and Jess Mariano in Gilmore Girls. The story is very easy to read, in the sense that the author knows how to describe really well what she wants to express. I’d recommend this book to any woman in her 20s with or without a traumatic past, I feel it would help realize them a few things about themselves.

I did enjoy the writing of this story, it was such a powerful read and not just another romance story. Interesting characters with a plot that keeps you on your feet!!!

Beautiful Facade is a novel that explores the remnants of sexual assault years after it has passed, and how a traumatic event can haunt an individual past a set date in time. And for credit, I think that Kathryn Rose really hit a premise which I don't think a lot of novels have dared to tread. That being said, while the premise was incredibly interesting, the writing of the story caused the book to fall flat for me. I ended up DNF (did not finish) the book at around 40%, but I will still give a fair review based on what I read.

We are introduced to the character of Winter, who is a successful woman engaged to star football player Liam King. Quite honestly, that is about as much as I could remember about Winter right off the top of my head. She didn't have an interesting personality or any definitive personality. A lot of the time, I felt myself forgetting that this was the main character because I felt her personality shifted and morphed to the point of unrecognizability.

Winter meets "an old flame" of Kai, who she has not seen for over 10 years, right from Chapter one. Kai's character was not interesting to me either, and instead came off as a little bit weird? We learn that Kai had always known what Winter was up to, despite her not knowing what was happening and had even intricately planned the event of their meeting, which gave me a weird vibe. Additionally, We know that from the first chapter how Kai plays into Winter's past in regards to the incident, but I never felt an attraction or even dependence from Winter to Kai. Also, how is it even possible that Winter did not know Kai was the lead singer of a band she loved, in the age of Google?

Rose's attempts to make Kai out to be this very enigmatic character also fall short, and I found myself disliking his character. He seemed very attached to Winter, and despite knowing that Winter was engaged to another man, flirted with her. I also felt an air of childishness from both Winter and Kai in regards to their romance. For example, Winter claims that she is afraid of being Liam's fiancee as she does not want to be in the spotlight, but if this is true, then would she not also hesitate to be with Kai, who is an uprising artist? Winter also becomes possessive of Kai when he is around other women, which is not a thing she has a right to even feel, being that she is engaged?

I also think that one thing that put me off from this book is the amount of pure fluff added into this book. I read up to 40% of the novel, and there were almost no plot developments nor character developments. We essentially jumped from party to her morning routine to another party etc. This book takes a long time to actually jump into anything of substance, and that's a shame because I could tell that what Rose had to say is extremely important.

I did like how Rose tried to give us a glimpse into the life of a person post-trauma, and for while it lasted, the platonic healing Winter had found with Kai. Also, Rose did not hesitate to give us the context of the incident, glimpses of which we see in the very first chapter.

Of course, being a debut novel, I still applaud Rose for even writing a novel with such a heavy topic. However, I think this novel suffered from unclear character personalities and a very muddled plot progression. If a good chunk of the beginning of the novel had been left out, I think that I would have loved this novel.

I recommend this novel to anyone who I looking for a fresh perspective into PTSD and trauma from characters that are not teenagers, as well as anyone looking for a quick read.

*I was given this ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you for NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!


This one was a hard read. I knew it would be, but I honestly think it wouldn't be as such. It had good writing, good pace, honest and heartfelt characters that you could see yourself connecting with, but the main topic was a sensitive topic for me and I felt myself having difficulties even finishing it. Not because it's a bad book, but because of my own traumas. I hope everyone who picks this book will be careful before diving into it.

First of all, I want to say that the book cover is absolutely gorgeous.

I'm quite conflicted about this book, as I felt like it was actually a good one but some parts and aspects of it made me quite uncomfortable so unfortunately I can't give it a higher rating, but hopefully others can find this a way more enjoyable reading experience.

I found all the characters very interesting and realistic, as someone who's around their age, to me they felt very believable, with all their problems and flaws and emotions. And it was wonderful how much growth there was in the characters.

Thank you very much for the arc!