Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward @_annie_ward @harlequinbooks @tlcbooktours #bookreview #beautifulbad #parkrow

TGIF book lovers!

Excited to share with you today my review for this beautifully disturbing book! A huge thank you to Lisa at TLC Book Tours for my invitation to the tour! And to Annie Ward for her spectacular book!🦋

My Thoughts

beautifully dark, deeply disturbing, utterly deranged, extremely deceitful, and deliciously bad!

Annie Ward made my head spin with this absorbing and wild read. I had no idea what to expect with this book, in fact for some reason I thought it was about a beauty pageant gone wrong, so boy was I surprised when I started this one. In fact at one point I looked back at the cover to make sure I was reading the right book. This book was gritty and raw, and oh so good! I love a book that keeps me off balance and leaves me unsettled and this book absolutely did both. I truly had no idea what exactly was going on until the bitter end, but I sure enjoyed trying to figure it out.

The book immediately draws you in with a chilling 911 call. There is blood, a lot of blood, but whose is it? This is something you do not find out until the end, told you it’s absorbing and head spinning! The book bounces around in time from days before the tragedy to years before. The story is primarily told from Maddie’s point of view, but we also get the perspective of Ian and Diana the police detective. In 2001 Maddie lives in Bulgaria working as a travel writer. Her BFF Joanna is just across the border and Macedonia, the girls get together often to have some fun. One night the girls meet a British soldier named Ian and their lives and friendship will never be the same. What transpires after this is unexpected, unsettling, and unpredictable. This book went in a direction I certainly was not expecting, I so love it when that happens.

None of the characters in this book were terribly likable or sympathetic, however they were all extremely well drawn and real. The pain and sorrow in this story oozed from the pages, the regret was palpable. The ending had my heart pounding and left me shook! This book was about the darkest part of humanity and these characters laid them selves bare. This is a book that made me wonder, are people born bad?Riveting and gritty, absolutely recommend!

*** many thanks to Harlequin/Park Row for my copy of this book ***

About the Book

A devoted wife, a loving husband and a chilling murder that no one saw coming.

Things that make me scared: When Charlie cries. Hospitals and lakes. When Ian drinks vodka in the basement. ISIS. When Ian gets angry… That something is really, really wrong with me.

Maddie and Ian’s love story began with a chance encounter at a party overseas; he was serving in the British army and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend, Jo. Now almost two decades later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America. But when a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending writing therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian’s PTSD; her concerns for the safety of their young son; 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, sixteen 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 a shocking crime.

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Have a Beautiful day!🤩

Berit☀️✨