I’d like to start out this
review by saying that while I’ve been planning to read and review the entire Beautiful series, as well as Christina
Lauren’s other series, Wild Seasons,
ever since I read and reviewed Beautiful Bastard back in May, the decision to read and review Beautiful Stranger at this particular
point in time was very random and spontaneous on my part. That being said, I’m
so glad that I decided on whim to read Beautiful
Stranger now, because I absolutely loved this book, even more than I loved Beautiful Bastard.
When it comes to what
motivated me to read Beautiful Bastard,
the main thing that originally made me want to read it was that I had heard
that much like E.L. James’ Fifty Shades
trilogy, Beautiful Bastard also
originally started out as a Twilight
fan fic. Because the similarities to Twilight
are very obvious at times in Fifty Shades
of Grey, a big part of me wanted to read Beautiful Bastard to see if its Twilight
fan fic origins were at all obvious in the book. I’ll admit that while I was
genuinely interested in reading Beautiful
Bastard, I definitely went into reading it with a certain amount of
cynicism when it came to my expectations regarding Christina Lauren’s writing
ability and the book as a whole.
Ultimately, I ended up
absolutely loving Beautiful Bastard,
and I really hope I made that clear in my review of the book. I also realized
that it was definitely unfair of me to project my thoughts regarding the fact
that I personally think that E.L. James is a terrible writer onto Christina
Lauren in any way, simply because both Fifty
Shades of Grey and Beautiful Bastard
originally started out as Twilight
fan fiction before I even actually read Beautiful
Bastard. After reading Beautiful
Bastard, I came to the conclusion that regardless of the book’s fan fiction
origins, Christina Lauren are legitimately talented writers who definitely deserve
to have the success that they’ve achieved with their books. While I haven’t
read the original fan fic version of Beautiful
Bastard, I’d say that they did a really great job of making Beautiful Bastard its own thing that’s
completely separate from Twilight.
Honestly, I was very
surprised by the overall quality of Christina Lauren’s writing when I read Beautiful Bastard, and Beautiful Stranger also proved to be a
wonderful surprise in some very different ways. The thing that probably surprised
me the most about Beautiful Stranger
is the fact that while the plot of the book is pretty much about Max and Sara
being in a sex with no strings attached relationship, it’s a surprisingly sweet
and romantic story. I was also really surprised by the emotional depth that Max
and Sara’s relationship ultimately had, which I’d say is a real testament to
Christina Lauren’s talent as writers. I don’t think a writer whose writing is
either rather mediocre, or just plain bad could write a book about two people
who’re in a sex with no strings attached type of relationship in such a way
that the relationship and the book as a whole actually has a lot of genuine
emotional depth to it. Christina Lauren, on the other hand, really did a
fantastic job in terms of the way the relationship between Max and Sara was
written, writing them as individual characters, and the writing for the book as
a whole.
One of the numerous things
that I loved about Beautiful Stranger
is the fact that while the book focused on Max and Sara, and their
relationship, Chloe and Bennett were also featured in the book. Personally, I
thought that Christina Lauren did a great job of handling their presence in Beautiful Stranger. We got a nice
glimpse into what’s going on in their relationship at this point in the
timeline of the Beautiful series, and
it turns out that they had just gotten engaged at the start of the book. Chloe
and Bennett also actually added to the plot of the book at times, both in terms
of helping the plot to progress, as well as provide some entertaining bits
regarding their own relationship. What I really appreciate about Chloe and Bennett’s
inclusion in the plot of the book is that while I really enjoyed the fact that
they were featured in the book; they weren’t in the book to the point where it
felt like they were stealing the spotlight from Max and Sara, which is who the
book is supposed to be about.
I should probably mention
that one of several different book series that I found myself thinking about a
lot as I was reading Beautiful Stranger
was the Crossfire series by Sylvia
Day. As I was reading Beautiful Stranger,
I couldn’t help but think that despite the fact that Max and Sara’s
relationship was essentially a sex with no strings attached relationship, I
still think that their relationship has a lot more depth to it than the
relationship between Eva and Gideon from the Crossfire series has. Personally, I think that it’s a real
testament to Christina Lauren that they were able to write Max and Sara’s
relationship in such a way that it has so much depth and heart to it, making it
so that I could really root for them to work out as a couple. Eva and Gideon’s
relationship, on the other hand, comes across as not having very much depth to
it all and simply being pretty much all about sex and not much else; despite
the fact that Sylvia Day had always portrayed Eva and Gideon as being in a committed
relationship, with them (supposedly) being madly in love with each other, which
is why I ultimately can’t bring myself to root for them as a couple.
In case anybody reading this
review hasn’t read the Crossfire
series, I should definitely mention that Eva and Gideon get married in the
third book in the series, Entwined with You, and yet their relationship has always come across to me as
less depth to it than the shallow end of a kiddie pool since their relationship
really does seem to be more about sex than them actually being in love with
each other. Sure, Eva and Gideon are constantly talking about how much they
love each other, but the strong emphasis on the sexual aspect of their
relationship, as well as their physical attraction to each other, makes it so
that I honestly have an extremely difficult time believing that Eva and Gideon actually
have a genuine emotional and romantic connection with each other. The strong
emphasis on the sexual aspect of their relationship, and their physical
attraction to each other, also makes it so that I have a really hard time
believing that they’re a couple that I should ultimately be rooting for.
Honestly, I just don’t think
Eva and Gideon’s relationship has enough depth and emotional substance to it
for their relationship/marriage to realistically last for the rest of their
lives. The next book that I’ll be posting a review for is the fifth and final
book in the Crossfire series, One with You. I’ve already finished
reading One with You, and I’m
currently in the process of writing my review for the book. One of the things
that I’ll be talking about in my review for One
with You is how I just can’t help but think that all of the “love” and
sexual attraction that Eva and Gideon (supposedly) feel for each other will
eventually fizzle out and die, leading to them breaking up. Max and Sara’s
relationship, on the other hand, is honestly a relationship that I see having
what it takes for them to be together for the rest of their lives.
Maybe it’s because it wasn’t
all that long ago that I read the first book in Jennifer Probst’s new The Billionaire Builders series, Everywhere and Every Way, but there
were aspects of Beautiful Stranger
that really reminded me of Everywhere and
Every Way. The main similarity being that much like Max realized that he
was falling in love with Sara before she realized that she was falling for him,
Cal realized that he was falling in love with Morgan and wanted more from the
relationship before she realized that she felt the same way. However, as much
as I loved Everywhere and Every Way,
I’d say that Christina Lauren’s writing for Beautiful
Stranger is just a little bit stronger than I thought Jennifer Probst’s
writing for Everywhere and Every Way ultimately
was. One of the main reasons I feel this way is because Christina Lauren did a
really good job of writing the character Sara in such a way that I was able to
really understand why she was the way she was and how the backstory that we
were given about her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, who was an aspiring
politician that got caught in a sex scandal, was all connected to what was
going on throughout the book; and how that affected her actions in the present,
especially when it came to her relationship with Max.
With Morgan from Everywhere and Every Way, I really felt
like there were some gaps in her backstory, which made it kind of difficult at
times to understand how her backstory was impacting her actions throughout the
book. Because of that, there were times when I felt like I couldn’t truly
understand Morgan’s actions, motivations, and why she is the way she is. Plus,
there were times when Morgan’s attitude towards Cal made it so that I didn’t entirely
enjoy the fact that Cal really seemed to be falling for Morgan before she began
to reciprocate his feelings for her as much as I did at other times as I was
reading the book. Morgan’s attitude towards Cal made his feelings for her and
their relationship as a whole seem a tad one-sided at times, which sometimes
made me question whether or not I should be rooting for Call and Morgan’s
relationship to work out. However, I was ultimately able to root for Cal and
Morgan as a couple, and I was happy that they ended up together at the end of
the book.
Getting back to the subject
of Beautiful Stranger, one thing that
I really liked about this book and thought that Christina Lauren handled very
well is the fact that Max loved to take pictures of Sara, but she repeatedly
insisted that he not take any pictures of her where her face could be seen. For
starters, I found the explanation behind Sara not wanting Max to take pictures
where people would be able to see her face rather interesting. The reason Sara
didn’t want her face to be shown in the pictures that Max took of her was
because her previous boyfriend had been an aspiring politician who got caught
up in a sex scandal; and when that happened, the media ended up taking a lot of
pictures of both her and her ex-boyfriend as they were covering the news
surrounding his infidelity, which was all very humiliating for her. On a more
positive note regarding my thoughts on the fact that Max loved taking pictures
of Sara, I thought that was one of the many things that made Max such a cute and
lovable character when it came to his feelings for Sara.
While I’ve been a huge fan
of the romance genre for years, there’s no denying that the genre can be rather
formulaic at times. Regardless of whether it’s a romantic comedy or a book
that’s a part of the romance genre, the final part of the story typically
involves something happening with the couple that makes it look like the couple
isn’t going to end up together for one reason or another. Given the fact that
Christina Lauren really seemed to emphasize the fact that Max loved to take
pictures of Sara and the fact that Sara didn’t want her face to be shown in the
pictures that Max took of her throughout the book, I was pretty sure that that
aspect of the plot would come into play in a significant way towards the end of
the book. While I wasn’t entirely sure how it would come into play, I figured
that what would most likely happen would be that somebody would gain access to
all of the pictures that Max had taken of Sara and would release them to the
media since Sara comes from a rich family, leaving her humiliated by that
happening. However, Christina Lauren ultimately went in a slightly different
direction with that whole idea that had more to do with Sara having been hurt
by her ex-boyfriend’s infidelity when he got caught in a sex scandal. I
honestly didn’t see that coming, and I love the fact that I ended up being
surprised when it came to how the whole idea of somebody gaining access to the
pictures that Max had taken of Sara and releasing them to the public actually
played out in the book.
As much as I ultimately
ended up loving the relationship between Chloe and Bennett in Beautiful Bastard, I actually loved Max
and Sara as a couple even more; which is why I’d say that I love Beautiful Stranger even more than I
loved Beautiful Bastard. I think that
Christina Lauren handled the progression of Max and Sara’s relationship
throughout the book perfectly. As I said earlier, I really love the fact that
Max realized that he was falling in love with Sara and wanted more from the
relationship before Sara did, whereas with Sara it took her a little longer to
realize that she was falling in love with Max. The progression and evolution of
Max and Sara’s relationship, and their feelings for each other all felt very natural,
organic and true to who Max and Sara both were as individual characters. Plus,
I thought the way Christina Lauren conveyed the fact that Max was falling in
love with Sara to the reader was all very cute and fun to read about. Don’t get
me wrong, I still really love the relationship between Chloe and Bennett, I
just love the relationship between Max and Sara a little bit more.
In terms of having any
complaints about Beautiful Stranger,
much like Beautiful Bastard, the only
genuine complaint that I have about the book is that Christina Lauren once
again didn’t indicate at the start of each chapter from which character’s point
of view the chapters were written. However, I’m willing to let that go this
time, and not hold that against Beautiful
Stranger like I did with Beautiful
Bastard, since I listened to it on audiobook. Unlike the audiobook version
of Beautiful Bastard, which was read
entirely by Grace Grant, two people read Beautiful
Stranger. Grace Grant read the chapters that were written from Sara’s point
of view, and Jonathan Cole read the chapters that were written from Max’s point
of view; which made it a lot easier for me to deal with the changes in point of
view throughout the book.
Ordinarily, I would probably
say that it shouldn’t be the job of the people who work on the production of an
audiobook to do something, such as have more than one person reading the book,
to help indicate from which character’s point of view the chapters of a book
that’s written from the point of view of multiple characters were written. In
my opinion, that’s the author’s job. However, since I really did like Beautiful Stranger even more than Beautiful Bastard from the standpoint of
the writing for the book, I’m willing to let that go this time. If I gave Beautiful Stranger the same score that I
gave Beautiful Bastard, which was 9.5
out of 10, simply because Christina Lauren didn’t indicate at the start of each
chapter from which point of view the chapters were written; I feel like that
would contradict everything I’ve said about loving Beautiful Stranger even more than I loved Beautiful Bastard.
All things considered, Beautiful Stranger is a truly awesome follow-up
to Beautiful Bastard. Admittedly, I
was unaware of the fact that the novella, Beautiful
Bitch, is labeled as 1.5 in the Beautiful
series on Goodreads, until right after I had finished reading Beautiful Stranger. If I had been aware
of the actual numbering for each book and novella in the Beautiful series, I would have read Beautiful Bitch before I read Beautiful
Stranger. Unless I decide to read the first book in Christina Lauren’s Wild Seasons series (Sweet Filthy Boy) the next time I read
one of their books, I’ll read Beautiful
Bitch next.
With that being said, as a full-length
novel, I thought that Beautiful Stranger
was an awesome follow-up to Beautiful Bastard,
and I’m thrilled that the Beautiful
series didn’t suffer from any kind of sophomore slump. As I said earlier, I
definitely loved Beautiful Stranger
even more than I loved Beautiful Bastard,
which I really loved a lot. Max and Sara are both great characters that were
both very well written. Their relationship was also very well written and definitely
had a lot of heart to it; which is definitely not something that I would usually
expect from a romance novel about a sex with no strings attached kind of
relationship. The evolution of Max and Sara’s relationship, and the pacing of
the plot in general were also handled perfectly. In my opinion, that really is
a true testament to Christina Lauren’s talent as writers.
The fact that I liked Beautiful Stranger even more than I
loved Beautiful Bastard has
definitely caused Christina Lauren to get a little bit closer to me being
comfortable enough to definitively say that they tie with Emma Chase in terms
of who I consider to be my #1 favorite author in the romance genre. For the
record, Lauren Blakely and Jennifer Probst have both shown that they also have
potential to join Emma Chase and Christina Lauren in forming a four-way tie for
who I consider to be my #1 favorite author in the romance genre. However, while
I’m not quite at the point where I feel truly comfortable enough saying that I
love their books as much as I love Emma Chase’s books, I can definitely say
that I’ve come to consider Christina Lauren’s books to be a “Must Read”, not
just for me, but for all fans of the romance genre.
That being said, my final
score for Beautiful Stranger is 10
out of 10.
