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 ***

I had an idea of how this story was going to end but it kept me engaged. I also enjoyed the author’s writing style. I will recommend it to friends. Thank you NetGalley for the copy.

Maddie and Joanna are multilingual besties with high IQs living in Southern Europe. Maddie is a writer who found or she gets to stay longer to write for a travel magazine. Joanna is working to get supplies across the border for mother’s and children in war stricken country. They like to go out, drink and party. They befriend English soldiers working as bodyguards and both women become involved with Ian who appears to have a temper. Maddie and Ian end up married with a kid and the book begins with a crime committed at their home. The book jumps around with chapters from different time periods and perspectives. It was an interesting concept and. I tried to get into this one and I kept reading hoping there would be a big unexpected twist at the end, but there wasn’t.

BEAUTIFUL BAD was a remarkable read, even more fascinating that it started as a memoir. I found myself wondering what was truth and what was fiction. This is a fast paced book that will have you enraptured in the folds of pondering the line between real and the fake as well.

Rating 3.5 stars!

Beautiful Bad opens with a chilling 911 emergency call in Meadowlark, a small town in Kansas. When the investigator arrives to the scene in an upscale neighborhood, he discovers lots of blood - and exactly who belongs to that blood is one of the main threads of the story. The reader doesn’t find out until the end what exactly happened in this seemingly beautiful house.

Readers then go back to ten weeks prior to the murder where we meet Maddie who has recently suffered a head injury, is in therapy, and cannot remember how she was even injured.  Maddie's husband, Ian, has given Maddie the story that she slipped and fell, but somehow the police believe domestic violence was involved.  Maddie tries to stay focused on discovering things through her writing, trying to work through her fears - including anything that might hurt her son, Charlie. Maddie knows she needs to go back before the time of her injury, before she was paralyzed by fear so she can understand her current feelings.

And then flash back to ten years earlier when Maddie was a travel journalist on assignment when she and Joanna become great friends. They both meet Ian there and Maddie is in awe  he's the typical tall, dark and handsome, mysterious guy that girls love.  He also has a girlfriend so of course, Maddie falls for him.

Beautiful Bad is told from multiple points of views and it covers many different timelines - I almost felt like it was just too much at some points but overall, this was a fantastic thriller to read - and believe me, I've been reading a zillion of them lately!  I'll admit that I did guess the ending, but I promise it took nothing away from enjoying the story. The suspense and anxiety kept notching up page after page, keeping me glued to this book cover to cover.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from Park Row Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for my review.  A positive review was not required and my views are my own.

#NetGalley #Beautiful Bad # Harlequin-Park Row

The story is told in multiple times lines and points of view and starts off with a frantic call to 911.
Maddie wants travel the world. The excitement of working and living in Eastern Europe, is so much better than life in Kansas with her parents. Her best friend and travel companion Joanna lives nearby, only a border crossing away.
While visiting Joanna in Macedonia they meet Ian a member of the British military and his friends and then the fun really begins. This story is well written and draws you in from page one. Plenty of twists and turns and a ending that I was not expecting. I look forward to reading more from Annie Ward.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Imagine taking a long road trip to a restaurant you have heard has great food. Especially desserts...their deserts are supposed to be "explosive" and amazing. Once you get there, the food is mediocre and the highly anticipated dessert is nothing new. That was my experience reading this book.

I liked the multiple POVs and the writing sessions with the therapist were mildly interesting, but for me this book boiled down to relationship drama and love triangle that was predictable and rather tedious. The murder that is intended to drive the plot was obvious from the beginning and barely enough to make me want to finish the book. I had more sympathy for Ian trying to overcome his PTSD and financially provide for his family than I ever did for Maddie or Joanna, who I mostly found to be whiny and wholly unlikeable.

Overall not my cup of tea and a very forgettable entry into the psychological "thriller" genre.

This book had me hooked until the end when it completely unraveled to the point of not being... good. Things made sense until the extremes came into play, extremes that weren't necessary.

Beautiful Bad tells the story of Maddie and Ian and their tumultuous relationship. It is told through multiple points of view and a fractured timeline. While it did take a little getting used to the timeline being all over the place, within the first 50 pages or so it was easy to settle into the plot.

This was a psychological thriller that didn't give up the answers until the bitter end. When it seemed to be going into one direction, it quickly shot into another. The ending is jolting, but somewhat satisfying. It is a complete story that keeps you guessing even after you have finished reading. Solid 4 star read.

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward is a tale of friendship, love and marriage told in a twisted tale where one would believe any of those would mean happiness, but for our characters it leads to a 911 call. Told from various point of views and spanning years, we meet Maddie, her friend Jo and the man she eventually marries, Ian. What ties them together and what tears them apart?

This is truly Maddie’s story and as a narrator, she quickly draws readers into her journey as we discover the journey that leads to the 911 call. Taken back and forth in time, we learn what has transpired over the years between the relationships around Maddie and her fears. This story was twisted and full of surprises!

Happy reading!

This was such a whirlwind ride. Definitely kept me on my toes as I read it, right until the very end.

Maddie is a wife and a mother who would do anything to protect her family and those she loves. After college Maddie decides she is going to to go Bulgaria to write and tutor. She isn't quite alone as her friend Joanna, is not too far away in Macedonia. When she visits Joanna it's always a good time, even though they are in a war-torn country. When Maddie meets Ian, there is an instant connection, but time and opportunity are never on their side, so they see each other when they can, and are friends for a very long time. Eventually, they are able to get together and build a life and start a family. But everything isn't as it seems. Ian is suffering from PTSD from his many years serving as protection in Iraq, Bosnia, and other countries. And Maddie has anxiety about it all. Will their relationship last, or will the events of their pasts be too much for their future to handle.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin-Park Row for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The story starts with a call to 911 and you can hear a woman and child in distress. The book takes you back and forth from Maddie's time in Bulgaria, to the days and weeks leading up to this 911 call. I will admit the very beginning drew me in, but then all the in between felt very unnecessary. Until you get to the end and you see everything unfold. I definitely did not see the end coming and I was pleasantly surprised.

Beautiful Bad drew me in from the beginning with the 911 call. I was disappointed a few chapters in when it seems as though the whole incident was forgotten. Then when it popped back up, I didn't even remember the characters from that time. So that is why I gave the book the lower rating. I would like to see the finished book to see if there were any differences. I read an interview with the author that said that this book started off as a memoir, but her editor convinced her to change it into fiction. I think the middle parts where the memoir that got thrown out.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and I stayed up way past my bedtime once I reached the 60% mark to finish it. The ending was really good and it made up for the slow middle. I look forward to reading more by Annie Ward.

What an incredible book! I was captured into its pages by the first chapter which starts with a frantic 911 call. Maddie and Jo are best friends. They are both working in war torn countries when they meet Ian. These three people are the main characters in this book. They are very complex and well drawn characters. The book alternates between past and present which works well. It is filled with unbelievable twists and turns. The explosive ending blew my mind! I did not even see it coming! You will be on the edge of your seat, holding your breath. This book is so well written. If you like psychological suspense you will love Beautiful Bad! Absolutely amazing storyteller! I can't wait for the next book by this author. Yes, it is that good! You don't want to miss this one!! My review simply can't do this book justice. You need to grab this book. It will devour you!! Highly, highly recommend!!

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward held a lot of promise to be a new, twisty take on marital problems that turn deadly.

The story follows Ian and Maddie who have a very weird relationship. They’ve been together a long time and through a lot of different scenarios. It all leads up to this shocking crime. I have to admit fairly quick that I did not finish this book. It’s not necessarily that it was bad, because the plot has a lot of potential. The writing was a bit too choppy for me and jumped around in the timeline, which confused me right from the start. I also feel that mystery thriller novels like this should have a punch to the gut right at the beginning to hook the reader, and this story didn’t do that for me.

I do like the idea behind this book, but the execution was definitely what was off for me. I also feel like sometimes there was a lot going on to the point where it was overkill. Too many details, too much information, can be a bad thing in some stories. I want to have my imagination be able to do a bit of the work.

While I may not have enjoyed this book, I always encourage other people to check it out because while something might not strike me, it may be just what someone else will love. Unfortunately for me, this one just didn’t strike the right cords and I wasn’t able to finish it. I’ll be checking out Ward’s next novel hoping for something I will love.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. Thank-you to the Author, the publisher and to Netgalley. This is the first book by Annie Ward that I have read and I enjoyed it. It was a fast moving book, with some twists and turns. The only thing that bothered me, was on the front cover of the book, there is a description that says "The Perfect Marriage Leads to the Perfect Crime". I think this is misleading, at no time did I think they had a perfect marriage, I don't think that any of the characters in the book thought they had a perfect marriage, so this description confused me.

This was a very enjoyable read with many twists and turns. The story starts with a woman, Maddie, trying to find a psychiatrist after having suffered a head trauma. The story then switches back and forth 10 or more years to when Maddie lived in Macedonia and often visited her friend in Bosnia. During one of these visits she meets her current husband who is currently away travelling. A good thriller which I couldn't put down until I had finished it with a surprise ending. Definitely recommend!

This is such an intricate, dark story with so many layers. It’s the story of Maddie and Ian, and how they meet overseas. Their complicated, sometimes disturbing relationship unfolds and you start to see how broken Ian is. I found the story to be really interesting and the ending was pretty surprising. Great read.

Any book that starts with an exciting 911 call gets my attention. BEAUTIFUL BAD by Annie Ward is a psychological thriller that centers around three characters: Maddie (the wife), Ian (the husband), and Joanna (the best friend). In the beginning, we learn that someone has been killed, but you don't find out who it is until the end of the book.

Going back and forth in the storyline between the present and the past, we learn the story behind these three characters. We also know that the killer was one of these those characters...or was it? Was it a marriage gone bad? A post-soldier with PTSD? An abused wife? A disenchanted best friend?

BEAUTIFUL BAD is not a story I would recommend to my middle school students, but I would recommend it to my friends if you want a book to curl up with that will keep you guessing. To be honest, I did start figuring out the mystery about halfway through the book, but I wanted to keep reading to find out if I was right. There were some great twists to the story that I hadn't expected, which was fun too.

I was given this book for my honest review. It was published just this month.

Really interesting premise but I went from loving the book the first half to not really sure what I thought the second half. It was worth my time and I finished it, just not sure if I would recommend.

I’m giving Beautiful Bad a 2.5/5 stars. This book sounded so intriguing to me when I first saw it, and I was so excited to finally get to read it. And for most of the book, I was absolutely loving it. The plot wasn’t very fast moving, and it jumped around a lot, but I could still see that it was building up towards something big. But the ending, in my opinion, was a mess. Where the plot went was very interesting and quite disturbing, but there was so much left unanswered and unsaid. A lot of the information in the end was also just directly told to the reader and there wasn’t much speculation to be had. The characters all became completely different, and I felt like they were acting out of character. This book could have been amazing if the ending had just been different. How it ended was fine, but the execution of that ending was far off what this book this deserved. I’m sure other people liked the ending and the book as a whole, but it just felt awkward and wrong to me. Other than the ending, I loved the book. That’s why it’s getting a half rating from me. I loved the depth and imperfections of the characters and just how unique this book was. The plot jumped around a lot between the different timelines, which I actually really liked. It gave you just enough of a taste of each timeline before it would switch. Without much action for most of the book, that was a great way for the author to keep the reader engaged. I do think that I will try to pick up another book from this author to see if any of her other books are a little bit better.

I received a free, advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.