3 Stars

"Hurry!" she screamed "Please help us! Hurry!" Then the line went dead.

After the 911 call is placed in a small town in Kansas, police officers arrive at Madeline Brandt's home. What police officers find is a gruesome mess that started over 10 years ago.

Maddie, an American, is a journalist living in the on the outskirts of Macedonia. But she is not far from her friend Joanna who is across the border is smuggling in goods to help the poor. At a party, Maddie meets Ian a member of the British Army. Although they had completely different upbringings, there is something that draws Maddie and Ian together. And although they are at the wrong place and time, eventually they find each other and start the pedestrian lifestyle they have been avoiding all their lives.

Settling in her hometown in Kansas, Maddie has the life she dreamed. A husband, Charlie her son, and another on the way. Things have started to unravel over time. Ian's PTSD has been impacting the family. There was an accident on a camping trip. After a few, too many glasses of wine Maddie falls in the dark. She cannot remember any other details. Secretly, Maddie starts to seek help from a therapist. And as she dives in deeper, the past invades their lives.

Beautiful Bad is told in alternate storylines. Suspense is created right from the beginning. We arrive at a gruesome scene at a suburban house. The story is then told in alternating points of view and timelines, from Maddie to Ian and from past to present. In the past, we see the strange courtship of an emotionally dark man and Maddie. We see inside the character's plights which gives insight into their behavior. As the story unfolds the timelines culminate to a dark night.

This is one of those novels that I find difficult to review because of mixed feelings. The actual story itself is very intriguing with compelled my will to read. However, I found several of the characters unlikable with dialogue that was challenging to follow. Furthermore, the timeline and countries skipped around so frequently that it became unbalanced. One of the reasons I persisted was that I found Maddie endearing and I was anxious to see what the therapy sessions revealed. Having one of the storylines set in the Balkans during tumultuous times created a great atmosphere for the backstory. And finally the conclusion of the "The Night of the Killing" emotional.

Thank you Netgalley, Harlequin, and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The beginning of this book started of with a 911 call and immediately hooked me. It was written in reverse chronological order which was o.k except that in my opinion there were too many graphic details and descriptions that did not add anything to the conclusion of the story. The characters were well written and my heart felt for little Charlie. I wished there had been a different ending although I know this added to the thriller aspect and will be one that many may like, it just was not one of my favorites.

Best friends Maddie and Jo have met Ian in Europe where they all are working. Both women have a relationship with him at different times. Maddie ends up his wife. They have a son, Charlie.
Maddie and Jo’s frienship falls apart for years until the friends reconnect. Ian suffers from PTSD and anger issues. Maddie seems trapped and scared.
Just when you think you have things figured out, they take a twist and you are stunned.
It is hard to put this book down. You need to keep reading straight through and then, you will need to read the ending again!

"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 romance 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, Charlie; and the couple’s tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.

The characters were great and we'll developed. Anyone who enjoys this genre of books will love this one!

Thanks to #NetGalley for this ARC of #BeautifulBad
Pub Date: 19 Mar 2019

I feel many of the thrillers written today all have the same basic structure and are becoming quite predictable. I've read several thrillers recently and I must say, I have not been impressed. That is not the case with this book.

The book is written from several perspectives and on several different timelines. It is slightly confusing at first, but once the story gets rolling, it's easier to follow.

The first chapter begins with Maddie's recent past and she is considering seeing a psychiatrist. As the story progresses, the timeline moves closer to "The Day of the Murder" which also begins in the second chapter. "The Day of the Murder" is also visited as another perspective through the book and has the 911 call that the reader later revisits toward the end of the story. We also see the story through Maddie's past, years ago, when she was a traveling writer and explore her relationship with her best friend Jo. We are also introduced to her husband Ian during their first encounters and follow their growing relationship.

The author does a wonderful job of making this story completely realistic. As if this story could be based off of someone's true life. It was well written and though I wouldn't use a word as strong as "hooked", I definitely found myself engaged with the story. I found it entertaining and interesting.

Book endings are always a big deal for me. I hate when I invest the time in a book only to have the ending be anticlimactic or predictable. The ending to this book was not disappointing. Even though towards the end, I found myself guessing several scenarios, it still had just enough of a twist that the ending was fantastic.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a different type of thriller.

Tl;dr: Beautiful Bad is a portrait of a marriage hitting a crisis point but the real question is how did it happen--and more importantly, who hit that point first? Very much recommended for fans of psychological domestic thrillers.

Ok, I will start with my one nitpick. I know thrillers need to be compared to a popular book, but it's not necessary here. Beautiful Bad stands on its own!

The plot is pretty straightforward: We open with a 911 call and then move back and forth in time, one piece of the mystery unfolding at a time.

Well, sort of.

We have:

Maddie: former world traveler who chased adventure and certainly courted danger, who is now living back in her home state of Kansas, where she's raising her son Charlie while battling the aftermath of a severe injury sustained while she was with...

Ian: Maddie's husband, former British soldier turned protection agent when Maddie first meets him. Suffering from severe PTSD sustained from that but also from his work serving as a defense contractor/ground support liasom in war torn countries.

He and Maddie meet while she's visiting her friend:

Joanna, humanitarian aid worker willing to do whatever it takes to get aid to the refugees she works with. Brilliant, beautiful, living as hard as she can, and all sharp edges. She's less than pleased when Maddie and Ian hit it off, leading to an estrangement that breaks Maddie's heart.

Maddie, in Kansas, is trying to deal with the changes--physical, yes, but more frightening to her are the emotional ones--she's felt since her accident with the help of her new therapist, the delightfully written Cami J, whose help Maddie resists as it means she has to deal with:

Ian, who was dark and brooding when she met him, a looming disaster of a man whose ongoing battles with PTSD and alcoholism have made Maddie's life a minefield.

She's scared, you see. Scared of what she sees on the news, worried about Charlie. Worried about Ian. His drinking. His temper. Her injury, which she really can't recall getting and she doesn't like being pushed by Cami J, she understands Ian, she does. Except that maybe...

Maybe she's afraid of what really understanding him would mean--and not just for her. Maybe she needs to be terrified for Charlie.

After a lot of thinking about what Cami J has gotten her to reveal, she reconnects with Joanna. Arranges for her to come visit, but while Ian, who is still traveling all over for his job, is still away. She and Joanna can reconnect, repair the friendship that was so important to Maddie back before her life was Ian and then Kansas with Ian and Charlie.

And that's all there is.

Sort of.

That's the beauty of Beautiful Bad. There is everything that's there--and then there's everything underneath.

I don't want to reveal any spoilers, but let's just say truth can be a lot more than it seems and that what Maddie says she wants isn't what she actually wants.

And when Maddie wants something-- or someone--she gets it. No matter what the cost might be.

I really enjoyed Beautiful Bad, and think anyone who enjoys twisty (and twisted) thrillers, especially those where you know what the endgame will be and get to watch almost as trapped as those in the web of the truth and lies are, will love this. It's fast, it's furious (on many levels) and hooks you fast and keeps you locked in. (!)

(Quick aside: Joanna! I actually felt the worst for her. I think she always thought she was miles ahead of everyone else and-- well. No.)

Overall it's predictable. but in a "oh no, is that? And that? Dammmmmmn!" way, which is to say that there's a lot (a lot!) of twisted fun waiting for those who enjoy dark psychological thrillers. I know I sure enjoyed the ride!

Police are summoned to a shocking crime scene. This story starts two decades earlier when Maddie and Ian meet in the Balkans only to eventually settle down in Kansas. Several stories play apart in the unfolding of this crime scene including Ian’s PTSD, Maddie’s camping accident, to an iffy past with their friend Jo. Solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 read. I absolutely loved the plot twist at the end, perfect ending to all the story lines. Personal spoiler - while I loved the suspense of “what just happened and why” story, I had a hard time getting into the background of Ian’s ptsd which took up so much of the book. I still look forward to anything else this author brings us in the future.

For those who are familiar with this genre, it's somewhat easy to guess what is happening and what has happened, in a general way. I don't think it's giving anything away to say that it's obvious we have an unreliable narrator. What sets this book apart from others is that the past takes place in Eastern Europe and the characters have their colourful past in a colourful location. It got an extra star for that. Other than that, the story is told well in this quick read.

This story started off strong, lost me a bit in the middle and then picked up again at the end. I feel like for the majority of the book we lost the full steam the first couple of chapters held. It's a true slow burn to get to the ending, maybe a bit too slow for my liking. The timeline is actually pretty long and the author does a good job of not really getting the reader lost but I think the story as a whole could have been trimmed down a bit to keep the suspense at it's peak.

I will say that many, many times I thought I had this one figured out then the author would drop something and make me question myself. Although most of my guesses were correct it was a bit of a journey to get there and at times seemed to be a bit far fetched. All in all I think it was a solid story and I can see why some will love it and why others won't.

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward was anything but bad. The writing was beautiful. You felt like you had personally been with the characters over seas, and you could feel as though you were living alongside them back in the States. A haunting story of what one man endured in some of the most dangerous countries overseas as a body guard in war torn countries and how horrible war and PTSD are. Finally coming together at last, Ian and Maddie think they’ve left all the horrors of that life behind. But have they really? Told in two points of view by Maddie and Ian and flipping back between the past and present we see that although life is beautiful and bad, it is never quite as it seems.

Thanks to netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book starts with a murder scene and you don't actually find out who was murdered till pretty far into the book. The book alternates between the time leading up to the murder and the time when Maddie and Ian met in 2001. I always like when books have an international thing going on and this one did because when they met they were in Macedonia during the civil war. While I found that setting interesting at first, I thought that part of the book dragged and I started finding it boring. It took forever for Maddie and Ian to get together and I felt like I lost interest.

I will say the end of the book was unexpected and I actually really liked how the ending played out because I felt it was clever, but it just took too long to get there.

Nothing makes it bad or unenjoyable, it's just not a stand out. Pretty forgettable.
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A suspenseful book with a convoluted ending. Maddie, working in Bosnia, falls in love with a Brit working as a diplomatic bodyguard. After years of missed cues between them they finally reconnect and marry and have a beautiful son Charlie. Ian’S job problems at home send him back into long contracts overseas and ptsd issues when he is home. Maddie’s misreading of Ian’s determination to protect his family allow Maddie to seek an unexpected resolution.

This was a decent book that kept me guessing until the end which was a "well I didn't see that coming". This book goes back and forth between different characters and different time periods of their lives. It wasn't hard to follow and certainty kept the suspense up for the "present" time frame.

I thought this was an OK read - I felt it dragged on a little bit and was long in the beginning. The character development was good, but I felt like I could have been more invested.

Beautiful Bad starts immediately with a 911 phone call and a police officer at the scene wondering what could have happened. The book toggles back and forth between current day and past events. Maddie describes her relationship with her husband, Ian and her best friend, Jo. The three main characters have many dramatic ties between them, but all comes together within the last chapters of the book. As a reader, you know "something" is going to happen, but it does take until the end of the novel before those predictions can manifest themselves.

I enjoyed this book but found the ending somewhat predictable. It was a little long, but overall an entertaining read.

BEAUTIFUL BAD lost me somewhere around the middle. I was unable to finish, giving up around the 75% mark.

This is a book that meticulously crafts the jagged and cracked world where PTSD meets survivors of near-death experiences. It’s not a beautiful ending.
Maddie is impressive. You’re really going to like her. She travels to write and has no fear no matter where her assignments take her. She’s a hard-drinking party girl who throws caution to the wind and lives her life to the fullest; almost too full. She constantly relives a moment in her youth where she almost drowned during a boating incident. It becomes clear that her entire life is altered by this event; she believes she’s invincible.
Ian is the standard good-looking hunk of a British military guy who now does contract work providing security in Iran, the Balkans, the Middle East, wherever the pay is great. He’s deeply flawed by the death and savage destruction he’s seen, and he believes Maddie can ground him and help him stay sane.
After years of traveling in different directions, they finally get together and share a home in Kansas to raise their beautiful son.
But something’s not quite right. Maddie has a terrible scar along the side of her face, a result of a fall during a camping trip. Or so she’s been told. She begins to see a therapist in hopes that she can figure out why she’s so confused and unsure of her life with Ian.
The couple has a common acquaintance, Joanna, who was friends with both when they met each other. She’s also just as hardened as Maddie, and her role in their relationship is pivotal.
I loved these characters; their scars, visible and unseen; their skewed view of life, their obvious desire to tempt fate. I couldn’t put it down. I was unprepared for the ending. This is a deeply moving book about the lingering and constant damage from PTSD and war. If you enjoy a thriller that puts the pain of sorrow deep in your chest, this is your book. I absolutely loved it.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Harlequin – Trade Publishing for making it available.)

This was a fantastic novel, I really liked it. It was told from alternating points of view and hooked me from the beginning. The story weaves the past and the present. The characters are well developed and keep you guessing as to what they will do next and their mental stability. It's very interesting what war will do to a person; this story touches on PTSD and the insight into this mental condition is outstanding.

This is a love story, a mystery, a thriller, and the ending does not disappoint! Wow, the twist, just wow.

I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

What a twisty, chilling book! Ian and Maddie have gone through A LOT to make their relationship work, encompassing several countries and decades. They are finally married, with a small son, but something terrible happens. As we wander through the scene of the crime with an intrepid investigator, we also experience the past through both Ian and Maddie’s perspectives. I couldn’t put this book down; I was so concerned about little Charlie, that the truth of what was happening walloped me! I don’t want to give any spoilers, but this is definitely a thriller that stayed with me several months after reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc.