Review: Beautiful Stranger by Christina Lauren

BeautifulStrangerBeautiful Stranger
(Beautiful Bastard, #2)
By: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: April 16, 2013
Genre: Erotic Romance
Rating:

Escaping a cheating ex, finance whiz Sara Dillon’s moved to New York City and is looking for excitement and passion without a lot of strings attached. So meeting the irresistible, sexy Brit at a dance club should have meant nothing more than a night’s fun. But the manner—and speed—with which he melts her inhibitions turns him from a one-time hookup and into her Beautiful Stranger.

The whole city knows that Max Stella loves women, not that he’s ever found one he particularly wants to keep around. Despite pulling in plenty with his Wall Street bad boy charm, it’s not until Sara—and the wild photos she lets him take of her—that he starts wondering if there’s someone for him outside of the bedroom.

Hooking up in places where anybody could catch them, the only thing scarier for Sara than getting caught in public is having Max get too close in private.

 

 

1thoughtsSara has just come out of a bad break-up. The man that she spent the last 6 years with, whom she planned to marry, had been cheating on her from the start. Not only that, but given his high profile, politician status, and her family name, all of his indiscretions were out there in the public eye. However, she believed him every time he said the photo wasn’t what the papers made it out to be. So, after being publicly humiliated, she packs up and moves to New York City. On a night out with her friends at a club she meets Max, her beautiful stranger, and their no strings attached affair takes off from there.

Beautiful Stranger an entertaining story to read. I wasn’t overly sure if I would enjoy it due to the fact that this trope has been done a million times before. I mean, how many times can you read about a jilted woman, swearing off men, only to fall in love with the first playboy she meets after starting her life over? While, this doesn’t really venture far from that, Christina Lauren definitely put their own spin on it. Yes, you’ve read this trope before but were the main characters exhibitionists? Instead of these two sneaking around for a quick roll in the sheets, Max meets up with Sara once a week at a new location that is just pushing the lines into exhibitionism. That did add a new element to the mix, at least for me anyways. It was exciting to see what location Max would choose next and whether or not they’d get caught.

One thing I’d like to point out is that you don’t have to read Beautiful Bastard in order to read this. While the main characters from that do make a lot of appearances, the story stands on its own. Although, it was nice seeing Chloe and Bennett. And you see a lot of Chloe since she’s Sara’s best friend. It’s been years since I read Beautiful Bastard though so it took me a minute and a quote about Bennett hooking up with his intern in the stairwell at work for me to realize that they were the main characters from the first book.

Beautiful Stranger was exactly what I needed to get out of the book funk I was in. It was an easy read with a lot of sexy times, and a bit of humor mixed in. I look forward to reading more from these two ladies.

 

1favequote“I know you’re saying something profound, but it’s hard to focus when your tits are out.”

 

Previous reviews from Beautiful Bastard
Beautiful Bastard

 

6 Thoughts on “Review: Beautiful Stranger by Christina Lauren

  1. I put off reading this book for so long, because I was sick of the same ol same ol. Then I read it, and it ended up being one of my favorite books ever! I’m glad you enjoyed it – great review!

  2. I have enjoyed the books I’ve read in this series too. They all a great standalone reads I agree. I enjoyed the almost exhibitionism here… with Sara taking risks… she needed that, I think!

  3. Great to hear that it got you out of the reading funk

  4. I enjoyed this one too 😀 Glad you liked it!!

  5. I love reads that can get you out of your book funk. I need to read this series!

    • I’ve only read the first two books in the series and that’s all I’ve read from the authors so far. I know a lot of people give it crap because the first book was a Twilight fan-fic but I honestly don’t see anything. They wrote a solid story and while the characters were probably named Edward and Bella, it bears no resemblance to the YA book.

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