Review: Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren

Beautiful Bastard
(Beautiful Bastard, #1)
By: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: Feb. 12, 2013
Genre: Erotic Romance
Rating:

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An ambitious intern.
A perfectionist executive.
And a whole lot of name calling.

Whip-smart, hardworking, and on her way to an MBA, Chloe Mills has only one problem: her boss, Bennett Ryan. He’s exacting, blunt, inconsiderate—and completely irresistible. A Beautiful Bastard.

Bennett has returned to Chicago from France to take a vital role in his family’s massive media business. He never expected that the assistant who’d been helping him from abroad was the gorgeous, innocently provocative—completely infuriating—creature he now has to see every day. Despite the rumors, he’s never been one for a workplace hookup. But Chloe’s so tempting he’s willing to bend the rules—or outright smash them—if it means he can have her. All over the office.

As their appetites for one another increase to a breaking point, Bennett and Chloe must decide exactly what they’re willing to lose in order to win each other.

I never knew a Twilight fan fiction could be so good. STOP, don’t you dare click out of this review! Yes, this is apparently fan fiction but I honestly have no idea how. There really is no connection to the sparkly vampire and the not so sparkly, human executive. Also, Chloe is not an insecure girl who clings to Bennett. Instead she holds her own against her beautiful bastard of a boss. She gives just as good as she gets from him. Even when it comes to the bedroom.

I loved this story even though it had a very rocky start for me. You see at the beginning, it seems like the sex comes out of left field. You know Chloe hates her boss but then #BAM# she’s being pressed up against the glass windows from behind. Did I mention all this goes down sans condom? These out of nowhere quickie moments happen twice until Chloe “thanks” him for his consideration of using a condom (sarcasm). Luckily, she’s on the pill, but still! She views Bennett as a man whore who screws women in his office when he’s not barking orders at her, so why would this be okay?! However, once they established a semi relationship and it comes out that Bennett has been interested in her since day one and that his bastard-ness was just sexual frustration, then I sort of forgot about that strange whiplash beginning.

Even though this story was exactly what 50 Shade should have been, it shouldn’t be compared to that or Twilight because it’s a story in it’s own. If you’re looking for a billionaire romance filled (literally) with amazing smut, than this is the book for you. However, if you’re looking for a frilly romance filled with roses and butterflies, than this is not for you.

“You make me feel cocky. It’s the way you react to me that makes me feel like a fucking god. How can you not see that?” -Bennett