Review 13: Beautiful Bad

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I entered this book with very little information on what it was about, except I knew it would be a "thriller". At first I was surprised by the two girls, Maddie and her best friend Joanna, living abroad in out of the way countries: Bulgaria and Macedonia. Soon Maddie meets her future British husband at a fund raiser. I started to think we'd have Eastern European travel type story, no the reality of the book was quite different.

The book starts in "present time" where there was a domestic disturbance, a 911 call. When the police arrive there is blood, lots of blood.

Then we go to ten weeks before and start counting down towards the present, interspersed with the story line of back when Ian and Maddie first meet. Ian was in the British Army at the time there was instant attraction. In the countdown to present time we learn early on Ian has a hard time with what he's seen being a soldier, and Maddie seems to have anxiety about many things, which started after he head being smashed. The story of how that happened is part of the mystery, the other part is what happened that made that 911 call necessary.

There is a lot of shifting, between time lines, and we have Ian's perspective a few times, although not many, it is mainly Maddie's. Her friend Joanna plays and important role as well, since she was a good friend when Ian comes into their lives, yet not in the present time living in Kansas. I wished to hear from Joanna.

I had several problems with the book. The shift in time lines wasn't a problem per se, but it was distracting at times. There was a continuity error, later in the book. Hopefully this has been fixed (I read an advance review copy). Seemed like there was some repetition, and yes the book was longer than it needed. It felt that cutting out some of the material would have been a tighter, better book. Another problem for me was Joanna. Her story was important but we get so little of what was going on, it was frustrating. And then there was Maddie herself. It felt so off her behavior while younger, then even when she goes back home to New York.

Finally was the ending, which I will not reveal anything. I will just say that it seriously downgraded the book for me. The telling wasn't necessary, and then added more strangeness really. In the end we may find out who these characters are, or not. It felt actually unresolved. Perhaps the characters weren't fully developed on the page. I just left unsatisfied in so many ways.

This is being billed as the "2019 Thriller of the year", but I think it missed the mark by a long shot. Certainly there will be some people who enjoy this book, just not me.



Thanks to Park Row Books/Harlequin and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.