Escaping a cheating ex, finance whiz Sara Dillon’s moved to New York City and is looking for excitement 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 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
I’m gonna start off with saying that I liked Beautiful Bastard, I did! Thoroughly enjoyed it. And I liked Beautiful Stranger even more. Maybe it was the fact that Max was British. Maybe because there was a hilariously gay character George who had me in fits of giggles. Maybe it was the, er, new antics? Or maybe it was because I just kinda dug Sara in her resilient way.
A lot (if not almost all) of the hitches I had with the first book, didn’t exist in this. We start with their first meeting and go from there. In Bastard, I found myself missing that feeling of tension for the relationship, which most romances run on. In Stranger, Sara immediately sets up the strict ‘rules’ to their rendezvous so that “oh, just do it already” tension is there in full force. Not to mention, there’s the utter intrigue of what will happen when they met again. Because wow. Even I giggled a few times, blushing.
I also felt like I understood the characters a lot more. In Bastard, while they were entertaining, Bennett and Chloe seemed a bit flat. Not like, cardboard-flat, but kind of like bread with old baking soda-flat. However, Sara and Max were a lot more real to me. Sara, I totally got. I understood what she was running from, what she wanted and what she didn’t. She even amused me with her secretly adventurous shenanigans. I think I liked Max more because he was less of an ass and more of a smirky, constantly-amused type. Plus he had more of these things called emotions. Guys do have them from time to time. Crazy, I know. And above all, I felt their dynamic worked better.
I have to say when I learned there was going to be a third book with Bennett and Max’s buddy Will (Beautiful Player, coming in late October 2013), I got very excited. I just want this pattern to continue and read more of these totally addictive, fun romances.
If you like this book, don’t miss Want by Stephanie Lawton or If You Stay by Courtney Cole.
