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Review

4.5 Uptight Brit-loving stars

The fourth book in the Beautiful Bastard series, this one has a really different feel to it from the earlier books, and I loved it! A slow, steady and functional romance, but still with all of the passion and heat that you would expect, this is a beautiful and highly entertaining love story between two fabulous characters, and I was hooked from start to finish.

This book features Niall Stella (brother of Max), who we met in the novella Beautiful Beloved. Niall is not a dominant alpha, he’s not all controlling, arrogant or over-confident. He’s a sweet, mostly closed off and uptight guy who has just come out of an unhappy 11 year marriage and is wary of women in general. He’s strong and self-assured in his professional life, but he’s not confident about sex and relationships, and honestly, I thought he was a really nice change of pace.

Ruby Miller works with Niall, and has obsessed over him from afar for years. Somewhat creepily, perhaps, but it makes for an awesome set up when the two of them are sent from their London firm to New York for a business trip. Niall notices Ruby for the first time, and she realises that this just might be her chance.

“Restrained … It’s like he’s stepped out of an Austen novel. He’s Mr. Darcy. Darcy is awkward and hard to read, but when you have his heart, it’s yours.”

I really enjoyed the development of this relationship. Despite Niall’s inexperience with hook ups (he was with his ex-wife since they were teenagers and has never been with anybody else), he is attracted to Ruby, but he’s not interested in sex without emotion and he wants a connection with her before anything happens between them. He’s not a doormat or a pushover, he’s a man with strong morals who knows what he wants and he sticks to his convictions, and I really admired him for that. In contrast, Ruby is a bit wild – strong and confident, she goes after what she wants, and he loves that about her.

“Ruby seemed to enjoy every tiny instant of her life. There was something about her that made me want to be near her, put her on a pedestal, bask in her energy and uninhibited sweetness.”

It is Ruby that helps Niall to unwind a bit and live life fully, and she pushes him to open up to her – personally and sexually, and it’s just what he needs to help him come to terms with the chemistry that is sizzling between them.

“If you did, how would you touch me?” she asked…
I barely had to consider the question before my answer burst forward: “Desperately.”

It’s a slow build up, and they get to know each other and become before things really start to happen. They are upfront and honest, and absolutely functional, talking through what they are thinking and feeling, what they like and and exactly how far they are willing to take things. But don’t go thinking that there’s no hotness, because these two get up to a whole lot of sexy shenanigans. There’s lots of banter and dirty talk (filthy, really), and some almost-but-not-quite-solo scenes that had me raising my eyebrows in shock and surprise and ‘holy hell, did they just really do that?’. It’s hot, dirty, and a little bit out there. And when they finally do get around to it… hot damn! Thankfully Niall’s previous lack of confidence has no bearing on what occurs in the bedroom, and things are deliciously steamy.

“What was it you said about repressed sexual energy?”
“Enough to power the whole bloody city, if you ask me. That’s where his real urban planning skill would come in—hooking himself up to the grid.”

Yep, it’s the quiet ones you have to look out for! And OMG, I love Niall! Even though he is a bit uptight at times, underneath it all he is a sweet, sensitive, highly passionate man with a fabulously dry wit and a surprisingly playful side which I loved.

“I just had an out-of-body experience. Niall Stella just took off my shirt and admired my chest.”
“Do you need to text someone?”

I thought their whole romance was really refreshing, and different from the usual ‘dominant man chasing after a woman before engaging in hot, no-strings attached sex’. There’s real emotion here from the very beginning, and it gives the whole book a gorgeous feel.

“I always felt like the only person in my life who didn’t know his own mind from the moment he was born … But I do with you.”

The inevitable conflict is frustrating (OMG, I needed to smack someone!), but of course it forms the turning point in the relationship, and I thought the direction of things from there was handled really well – understandable and realistic, with an absolutely gorgeous resolution. I may have stood in the aisle of my local bookstore rereading the ending when I went to pick up my paperback copy. It was awesome.

The story does end abruptly, but there is a great epilogue in the audiobook version (which is fabulous and comes complete with British accents!) which provides a little bit of insight into what is in store for these two. And I can only hope that we will get to see them again in future books – the authors do a great job of involving couples from the previous books into the action, and I loved getting a chance to catch up with each of them in this one – the boys together are absolute gold! This book also ties in with the Wild Seasons series through Ruby, and I thought that was really well done. Having said that though, you could read this one as a standalone if you wanted to.

I loved this book! My advice though, is to not go into it with any pre-conceived ideas, or thinking it’s going to be like the others in the series. It has a really different feel to it, and I thought it was a great way to keep the stories interesting. I loved it.

4.5 stars.