Thursday, February 14, 2013

Review: Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren




Title: Beautiful Bastard
Author: Christina Lauren
Blurb:
An ambitious intern. A perfectionist executive. And a whole lot of name calling. Discover the story that garnered more than two million reads online.

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. Originally only available online as The Office by tby789—and garnering over two million reads on fan fiction sites—Beautiful Bastard has been extensively updated for re-release.


Links:
Beautiful Bastard on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:

Alright, because I was approved for this via NetGalley/Gallery Books (thank you!), I went ahead and read it.

I still have a major issue with p2p fanfiction being marketed as original. If you want to see a great post on WHY I feel it's unethical, read this comment by Alicia.

Now, on to the book...

I like to read a lot of Twilight fanfic (the actual fanfic, not the p2p kind with new names!) and my boyfriend always calls it Twilight porn. THIS STORY is exactly why he calls it that. If ever there was a story that was pretty much porn without a plot, this is it.

Bennett and Chloe hate each other. For the first 2/3-3/4 of the novel, they have a lot of hate sex. They snipe at each other in public, then in private they have rough sex. Shirt ripping, buttons flying everywhere, bent over the desk type of sex. The sex scenes themselves are pretty hot - I will admit that.

But that's all there is. Lots of sex.

Towards the end, the sex becomes less hateful and the characters snipe at each other less frequently, but it's still just a sex story. I can give you the entire plot in a few lines:

Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Hate sex
Love/Hate sex
Love/Hate sex
Argument/Break up
Make up
I love you sex
The end

The book wasn't poorly written, but there just isn't any substance here. It's Edward and Bella having hate sex all over an office. That's it.

2 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/471025587

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