Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Beautiful Bastard

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren

10 reviews

crondeau1n_yvr's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Meh… this book is just dumb. 90% sex and 10% plot.
I did have to go check out la perla though.

Content Warnings

cmj's review against another edition

Go to review page

Boring. Incredibly boring. No character development at all and very flat characters.

Content Warnings

theemangomami's review against another edition

Go to review page

My loan expired and I haven’t renewed it after 2 months and after sitting down one day it hit me, d*mn this book did not really do it for me. Yes, this book is supposed to be smutty but the storyline barely any substance and I’ve read fan fiction that had me more hot and bothered than this book.

Spoiler

the first sex scene wasn’t even 20 pgs in. No sexual tension or real romantic buildup, so it basically seemed to come out of the blue. Kinda like opening a first message on a dating app and it being a d*ck pic. After the third-ish sex scene I kinda just started skimming past them to try and follow the paper thin plot which just irked me due to the constant flip flopping between “I hate him/her” and “I want to jump into the deep end w/ this one” with the two main characters. Also the pivot from gage to love was wildly unrealistic which made it a little harder to read.

Content Warnings

stupidcat's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

dianaschmidty's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

flygirl's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A saucy little office romance using the “enemies to lovers” troupe, will not disappoint in the imagination department.
<spoilers>
Chole has worked hard to get where she is at her firm and she’s very close to getting her MBA. But, suddenly, she finds herself in a compromising position with her boss. Yes, she should tell him no… but how can she when he looks that good and is that hard?? >
Don’t take that book too seriously and you will have fun with it.

Content Warnings

downsophialane's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

My toxic trait is that retro CLo is my comfort reading. Don't get me wrong, I adore Christina Lauren and make no apologies for their autobuy status, but Beautiful Bastard is... very 2013. I imagine that anyone who has had to endure persistent sexual harassment or a persistently negative or overly critical boss probably won't find Bennet and Chloe's high jinx sexy. Beautiful Bastard also features all the fingerprints of early Christina Lauren which dates this novel as almost a decade old, including a cast of white rich businesspeople, a gorgeous rich boss man with a younger woman, repetition of the key plot points at the beginning of each chapter as the POV switches. So... it's not perfect. But do I relisten to the entire series at least once a year? Yes, I do.

Content Warnings