Beautiful Bastard

By: Christina Lauren

Narrated by: Grace Grant

Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

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 rerelease.

©2013 Christina Lauren (P)2013 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The perfect blend of sex, sass and heart, Beautiful Bastard is a steamy battle of wills that will get your blood pumping!" (S.C. Stephens, best-selling author of Thoughtless)

Great Read

Great book...love the series

would like more books

feel like I know all of them

Excellent!

Lots of women have fantasies of taming the asshole. Chloe Mills doesn’t necessarily want to tame Bennett Ryan--she just wants to survive the remaining months of her internship working under the brilliant and mercurial man. What I liked best about this story is that the author told it from alternating viewpoints. If the whole thing had only from been told first-person from Chloe’s POV, Bennett would have come across as nothing but a jackass. But the chapters from his POV added depth to his character, redeeming his nasty comments and short temper. The love/hate relationship developed beautifully.

Another thing that I liked about this book is how it highlighted the still-precarious position women in the business world. Even in 2013, women are held to different professional standards than men. If the truth of their affair were to come out, people would automatically assume any success she experienced in her career was earned on her back. It’s just not the same for men. If Bennett had been the intern and Chloe the boss, that element of the story would’ve been lost.

Before purchasing this book, I did what I always do and checked out the Amazon reviews. I try to take them all with a grain of salt and not put too much stock into what any one review thinks. There was one review that said this book finishes with a non-ending, that it simply cuts off. Let me assure you, this was not that case at all. It definitely felt like a complete book. There were also some reviewers who criticized the profanity and abundance of sex. This is an erotic romance. It is meant for adults who speak and act like adults. If you don’t like that sort of thing, then this book is not for you. Personally, I love steamy stories and have a tendency to pepper my own speech with f-bombs, so Beautiful Bastard was right up my alley.

Lastly, I actually listened to this book in audio book format. The narrator, Grace Grant, was fabulous! I have already been on Audible to see what other books she has narrated, so I can hear her work again.

Overall, I give Beautiful Bastard...

Plot - 4 bookmarks
Character Development - 4 1/2 bookmarks
Love Story - 4 bookmarks
Sex Scenes - 12 bookmarks (It’s my blog, and if I don’t want to stop at 5 bookmarks, I can.)
Cover Art - 5 bookmarks
Editing Quality - 5 bookmarks
Dream Cast (Otherwise known as who I pictured while reading) - Robert Pattinson (Bennett Ryan), Tatiana Maslany (Chloe Mills)

Great book!

I enjoyed this book SO much. From start to finish it was captivating, funny, and endearing. I fell in love with the lead male. The only bad thing I can say and it's really not that bad is the narrator could've done a better job voicing the male characters. At times I wasn't sure until a few lines into the chapter if it was Chloe or Bennett talking. Lots of hot scenes. Definitely worth the purchase.

Amazing

All I can say is it definitely keeps your attention and keeps you on your toes! From the spicy scenes to the different points of view!

Good read

To be honest it was a little hyped up don’t get me wrong the spice was nice but I think for me it just wasn’t my type of read. It was a nice book though :)

A little too much sex

It felt like a sex scene every chapter, but the story was good so I just fast forwarded through them after a while. Also good narration but when she play a the male role it’s hard to tell at first.

FAVORITE SPICY BOOK

Loved the entire book. If you want spice, this is it. I love how it builds but you still get spice the entire time

Third time listening to this

I still LOVE this book
I will always go back to this beautiful book . The writing is still modern and fits the spice is still hot as ever
This book will stay in my top 5 favs

Okay, but not spectacular.

The narrator was good at doing the voices. I just felt like the sex was literally nonstop. The male was so mean, and the female couldn't control her desires. Plus, the career paranoia and obsession got old. I guess it just felt like too many extremes for a very long time, and then a happy ending that came and went in ten words or less.

Goodbye Greys

I was a Grey s fan but was bored by the time book two ended then I couldn't get past 20 pages of book three. This book series is a similar style but I love it so much more. Bennett and Chloe are great. I cant get enough of this couple. I want more and more and more!