Beautiful Beginning

By: Christina Lauren

Narrated by: Grace Grant, Sebastian York

Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

One beautiful bastard of a groom. The most beautiful bitch of a bride. A panty-ripping office hook-up turned true love everlasting.

Wedding bells can't chime soon enough for Chloe Mills and Bennett Ryan. Chloe, exasperated and stressed by all the last-minute to-dos, is on the verge of saying "I do" to eloping. For his part, Bennett's so worried about being distracted by Chloe's body that he makes a no-sex-until-the-wedding-night rule that only seems to be making things worse by continually backfiring on him. As their crazy families descend for the big day - only a few of them actually trying to be helpful - the fiery lovers are about to test whether the couple that argues together can keep it together long enough to exchange rings, and not just heated words.

©2013 Christina Lauren (P)2013 Simon & Schuster

Truly a Beautiful Begninning!

Which character – as performed by Grace Grant and Sebastian York – was your favorite?

These two are great together. Love listening to them.

Any additional comments?

It is a great book and great end to the series. I enjoyed each one and this was definitely one of my favs.

EVERYTHING AND MORE..IT'S ALL IN THIS ONE BOOK

What made the experience of listening to Beautiful Beginning the most enjoyable?

I have enjoyed these books since they hit. I like the fact, I can lay back and listen to them anytime I want. No eye strain, just listen to them. And Grace and Sebastian, your amazing at this.. way to go.. Your the best.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Beautiful Beginning?

this question is not even...fair.. When Ryan, Max and Will get together, you just know you going to laugh so hard, you can 't stop. I can't count the number of times I have laughed at the antics of those three together. If they are not pulling something on each other, it's talking to each other about what is about to happen with their women. It great. I the most memorial moment in this for men.. was these men playing a joke on Will in this book. They and his girl friend who went along with it, gave him a hard time.. I laughed so hard... So either way.. you can't help but enjoy it all..

What about Grace Grant and Sebastian York ’s performance did you like?

When these two read, I want to listen, I know it's intense usually HOT and you can get lost in those two being into anything. And Sebastian York's voice is so flipping sexy, you wish you could listen to him all the time. Hell I just want the man to read me a bedtime story...lol He could read a road map, and I would be drooling. And Grace does a great man's voice in this listen ... she has really mastered others as well.. She has really come a long way since I first started listening to her. Now she is one of fav's

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Enjoy, laughter, HOT SEX, Anger, Tenderness, all in one short listen.

Any additional comments?

Any time you put Christina Lauren, the two authors of this series, your going to have great books. Together they can take you all over the emotional roller coaster and you will still want more. And never forget it's always HOT... I love this series and these types of books.. It's getting harder to find, but I keep searching and once in a great while I find them. These are always a good one to turn to. Be a full book listen or read like this you can't go wrong. . But sadly I understand this is going to be the last one. With the Beautiful Series, you can't help but laugh, cry, cheer them on and wait for the next sentence. And never forget the sex is always Hot. Since I read and listen, I kind of know what is coming, but I try now to listen before I read. . These books are great. I don't know for sure, but I am understanding this was the last of the Beautiful Series, and I really hope not. To much was left undone. Max and lady are going to have a baby, and Will announces something in this books as well.. So I hope we hear more. And it would be hard on us that love this series.. After what these two Ryan and Chloe brought out for us to read, It would be a shame to stop this. So much to continue on. I see another book is coming out, a paranormal book, and I just don't read that type. So if this is the end, I have enjoyed the ride. I will find authors who do write similar to this. In this book, ., I can wait to buy the book to add to my collection of this series. And hope they reconsider bringing this to the big screen as well.. It's a great start that can move forward if they (the authors) wanted to. Great job ladies.

wow

It was funny and sexy all the way through the book. This is a must read. The series is a must read.

Least Favorite

For some reason this book was my least favorite of their story. I understand the idea of holding out for the wedding night but the scene at the rehearsal killed the entire book for me.

3.75 - Fun & Sexy, but...

This is my first book by this author. The witty repartee of the H and h were the best. Listeners may disagree about whether their verbal sparring was always healthy or whether some of their disagreements and/or the amount of heat behind them were indicative of an unhealthy aspect in their relationship. But I didn’t read it like that. Though, it’s true that not all passion is positive, and this H and h certainly included some degree of force—mainly in words, threats—in their sex play, though not BDSM. Their sex scenes and sexual tension were a great combination of romance and eroticism. And the author did a great job of making them seem to be a perfect match for each other’s positive and negatives and each one having the ability to really know and appreciate the other. Though, by the time they got married, their barely controlled lust began to shift from cute and romantic to immature and irritating. Similarly, their after-wedding sex jitters and the H’s vulnerability was hard to buy, and, by the end, I tired of all of the clothes tearing and talk of hard sex resulting in the h’s walking difficulty, which seems too extreme to be sexy, much less desirable, especially when overused. So, overall, as the story progressed, I would’ve liked a bit more non-sexual romance as proof of their soul-mate-like connection. But I’m 43, so my wants on this point may be due to ageism.
There are two narrators, and I didn’t like that much. I didn’t like the male narrator’s storytelling. It might just be that, by the time he spoke, I had gotten accustomed to the female narrator successfully portraying both the H and h and didn’t like the change once the male narrator spoke as both. I don’t know why two narrators were necessary. I also think that I preferred the female narrator’s portrayal of the h so much more than the male narrator’s voice of Chloe, that switching between two narrators just didn’t work for me. Also, be forewarned, that there’s plenty of profanity used in this book. I don’t mind it, though it’s part of the juvenile flavor that began to appear and irritate. So steer clear if you do mind.

So disappointed!!!!

I have enjoyed the 3 full length novels in the Beautiful Bastard series (my favorite being Beautiful Player). The 3 novellas........well, Beautiful Bombshell was okay, but Beautiful Bitch and now, Beautiful Beginning - what can I say? I really did not like Beautiful Beginning at all.

I had some mishaps at my own wedding. Also lived through 3 of my kids' weddings that certainly didn't go off without their fair share of hitches as well. But this story just went above and beyond the ridiculous when it comes to "can it get any worse?" as far as wedding mishaps go.

I certainly wouldn't have minded a few mishaps to make the story more interesting (and, obviously, to test Bennett's and Chole's last nerves), but the scenarios the authors put in this novella were ridiculous. The muddy lawn was probably the worst of it. Maybe all of the other mishaps could actually happen in real life and as in the novella, could not be rectified. But the muddy lawn certainly could have been covered over with a portable floor of some type. There were a lot of other little details that really bothered me, but this is just an example.

It also seems to me that Bennett's whole "no sex until the wedding" thing - hello? Are the authors trying to tell us that oral sex isn't sex?? Shades of Bill Clinton there. Shame on them!

Grace Grant always does a great job at narration, but Sebastian York is not quite there yet. I thought he was awful in Beautiful Bombshell; better in Beautiful Player; but just mediocre at best in Beautiful Beginning. His voice is too monotone.

I guess I was expecting to feel a satisfying end to this series - one that would make me miss these characters enough to listen to the books again. Instead, I felt like the Beautiful Beginning was really just a very muddy ending.

A comedy of errors wedding story

Would you try another book from Christina Lauren and/or Grace Grant and Sebastian York ?

Absolutely!

If you’ve listened to books by Christina Lauren before, how does this one compare?

It's a good wrap up to the first story of the Beautiful series.

What does Grace Grant and Sebastian York bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

You can only associate their voices to the characters as you read the series. They did a great job bringing the characters to life.

Could you see Beautiful Beginning being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No, not unless they combined Beautiful Bitch and Beautiful Beginnings. I don't know who would be best to play Bennett and Chloe. However, any actress playing Chloe should really physically resemble the character as well as her personality.