Beautifully Wounded (The Beaumont Brothers)

By: Susan Griscom

Narrated by: Hollie Jackson, Trevor Croft

Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's Summary

Jackson Beaumont prides himself on being a nature-loving, guitar-strumming, carefree sort of guy, known for his eagerness to help injured animals. When Lena Benton walks into his bar, he's once again swept off his feet with concern and desire to help the wounded. Will he risk having his heart torn apart again when the memory of the fawn he rescued as a child resurfaces?

After a not-so-wonderful young adulthood as she was shuffled from one foster home to another, Lena Benton had hoped marriage would be her ticket to happiness. Wedded a year after high school graduation, Lena was certain she'd found her knight. When Troy Harington's true colors surface shortly after their glorious day of elopement, things aren't quite as rosy as Lena had envisioned. When an unforeseen event turns ugly, all she can do is run!

But does she run far enough?

©2014 Susan Griscom (P)2015 Susan Griscom

A Book well worth reading

Very well narrated. Beautiful story that depicts the harsh reality of what some women go thru every day from domestic abuse. I was even listening to this story while in the shower - that's how good of a read this book is. A job well done to the author and narrators.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Wounded

Gritty... there was nothing humorous in this Love story. Nothing. Abuse... so much abuse. It was well done.

Narrators were good. Trevor Croft should NEVER EVER attempt a female voice!

Not steamy, but touching.

Dual Narration Was Wasted

The story itself was pretty good up until nearly the end. Then Lena, who had been really smart throughout the story with regard to hiding out and covering her tracks, suddenly became TSTL and did something predictable just to further the plot.

Still, it was entertaining enough for me to listen through to the end, and I felt a vested interest in what would happen to the characters. I really liked the characters, and the setting was beautiful, but I felt there was too much time spent on certain needless details, like the description of a thermostat.

I was very disappointed in the narration. I’ve come to love dual narration, so I was excited to listen to this. However, instead of the male narrator reading the men’s parts and the female narrator reading the women’s parts, they alternated chapters, which seemed like a waste of having two narrators and made it worse than listening to a single narrator. Trevor Croft read the chapters where Jackson narrated, but he also did Lena’s voice in those chapters, or tried to. Then Hollie Jackson narrated Lena’s POV chapters, including Jackson’s voice, which made him sound very effeminate and creepy, especially after hearing his voice done right by Croft in Jackson’s chapters. The inconsistency of having two different narrators doing the same character’s voice made the weaknesses more glaring and made it sound like a completely different character speaking. It really took me out of the story and made me feel like the characters kept changing. What’s the point of having dual narration if the male narrator still has to do women’s parts while the female does men’s parts? It’s the worst of both worlds. I think I would have enjoyed it more with a single narrator because each character would have at least had the same voice throughout. Also, I found that Hollie Jackson read some parts slowly, clipping each word as though she were afraid she would be misunderstood. It didn’t sound like normal speech. It sounded stilted.

LOVED IT!!

Susan Griscom is a master!! I absolutely loved this book!! Lena a very strong woman that is unfortunately in a horrible relationship! She soon gets strong enough to leave, but fears the JERK Troy will come for her!! Jackson is a wonderful, sexy, loving man!! He shows Lena how strong she really is and what she's worth!! There needs to be more Jackson's in the world!! And the narration was PERFECT!! I loved the duel narrations! It really pulls things all together wonderfully!! Hollie and Trevor are so Great at what they do!! I can't wait for the next book in the Series!!

Amazing!!!

Where does Beautifully Wounded (The Beaumont Brothers) rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

dk

What other book might you compare Beautifully Wounded (The Beaumont Brothers) to and why?

dk

Which scene was your favorite?

can't choose!

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

dk

Any additional comments?

This was a beautiful and very emotional book. I really enjoyed it and couldn't put it down. Lena is such a strong character but she has no idea about her own strength, she puts her self down so much due to the abusive relationship she's suffered through for the last year but (as Jackson pointed out) the fact that she finally defended herself and ran from her abusive ex took a lot of courage and strength. She's plagued by thoughts of her ex finding her and killing her for daring to hit back and run. She slowly heals in the book, physically and emotionally/psychologically thanks to Jackson's care and patience.

I adored Jackson, he was exactly what Lena needed to show her there were good men in the world and that Troy was the exception more so then the normal. Jackson fell hard for Lena and was very considerate of her feelings and what she needed to heal. He really helped her and they were well matched together, as Lena muses at one point it really is a shame she didn't meet Jackson before Troy.

The book deals well with the subject of domestic abuse. I think Lena recovered quicker then most abused women and entered a relationship quicker but she didn't endure it as long as most and though she admits to making excuses for the abuse at times she also never intended to stay with him. From the first time he really hit her and threatened her in their home she'd begun making plans to escape. She understood about the dangers of domestic abuse having witnessed her own mother beaten to death by her step-father. She truly was so much stronger then she believed herself to be.

I look forward to the second book in this series to learn more about Jackson's brother Brodie. Jackson hinted at Brodie having been hurt by a past girlfriend which is the reason he currently never sleeps with the same girl more then twice but he didn't say what happened as it would be Brodies choice to share his story with Lena if he wanted. As such I look forward to learning what happened to put him off relationships and see how he gets past it!

***Edit***
I've now listened to the audio book, narrated by Holly Jackson & Trevor Croft! I loved it! I thought they both narrated their characters chapters perfectly! The inclinations, inflections and intonations on the words were perfect! A very enjoyable listening experience!

Dual narrators is a must

This by far has been my absolute favorite audiobook I have listened to not only is the story outstanding but having two narrators one for the male parts and onefor the female part is genius. This story is an emotional one and Both narrators were able to convey the emotions with ease. I hope to hear Beautifully Used by them as well.

Fantastic story

Would you listen to Beautifully Wounded (The Beaumont Brothers) again? Why?

Yes

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Where Lena first met Jackson.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The beginning was upsetting. Physical and mental abuse.
I was cheering for Lena at the end.