SYNOPSIS
Reliable
Nina Baxter has her life all mapped out. She wants to work hard, take care of her younger sister and not end up like her drunk of a mother. Most of all, she plans to stay away from bad influences.
Reckless
Alexander Noble doesn’t give a damn about anything or anyone. The heir to an unimaginable fortune, he’s never had to do a day’s work in his life, and devotes himself to pleasure and partying.
When opposites attract…
From their very first meeting, Nina knows Alex is bad news, and vows to stay away from him. But as their paths continue to cross, she can’t help being drawn to him – especially when he makes no secret of his interest in her.
Can they resist the pull?
For the first time ever, Nina is on the brink of following her heart. But can she believe Alex when he tells her to trust him? Or is he just another beautiful liar?
My Review
Complimentary copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
I would like to begin this review by stating that this is not your typical “good-girl-meets-millionaire-bad-boy” if that is what you are thinking after having read the blurb. Obviously, I will not spoil the plot for you, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by how the story of Nina and Alex progressed, and that I was fully invested in it until the very end.
Nina Baxter is young, responsible…and desperate. Her life with an alcoholic mother is, to say the least, less than stabile, and the way Nina struggles to make ends meet while upholding some sort of normalcy of the life of her sister, Alice, felt very realistic to me. And when Nina finds her situation to become worse than it already is, she is forced to make a decision that she does not want to. But is that not always the way when we are at the lowest point in our lives?
Nina turns to the one person she is reluctant to meet which puts her in the footpath of Alexander Noble: a very rich, high society playboy, who she, quite clearly, should steer away from. However, certain events occur that force her to become better acquainted with him, and a budding attraction between them forms between them and grows by each encounter. Eventually, this makes Nina long to toss her control and rules away for once. To stop being the responsible daughter and merely live. The trouble is if she can trust Alex with her heart…or not?
There is no doubt about the fact that Nina and Alex are complete opposites, but as you read the book, you learn that they may not be that different from each other where it truly matters. And while I applauded Nina for being so good at taking care of her younger sister, for doing her utmost to keep them together, I was also happy to see that she, in some ways, is just like any nineteen-year-old girl: that things can become too much for her. The fact that even she yearns to be selfish from time to time instead of the grown-up only adds credibility to her character, in my opinion.
Alex is an interesting character; and one that is a bit difficult to get a handle on in the beginning. He has secrets – or that is what it seems like to Nina – and he leads a life that is so far away from her own. But I have to say that the more I got to know him, the more I was able to empathise with the person he truly is, and what I saw made him rather endearing to me. Yes, he does have the “bad-boy” persona, but he is still different from other BBFs I have come across lately, and I like that.
Miss Bond manages to convey the differences between poverty and wealth very well in her book; her imagery is very vivid, and her vocabulary is vast. Her writing is engaging, easy, and emotional, and I was fully immersed in ‘Beautiful Liar’ until the very end. Granted, there are also a lot of steamy scenes which is part of the reason I read romance novels – why beat about the bush? – and I liked that I did not get all the answers handed over to me on a plate right away. There are a few twists and turns that I did not see coming but which I believe only heightened my reading experience, and I liked the pace and setting of it very much as well. I do wish, however, that the ending had not seemed so rushed as it did, but that is just my personal opinion, of course.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to seeing more of Miss Bond’s work in the future.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tara Bond grew up in Surrey, England. She read History at Cambridge University, before working in various sensible office jobs. She lives in London with her husband, and loves reading and writing, as well as watching movies and TV box sets. Her guilty pleasures are cocktails and chocolate desserts.
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