Scarred Beautiful by Beth Michele
(Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)
on January 28, 2014
Genres: Romance
Pages: 276
Love believes in second chances.
Francis Heller lives with two truths. Love hurts and beauty is only skin deep.
With midnight black hair, moss-colored eyes, and traceable curves, Fran is the
picture of beauty and confidence…on the outside. But deep down she is
tormented. Not just by the jagged scars that line her body, but by the horrible
memories that cloud her mind and haunt her dreams. The ones that make her want
to flee from herself and from the devastating pain. The ones that cause her to
placate herself with sex. Anything to make her forget. But for Fran, there’s
nowhere to hide from the darkness that swallows her whole.
Matt Dixon is the gorgeous brother of her best friend’s fiancée. He’s suffered
losses of his own and isn’t willing to let anyone in until his unexpected
encounter with Fran Heller, the girl who challenges him and causes him to take
a second look, not only at her, but at his own life.
But Matt has scars of his own.
Together can they help each other discover that second chances really do exist?
That love doesn’t have to hurt? Or has the damage they’ve both suffered cut too
deep to ever heal?
Alexis says…
This book is a standalone but I am glad that I read Love Love first. In the first book, you meet Fran and for a few minutes, Matt. You see, I need the full background on characters so I will always read the first one even if it doesn’t directly involve the main character in the next book. I will say that this book showed growth in Beth’s writing; this was definitely my favorite book of hers yet.
Fran is clearly damaged. She not only carries physical scars (I still get shivers from the flashbacks) but also emotional ones. She’s pretty much just living…but not to her fullest potential. But, how could you when you’ve led the life she has? Her best friend Gabby has found her fairytale ending but knows that she won’t.
“There’s no fairytale for me. It’s not in the cards”.
For work, Fran goes to LA for a conference with her friend Peyton. As a pure twist of fate, she coincidentally runs into Matt, Brad’s (Gabby’s fiancé) brother and his friend Caleb. Did you get all of that? Matt is also damaged in his own way. Reeling from the death of two family members and the isolation of another, he has immersed himself in work and pure OCD tendencies. From the get-go, there are crazy sparks, pretty much palpable between Matt and Fran. Within a short amount of time together, they both break down barriers that were enforced by steel. Fran was able to tame the grief and compulsiveness that Matt suffered from and in turn he showed Fran that beauty is not skin deep it’s what you are inside.
“Fran your soul is intact, and it’s beautiful.” He stares at me, determined blue eyes to shattered green. “So, you don’t need to be pitied, Fran, and no, I don’t feel sorry for you when I look at you.” He pauses, lifting a finger to my wet cheek. “I just feel.”
I am NOT a fan of any sort of insta-love (biggest pet peeve ever) but the evolving relationship between Fran and Matt felt believable. There really is not a timetable on love and both of these characters proved that to me. I also loved the addition of Caleb and Peyton, they were a perfect complement to Matt and Fran and truly were great friends to them.
This book was a fantastic follow-up to Love Love and showed tremendous growth for Beth as a writer. I cannot wait to read her next book! If you are looking for a fun, steamy read with some grit, definitely pick the one up.
Beth, if you are reading this, I would like another book in this series and I think you know who I am talking about. Yes, I usually am this demanding.
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