Cruel and Beautiful
AM Hargrove & Terri E Laine
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: November 12, 2015
Cate Forbes, a dedicated college student with a carefully plotted future, doesn’t know the first thing about love. When she accepts a blind date with a rumored tasty piece of eye candy, she thinks she can get by with a night of fun. Cate’s plans quickly unravel when she gets one look at the sexy…
Drew McKnight.
The relentless hockey-playing medical resident knows what he wants: a career in Oncology and Cate. Although he’s heard the gorgeous brunette is a little relationship skittish, a single night out isn’t what he has in mind. Determined to have her, in every way possible, he shows her just what a future with him would hold.
Only life has other plans. The unthinkable happens and everything begins to shatter. Both in too deep, they will have to fight the cruel and hang onto the beautiful.
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Wow. Sometimes you read a book that sucker punches you in the gut and you thought you were prepared but you weren’t. This book is perfectly titled. It is both cruel and oh so beautiful. It is heartbreaking and healing. It is romantic and hopeful. Unfortunately for me, I had the whole book plotted out in my head. Silly me. I was shocked at my overconfidence and could not stop reading till the end. When you read the prologue, you know this book is going to gut you. There is such a raw emotion developed in the first few pages that you prepare yourself for what will come. Then there is confusion as to what is happening and a need to read it quickly and absorb the past and present so you finally understand everything that is happening. Even with all of that, I had no idea what was waiting for me in the end. Cruel and Beautiful was a tragically stunning story that held my heart in a vice like grip until the very last paragraph.
There are some pretty epic plot points within this story that I want to freak out about but I will not spoil what happens in this book. Just know to be opened minded and prepared for anything. Hargrove and Laine sure do know how to write a story that packs a punch. This book is not short on emotion and angst. There are high moments and so many low moments. The story features chapters in the past and in the present. This way of storytelling can go really well or not so great. Lucky for this one, it was perfect. Each chapter in the past develops the story to explain how the people got to where they are in the present. It develops the story in such a way that you cannot help but become invested deeply in what is happening. You see the seeds of young love and the desperation of hopelessness. You see everything in between that brings you to the brink so many times. There is such a profound depth of emotion communicated in this story. I don’t know if it was because I was unprepared for what happens but you feel this book deeply. There are moments when it hurts to breath too deeply and moments of laughter.
Cruel and Beautiful is one of those book that you read and it stirs something in you. It encourages you to embrace life and love, to see the beauty in the cruel world around you. This collaboration was brilliant. I will read anything these two write from here on out, despite the tattered heart in my chest. There is a depth of emotion and pain in this tale, something that will trigger a response in anyone who reads it. This book is tragic and consuming, leaving you with hope, heart, and beauty in the end.
ABOUT A. M. HARGROVE
One day, on her way home from work as a sales manager A. M. Hargrove realized her life was on fast forward and if she didn’t do something soon, it would be too late to write that work of fiction she had been dreaming of her whole life. So she rolled down the passenger window of her fabulous (not) company car and tossed out her leather briefcase. Luckily, the pedestrian in the direct line of fire was a dodge ball pro and had ¸ber quick reflexes enabling him to avoid getting bashed in the head. Feeling a tad guilty about the near miss, A. M. made a speedy turn down a deserted side street before tossing her crummy, outdated piece-of-you-know-what laptop out the window. She breathed a liberating sigh of relief, picked up her cell phone, called her boss, and quit her job. Grinning, she made another call to her hubs and told him of her new adventure (after making sure his heart was beating properly again).
So began A. M. Hargrove’s career as a Naughty and Nice Romance Author.
Her books include Adult, New Adult and Young Adult Romances, including, The Guardians of Vesturon Series (Survival, Resurrection, Determinant, reEmergent, and the novella Beginnings); Dark Waltz and Death Waltz (The Praestani Novels); The Edge Series (Edge of Disaster, Shattered Edge, and Kissing Fire); The Tragic Series (Tragically Flawed and Tragic Desires); Exquisite Betrayal; Dirty Nights: The Novel; and The Hart Brothers Novels (Freeing Her, Freeing Him, and Kestrel).
Please find her at www.amhargrove.com.
ABOUT TERRI E. LAINE
Wife and mother of three, I’ve always been an avid reader. In my early years, my best friend and I would tell each other stories over the phone when we were bored. We called them our “soap operas” and generally revolved around whatever boy we liked at the time.
Over five years ago, I got this crazy idea to write a novel and try to publish it. And the rest is history. This journey has been a blessing, and a dream realized. I look forward to many more memories to come.
Find more about me and social media links at www.terrielaine.com.