Not gonna lie, I'm a sucker for a good BSC quirky heroine, so I was sold as soon as I got to "also the craziest" in the description of Lina in the blurb, and I couldn't wait to dive in! As with every Charmaine Pauls book I've read to date, once I started reading Beauty in the Broken, I could NOT put it down until I was finished.
I should preface this review by saying that I like a little dark with my romance reading from time to time, but not so dark that I feel like the book I'm reading should've come with a "razor blade sold separately" label, if you know what I mean. Charmaine Pauls' books have proven to be safe dark romance choices for me because she has a solid track record of producing well-written, captivating, and unbelievably hot stories centered around imperfect, tortured antiheroes and heroines who possess enough admirable, redeeming qualities to make them lovable and root-worthy to the reader. And while Pauls does seem to delight in tearing the reader's heart out and stomping on it more than once throughout the course of a novel, she consistently delivers satisfying, swoon-worthy HEAs that will have you thanking her in the end for all the cathartic torment she subjected you to.
Beauty in the Broken delivers all of Pauls' trademark angsty dark deliciousness, and then some. In many ways, this standalone felt darker to me than The Loan Shark and The Age Between Us duets, and yet, strangely, it wasn't as heavy of a read for me compared to either duet. I think the reason could be that while Lina is initially presented to the reader as a broken and damaged character, she's actually anything but. In fact, I'd say she's far more mature, self-aware, emotionally sound, and world-savvy than the jaded, bent-on-revenge Damian is—and I especially appreciated all the subtle ways this was conveyed throughout.
Don't get me wrong, Damian is a beautifully demented, tough-as-nails, sexy dark antihero who has been through a lot in his young life, but in many respects, he came across as more sheltered and emotionally fragile than Lina to me. Damian's emotional development/revelation hits closer to the third Act. At the same time, I found Damian to be singularly determined, strong and protective throughout in all the traditionally masculine ways you'd expect and want him to be.
Together, Lina and Damian form a solidly broken pairing, and their relationship dynamic is truly engaging in the way it’s interwoven within the greater storyline and undermined by the forces of secondary characters plotting against them. (Side note: If you never considered looking for a sexy, self-made millionaire dom at your local penitentiary before, Damian might just change your mind. ) All in all, this was a riveting, emotionally-charged rollercoaster of a 5-star read that has left me jonesing for my next Charmaine Pauls fix!
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Reviews with images
Neo-gothic story of twisted love and unexpected female empowerment
This story is dark and twisted, and deeply disturbing on a visceral level, and despite that, or rather because of that, I loved it so much. It gripped me from the first page, turned me inside out, and didn’t let me go until very end.If you are like me, trigger warnings don’t really have a dissuasive effect on you, but rather the opposite. This book contains plenty of possible triggers, including domestic abuse, physical and mental torture, dub-con (non-con), BDSM (pain), and violence. And although compared to all the other things it seems almost innocuous, the worst one for me was the issue of incapacitation in the legal sense, which I will expand on below. Consider yourself warned and continue at your own peril.The revenge trope is not exactly a rarity in dark (erotic) romance, but it’s one of my favorites regardless. A young Damian Hart had his diamond mine stolen by Harold Dalton and on top of that he was put in prison on trumped up charges. After he gets out, he wants nothing more than to ruin and destroy Dalton, and in his mind the best way to achieve this is to marry Dalton’s daughter Angelina, who is the heiress to Dalton’s fortune and who has also inherited the wealth of her late husband Jack Clarke. This also connects to one of the few points of criticism I have: Damian goes into prison dirt poor but when he comes out, he is filthy rich, and presumably he made his fortune by doing jobs for various factions in prison. I had a really difficult time to buy this scenario, but because I liked the book overall so much, I was willing to suspend my disbelief.After the violent death of her husband Lina was declared Incompetent and placed in a mental asylum for her supposed issues and self-harming tendencies, before returning home to her father who is now her guardian. So she doesn’t really have a say or a choice when Damian pressures her father into agreeing to have her marry him. And that’s where the neo-gothic element comes in. It’s not too far back in history when women didn’t have the right of self-determination but went from the guardianship of their father (or another male relation) into the guardianship of their husbands, without having any autonomy over any aspect of their lives. So in the beginning of the book it wasn’t quite clear to me whether it was set in the present or in the past, until the hero (or rather anti-hero) was described as wearing Jeans and a T-Shirt. Adding to the gloomy feeling is also Damian’s historical house and especially the other inhabitants, who are not exactly overjoyed with the new lady of the house and are pursuing their own agendas.The book is atmospherically dense and much of the tension is derived from the contest of wills between Damian and Lina. Damian initially has the upper hand, but he soon comes to realize that Lina is not as crazy as the tabloids made her out to be and that she is not as spoiled as he initially believed. Lina, on the other hand, is at a disadvantage; despite her wealth she is totally dependent on Damian for everything, she can’t even go grocery shopping or drive herself. Also, she is not as immune to the advances of her husband as she would like to be and is involuntarily excited by his kinky side (mostly). Over the course of the book she is slowly reclaiming her independence step by step. One of the most impressive aspects of the story for me was the description of Lina’s interior psychic landscape, so intense and evocative that I could almost bodily feel the anxiety attacks she suffered as a result of the trauma of her past experiences.While in the beginning the power exchange is very much structured in favor of Damian, this slowly changes over time, as he realizes that the pursuit of revenge is no longer his primary objective. Lina has objectives of her own, and while for quite some time that was all that sustained her, she finds that she wants to be more than simply an accessory to her husband.Beauty in the Broken is an amazing amalgamation of psychological thriller, erotic love story and, not least, a story of female empowerment (even though it doesn’t seem like that in the beginning). It will resonate long after you have read the last word and put down the book. 5+++ stars from me!
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2019
Not gonna lie, I'm a sucker for a good BSC quirky heroine, so I was sold as soon as I got to "also the craziest" in the description of Lina in the blurb, and I couldn't wait to dive in! As with every Charmaine Pauls book I've read to date, once I started reading Beauty in the Broken, I could NOT put it down until I was finished.
I should preface this review by saying that I like a little dark with my romance reading from time to time, but not so dark that I feel like the book I'm reading should've come with a "razor blade sold separately" label, if you know what I mean. Charmaine Pauls' books have proven to be safe dark romance choices for me because she has a solid track record of producing well-written, captivating, and unbelievably hot stories centered around imperfect, tortured antiheroes and heroines who possess enough admirable, redeeming qualities to make them lovable and root-worthy to the reader. And while Pauls does seem to delight in tearing the reader's heart out and stomping on it more than once throughout the course of a novel, she consistently delivers satisfying, swoon-worthy HEAs that will have you thanking her in the end for all the cathartic torment she subjected you to.
Beauty in the Broken delivers all of Pauls' trademark angsty dark deliciousness, and then some. In many ways, this standalone felt darker to me than The Loan Shark and The Age Between Us duets, and yet, strangely, it wasn't as heavy of a read for me compared to either duet. I think the reason could be that while Lina is initially presented to the reader as a broken and damaged character, she's actually anything but. In fact, I'd say she's far more mature, self-aware, emotionally sound, and world-savvy than the jaded, bent-on-revenge Damian is—and I especially appreciated all the subtle ways this was conveyed throughout.
Don't get me wrong, Damian is a beautifully demented, tough-as-nails, sexy dark antihero who has been through a lot in his young life, but in many respects, he came across as more sheltered and emotionally fragile than Lina to me. Damian's emotional development/revelation hits closer to the third Act. At the same time, I found Damian to be singularly determined, strong and protective throughout in all the traditionally masculine ways you'd expect and want him to be.
Together, Lina and Damian form a solidly broken pairing, and their relationship dynamic is truly engaging in the way it’s interwoven within the greater storyline and undermined by the forces of secondary characters plotting against them. (Side note: If you never considered looking for a sexy, self-made millionaire dom at your local penitentiary before, Damian might just change your mind. ) All in all, this was a riveting, emotionally-charged rollercoaster of a 5-star read that has left me jonesing for my next Charmaine Pauls fix!
I should preface this review by saying that I like a little dark with my romance reading from time to time, but not so dark that I feel like the book I'm reading should've come with a "razor blade sold separately" label, if you know what I mean. Charmaine Pauls' books have proven to be safe dark romance choices for me because she has a solid track record of producing well-written, captivating, and unbelievably hot stories centered around imperfect, tortured antiheroes and heroines who possess enough admirable, redeeming qualities to make them lovable and root-worthy to the reader. And while Pauls does seem to delight in tearing the reader's heart out and stomping on it more than once throughout the course of a novel, she consistently delivers satisfying, swoon-worthy HEAs that will have you thanking her in the end for all the cathartic torment she subjected you to.
Beauty in the Broken delivers all of Pauls' trademark angsty dark deliciousness, and then some. In many ways, this standalone felt darker to me than The Loan Shark and The Age Between Us duets, and yet, strangely, it wasn't as heavy of a read for me compared to either duet. I think the reason could be that while Lina is initially presented to the reader as a broken and damaged character, she's actually anything but. In fact, I'd say she's far more mature, self-aware, emotionally sound, and world-savvy than the jaded, bent-on-revenge Damian is—and I especially appreciated all the subtle ways this was conveyed throughout.
Don't get me wrong, Damian is a beautifully demented, tough-as-nails, sexy dark antihero who has been through a lot in his young life, but in many respects, he came across as more sheltered and emotionally fragile than Lina to me. Damian's emotional development/revelation hits closer to the third Act. At the same time, I found Damian to be singularly determined, strong and protective throughout in all the traditionally masculine ways you'd expect and want him to be.
Together, Lina and Damian form a solidly broken pairing, and their relationship dynamic is truly engaging in the way it’s interwoven within the greater storyline and undermined by the forces of secondary characters plotting against them. (Side note: If you never considered looking for a sexy, self-made millionaire dom at your local penitentiary before, Damian might just change your mind. ) All in all, this was a riveting, emotionally-charged rollercoaster of a 5-star read that has left me jonesing for my next Charmaine Pauls fix!
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2019
If you are like me, trigger warnings don’t really have a dissuasive effect on you, but rather the opposite. This book contains plenty of possible triggers, including domestic abuse, physical and mental torture, dub-con (non-con), BDSM (pain), and violence. And although compared to all the other things it seems almost innocuous, the worst one for me was the issue of incapacitation in the legal sense, which I will expand on below. Consider yourself warned and continue at your own peril.
The revenge trope is not exactly a rarity in dark (erotic) romance, but it’s one of my favorites regardless. A young Damian Hart had his diamond mine stolen by Harold Dalton and on top of that he was put in prison on trumped up charges. After he gets out, he wants nothing more than to ruin and destroy Dalton, and in his mind the best way to achieve this is to marry Dalton’s daughter Angelina, who is the heiress to Dalton’s fortune and who has also inherited the wealth of her late husband Jack Clarke. This also connects to one of the few points of criticism I have: Damian goes into prison dirt poor but when he comes out, he is filthy rich, and presumably he made his fortune by doing jobs for various factions in prison. I had a really difficult time to buy this scenario, but because I liked the book overall so much, I was willing to suspend my disbelief.
After the violent death of her husband Lina was declared Incompetent and placed in a mental asylum for her supposed issues and self-harming tendencies, before returning home to her father who is now her guardian. So she doesn’t really have a say or a choice when Damian pressures her father into agreeing to have her marry him. And that’s where the neo-gothic element comes in. It’s not too far back in history when women didn’t have the right of self-determination but went from the guardianship of their father (or another male relation) into the guardianship of their husbands, without having any autonomy over any aspect of their lives. So in the beginning of the book it wasn’t quite clear to me whether it was set in the present or in the past, until the hero (or rather anti-hero) was described as wearing Jeans and a T-Shirt. Adding to the gloomy feeling is also Damian’s historical house and especially the other inhabitants, who are not exactly overjoyed with the new lady of the house and are pursuing their own agendas.
The book is atmospherically dense and much of the tension is derived from the contest of wills between Damian and Lina. Damian initially has the upper hand, but he soon comes to realize that Lina is not as crazy as the tabloids made her out to be and that she is not as spoiled as he initially believed. Lina, on the other hand, is at a disadvantage; despite her wealth she is totally dependent on Damian for everything, she can’t even go grocery shopping or drive herself. Also, she is not as immune to the advances of her husband as she would like to be and is involuntarily excited by his kinky side (mostly). Over the course of the book she is slowly reclaiming her independence step by step. One of the most impressive aspects of the story for me was the description of Lina’s interior psychic landscape, so intense and evocative that I could almost bodily feel the anxiety attacks she suffered as a result of the trauma of her past experiences.
While in the beginning the power exchange is very much structured in favor of Damian, this slowly changes over time, as he realizes that the pursuit of revenge is no longer his primary objective. Lina has objectives of her own, and while for quite some time that was all that sustained her, she finds that she wants to be more than simply an accessory to her husband.
Beauty in the Broken is an amazing amalgamation of psychological thriller, erotic love story and, not least, a story of female empowerment (even though it doesn’t seem like that in the beginning). It will resonate long after you have read the last word and put down the book. 5+++ stars from me!
Neo-gothic story of twisted love and unexpected female empowerment
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2019
This story is dark and twisted, and deeply disturbing on a visceral level, and despite that, or rather because of that, I loved it so much. It gripped me from the first page, turned me inside out, and didn’t let me go until very end.Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2019
If you are like me, trigger warnings don’t really have a dissuasive effect on you, but rather the opposite. This book contains plenty of possible triggers, including domestic abuse, physical and mental torture, dub-con (non-con), BDSM (pain), and violence. And although compared to all the other things it seems almost innocuous, the worst one for me was the issue of incapacitation in the legal sense, which I will expand on below. Consider yourself warned and continue at your own peril.
The revenge trope is not exactly a rarity in dark (erotic) romance, but it’s one of my favorites regardless. A young Damian Hart had his diamond mine stolen by Harold Dalton and on top of that he was put in prison on trumped up charges. After he gets out, he wants nothing more than to ruin and destroy Dalton, and in his mind the best way to achieve this is to marry Dalton’s daughter Angelina, who is the heiress to Dalton’s fortune and who has also inherited the wealth of her late husband Jack Clarke. This also connects to one of the few points of criticism I have: Damian goes into prison dirt poor but when he comes out, he is filthy rich, and presumably he made his fortune by doing jobs for various factions in prison. I had a really difficult time to buy this scenario, but because I liked the book overall so much, I was willing to suspend my disbelief.
After the violent death of her husband Lina was declared Incompetent and placed in a mental asylum for her supposed issues and self-harming tendencies, before returning home to her father who is now her guardian. So she doesn’t really have a say or a choice when Damian pressures her father into agreeing to have her marry him. And that’s where the neo-gothic element comes in. It’s not too far back in history when women didn’t have the right of self-determination but went from the guardianship of their father (or another male relation) into the guardianship of their husbands, without having any autonomy over any aspect of their lives. So in the beginning of the book it wasn’t quite clear to me whether it was set in the present or in the past, until the hero (or rather anti-hero) was described as wearing Jeans and a T-Shirt. Adding to the gloomy feeling is also Damian’s historical house and especially the other inhabitants, who are not exactly overjoyed with the new lady of the house and are pursuing their own agendas.
The book is atmospherically dense and much of the tension is derived from the contest of wills between Damian and Lina. Damian initially has the upper hand, but he soon comes to realize that Lina is not as crazy as the tabloids made her out to be and that she is not as spoiled as he initially believed. Lina, on the other hand, is at a disadvantage; despite her wealth she is totally dependent on Damian for everything, she can’t even go grocery shopping or drive herself. Also, she is not as immune to the advances of her husband as she would like to be and is involuntarily excited by his kinky side (mostly). Over the course of the book she is slowly reclaiming her independence step by step. One of the most impressive aspects of the story for me was the description of Lina’s interior psychic landscape, so intense and evocative that I could almost bodily feel the anxiety attacks she suffered as a result of the trauma of her past experiences.
While in the beginning the power exchange is very much structured in favor of Damian, this slowly changes over time, as he realizes that the pursuit of revenge is no longer his primary objective. Lina has objectives of her own, and while for quite some time that was all that sustained her, she finds that she wants to be more than simply an accessory to her husband.
Beauty in the Broken is an amazing amalgamation of psychological thriller, erotic love story and, not least, a story of female empowerment (even though it doesn’t seem like that in the beginning). It will resonate long after you have read the last word and put down the book. 5+++ stars from me!
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2022
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2021
Top reviews from other countries
No Book Behind
gripping & intriguing dark romance 5⭐
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2021
No Book Behind
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2021
Images in this review
