Successful
restaurateur Lucien Black’s blue-green eyes and unattainable attitude drive
women wild. But his abandonment issues and criminal past have left him
emotionally closed off. When a familiar face shows up for a job interview at
his nightclub, the ache he has tried to forget tears at his heart—it’s the girl
who once healed him…and then abandoned him.
MacBride still remembers Lucien’s delicate touch when they were both wildly in
love teenagers. His gorgeous eyes had soothed her hurt after she’d been dumped
off at the orphanage where Lucien lived. Darcy felt his jagged edges fit
perfectly into her own, and she’d planned to spend the rest of her life with
him—until a mysterious man warned her away. Now, fourteen years later, she’s
ready to endure the torture of Lucien’s indifference and having him as her
boss…just to be near him. But when it seems that they might finally take up
where they left off, a devastating secret buried in their past threatens to
tear them apart again.
L.A. Fiore’s story of smoldering love recaptures the tormented romance of Beautifully Damaged.
My Review of Beautifully Forgotten
I read Beautifully Damaged when it first came out. I liked it. When it was edited again and more about the other characters I was given the chance to read and review it. I liked the book the first time but really, really enjoyed it the second time. I loved Ember and Trace but I had a soft spot the whole time for Lucian. When I saw the chance to read and review his story I was all in!
The night that I read this book I wished I did not have to go to work the next day, as I stayed up reading all night. At 4:30 AM I had to give up and go to bed! I could not wait to finish when I got back up.
I was hooked on Lucian and Darcy’s story. I loved how when they reconnected that they both were on egg shells until one day Darcy stands up for herself and the actions as a young woman. I like when the female characters are not just the type of women that need to be “fixed”, but rather they can stand on their own two feet. I believe that female characters don’t HAVE to have a man, but the one they find compliments them. That is what Darcy and Lucian do for each other.
I am not a fan of spoilers but I have to tell you, that you need to read this book. Here is why:
I enjoy the authors style of writing. She keeps me captivated. There are plot twists and turns. Things that make you want to say “What?!? No Way!!” I even teared up. I enjoy that there is a lot about all of the friends in the book. The main and side characters are well developed. Add to it that the friends lives, and issues are so intertwined that the continuing lives of Ember and Trace are important and are a big part of the book. The part of me that loves to be in the world that the author created, and visiting old friends, LOVES this style of writing. I love that these men are Alpha males who when they find a woman to love they are ALL IN for always, not just for right now.
I highly recommend that you read Beautifully Damage and Beautifully Forgotten. I was given an ARC of both of them, and bought both as well. For me that is always a sign of a book well written.
He had to admit that she was still just as interesting to him as she had been at fourteen. Despite everything, she was still his Darcy—sweet, witty, and guileless, except at the moment. She looked about ready to torch the printer, so he moved to help her. As he approached, she was actually staring into the paper tray, yelling at the creatures that lived inside it.
He chuckled, which must have taken her by surprise, because she leaped backward and landed on his foot.
“Fuck!” he cursed.
“Sorry.”
He looked down at her strappy sandals with heels high enough to stake a vampire and had a vision of those legs draped over his shoulders. Instantly, he was hard.
“I was going to offer to help you. The printer can be temperamental, but now I’m bleeding out from a stab wound.”
She didn’t miss a beat. “It probably didn’t even break the skin. What is it you guys say? Rub some dirt into it.”
He eyed her shoes. “Those things should be listed as lethal weapons.”
“Hardly. There are far cheaper ways to kill someone.” She bent to stare into the printer again and Lucien took the opportunity to check out the curve of her ass in the little black skirt she wore.
“Stop checking out my ass and help me.”
Not at all repentant for getting caught staring, he replied easily, “It’s a paper jam.”
He thought he was being helpful and when she straightened slowly, he entertained the notion that she was struggling with the need to throw herself into his arms in gratitude.
One look at her face, though, and he knew he wasn’t going to be copping a feel.
“Your powers of deduction are astounding. Seriously, you should give a seminar on mastering the obvious.”
He tried not to laugh, but he lost that battle. And she responded by flaying a layer of skin off him with her sharp tongue.
“I know it’s a paper jam, Sherlock, I just can’t find it.”
“It’s usually in the back,” Lucien said as he reached for the back of the printer, his arm brushing up against her on purpose. Darcy’s inhaled breath in response had his balls tightening. He dislodged the paper and pulled it free.
He turned to her with a smug smile, which she returned with uncanny accuracy before she said, “Thanks. I almost lost my cool.”
“Almost?”
A slight smile touched her lips. “I should go restart my print job.”
“Probably, unless you can get the little men in the printer to do it.”
Brownies.”
“What?”
She laughed. “Not the baked goods, the little mischievous mystical creatures.”
“They live in my printer?”
“Maybe.” She started away, but stopped and turned to him.“Thanks.”
“Have dinner with me tonight.”
She eyed him through her lashes before she said, “You’re on.”
And then she turned and disappeared into her office.
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