Losing Bet

I finished this series a while ago and have had a hard time writing a review for "A beautiful disaster" and "Redemption by Francette Phal.

The problem stems from absolutely loving the first book, "A beautiful disaster." The characters, the storyline, and the bad guy (You know how I am about bad guys), were all so good that they kept me up at night, they woke me up in the morning (I admit to reading my Kindle fire with the covers over my head so the dogs won't know I'm up,) and it made me really, really want to reads it's sequel. But, within the first three chapters I knew that I hated "Redemption."  But, I digress.

Let's start with why I loved the first book, since I am a self-proclaimed 'nongirl.' Nongirl is a term that I made up to describe woman like me that don't like the big romatic overtures that fill the white pages of a book like "Twilight"; the screen of movies like anything staring Zac Ephron; or television shows like Vampire Diaries. I'm not a mushy type girl, I prefer a foot rub, book, or a giftcard to my favorite stores. And redemption kept me in my nongirl status.

Beautiful Disaster

 is the love story of Nicholas and Ellie, two teenage kids from very different backgrounds who come together as friends and end up lovers. There are several twists in this plot, so it can't be written off as another teen romance.

But, this book got me, Ellie's personality her tough life without a cliche sassy attitude. She is strong, she is confident, yet she is open to good friendships. The fact she'd lived through so much and group up so fast and remained an honestly genuine good person made me like her instantly. Nicholas. The rich good looking bad boy who takes a challenge to woo the new girl in school. Nicholas has everything and nothing. Money, friends, and a good name. But he's lonely and bored, unloved by distant parents. He gravitates to Ellie outside of the challenge, because of her open heart and resillence. The fact that Nicholas honestly warms to Ellie and her family made me like him outside of his beautiful blue eyes, shoulder length dark hair, and hard young body; though, his physical description did help me get into this story.

I will say that by the end of the book I kind of disliked Nicholas, his actions were despicable. However, the means justify the ends and a good story makes people talk and gets them thinking.

Redemption

First and foremost is the word 'had' it is used so often in this book that I now oficially hate it. I'm sorry to begin this review that way, but seriously, it was overused and it stands out in my head as one of the reasons I disliked the book.

Now that I got that off my chest; fast forward a few years and we find Ellie and her family living a great life. She has a loving fiance Devan and a good career as a teacher. Nicholas is the head of his own empire and living the high life of a billionare. He has put his love for Ellie behind him, only recalling the girl who loved him through look-alike prostitutes and callgirls. What? Yeah, you read that right. He walks away from love, then buys women who look just like the girl he left. He is still the good looking rich guy who is lonely and unloved.

Their paths collide and instantly Nicholas starts barging into Ellie's life making demands and eventually worming his way into her heart. Has he grown or changed since breaking ellies heart? Not that I can see and that's where it all went down hill for me, becoming the usual romance bore. Ellie has a great fiance who she cheats on to be with Nicholas who has not changed from the spoiled rich kid getting everything that he wants. Boo! I barely finished this book I was so annoyed.

Overall, skip both reads. There is no reason to get teased with "The bet"(click the title to visit the amazon page for this read) to be let down by "Redemption."