A review by mastersal
Beautiful Stranger by Christina Lauren

3.0

Listened to on audio for the first half - which was fun given the accent for the hero - however, switched to physical read alone near the end as the audio was slowing me down.

We follow Sara - the best friend of our heroine from Book 1 - as she moves to NY to make a new life when she catches her boyfriend cheating. She meets our hero, Max, and the 'romance' / affair takes off from there.

The romance was a little bit of a b-plot vs all the sex our couple have (every time they meet they have sex or have a sexual encounter till the near end). Not sure if this classifies as a romance but whatever. The story was really about Sara moving on and finding her life, love and 'voice' - there is less of a focus on Max and his story (something something about falling in love for the first time and settling down). He is really a great character, sexy and successful but also honest and kind. It was lovely to read about him but given how well adjusted he was there wasn't much for him to do here - except be supportive.

A lot of the book's "romance" is about Sara discovering and accepting her exhibitionism kink - which was great. However, I was a little annoyed by that fact that Max was basically doing all the work to set up the scenarios. Sara did a little too work for my tastes. However, it did find her cute - which given the steam level of the book - was pretty well done.

I'm giving it an overall 3 stars. The lack of romance between the couple was a bit odd and felt unconvincing to me. But I individually really liked the hero and heroine and generally the growth Sara went through the book. A sweet sexy read - easy to get through.