ISBN-13: 9780425238608Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: January 2011
384 pgs
Source: Publicist
At first glance of the title (and the cover), Beautiful Disaster looks like a suspense but it is actually a story about love lost and found.
Mia Montgomery's dreams is to be a successful interior designer; not any interior designer but one who focus on holistic design and to promote an eco-friendly concept in her work. She takes pride in her work, and she thinks she is getting there when she received a telephone call from a doctor friend, Roxanne, that Peyton Flynn McDermott is in the ICU due to an automobile accident and he is in a coma.
Memories of the past began to creep up on her, after all Flynn is her ex-lover and she thought that she would never hear from him after all this time. He has walked out of her life twelve years ago but that does not make Mia stop thinking about him over the years. Mia knew Flynn when she was just a design student at the University of Georgia then. Flynn was the one who took notice of her initially, but he didn't think they belong to the same league anyway since he has a dark secret past while Mia looks like she doesn't belong to anything in his world. But then fate seems to be in their way as they later met each other in a pub, and Mia strike up a conversation with him both out of curiosity as well as a bet which she had with Roxanne, in which she was sure that she would get this mysterious stranger to buy her a beer, which he did.
However, Roxanne isn't pleased with the idea that Mia is getting too close with Flynn. On top of that, there is a serial killer on the run and with Flynn's mysterious background she tries all means to stop Mia from being with him. On the other end, Flynn does live dangerously in the past, but he has reasons and to avoid spoiling anything I would not disclose much about his character. Instead I could only tell you that there is a lot of sexual intense between Mia and Flynn, and that you would be enticed with Spinella's prose as she weaves this story between the present and the past.
Characters wise, I think Laura Spinella has done a great job in portraying Mia, Flynn, and Roxanne as well. I think readers would be able to connect with them through Spinella's detailed descriptions of them. However, though I think the characterisations are great, I have to admit that Roxanne's attitude is a little off putting from the way she fussed over Mia's love life but from another perspective, I think she is simply concerned about Mia, that's all. Mia, on the other hand, is a true romantic who totally believes in love and herself.
Beautiful Disaster may have a slight suspense tone, but at its core it is about the power of love and second chance. And oh, did I mention that there is a Southern setting to this story? Well because I absolutely love reading fictions that have a Southern setting. This book is Laura Spinella's debut and I can't wait to find out what she has in store next.
(Many thanks to Erin Galloway for sending this book to me for review!)