Review: Beautiful Boy by Leddy Harper


Note: This ARC was provided by InkSlinger PR in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful Boy is a standalone contemporary romance from bestselling author Leddy Harper and is my initial foray into the author's writing. This was a combined second chance romance and enemies to lovers tale between Novah Johnson and Nolan Richards. When she was a freshman and he was a senior, they were paired together for their photography class and tasked to find the beauty in something. But what Novah believed was the beginning of something "more" between the girl no one noticed and the boy who had everyone's attention turned out to be the start of a nightmare she never saw coming. Fifteen years later, thirty-year-old Novah has created a career for herself as a photographer. She's no longer the naive girl she was at fifteen, but an unexpected email from Nolan stirs the hatred and anger she wished she let loose at the eighteen-year-old boy who destroyed her life. When Nolan challenges her to find the beauty he doesn't believe exists within him, Novah sees how damaged a man the once beautiful boy has become.

I'm feeling a bit torn. While I liked the journey that Novah and Nolan decided to embark upon fifteen years after their lives imploded, I found it difficult to believe that the feelings they had for each other were as strong as they were, considering their one interaction in high school resulted in something so traumatic and they didn't have any contact in the decade and a half they were apart. I also think Novah's change of heart was too sudden, because I was certainly expecting her to struggle trusting him. I was more drawn to Nolan's difficulty in seeing himself as someone who was worthy of still being alive and having a second chance with the only girl who's occupied his thoughts for almost half his life. I did like how Nolan and Novah tried to figure out where their relationship was headed. It was plausible that one event was all it took to leave an indelible mark for the rest of their lives. Nolan was a very complex, tortured character and one I won't immediately forget. Overall, Beautiful Boy was a good and interesting four-starred read. ♥

Date Read: 27 April 2016

Learn more about Leddy Harper.

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