Today we have an exciting blog tour from BEAUTIFULLY DAMAGED by Laura Pavlov! Check it out and be sure to grab your copy today!

 

  Amazon  |  Amazon Paperback

 

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About Beautifully Damaged

Peyton Kroft was his forever, until the unthinkable happened. Walking away all those years ago had been the right thing to do, but he’s ready to put the past behind him. Moving to San Francisco and hiring his first love, the city’s top designer, is a good place to start. Yet it stirs up feelings he thought he’d buried.

Jackson Vance broke her heart. He took half of it with him on his way out of town. Picking up the pieces hadn’t been easy, but more than nine years later, Peyton is living her best life. Coming face to face with her first love is not on the agenda. He is beautiful, broken, and everything she’s ever wanted.

The past still hovers like a dark cloud. But every dark cloud has a silver-lining.

 

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Review

3 “Hey, Peanut” stars

This is my first book by Laura Pavlov, a second chance romance between childhood sweethearts that is sweet and dramatic with a bit of angst.

Peyton is an interior designer with a booming career, great friends, and a lacklustre lovelife. She is in a relationship, but it’s more out of habit than anything else, and the added pressure of her boyfriend running for mayor makes things complicated. But her career is where it’s at, and she’s just been given a great new opportunity, only to discover that she will be working with her first love and the man that shattered her heart.

Jackson and Peyton met when they were children, fell in love and were destined for a life together until tragedy tore them apart. Now, nine years later, Jackson has tracked Peyton down in San Francisco where he is opening the restaurant they dreamed about when they were teenagers. He wants her to design it for him, and he wants to apologise for hurting her all those years ago, healing the gap between them in the hopes that it will provide the closure that they both need. But he didn’t expect his feelings for her to come roaring back, stronger than ever.

We get to see their history through flashbacks throughout the book, which I loved, and from the moment these two are reunited it’s clear that their love for each other is still very much alive. They have such a strong connection, and I love that they don’t hide from their past, from what they felt and what they went through, and what they are feeling now. They just try to make sense of it and find a way to deal with it, and I really appreciated the honesty between them.

“I believe everyone has one true match. I just happened to meet mine at the wrong time. You were it for me. Nothing in the world could have kept me from you. I would have bet my life on it. Then the fucking unimaginable happened.”

While Peyton sorts through the mess of her actual relationship there is lots of banter, innocent flirting and sweet, fun moments as they enjoy being back in each other’s lives, in whatever capacity. And when she is finally in a position to act on her feelings, the romance is on.

The realization that she still loved him was impossible to deny. Too obvious to convince herself otherwise. Probably never stopped. He was the love of her life. Then and now.

Sweet and sexy (though the sex scenes are fairly tame), there’s a whole lot of emotion between these two, and as they work through the issues resulting from all that happened in the past, they find themselves swept up in a romantic whirlwind.

“I love you in a way I’ve never loved anyone else. It’s always been you. “

But they have more to deal with than they know, and it’s not an easy road for them as they find their way forward. There is some angst and heartache, and a whole lot of soul-searching before they can get their happy ending.

As a dramatic second-chance-romance book, this book is supposed to be all about the emotion. And while the characters were certainly feeling all the feels, I wasn’t as invested as I wanted to be. Of course I wanted them together, and I was happy that they found their way back to each other, but I didn’t feel it. And as a romance reader, I’m all about the feels. I only finished this book last night and I’m already struggling to recall the details with clarity, or my feelings about it. I enjoyed it while I read it, it’s one of those books that didn’t really stand out for me.

Still a good read though, and a solid 3 stars.

An Advanced Review Copy generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

 

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Giveaway

Laura Pavlov is giving away a signed paperback copy of BEAUTIFULLY DAMAGED, and a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

The Escapist Book Blog is not responsible for this giveaway

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About Laura Pavlov

Laura Pavlov writes sweet and sexy contemporary romance that will make you both laugh and cry. She is happily married to her college sweetheart, mom to two awesome almost-grown kids, and dog-whisperer to a couple crazy yorkies. Laura resides in Las Vegas where she is living her own happily ever after.

 

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