{"id":34875,"date":"2016-12-19T08:23:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T13:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=34875"},"modified":"2026-01-22T19:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:43:19","slug":"review-beauty-from-pain-beauty-1-by-georgia-cates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=34875","title":{"rendered":"Review: Beauty from Pain (Beauty, #1) by Georgia Cates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/b><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

God, how I love, love, love this book!!! <\/b><\/p>\n

I must admit, I put off reading it for a bit, figuring it was just another sexy millionaire story, but this little book smacked me across the face with its awesomeness, and I could not get enough!<\/p>\n

First off, there’s Jack\u2026 I pictured the gorgeous Matt Bomer the entire way through the book, only to discover that that is exactly who the author pictured for him as well, so that just reinforces his utter and absolute sexiness!<\/p>\n

OK, so our heroine is Laurelyn, an American on holiday in Australia for three months with her outrageously hilarious best friend, Addison. She is 22, beautiful and incredibly smart and sassy and I loved her instantly. She is an aspiring singer\/songwriter and is taking a break from her life back at home, leaving behind a hard life and a bastard ex-boyfriend.<\/p>\n

Jack Henry McLaughlin (God, even his name<\/i> is hot!), is a multi-millionaire wine magnate. He spies her in a bar on her first night in town and decides that he has to have her.<\/p>\n

“She has bewitched me. And I want her. She’s the one.”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fiercely protective of his privacy, he only indulges in anonymous, short-term, no-strings, no-fuss relationships, and he manoeuvres a way to meet Laurelyn where he puts forward a proposal that they \u2018date\u2019 for the three months of her stay in Australia. They would not learn each other\u2019s names or personal histories, but they would be together in a relationship of sorts, and at the end of the three months they go their separate ways and never see each other again. It doesn\u2019t take too much convincing for Laurelyn to say yes.<\/p>\n

His mouth is so close to mine, I feel his warm breath on my lips. \u201cRight now, all I\u2019m thinking about is how I\u2019m going to get you in my bed so I can show you all the ways I can make you come.\u201d
\nUmm \u2026 yes, please and thank you.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The relationship works brilliantly for them both. They spend time together, they have fun together, and everything is laid out up front – they dive straight into it with no fear of rejection or expectation. They are both completely honest about everything from the very beginning, so there is no game playing, and no stupid. They accept each other as they are, and are respectful, affectionate, and hot as all hell. Damn, my kindle was steaming at the chemistry between these two, sensational!<\/p>\n

Throughout the story, it is obvious that apart from the mind-blowing sex, Jack and Laurelyn genuinely care for each other, and I loved watching the easy, flirty affection between them develop into more as they both start feeling thing for the other that they never intended. And despite the end looming on their time together, there is no way they can fight what is happening between them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry for all the secrecy, for making you feel like you weren\u2019t important enough to know the real me. But I\u2019m most sorry because I have fucked you \u2013 I don\u2019t know how many times \u2013 and never made love to you.\u201d
\n\u2026 We\u2019ve shared countless kisses. They were almost always heated and demanding, but this one is entirely different. It tells me things he can\u2019t or won\u2019t say because it goes against everything he intends for our relationship. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I absolutely adore these characters. Laurelyn is refreshingly self-assured with a wicked sense of humour, and brings a sense of fun and playfulness to Jack\u2019s life. Jack is, obviously, sex on a stick, but he\u2019s not an all-out dominant, controlling Alpha. He is confident and possessive, but he is also funny, incredibly caring and protective of Laurelyn, and goes out of his way to make her feel special, never degrading her and, as he promises her in the beginning, he shows her the time of her life. Laurelyn comes as a complete shock to him, and I loved watching her sneak her way into his life and his heart without either of them really realising it. It was a sensational dynamic.<\/p>\n

And if, individually, they are fantastic, together they are just magic! The banter between them is brilliant, and I loved every little moment that they shared together. And even though the attraction was strong from the very beginning, the pacing of the significant little shifts occurring during their time together was perfect, and very realistic, leading to them slowly and inevitably falling for each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t leave. I want you to be with me.\u201d
\n\u201cYou\u2019ll have your family.\u201d
\nI swallow before I say the words that will change this relationship forever. \u201cYou\u2019re the one I need.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was so impressed that Cates was able to give us such an intense and emotional story without the characters resorting to stupid behaviour and unnecessary angst that is so common in a lot of books. Jack and Laurelyn both have nastiness in their pasts, and while it played a part in the story, at no stage did it overcome either of them or cause issues for them. They dealt with everything up front and openly, and it made it all just that much more enjoyable.<\/p>\n

With fantastic writing, the story moves at a great pace and is told in dual POV, alternating at each chapter, so we get to see where both Jack and Laurelyn\u2019s heads are at the whole way through, and it\u2019s AWESOME! I was captivated from the very first page and I laughed, squeed, and swooned my way through the whole book\u2026 God, did I swoon! And that ending (yep, another cliffy!) has left me desperate for more!<\/p>\n

An instant favourite, I absolutely loved it – 5 shining stars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Beauty Series<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Jack & Laurelin<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \"\"\u00a0 \"\"<\/h4>\n

Beauty from Pain (#1)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Beauty from Surrender (#2)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Beauty from Love (#3)<\/strong>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alex and Magnolia<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\" \u00a0\"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/h4>\n

Steel Beauty: Alex and Magnolia 1 (#4)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

American Beauty: Alex and Magnolia 2 (#5)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Beloved Beauty: Alex and Magnolia 3 (#6)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback Review God, how I love, love, love this book!!! I must admit, I put off reading it for a bit, figuring it was just another sexy millionaire story, but this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,50,9,29],"tags":[877,32,48],"class_list":["post-34875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billionaire","category-favourite","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-beauty","tag-georgia-cates","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Beauty-from-Pain.jpg?fit=150%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-94v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34875"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81919,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34875\/revisions\/81919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}