Title: Beautiful Elixir
Author: Addison Moore
Genre: New Adult/Contemporary Romance
Release Day: June 22, 2015
Beautiful Elixir
(Beautiful Oblivion Book 3)
*CAN BE READ AS STAND ALONE*
The sharper the lies, the darker the secrets…
Kennedy is mine. Too many tortured years have gone by without her, and I’m not about to let another one slip by. There’s nothing that’s going to keep us apart this time, not my psychotic family, not hers, not the tornado that’s ripping through her life or the one that’s ripping through mine. I want to help her with the destruction that’s shredding her to pieces. I think I’m the only one who can. I know she’s the only one who can help save me. I want to open up my heart to her, tell her everything I’ve done, but that’s the one thing I can never do. Some things in life are best left unsaid.
Caleb McCarthy is back in Loveless, turning heads, melting hearts and breaking them. We had a few sultry summers together, way back when. Those stolen nights were our treasured secret. But now he’s here, ready to take the next step with me just as my life burns to cinders. Our timing was never good. Someone has lifted the lid off Pandora’s Box and my every worst nightmare is floating around cyberspace. I’m laid bare for all to see. Naked. Exposed in every way. All of the secrets I thought I’d take to the grave are filtering out one by one, and I need to find a way put the lid back, to bury the box, before the darkest part of my soul is exposed—no one can know what I’ve done. No one can know and now the lid is off and my worst nightmare is slowly floating its way to the surface.
I don’t know who they are or what they want, but they need to be stopped. There’s only one person who can help me and that’s Caleb McCarthy. But it turns out Caleb has a few secrets of his own. Sometimes I’m not so sure if Caleb is on my side or if he’s been the enemy all along. I’m not so sure if I’ve brought us closer together or if I’ve just damned us both and blown our world’s apart.
Kennedy’s every worst nightmare is coming true.
Caleb’s are just beginning.
4 Star Review by Lisa Kane
Kennedy Westfield Slade is in deep trouble. Although this does not seem to be anything new. The guy who's had her heart for years is now living in the town she lives in Loveless (quite the name for a town!) After countless summers the two spent together, Caleb McCarthy is now living here permanently. No more summer kisses to be followed by 9 months of separation. Kennedy secretly hoped that their summer romance would develop into something more-right up until the time Caleb left for college and told her that it wouldn't be fair to have a long-distance relationship.
I believe the words "I'll be back for you" were said in lieu of goodbye.
She would always go back to Keith Stearns, her sleezeball boyfriend. She never put up much resistance to his suggestions that they take time off from each other in the summers, knowing Caleb would be staying for the summer. Four years later and her volatile relationship with Keith is finally over.
I'm not sure what happened in my life that made me think this vicious cycle was a good decision, but something about the thought of being on my own, alone, without the love of a man-which I craved more than air-it tormented me far more than the prospect of Keith's cheating ever did.
Keith and Kennedy have one sick relationship. Even though they finally have made their separation permanent, they play games of revenge and one up man ship on each other. His years of cheating on her won't go unpunished. Boxes of sex toys delivered to his little sisters, dirty magazine sent to his father, rumors of every sort about her spreading like wildfire; nothing is off limit in this war. But things have gone too far. Keith holds something horrible over Kennedy's head and maybe her latest stunt may have just pushed him over the edge.
"You are a bullshitter, Ken!" His stoned eyes bleed red as they bulge. His finger darts just shy of my chest. "You would do anything to anyone just to prove that nobody fucks with your ego. I'm going to end this shit-break you of your juvenile ways. Just watch me."
Kennedy tries to avoid Caleb. He is fresh meat for the town's hungry women and they seem to be all over him. She has so much deception going on right now that she can't handle anything with him right now, even if her heart screams that she is lying.
A beautiful brunette with a short dress (that might as well qualify as a T-shirt) and a pair of matching gladiator sandals (that absolutely need to find their way into my closet) whisks him into the crowd like a stowaway. Her arm slowly slips around his waist, and I frown at the tramp who openly made me lust after her shoes. God only know what part of her Caleb is lusting after.
But what she doesn't know is that one of the reasons that Caleb moved to Loveless, is to finally claim Kennedy. In spite of years of law school and becoming a successful lawyer, he has never been able to get over Kennedy. Other women have not budged her from his heart. He's aware that she is finally apart from Keith (although he wasn't going to let that stand in his way) and now's the time for them to finally try to work things out. Of course he is hiding his own secrets too. His father made his brother Abel a partner, and he hasn't gotten over that slight. His younger brother Solomon is on trial for murder and there is some mystery with that too.
When videos of Kennedy and Keith hit the internet-sexual recordings of just about every nasty little thing the two of them engaged in-Kennedy turns to Caleb to help her prove that Keith is behind them. She needs the videos, which are now viral, to be taken down, and Keith along with them. Caleb, as sickened as he is by the videos, wants Kennedy and will do whatever he can. But Kennedy has so many lies going on, and Caleb has so many secrets, how can the truth ever emerge and will it set them free or burn them to the ground?
"You no longer believe I'm the boldest liar in the universe?"
"I never thought that." He plunges in with another kiss. "I thought you were the boldest beauty in the universe. Still do."
Although Beautiful Elixir can be read as a stand alone, the characters from the first two books are just about everywhere in this story. So you may find yourself having a bit of trouble following if you haven't read them. Kennedy is a frustrating character at best. I still don't quite understand her motivation for her continued revenge on Keith. Yeah, he cheated on her constantly, but she is the fool that always took him back. Not out of love, but just because...I think she played too many people with her deceptions, especially Caleb. Now he has valid reasons for keeping his secrets. But in the end, Kennedy's pain and suffering redeemed her character and she deserved happiness.
"Love is the best gift you can give someone."
The Series as a Whole
*EACH BOOK CAN BE READ AS A STAND ALONE*
Book 1
Beautiful Oblivion
*FREE for a Limited Time*
Book 3
Beautiful Elixir
Addison Moore is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who writes contemporary and paranormal romance. Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan Magazine. Previously she worked as a therapist on a locked psychiatric unit for nearly a decade. She resides on the West Coast with her husband, four wonderful children, and two dogs where she eats too much chocolate and stays up way too late. When she's not writing, she's reading.
Feel free to visit her blog at: http://bit.ly/AddisonMoore-Blog
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