Beautiful Addictions by Season Vining

Beautiful addictionsNarrated by Susannah Jones

When I started listening to Beautiful Addictions, I was a little leary. I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy reading yet another book about a woman who had lost her memory. However, Season Vining put a refreshing spin on something that could have been a run-of-the-mill romance.

There’s a girl Tristan can’t forget. She’s been gone for almost ten years. Everyone, even Tristan, believes her dead, but, even so, Tristan is unable to completely let her go. She was his first love, and, after her death, his life took a turn for the worse.

Josie doesn’t know why she’s so drawn to Tristan. She’s been watching him for months, both hoping for and fearing the day he’ll look up and notice her. Josie is dark, brooding, and broken. Years of abuse at the hands of her foster family taught her to rely only on herself. She supplements this with plenty of drugs and one-night stands, but something about Tristan calls to her.

Tristan recognizes Josie as his childhood sweetheart, but finds it hard to reconcile the difference the years have made. She’s changed, and he wants to know why. Slowly, he begins to reel Josie in. He knows she’ll never be the girl she once was, but he doesn’t mind getting to know the person she’s become. He’s just glad to have her back in his life.

Both Tristan and Josie have secrets that can destroy them. Sadly, Josie is unable to remember hers. A beating cost her her memories of her childhood. Tristan knows some of her story, but is his knowledge and their love enough to keep them safe?

Many listeners rave about the skills of narrator Susannah Jones. I was thrilled to listen to her, and her performance did not disappoint. However, I must say that I wasn’t wowed by it either. Ms. Jones is an above average narrator, but not someone who makes my A list.

Ms. Jones has no trouble making each and every character stand out from the rest. Her accents sound quite authentic, and she is able to depict male characters in a way that suggests their masculinity. Her depiction of female characters is equally good. I was able to distinguish Josie from the rest of the women in the story, and I did not rely on dialogue tags at all. She is quite skilled at imbuing each character with just the right amount of emotion needed to bring each and every scene to life.

Having said all this, I would be quite remiss not to mention the things that detracted from Ms. Jones’s performance. She takes very audible breaths in the middle of longer sentences. Also, she has a tendency to emphasize certain syllables in a way that is very jarring which also leads to the mispronunciation of a few words. Neither of these things is terrible, but both pulled me out of the story more than I would have liked.

I was very pleased with Ms. Vining’s ability to create a HEA for Tristan and Josie that felt real. I’ve read a lot of books with endings that felt a little too contrived for my liking, and I was afraid this would happen with Beautiful Addictions. Fortunately, Ms. Vining possesses a great deal of talent, and was able to provide a satisfying conclusion.

Beautiful Addictions is fairly dark. There is discussion of child abuse, drug use, homelessness, and organized crime. None of this is glorified in any way, but, if such things bother you, you might want to steer clear. I, personally, did not find the darkness off-putting. The author uses it to create flawed characters who grow and change throughout the story. If Josie and Tristan had led more conventional lives, I doubt I would have enjoyed this quite as much. Our hero and heroine are far from perfect people, and it was these imperfections that drew me in.

This is a romance with a nice helping of suspense thrown in. The emphasis is nicely split between uncovering the secrets of the past and developing a future that will bring happiness to both these tortured souls. If you’re looking for something a little different, pick this up.

Shannon


Narration:  B

Book Content:  A-

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Domestic, graphic

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Audible, Inc.

 

Beautiful Addictions was provided to AudioGals by Audible, Inc. for review.