Title: Beautiful Failure
Author: Mariah Cole
Genre: New Adult
Publication Date: December 17, 2013
Tour Host: Dreams Come True Promotions
If you're looking for a heartwarming story about a girl who falls deeply in love with a troubled boy who changes her life--a sob story with pretty metaphors and a million ways that'll tell you how "broken" she is, STOP. Don't read another word of this.
I'm not that type of girl.
My name is Emerald Anderson and I'm not going to bullshit you: I flunked out of college after my sophomore year, I've been fired from every job I've ever taken, and I've never had a fully functioning relationship in my life.
I wish I could say that I had a cheerleader in my corner, someone who says, "No, Emerald--You're great and you are good at something!" but I don't. My grandparents are completely oblivious to my life, and my mother's dying words to me were "You're going to end up just like me one day. A beautiful nothing."
She was right.
As I decide to start my life over and take two jobs that will forever change me--one from the inside, and one from the outside, I keep my mother's words close to my heart so I can keep the sexy and mysterious Carter Black away.
He's the first man who's ever pursued me, the first man who seems bent on finding out why I am the way I am, but he's wasting his time.
I'm not broken. I don't need to be fixed. I'm perfectly fine being a beautiful failure...
Lesley's Thoughts
“My mother was a whore.” No Joke this was the first line in
the book. My thought to that was “Oh, hell.” I wasn’t sure where this story was
going to take me but it held my attention from that sentence on. Emerald Anderson, didn’t have a normal
childhood. Not one even close to being normal. It makes mine seem normal and it
was nowhere close. Which, may be why I can relate to some parts of this story.
“My deepest fear is
that I’ll look back on my life and wonder what I did with it…”-Anonymous
Emerald’s mother, Leah Belle, was an “escort”. Leah had
Emerald at a young age and she did her best for Emerald. Unfortunately, her
best was a skewed view on all things in life. She taught her that looks were
more important than brains. That you use people to achieve things in life. They
dubbed these people as “sponsors”. My favorite part was how Leah treated
Emerald as a friend instead of her daughter. Let’s drink alcohol, apply some
mascara and shove our emotional baggage in the proverbial closet. We all know
skeletons in the closet come back to haunt us. Well, they haunted Leah stronger
than Emerald knew. Em finds herself all alone with only the lessons her mother
taught her. Uhh… not exactly the best morals to exceed on.
“She taught me that
people were unreliable and untrustworthy, and that eight dollars for a bottle
of numbness, and painlessness was worth much more than any friendship I could
ever build.”
Emerald, who ends up in the small town of Blythe, Alabama;
finds herself struggling. She struggles with things like holding a job, dealing
with rejection, and well, life in general. Flunking out of college. Losing job
after job. Drinking bottle after bottle of liquor. Basically, Emerald is
spiraling out of control. She’s on her way down and she didn’t even realize. Using
the skills her mother taught her get her nowhere. Emerald is at odds with her
true ambition. She wants to succeed as a writer. Publish books and win awards.
In order to make it she’ll have to face the thing that hurts her the most.
Truth.
“You complain about
everyone telling their stories and crying, but you can relate. You just don’t
want to admit it because you think it’ll make you look weak.”
Throughout this journey she meets new people and experiences
life in different ways. Finding people who do nice things because they want to.
Meeting a special man that just proves that not all people are bad. Carter is a
sweet, mysterious and persistent man. However, He doesn’t do things the typical
way Em is used too. This confuses her. It makes her question what his real
motives are? Can she trust him? Will Emerald be tempted to use him or will she
let her walls down?
“…I don’t know if I
can hold onto it. I’m going to find a way to F%^k everything up. I can feel
it.”
This story isn’t your normal love story. It’s not pretty in
the sense that life is already a depressed, black hole. Emerald is damaged.
She’s snarky and jaded. But she owns that. She doesn’t make excuses. Her wit
and fire keeping her walls strong until she starts to take the bricks out on
her own time. This story is about growth and healing as well as love. Carter
may play a part in her healing, but its Emerald who heals herself.
There are so many things that I enjoyed about this book but
mainly, the execution of this story was spot on. I felt the depth without it
feeling like the pity me party. I understood the darkness and watched it begin
to lighten. I felt the chemistry between Emerald and Carter. Some of those
moments left me fanning myself. I loved the bible thumping grandparents, who
were true Christians. By that I mean they loved Emerald unconditionally. It was just a very well rounded book. It has
the full package. It ends with a tiny cliff. I’ll say it’s more like a teaser
but It’s seems that Carter and Emerald’s story isn’t quite over. Stay tuned for
book two out soon, “Beautiful Temptation”. I rate this book 4.5 stars.
Starbucks Addict. New Adult author. Dreamer.
* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mariah-Cole/522717034482807
* Author Website: http://unapologeticmc.blogspot.com/
* Author GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7319309.Mariah_Cole
* GoodReads Page for Book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18625288-beautiful-failure
* Amazon: http://amzn.to/1ga2bKz
* Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beautiful-failure-mariah-cole/1117736123?ean=2940149071050
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