Successful restaurateur Lucien Black’s blue-green eyes and unattainable attitude drive women wild. But his abandonment issues and criminal past have left him emotionally closed off. When a familiar face shows up for a job interview at his nightclub, the ache he has tried to forget tears at his heart—it’s the girl who once healed him…and then abandoned him.
Darcy MacBride still remembers Lucien’s delicate touch when they were both wildly in love teenagers. His gorgeous eyes had soothed her hurt after she’d been dumped off at the orphanage where Lucien lived. Darcy felt his jagged edges fit perfectly into her own, and she’d planned to spend the rest of her life with him—until a mysterious man warned her away. Now, fourteen years later, she’s ready to endure the torture of Lucien’s indifference and having him as her boss…just to be near him. But when it seems that they might finally take up where they left off, a devastating secret buried in their past threatens to tear them apart again.
L.A. Fiore’s story of smoldering love recaptures the tormented romance of Beautifully Damaged.
GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21402175-beautifully-forgotten
Beautifully Forgotten is the second book in L.A. Fiore’s Beautifully Damaged series. While the heart of the story is about Lucien Black and Darcy MacBride struggling to find their way back to each other after 14 years of separation, there are multiple storylines involved with differing perspectives that ultimately combine to expose a bigger plot at play – one that includes them all in varying capacities.
Lucien Black has spent his life feeling forgotten. When he was a baby, he was left to live in an orphanage. While there, one of the nuns, Sister Anne, did everything in her power to make Lucien feel loved and wanted, but when, Darcy, the only girl who has every owned his heart abandons him right when they’re about to start a life together, his world spirals downward, and the choices he makes thereafter sends him down a less than desirable path but one that ultimately provides him with a more than comfortable life where he can help those who need it. Lucien’s professional life is exactly where he wants it to be, but his personal life is at a standstill – that is until Darcy, his caterpillar, walks back into his life, seeking a job at one of his businesses.
Darcy MacBride’s life after Lucien has been filled with pain and profound regret. Ever since she made the decision to walk away from him, she’s felt utterly forgettable. Now, she has a chance to see what happened to the boy who owned every part of her, and while she’s excited to find out what he’s been up to, she knows that Lucien is no longer the boy who once loved her; he’s now the man who quite possibly feels nothing but hatred towards her.
At first, Lucien and Darcy’s reunion is filled with bitterness and hurt feelings, but as their walls begin to fall away, they remember the love that they shared and realize it never really left them. But is love enough to get past 14 years of separation, and with secrets still to be revealed, how can they truly invest in a future together? On top of that, there are people who have been working against them since they were together in the orphanage, and as the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall in place, the information that’s revealed changes more than just Lucien and Darcy’s lives.
Boy does L.A. Fiore know how to captivate her audience through her writing and character development! I’ll admit, at first, I didn’t understand the need for the changing perspectives. I thought the focus was going to be solely on Lucien and Darcy, and I was looking forward to understanding everything that drove them apart, so that they could be brought back together, but as I read further into the text, it all started to make sense, and each and every viewpoint is crucial in order to understand that there were so many actions and decisions made that resulted in a multitude of complications for more than just Lucien and Darcy.
Ember and Trace, the main characters from book 1, play pivotal roles in Beautifully Forgotten, which is another aspect of the story that I enjoyed. Readers get to see how strong their love still is and what they are willing to do for each other. Trace still struggles with his past, but Ember is there to remind him how far he’s come and that fighting to be together is way better than being alone.
Beautifully Forgotten is a story filled with suspense, drama, romance, and steam. Its complex storylines are all brought together at the end to reveal the factors that have been at play for the last fourteen years that have resulted in a plethora of pain and heartache for numerous people. Learning about Lucien and Darcy’s past only solidifies how lucky they are to have the opportunity to find their way back to each other. Nothing is easy for anyone in L.A. Fiore’s world, but that’s what makes overcoming each and every challenge that much more gratifying, and for Lucien and Darcy as well as Ember and Trace their future looks a whole lot better because of the risks they willingly took to feel whole again.
A complimentary copy was provided by the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
4.5 poison apples
Lucien watched as Darcy struggled to get the printer working. Even from his distance he could hear the cursing, which made him smile. It had been a week since their relationship had taken a very pleasant turn. She was still just as feisty as he remembered and it wasn’t hard for him to recall why he had fallen for her in the first place. Their sparring was verbal foreplay and he fucking craved it. His eyes moved over her. Her body was nothing like the one he had known, with curves that his hands itched to touch. Her hair was up, though he preferred it down, and tendrils were falling out of the twist. He remembered vividly the sight of it spread out over his pillow.
He had to admit that she was still just as interesting to him as she had been at fourteen. Despite everything, she was still his Darcy—sweet, witty, and guileless, except at the moment. She looked about ready to torch the printer, so he moved to help her. As he approached, she was actually staring into the paper tray, yelling at the creatures that lived inside it.
He chuckled, which must have taken her by surprise, because she leaped backward and landed on his foot.
“Fuck!” he cursed.
“Sorry.”
He looked down at her strappy sandals with heels high enough to stake a vampire and had a vision of those legs draped over his shoulders. Instantly, he was hard.
“I was going to offer to help you. The printer can be temperamental, but now I’m bleeding out from a stab wound.”
She didn’t miss a beat. “It probably didn’t even break the skin. What is it you guys say? Rub some dirt into it.”
He eyed her shoes. “Those things should be listed as lethal weapons.”
“Hardly. There are far cheaper ways to kill someone.” She bent to stare into the printer again and Lucien took the opportunity to check out the curve of her ass in the little black skirt she wore.
“Stop checking out my ass and help me.”
Not at all repentant for getting caught staring, he replied easily, “It’s a paper jam.”
He thought he was being helpful and when she straightened slowly, he entertained the notion that she was struggling with the need to throw herself into his arms in gratitude.
One look at her face, though, and he knew he wasn’t going to be copping a feel.
“Your powers of deduction are astounding. Seriously, you should give a seminar on mastering the obvious.”
He tried not to laugh, but he lost that battle. And she responded by flaying a layer of skin off him with her sharp tongue.
“I know it’s a paper jam, Sherlock, I just can’t find it.”
“It’s usually in the back,” Lucien said as he reached for the back of the printer, his arm brushing up against her on purpose. Darcy’s inhaled breath in response had his balls tightening. He dislodged the paper and pulled it free.
He turned to her with a smug smile, which she returned with uncanny accuracy before she said, “Thanks. I almost lost my cool.”
“Almost?”
A slight smile touched her lips. “I should go restart my print job.”
“Probably, unless you can get the little men in the printer to do it.”
Brownies.”
“What?”
She laughed. “Not the baked goods, the little mischievous mystical creatures.”
“They live in my printer?”
“Maybe.” She started away, but stopped and turned to him.“Thanks.”
“Have dinner with me tonight.”
She eyed him through her lashes before she said, “You’re on.”
And then she turned and disappeared into her office.
L.A. Fiore lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her husband, two children, their dog, two kittens and Willow: their three-legged hamster. Her twin sister lives right down the street and being a seasoned zombie hunter, there is comfort knowing when the zombie apocalypse comes they’ll be ready. L.A. loves hearing from readers and can be reached through Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/l.a.fiore.publishing
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