Review: Loved Fran and Matt (especially Matt)!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 29, 2014
I first met Fran Heller as Gabby's best friend in Beth Michele's debut novel, Love Love.  She was a feisty thing, but slightly broken on the inside from a traumatic and abusive childhood. In Scarred Beautiful (a follow up to Love, Love but can be read as a standalone), she's still got that little bit of spark, but after experiencing another tragedy she's closed herself off from most of the world, and has resigned herself to the fact that she'll never be fully and truly happy. Despite being beautiful, she thinks the physical scars that she hides from everyone make her damaged goods for any man to be able to love her.Matt Dixon lost a lot of important people in his life.  He craves a lot of order to feel like he's in control, making him what Fran refers to as a "tight-ass" when they run into each other at a design conference.  Fran and Matt are only together for a week, but they start sharing things with each other that they never felt they could have shared with anyone else.  Their time together is short, but they make a believable and very strong connection because they were both damaged and broken in their own ways.  Having that in common made it easier to let each other in so quickly.  Also didn't hurt that the sexual tension between Fran and Matt intensified with every page.I loved Matt.  He may be in my top ten list of book boyfriends.  Fran did peg him correctly as sort of a control freak, but he was sweet, funny, and unbelievably hot (his dirty bedroom talking pretty much did me in).  I liked seeing how Matt grew and changed because he started wanting Fran so badly, even with the emotional baggage she carried and the fact she lived on the opposite end of the country.  That it made him see all the things in his life that were wrong, no matter how well organized they were."You make me want, Fran.  You brought me hope...but most of all...you brought me back to life."Fran is one of my favorite heroines. She's vulnerable, but at the same time pretty tough.  Matt helps her heal, and makes her start actually wanting things like happiness and love, and maybe thinking a life of just surviving doesn't have to be her only future. But now, they have to figure out if they believe in themselves (and each other) enough to give a future together a try.