Review: FIVE PLUS devastatingly emotional stars
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 14, 2014
Review for Beautifully Done by Riley MacKenzieMost all authors have a playlist they listen to as they write and as I sit here trying to collect my thoughts one song sticks out in my head and it is the only song that makes up my playlist for this review — Calling All Angels by Jane Siberry.Beautifully Done is the follow up to Beautifully Awake by Riley MacKenzie and I would highly recommend if you have not read Beautifully Awake yet that you pick it up and read it prior to taking the plunge into Beautifully Done. The characters of both books are so beautifully tangled together that you can’t experience the full depth of their stories unless you start from the beginning. Besides that Chase and Lili have an amazing story and it would be a sin to deprive yourself.I have read hundreds of books, thousands even in my lifetime so far, but it is rare that I find a book or character that makes an impact. Every once in a great while I stumble across one that punches its way into my very soul, taking up residence and claiming a spot inside me forever. Beautifully Done is that book for me. Asher’s story is one that will never leave me and if it dares to start I will pick it up and start it again because it’s the kind of story that I never, ever want to go a day without holding onto.Some of you are probably thinking ‘geeze dramatic much?’ and maybe it is, but as I sit here tears still drying on my cheeks I can’t even fathom forgetting the lessons that are perfectly wrapped into his story. It’s amazing how there can be works of fiction that can touch on what really matters in life with such intensity that it makes the reader want to be better, do better, LIVE better.“Everything didn’t have to be ideal to bebeautifully done in the end.”Asher is in my top five best male characters of all time. He isn’t the bad boy rockstar, the MMA fighter, the biker, the Dom, the cowboy, the entitled millionaire, or any of the other typical BBFs all of us swoon over; he is so much more. His job isn’t what defines his character — yeah he is crazy rich, a lawyer, and sexy — so he has the normal prerequisites to fit the BBF bill, but it’s the soul that the author gave his character that makes him stand out above the rest.The normal plot devices authors use to make us love to hate our BBFs are completely missing from Asher. Yeah, he is still a man and because of that he doesn’t always think with the right brain, but with every turn of the page you can’t help falling in deeper with him. He is fiercely loyal to his friends and family. I love that he uses his resources to benefit everyone around him and really anyone in need.There are so many times in this book that were just laugh out loud funny; the banter between characters made their relationships feel that much more real. Then there are the times were the love was so overflowing that I thought it would drown me where I sat and then there were moments when I swore I couldn’t read another page because I was drowning in my grief right along with the characters.“ Love wasn’t supposed to hurt. But this wasn’t love.This … we … were so much more.”I don’t want to give away any details for this one as far as the direction of the storyline, but I will tell you it is a roller coaster ride. You will feel the elation of climbing the highest hill and the sick feeling when you plunge down before you are jerked to the side and back up again sending you upside down and careening out of control.Because the author brilliantly leaves out who Asher’s love interest is in this book I am going to do the same — but it is epic.“We weren’t just forever; we were further.”As if I haven’t raved about the book enough already, (which btw I hope you’ve already stopped reading this and one-clicked it if not, you should really hurry and do that.) but it gives you a front row seat into the HEA of Chase and Lili — and if you read Beautifully Awake (again, if you haven’t one-clicked do it, do it now!) then you totally get why this is beyond awesome. I think the author did an outstanding job of giving us our Chase fix without ever making the book about him … it was still fully Asher’s story.Beautifully Done is FIVE PLUS devastatingly emotional stars for one of the most poignant stories of 2014 … FIVE PLUS drenched panties for the smut factor — Asher is quite the dirty talker. This is a certified Mommy’s a Book Whore MUST READ NOW.#1 on the Head Whore’s TOP TEN READS for 2014.