Beautifully Damaged

by Laura Pavlov

3.75 Stars
I was ready to love the story and for large swathes of it I did but I just couldn’t love it all, it came across as being more angsty that I thought necessary and that whilst it didn’t disappoint me, it did irk.
I thought the author and the story (most of the time) had the potential to give me something fabulous, it just didn’t quite hit all the high notes.
I felt a little put out initially by the fact that the story was told in the 3rd person, it isn’t my favourite dynamic, but I ploughed on and for the most part I think the author won me over because by the time I was heading towards the last third of the book the POV didn’t have any bearing on my enjoyment.
So, what about the story itself? Well at its heart was what can only be described as a second chance love story with a strong political twist thrown in for good measure and I would definitely say that it was a grower because the more the story went on, and the characters came into their own the better the story was.
Jackson and Peyton will intrigue you, their thought process at times was questionable and some of the things they both said and did raised both my heckles and eyebrows – more so Jackson if I am totally honest but he wasn’t the only culprit. With large periods of reflection, I wasn’t totally sold on their younger selves or the way the author wrote that aspect of the book but that is just my point of view, you may feel entirely different.
I think summing this up is complicated, because I think it had huge potential but I can’t help thinking that it could have been better, it was a tougher read at times than I would have liked and I had to fight with my inner ambivalence, refusing to be beaten by the characters, I could have easily laid the book down on a number of occasions but I had a horrible feeling that if I did, picking it up again was highly unlikely.
I am glad I ploughed on and finished the authors work, did I love it – No I don’t think I can honestly say I did but I didn’t hate it either, there were a number of aspects that I did like and that was most definitely a positive.
Would I recommend this, probably after all we don’t all like the same stuff and it isn’t a bad book.
Why not spend some time with Jackson and Peyton and form your own opinions?