Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Review - Beautiful Ugly

Title:   Beautiful Ugly
Author Alice Feeney
Publisher:  Flatiron Books/Macmillan Audio
Genre:   Mystery & Thrillers
Format:  Audio ALC
Narrators:   Richard Armitage; Tuppence Middleton
Length:   9 hrs 19 min
No. of Pages:   320
Date of Publication:   January 14, 2025
My Rating:   5 Stars
DESCRIPTION:

The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . . 

. . . and revenge.


Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.

Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.


MY THOUGHTS:

“Marriage is made of a million beautiful and ugly moments, stitched together into a shared tapestry of memories. All of which are viewed and remembered slightly differently, like two people staring at the same painting at from opposite ends of a room.”

“Life is beautiful and life is ugly. And have to learn to live with both sides of that same coin. And see the light in the darkness.”

Grady Green has become a New York Times bestseller. But, he is all alone. He is immediately relieved when he talks to his wife Abby on the phone. She is on her way home. He can’t wait, so he tells her his news. During their phone call, he hears Abby slam on her brakes. Next thing, she jumps out of the car, ostensibly to help a fellow driver.

The story continues one year later. Grady will never forget the worst best day of his life. Still grieving Abby’s disappearance, Grady has been experiencing a writers’ block. Thanks to his agent, Grady is headed to a remote island in Scotland to write his next book. He is assured that everything he will be surrounded by will awaken his writing muse. However, eerily Grady keeps thinking that he sees Abby here and there. Is he losing his mind?

The story begins to shift between Grady and Abby’s POV, and this was before her disappearance. Apparently, Abby was unhappy. Each chapter title is revealing, increasing the intrigue as the pacing and the twists and turns gave me chills more than once. 

I love it when a audiobook has more than one narrator giving voice to the characters. When you are reading an intriguing and sinister story and you have excellent narration, you can really be pulled into the addictive atmosphere of the book. That was exactly the case with Beautiful Ugly. This compelling read by Alice Feeney was truly an excellent read.

Many thanks to Flatiron Books/Macmillan Audio and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alice Feeney is a New York Times million-copy bestselling author. Her books have been translated into over thirty-five languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Including His & Hers which is being made into major TV series by Netflix. 

Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years, and now lives in Devon with her family. 

Beautiful Ugly is her seventh novel.

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