The scars. She’ll never forgive her attacker.
Seven years ago, a knife-wielding stranger left socialite Ava Camden for dead on the sidewalk of an upscale Atlanta restaurant. She survived, but her face was brutally scarred. The police, the courts, and the powerful Camden family pinned the assault on only one suspect: Joel Sapphire, a twenty-year-old star athlete on the cusp of a pro football … football career. Too drunk to remember any details, Joel was found over Ava’s body, holding the bloody weapon.
The letters. His brother is her only hope for the truth.
Graham Sapphire grew up fighting on the city’s tough southside, and he’ll never let the Camdens crush his family. Now a wealthy hotelier, he’s determined to clear his brother’s name–and to find the monster responsible for Ava’s scars. Graham started writing to Ava the day his brother entered prison, asking her to give him a chance and offering his help. She never answered–but she never stopped reading.
The secrets. The truth may destroy them both.
Now Joel has been paroled, only to vanish before Graham can reach him. Is he lurking in the shadows or on the run from death threats? Ava is the lure that will bring him back, but she’s not alone in the fight. Graham will give his life–and even his brother’s–to protect her. The bond between them is hot, tender, and almost as dangerous as the hunter who waits in the shadows of the city’s darkest streets.
Nicki Salcedo is a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in English and Creative Writing. She is a two-time recipient of the Maggie Award of Excellence and a Golden Heart Finalist. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and four kids.
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One of the best Beauty and the Beast themed romances I’ve ever read. Ava is an incredible character and finds her HEA with a worthy hero. Wonderful bits of darkness and light in the writing.
Despite being a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, this was a refreshingly original story. The characters have real depth, real motivations, and eventually real love. Highly recommended!
I loved every page of this book! Ms. Salcedo is a new-to-me author and I will DEFINITELY be reading more of her books. This was a definite page-turner with an unpredictable ending.
A good writer hooks you with a story with in the first few chapters. Ms. Salcedo had me hooked from the very first sentence and did not let go until the last page! Superb storytelling.
I loved Graham and Ava from the very start. I did NOT see that ending coming. I was so happy to see their HEA!
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Disclaimer: I know Nicki, and I’ve read her work before. I love Nicki, and I love what I’ve read. Even so, I wasn’t prepared for the awesomeness of this book. I read All Beautiful Things on my Kindle while on vacation at Disneyland, and I learned to use the highlight feature on my Kindle thanks to this book because there were simply so many sentences and passages I wanted to remember. When, someday, I starting highlighting things from your books, you can thank Nicki.
Here’s the story: Ava has been horribly scarred and is filled with anger–she’s the beast. Graham is unfailingly beautiful both inside and out–he’s the beauty. Graham needs Ava’s help to prove that his brother wasn’t her attacker. Ava has been hating Graham’s brother, Joel, a long time and isn’t ready to let go of the hate. Even so, she’s won over by Graham’s kindness and compassion. He sees her as beautiful instead of a scarred person to be pitied, and she can’t help but love him for that, too. In the end, though, can she love the brother of her attacker? Can he learn to love the woman who put his brother behind bars for seven years?
Now, based on what I just wrote this book sounds like a romantic suspense. It is….and it’s not. Read the first page and you’ll think it’s literature. It is….and it’s not. All Beautiful Things is that rare story, full of meaning, metaphor and gorgeous prose while being so compelling that you can’t help but turn page after page to see what will happen next. Ava is a complex and broken character. She loves her family yet can’t quite give in to them. She feels safest in a homeless shelter and stays up all night going to crime scenes to take photographs. She sees the world in often opposite absolutes and kind Graham is the one who can show her how those opposites can coexist. In the tradition of fine literature, you will take something away from this book. In the tradition of romance, you have two characters to root for against seemingly impossible odds. In the tradition of suspense, the story will keep you hooked and surprise you, too.
This book was good and a quick read.The characters were somewhat realistic, but not as realistic as I felt they could have been. It’s kind of fairy tale-ish and has a happy ending, which, by most standards would be considered a romantic novel/book, but not much romance is incorporated in the book. It has the ability to hold the readers attention and make them want to continue reading.