INDIEI have them all now. Just the way I want them.McKay, the one who loves me deepest.Adam, the one who protects me fiercely.Donovan, the one who tells the truth.They are my friends, they are my lovers, they are my world.And Maggie belongs to all of us—no matter who her father is.This is the family I’ve always wanted.This is the family I deserve.And I will do whatever it takes to keep them. McKAY wanted.
This is the family I deserve.
And I will do whatever it takes to keep them.
McKAY
I have a secret that could ruin everything.
But I’m not keeping that secret to hurt her.
Nathan St. James needed to go.
ADAM
I made plan that could ruin everything.
But I did it to save us in the end.
The Company needed to come back.
DONOVAN
I told a lie that could ruin everything.
But I didn’t tell the lie to them—I told it to myself.
Carter is closer than we think.
There is something truly wrong at Boucher House on the Old Pearl River.
Some hidden evil lurking deep inside the woods.
Nothing about their blissful life is what it seems.
Because just when they think they have it all—he shows up to take it back.
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Book 2 in this Creeping Beautiful series by Julie and be prepared for even more WTF moments, a spectacularly twisted and cunning plot line that will keep you on your toes with the back and forth, what the hell and OMG moments!!!
Indie, McKay, Adam, Donovan are all back together living in the Boucher House, along with Indie’s 6 year old daughter Maggie. All together, finally at last, how they should be, according to Indie. But things are not what they seem. Indie still has no recollection of what happened when she went missing, that’s 4 years worth of memories, as well as her earlier childhood memories. Indie wants to be together with all the 3 men at once, but Adam and McKay have not yet taken that leap and she tries to get them together with the help of Donovan.
But there are so many secrets in this plot line, Adam and McKay are keeping pretty big ones, Donovan feels a bit like a spare part and also has missing memories, but he is trying self hypnosis to help that. Indie is busy doing a journal, well 2 actually, one they read together and one that is secret. Then you have Maggie, who has basically taken over the role of Indie when she was a girl, the men are doing the things for her that they did for Indie, and she doesn’t feel like a mum, she feels quite jealous of Maggie. But Maggie is anything but a normal 6 year old, Adam has already started her assassin training, and the things they get up to?!
Told from multiple POV’s that also goes back in time so that you can find out what originally happened on ‘that island’ when they were kids. There’s so much going on in this one, it really does keep you guessing right up until the very end. So many questions that you don’t really get answers for until right at the end when it just smacks you in the face, like how did you miss that!!! The last few chapters move incredibly fast as all the pieces fall into place and you’re left a little breathless with everything that happens and the realisation of just what is going on takes your breath away!!
Brilliant immersive reading from Julie yet again, not to be missed if you’re a Huss fan!!
The boys are back! You need to read the first book in order for this one to make sense. Once you do, you won’t be able to stop. There are secrets, suspense, mysteries, and so much passion. I love the multiple point of views and the twists and turns this takes had me reeling. I swear I was watching a movie in my head and now I am sad I have to wait until the next book to continue this roller-coaster.
The more we go, the more twisted it gets, the more I flipping love this series. I’ll say it again and again, the author’s mind is a wonderful maze and I can’t even imagine her storyboards. Even without having read The Company books (started, just not finished), I don’t feel lost (well, I think even with having read them, JA Huss specializes in making sure we are not completely in the know…until it is time for us to be in the know). This story is it’s own special brand of suspenseful thriller coupled with a love story within a love story and all kinds of mind messing stuff that I truly believe only JA Huss can bring us. I can’t can’t can’t wait for the next mind bending story.
Once you’ve read Creeping Beautiful you can start in on book two, Pretty Nightmare, which picks up and runs headlong into a super twisty psychological thriller. The Company continues its shakedown in a most Darwinian way. “Cold and numb is better than dead every day of the week.” There is an ongoing struggle between cognitive dissonance and potential breakthroughs in transformative moments. As Indie sees it, “I have way too much recent baggage to let the old stuff get me in the end.” The nightmare ensues as truths are revealed but still not accepted. Who’s on first?! This story requires attention to detail. Indie is back; the guys are processing their own stuff and protecting both Indie and her daughter, Maggie (the best little genius on the block.) Donovan is back. So is his twin, Carter. I had to take notes and read them over to grasp the intricate and incredible use of old information to see things anew and understand. Those transformative moments ran right to the last word. My hero? Nathan St. James. It’s the Company you keep.
I can’t even call this book a roller coaster because it starts fast and never lets up. If you have read JA Huss before, this is her at her best. Total Company perfection. Lots of action, suspense, romance, thrills, and of course the WTF moment that had me sitting there with my mouth open in shock. If you haven’t read “The Company”, you don’t need to, but you should. However, Pretty Nightmare is book two of a new series and you need to read Creeping Beautiful first. 5 fantastic stars!!!
Holy Crap! What did I just read? And why shouldn’t I expect this each time with JA Huss? I’ve been reading her books for over 6 years and I’m still thinking these same thoughts. 😉
Pretty Nightmare is book 2 in this series and you absolutely must read book 1, Creeping Beautiful first. You can’t get around it. This book is NOT a standalone. Book one introduces you to our characters and lays a good foundation of what is to come. Book 2 starts off where book one left us. Indie, Donovan, Adam and McKay are our 4 main characters and the story is told in their POVs (with a side of Nathan St James thrown in for good measure). You will want to pay close attention to each chapter and who we are hearing from. We also have Maggie, Indie’s daughter in the fold. She is a witty little badass that we can’t forget about. These characters are cunning, dangerous, have secrets, but are in the end all family and a part of a world where they have been trained to do the unthinkable. They are a part of an organization called The Company.
“Power is a sickness and we’re all infected.”
This book seemed like it was a little slow-going at the beginning. It was like this gradual build to get to the middle of it and then it explodes and goes full force towards the end, revealing some secrets that I didn’t see coming. Just when I expected one thing, I got another. You must ALWAYS pay attention to the details and the little minute things happening on the side. It’s what brings those twists and turns to light.
I’m not going to go into too many details. I WILL say that we definitely get some sexiness in this story and it involves a little MM and one damn hot MMFM scene. We get some answers from the past and present by visiting the past. There are some major twists that had my head spinning and that I had honestly been waiting for. I’m glad we finally got some answers, but now I have more questions of what’s to come for these characters and the world of The Company they live in.
If you are looking for a slow build to a great big WHAT THE HECK toward the last 25%, you will be pleased and frothing at the mouth for more from this series. These characters’ pasts are so interconnected to their futures and I can’t wait for more of it. I’m left with questions, got a few answers and was completely twisted all around. YUP! I can’t wait to see where this goes next. Give me more of The Company. I’m ready! 4+ stars (rounded up)
“Someone has to die at the end. That’s just how these stories go.”
Pretty Nightmare is the twisty second installment of J.A. Huss’ Creeping Beautiful series. Not only is it full of twists and turns, but it is totally twisted.
The phrase nothing is as it seems comes to mind while reading Pretty Nightmare. The characters are pretty. The setting is pretty. And yet, they all seem to be living in a nightmare. A nightmare created by The Company.
The dead are alive again. Memories are fantasy or make believe. Truth is too nightmarish to withstand. Will you know what is real and what is fantasy? I thought I did…
Author J.A. Huss’ convoluted creativity strikes again in her latest novel of love, suspense, and conspiracy.
I just finished this book and I’m a little speechless. Truthfully, reviewing a JA Huss book is so difficult because there are so many unknowns that 1. I don’t want to spoil anything and 2. I want other readers to just go in blind. That’s the best way to read a JA Huss story like this.
So after Creeping Beautiful (book 1).. I felt a little lost, but knew we would get some answering in Pretty Nightmare. And honestly, I still felt pretty lost through the first half of Pretty Nightmare.. I found it to be a tad slow and wordy. I couldn’t wait to feel like I was actually getting some where and it happened with the second half. I DEVOURED the second half of the book. I was mind boggled with the twists, but felt like I was learning so much about these characters. When I hit the end I was like Wow. What a ride! And with that I cannot wait to see how this rollercoaster continues!
Holy shit — what a ride!
This book grabbed me from the minute I started reading and never let go. I am speechless as I sit here trying to find the words recommend it. And I highly recommend it!
I’m not sure how she does it, but JA Huss has given us another incredible story. I thought I knew the characters. They surprised me. I thought I knew their secrets. I wasn’t even close. What I did know was that I would love Pretty Nightmare. And I most definitely did.
This is a must read!
This story was full of WTH moments and surprises. Along with a lot of twist and turns. The author knows how to keep the story full of suspense and intrigue all while keep g you wondering if you have figured it out. When in the end you have a WTH moment.
Oh my god what a ride why do I even try to guess what’s going to happen because its always so much better and twisted and ingenious and just so god damn good.
I began reading this book believing alot of things and oh how everything changed along the way as each belief turned into something else something better and the crazy well we all had our thoughts and turns out not so crazy after all or are they haha.
This story is so well written and Julie you have me on the edge of a cliff waiting for the next book please let it be soon.
Pretty Nightmare by JA Huss has well and truly blown my mind. Days later I’m still speechless. It’s a fantastic read with twists and turns aplenty, and as this amazing series continues to thrill and excite there are some shocking secrets revealed.
I love all the ‘Company’ related books. It’s an intriguing world full of secrets, mystery, suspense, and danger, with brilliant characters both good and bad.
I can’t wait for more!
I received a copy of this book from the publisher/author to review for Stephanie’s Book Reports.
Indie
I have them all now. Just the way I want them. McKay, the one who loves me deepest. Adam, the one who protects me fiercely. Donovan, the one who tells the truth. They are my friends, they are my lovers, they are my world. And Maggie belongs to all of us-no matter who her father is. This is a family I’ve always wanted. This is the family I deserve. And I will do whatever it takes to keep him.
McKay
I have a secret that could ruin everything. But I’m not keeping that secret to hurt her. Nathan St. James needed to go.
Adam
I made a plan that would ruin everything. But I did it to save us in the end. The Company needed to come back.
Donovan
I told a lie that could ruin everything. But I didn’t tell the lie to them-I told it to myself. Carter is closer than we think. There is something truly wrong at Boucher House on the Old Pearl River. Some hidden evil lurking deep inside the woods. Nothing about their blissful life is what it seems. Because just when they think they have it all-he shows up to take it back.
This is the second book in the Creeping Beautiful Series from J.A. Huss. You have to read Creeping Beautiful first or you are going to be lost. But that book is so good you will love it. This is certainly one twisted book and if you have read the first book you will know that we were left with one heck of a cliffhanger. Welcome back to Boucher House where we meet up again with Indie, Donovan, Adam and McKay and all the mystery and secret that surrounds this place. Then you have Maggie and her true father. But is he really the one who she conceived Maggie with. Indie just knew for sure that it was her first and only love Nathan. However she loves these men that have protected her since Adam purchased her to make her a Company Kid and she wants them all to be together. This is the book in which you get all the truths you wanted in book one. When all is said and done and the smoke clears will anyone be left the same as they were before. This book is so good. So dark and twisted and I loved it.
After that WTF cliffhanger ending in Creeping Beautiful, I was on pins and needles waiting for Pretty Nightmare to release, and in typical J.A. Huss fashion, she takes the reader on a mind-bending, roller coaster ride full of the most twisted of turns. I am still reeling from all I have absorbed before turning that final page.
Picking up right where Creeping Beautiful left off, we get to see some calm finally, in the lives of these four characters. Indie’s back at Old Home after her four years of being “somewhere”. Adam is back home now too, with Indie’s daughter, Maggie. And McKay and Donovan are there too, all four trying to figure out where exactly Indie has been and what she’s been doing.
The thing I love about how Julie lays the story out is that we get chapters in each character’s point of view. The fun part though, is that the character’s narratives are often unreliable, since they don’t know exactly what has been real and what hasn’t. There’s so much PSYOPS manipulation that has gone on, for a very long time, that none of the characters are confident in their memories, or even things that just happened yesterday.
Regardless of what is true or imagined, the one truth that all three men have is their total and complete devotion to Indie, and now to her daughter Maggie as well. McKay, Adam and Donovan all have a very special connection to Indie and no matter what they will protect her and Maggie. But outside influences are constantly just outside of their periphery and threaten to upend the calm and peace they finally have.
This book is truly a mind-bending journey. There are plenty of WTF moments that occur and I found myself sitting with my mouth hanging open on multiple occasions. The story moves along at a steady pace until the last 25% or so, and then it picks up speed and all I could do was hang on for the ride. So many revelations take place towards the end, but just as many new questions have popped up in their place, and I am once again sitting dumbfounded at the genius that is J.A. Huss and her total mastery of telling a complex, convoluted, multi-layered story that I cannot stop thinking about. I need the next book like right the f*ck now!!
Pretty Nightmare
If you thought Creeping Beautiful was an epic entangled mind f**k, then Pretty Nightmare takes it to a whole new level!
The brain power it takes to keep up with all of the details and half truths and game changing twists and turns is unparalleled…..I loved it. So much.
Indie, Maggie, Donovan, McKay and Adam are no further forward at the beginning of this story in uncovering the truths about their collective and separate pasts. They all have secrets and loathe to part with them.
I truly loved this book, partly because of the development of the characters and their own points of view about the past and present, partly because of the deepening relationships between them, as complex as they are and partly because the plot is so incredible!!!
This mile a minute masterpiece races to a thrilling crescendo, where at least some of our questions are answered, yet not quite filling in all of the blanks. Old faces reappear, bringing new truths and paving the way for more intrigue, angst and jaw dropping, heart stopping confessions to come!
True to J A Huss style, this is a true fictional delight, one with incredible characters and earth shattering storylines that leave you breathless, boneless and desperate for MORE!
Holy crap. I’ve just had my mind blown all over the place and I loved every second of it! I can’t get enough of this crazy, messed up Company world. Every character, every place and every moment just pulled me in. While this is all about Indie, Adam, McKay and Donovan, Maggie totally stole the show at times and it was great! A lot of questions get answered just in time for new ones to form. I need book 3 like, yesterday!
No one can ever say that J.A. Huss doesn’t love to keep her readers on the edge of their seat. Because here I sit and I’m completely gobsmacked at not only what has been revealed in Pretty Nightmare but the path I had to follow to get there. After Creeping Beautiful (which must be read first for the best experience), I was sure we’d finally take a sharp turn to some sort of normal for Indie and the 3 men who seem to want only the best for her: Adam, McKay and Donovan. And I’m here to say I wasn’t completely wrong, although I should have known better. But as Huss continues to guide us through both past and present in all 4 POVs, a subtle kind of calm is deceivingly at hand as a multitude of secrets and lies rise to the surface once more. I was an unprepared as our ‘little family’ was and yet we all just knew that that other shoe would drop. However, it’s the ‘how hard’ part that clearly caught us off guard.
Once more, ugly truths, surprise appearances and revelations bring this story to life and the sins of the past never seem to want to stay quiet. We find out so much more about Adam, McKay and Donovan, it’s enough to make anyone’s head spin. And mine did, and often.
Indie remains at the center of their devotion, however, as does her clever daughter, Maggie, who is truly a chip off the old block. And the slow building crescendo wrt a ‘coming together’ of mind, body and soul is one heck of a highlight. But with a mysterious force always somewhere off in the distance, I started to put the pieces together, recalling previous books in Huss’s vast library of work and yes, my mind was blown wide open all over again. And loving every single minute.
There is really no proper way to review this book except to say you must experience it for yourself. There are a slew of tangents that continued to muddle my brain but then somehow, some way, Huss ties it all together and I’m left with my jaw falling to the floor as the last paragraphs are read.
Always one to make me think, and more often than not, make me second guess what I’m perusing, Huss is as a unique writer as I’ve ever encountered. And I can only hope the next chapter in this series will do the very same thing to me all over again.
Lastly, even though Indie surely is that Pretty Nightmare that Adam, McKay and Donovan are clearly addicted to, this intricate story-line proves things are not always what they seem and their adoration and ultimate protection of her speaks volumes.
5+ huge stars!
This is the 2nd book in this jaw dropping series and continues straight on from where #1 ended. Now Indie, McKay, Adam, Donovan, and Maggie are all together once again. This is a well written unique story which is deep and intense and filled with angst, suspense, secrets, mystery, twists, and is a steamy read which all leads to a mind- blowing tale, and phenomenal tale. This talented author is at her outstanding best in penning this story and I cannot wait to read more.
But We’re Dancing With The Demons In Our Minds…
*arc generously provided by the promo team in exchange for an honest review*
What’s this book about? (I’m trying to give as little spoilers as possible)
If you haven’t read Creeping Beautiful, you should read it and then come back and read Pretty Nightmare. That will tell you what this book will be about.
This isn’t my first JA HUSS rodeo. I was mesmerized by Creeping Beautiful earlier this year and Pretty Nightmare caused a similar reaction. It was quieter than Creeping Beautiful and it focused on the relationships of the leading characters, but it was a satisfactory journey nonetheless. The steam went up a notch in this instalment. JA HUSS did a good job re-introducing us to the universe and I appreciate it when that’s done. It helps me get back into the mood of the series. The characters are adorable, mysterious and hilarious at times. Their chemistry is truly off the chains. They fit each other so well, I CANNOT DEAL. Their banter was glorious.
While I found the book calm, it surely ends with a banging twist that will leave you hanging off a cliff. I did NOT expect this. I’m curious to see where we go from here. This was indeed a pretty nightmare.
I recommend this to people who love a mystery-drenched story with hot as hell leads (MM, MMFM…) and dangerous chemistry.
This is a continuation of the Creeping Beautiful series. You will need to read Creeping Beautiful first in order to understand what is going on with this book, but that is no hardship. I loved it. Pretty Nightmare picks up where Creeping Beautiful left off. There is no shortage of mystery, deceit, mind-f*cks, action, suspense, and steam.
We are once again brought back to the world of the Company with Indie Anna, McKay, Adam, Donovan, & a few other surprise characters. In this book, we get the answers to a lot of unanswered questions. You have to pay attention because a lot is going on & it is told in multiple POVs. If you have the time, I suggest a reread of Creeping Beautiful but it isn’t necessary. Julie continues to blow our minds with these plot twists. There is no shortage of OMG, holy crap moments! We get to see how Indie’s relationships evolve with each of the guys and Magnolia (I love this name) aka Maggie. We also see the dynamics of Maggie’s relationships with each of the guys & Indie. While we do get answers to a lot of questions, Julie takes on a wild ride with more twists & turns & leaves us with new questions. There are some truly jaw-dropping developments & unexpected revelations. Dynamics also change. There are some super hot and panty-melting moments.
This was another thrilling and entertaining romantic suspense packed with action. There were intriguing and mysterious characters with complicated relationships. The plot was twisted but definitely original. I have to say that I liked Creeping Beautiful better but this was still a very good read. I felt like this was a little harder to follow and there wasn’t as much intrigue and excitement as Book #1. Overall, a really good read though, and I recommend reading it.
****ARC generously provided in exchange for an honest review.****