A love of a lifetime . . . Leaving Belmont Clarkson is the hardest thing Sage Alexander has ever done. From the moment they met, she knew Belmont was the one, and getting up close and personal with him on his family’s epic road trip has taken her desire to a new, even hotter level. But there’s no way she can go there—not without revealing secrets that could devastate them both. Losing Sage is … them both.
Losing Sage is not an option. Belmont’s heart is hers, has always been hers. He knows she’s hiding something from him, but nothing will stand in his way of telling her just how much she means to him. Finding her is easy—saving her from her past could cost him everything.
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The Romancing the Clarksons series
Book 1 – Too Hot to Handle (Rita and Jasper)
Book 2 – Too Wild to Tame (Aaron and Grace)
Book 3 – Too Hard to Forget (Peggy and Elliott)
Book 4 – Too Beautiful to Break (Belmont and Sage)more
This is the fourth installment in Ms. Bailey’s series. While I thoroughly enjoyed all four books, this one moved me the most. As in the other books, this one also had flesh-and-blood, flawed characters that I could identify with, even if I didn’t always understand their actions or motives. But Belmont’s and Sage’s journey together was definitely the most poignant.
I really loved this ending to this series! It wasn’t what I was expecting at all! It was very different and I loved it!.Go into this blind, but read the others in this series first to get a feel of the Clarkson’s siblings. What a beautiful COVER!
TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BREAK is the fourth installment in Tessa Bailey’s contemporary, adult ROMANCING THE CLARKSONS erotic, romance series focusing on the Clarkson’s siblings. This is eldest sibling Belmont Clarkson, and wedding planner Sage Alexander’s story line. TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BREAK can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from previous story lines is revealed where necessary although I recommend reading the series in order for cohesion and backstory as Sage and Belmont’s story have been developing throughout the series.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Sage and Belmont) TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BREAK follows the friends to lovers relationship between wedding planner Sage Alexander and salvage boat owner and operator Belmont Clarkson, a co-dependent relationship that places our heroine in a position to walk away claiming her sanity and her sense of self as she struggles with the push and pull of her love for a man so broken he is physically or emotionally unable to let go of his need for Sage Alexander. What ensues is the emotional and heartbreaking revelations about one woman’s past, present and possible future, and man who is willing to sacrifice his freedom and his life for the woman he loves.
Belmont and Sage are kindred spirits; two broken souls whose backstories are heartbreaking; whose memories of the past come with pain, sorrow, loss and the darkness of emotional, physical and mental abuse. Belmont’s siblings are unaware of their big brother’s tortuous past; Sage keeps hidden a past awash in embarrassing secrets and threats against the people she loves.
The relationship between Sage and Belmont is a friends to lovers romance that struggles with the innocence of virginity; memories of the past; and threats that are meant to coerce and control. The $ex scenes are seductive and provocative.
All of the previous story line couples including Belmont’s siblings Peggy and Elliott, Jasper and Grace, Rita and Aaron, play secondary and supporting characters. The Clarkson’s are a tight knit group of siblings, very protective of the people they love. We are also introduced Sage’s parents Peggy and Thomas Anderson.
The world building continues to follow the Clarkson siblings as they search embark on a cross country journey to honor their mother’s final wish. Along the way each sibling will find love, them self, and their purpose in life.
TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BREAK is an emotional and heartbreaking story line.Throughout the series Belmont and Sage’s story has been building with hints at the potential breakdown of one man who is unable let go of the past and the woman he loves. The premise is engaging; the characters are broken, colorful and lost; the romance is exploratory and sensitive.
Absolutely excellent story about fear, love and family. Sage is a wedding planner and Peggy’s best friend. Belmont is Peggy’s brother and is the quiet type. He works on a boat and owns a salvage company. Something about Sage calms him, so he relies on her too much.
When Sage’s mother calls her to come home, she leaves Belmont and goes back home. Belmont doesn’t take it well and when he finds out where she’s working, he takes her place. At first Sage keeps Belmont at arms length but she realizes that they can need each other and still be separate people.
Fourth book of the Clarkson series. A little aggravating with Sage pushing Belmont away and then pulling him back. But by the end I understand more. Belmont knows Sage is it for him but will he be able to convince her?
* VOLUNTARILY REVIEWED THIS FOR NETGALLEY *
Reading Too Beautiful to Break, is like standing in the eye of a hurricane. The storm clouds alert to danger, but the thrill of the unknown outweighs the fear of what’s to come. Belmont and Sage are a cocktail of danger from their co – dependent relationship, to their individual demons. Underneath the calm lies precarious revelations that could prove lethal to a friendship that goes beyond the boundaries of the norm. At times I felt like a voyeur as I traversed the carnage of this disturbingly complicated duet of hearts, but once you step into the maze there’s no turning back. Your heart won’t allow you to walk away.
I’ve been reading Tessa Bailey’s books for so many years and this is the book that I always felt like she was destined to write.
I fell in love with her dirty talking, alpha heroes and I’ve watched those kinds of characters evolve and I’ve wanted that. I’ve also wanted her to write books with a larger word count so she would have more room to stretch her “writing wings”. I wished for this years ago and here we are, with Belmont, one of Bailey’s most (if not the most so far) complex characters that she has ever created.
There is a danger in saving a character like Belmont for last. Will he live up to the build up? The short answer for me is YES. Is it an easy journey? No, not at all. There are so many layers to Belmont and why he is the way he is and the reader needs to be patient with him.
As for Sage, she has her own journey to take and I wasn’t exactly prepared for the depth of that journey either and how it influences her relationship with Belmont.
The relationship between Sage and Belmont has also been built up. Readers always knew that their relationship was super intense and their connection runs deep. But how would that relationship be impacted when it finally reached a physical connection? Personally, I enjoyed the exploration into the physical part of their relationship and how it created another level of connection and depth. It was extremely intense and SEXY. Good lord.
Too Beautiful to Break is the bookend to the Clarkson’s New Year’s Day journey to the Polar Plunge that was laid at their feet by their mother, Miriam. While it was hard for her children to understand on a deeper level why she sent them on this pilgrimage, at first, when you look at it as a whole and with Belmont’s role in it, it makes sense.
TBtB highlights just how much Bailey’s writing has developed and how far she has come since those first Line of Duty books.
(Copy for review provided by publisher)