Beautifully Forgotten by L.A. Fiore 

Narrated by Amy Rubinate

Having been absolutely floored by Beautifully Damaged, the first book in the Beautifully Damaged series, I knew I had to read or listen to Beautifully Forgotten. Lately, however, I’ve been finding that sequels rarely live up to their fantastic predecessors, and unfortunately Beautifully Forgotten is no different. It is still an interesting contemporary romance with plenty of suspense to render it an above average listen but, unfortunately, it did not have that extra spark that I found so addicting in Beautifully Damaged. Moreover, whereas the narration could have lent it that extra special quality, I felt that it too fell short.

As this is Book 2 in the Beautifully Damaged series, it is worth noting that while the main hero in this story, Lucien Black, is first introduced in Beautifully Damaged, where we get a broad brush there of his history with the heroine, Darcy MacBride, it is not absolutely necessary to read the first book in order to follow this story. All that said, the main couple in the first book, Trace Montgomery and Ember Walsh, do still play a rather significant role in Beautifully Damaged, and the long convoluted mystery behind their past is essential to a complete understanding of this book as it is somewhat intertwined with the mystery behind Lucien’s and Darcy’s story. Therefore, I recommend that you do experience this series in order.

Growing up in an orphanage was not easy. Living there, however, was not all bad. After all, that’s where Lucien Black met his first love Darcy MacBride. Darcy made Lucien feel loved for the first time in his life, not an easy feat for a child who was abandoned at a young age. Everything was going in their direction, each having made plans to spend the rest of their lives together, when external factors intervened. Instead, the day that they were supposed to leave the orphanage to start the rest of their lives together, Darcy failed to show up at their agreed meeting point.

Fourteen years later, Lucien has overcome his poverty stricken past, and is now a successful businessman. As the owner of numerous restaurants and nightclubs, he has achieved more than he ever dreamed of, but his heart is still empty. Then one day, he is hit with his past, when Darcy shows up for an interview. Could a man with serious abandonment issues ever find it within his heart to give love a second chance? Moreover, when it becomes clear that there were dark forces that previously intervened in their destinies, will Lucien and Darcy be able to work together to defeat them?

Having been a fan of Amy Rubinate’s narrations in the past, especially her rendition of Kiera Cass’ Selection Trilogy, the fact that Ms. Rubinate was narrating was a selling point for me. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case with an actor who becomes too well known for a particular role, I felt that Ms. Rubinate’s choice of voices for the various characters in Beautifully Forgotten sounded too much like the ones she had rendered in the Selection Trilogy, in particular, the hero and heroine who sounded nearly identical to the hero and heroine from the Selection Trilogy. At the beginning of this story, I found myself constantly distracted by this effect.

Similarities to other works aside, Ms. Rubinate did do a good job with providing genuine sounding male and female voices, thus, making it easy to distinguish Lucien from Darcy. There was less differentiation, however, between the secondary characters, particularly those of the same sex, making it a little more difficult, for example, to tell apart Lucien from Trace and Darcy from Ember. Given the rather large roles that these secondary characters played, it occasionally meant I had to rely on dialogue tags.

Ms. Rubinate did communicate emotion well. While the narratives are generally a little flat, the parts containing dialogue were performed in a manner to convey the particular scene being enacted. From the suspenseful scenes that seem to have a sense of urgency to the romantic ones which are generally more drawn out, I thought this aspect of the narration was well done.

All in all, if you loved Beautifully Damaged, then Beautifully Forgotten may be worth listening to. Lucien’s and Darcy’s second chance at love does have a touching quality to it, and I enjoyed hearing more of Trace’s and Ember’s continuing relationship. Additionally, there was a good bit of suspense behind the mystery that originally pulled Lucien and Darcy apart which kept me guessing. For some reason, however, I just wasn’t as mesmerized with this story as I was with Beautifully Damaged. Perhaps my expectations were set so high, that failing to meet them was inevitable.

BJ

Narration:  C+

Book Content:  B-

Steam Factor:  For your burning ears only

Violence:  Fighting

Genre:  Contemporary/Suspense Romance

Publisher:  Brilliance Audio

Beautifully Forgotten was provided to AudioGals by Brilliance Audio for review.