Beautiful Secret (Gallery Books, April 2015) is the fourth numbered novel in Christina Lauren's Beautiful Bastard series, and the one that hands the story to its quietest characters. Ruby Miller is one of the brightest young engineers at a major London firm; Niall Stella is the firm's top urban planning executive, recently divorced, painfully reserved, and — as far as Ruby can tell — entirely unaware she exists. When Ruby's boss sends her to New York City for an extended business trip, she finds herself working beside Niall by day and staying in the same hotel by night. A flirty overnight flight is what finally makes him look up.
What follows is a workplace romance built almost entirely out of proximity and restraint. Ruby is outgoing and direct where Niall is careful and self-deprecating, and much of the book's tension comes from her drawing him out rather than from any obstacle between them. Reviewers have singled out the pairing as the most tender in the series and the intimate scenes as among its most explicit, a combination that makes this a noticeably warmer, more emotional entry than the sharper-edged books that precede it. The humour is still there, but it sits alongside genuine vulnerability on both sides.
The month in New York gives the two of them a bubble that London never would, and the novel is honest that a bubble is what it is. Told across two cities and one borrowed month, Beautiful Secret is an adult contemporary erotic romance for readers who want a shy, brainy hero, a heroine who knows exactly what she wants, and a slow escalation that pays off. It reads comfortably as a standalone, though returning readers will recognise the wider cast.