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Beautiful stranger

Beautiful stranger

RomanceContemporary Romance
Pages
336
Published
2013
Language
English

Synopsis

Sara Dillon leaves a cheating ex and her old Chicago life behind to start over in New York, taking a senior finance role at the new branch of the company where her closest friend works. Looking for passion without commitment, she meets Max Stella -- a magnetic, charismatic British financier with a reputation for never keeping anyone around. What is meant to be a single anonymous encounter pulls her into a deliberately limited arrangement: meetings only on set days, only in public, never at either apartment, photographs allowed but no faces shown. Their reckless, semi-public encounters carry a constant thrill of discovery that Sara finds easier to bear than the intimacy of letting Max truly close. As the careful rules built to keep emotion out begin to erode, both must confront whether escapism is becoming something neither planned. Set against the worlds of finance and big-city ambition, this explicit, fast-moving romance is about control, exposure, and the difference between physical risk and emotional risk.

Prose complexity
1/10

Vibe

SpicyRomanticLighthearted

Genres

Romance Contemporary Romance Contemporary Literature Erotica

About the author

C
Christina Lauren

Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings write together under the combined pen name Christina Lauren. The two met online in 2009 through the Twilight fan fiction community and decided to write a novel together in 2010, signing with literary agent Holly Root in 2011. Their debut, Beautiful Bastard (2013), began life as a Twilight fan fiction titled "The Office" before Simon & Schuster acquired the series. Since then the duo has built a career in contemporary romance and rom-coms, with titles including...

Characters

Sara DillonProtagonist

A woman starting over in New York after a bad breakup.

Max StellaProtagonist

A charming British playboy drawn into an anonymous affair with Sara.

Chloe MillsSupporting

Sara's best friend and the lead of Beautiful Bastard, whose move to New York draws Sara to the city.

Bennett RyanSupporting

A returning character from Beautiful Bastard, part of the New York media-company circle.

All characters in Beautiful stranger

Frequently asked questions

  • Is Beautiful Stranger a standalone novel?

    This book is the second installment in the Wild Seasons series, but it features a new main couple and can be enjoyed independently without having read the first book, Beautiful Bastard.

  • How does Beautiful Stranger connect to Christina Lauren's other books?

    Beautiful Stranger is part of the Wild Seasons series, which is one of Christina Lauren's earlier works known for its steamy contemporary romance. It shares a similar tone and style with their other popular romance novels, focusing on intense relationships and witty banter.

  • How does Beautiful Stranger connect to Beautiful Bastard?

    It is the direct sequel, following Sara Dillon, Chloe's best friend, who relocates from Chicago to join Chloe and Bennett at the company's new New York branch.

  • Is the male lead American?

    No. Max Stella is written as a charming British man, a Wall Street figure.

  • What is the central arrangement between the leads?

    Sara proposes a no-strings deal conducted only on set days and only in public, never at either apartment, with photos allowed but no faces shown, specifically to keep emotion out.

  • Was it a bestseller like the first book?

    Yes. Like every entry in the series, it debuted on the New York Times bestseller list; it was published by Simon & Schuster in 2013.

  • Is it a standalone or part of a series?

    It is the second book in the Beautiful Bastard series and reads best after Beautiful Bastard and the novella Beautiful Bitch.

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