Hey romance lovers! It’s the fourth out of five Fusion books by Kristen Proby, and this one might be my least favorite? I haven’t read the last one yet (I randomly just stopped with only one book left. This isn’t the only series I did that with in 2018. What was wrong with past me?), but I’m excited to do so in my 2020 book reviewing endeavors (I’ve got plans, y’all!)! So anyway, here’s the fourth review in the Fusion series, and I’d be really interested to know how others felt about this one!
In The Beauty of Us, Riley Gibson is the marketing guru for Seduction, and she’s arranged to have the restaurant featured on a television show! She’s over the moon about it, even though Mia, their chef extraordinaire, is less than pleased. When the production crew shows up, she realizes she’s going to be spending a lot of time with Trevor Cooper, the executive producer on the show. And WOW, their chemistry is something. But they’re working together. They can’t also BE together… can they?
Trevor hasn’t felt anything close to love since his divorce, and he wasn’t planning to start now. Traveling to Portland to film at Seduction was just supposed to be a fun trip for work. He never expected to meet Riley. And he definitely never expected to like her so much. He’s just a nerdy dude who plays a lot of video games, and she’s… WOW. Can they make this work, even though they don’t live near each other?
3 Things I Loved
- I’m going to keep saying this – the ladies of Seduction. This book had a little more strain than the others, since Mia is so unhappy throughout the entire book, but I still loved the five of them together – agreeing, disagreeing, working together, the whole deal. I love them.
- Riley. Riley was one of the quieter characters in the early books (if I’m remembering correctly), and it was wonderful to see her shine in this book. And it wasn’t difficult to see how she fell for Trevor, either. Everyone loves a hot nerd. (Okay, I love a hot nerd.)
- Trevor. Well, as previously stated… hot nerd. I had some issues with how Trevor dealt with things, but I liked him a lot as a whole. And I really liked him and Riley together. So yeah. HOT NERD.
Dislikes/Problematic Content
First of all, I want to keep being a broken record about this – everyone in this series is straight and white. There is no attempt at diversity of any kind. It’s disappointing, honestly.
Second, let’s talk about Trevor and his inability to communicate. Riley just wanted to know he cared about her, that he valued her. And sure, he was making all these plans to be with her… in his head. He wasn’t sharing those plans with her, which is just ridiculous, come on, Trevor. I was incredibly frustrated reading that part of the book, where Riley just wanted to talk to him and he was dismissive because he was making plans and what not. Give me a break.
But THE THING that bothered me about this book in particular was the lady on lady drama/hate that ended up being the big climax of the book. Quick explanation – BEWARE, I’M ABOUT TO SPOIL PART OF THE ENDING – Trevor was in this group that played video games online together. There was one girl in the group. The girl was into Trevor, and he didn’t reciprocate, but HE DIDN’T TELL HER THAT BECAUSE THE DUDE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO COMMUNICATE. And she ended up contacting Riley and getting all crazy and making Riley think that Trevor had been cheating on her or something. It was a whole thing, and I HATED IT. I don’t like the bad guy to be a woman when it happens like this. If a woman is going to be the bad guy, it needs to be complex and well-thought-out. Not this. Not about a man. I was so disappointed.
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!
Well. I didn’t really pull any punches here, did I? I still love the series, and I’m excited for Mia’s book because it appears that it’s going to maybe be an enemies to lovers?? Please?? But still. I’m giving The Beauty of Us a YELLOW rating. Romance writers! Don’t get lazy like this. You can do better!
Did anyone else feel this way about this book?
Happy reading!
Snark & Squee 
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