New Adult – ★★★★☆ – Goodreads – Amazon – B&N

I’ve been out and nonstop all day, but don’t think that’s going to stop me from talking about this hell of a book! This book sounded incredible when I first found it and it definitely was better than I hoped it would be!

This book in one sentence: This one was bold mixture of something strikingly dark and stunningly beautiful. 

A Beautiful Nightmare was a thrill ride that I enjoyed immensely! This book is definitely darker than most of my other reads and I loved every second of it! This was my first read by Shana but it definitely won’t be my last!

The description reads as:

In chess, the king is the most important piece. But the queen is the most powerful. Sometimes to win, she is sacrificed.

Lies melt, and this queen has plenty. She should have seen him coming, she should have known. He took her long before these walls let her know. He won’t let her go. Won’t listen to reason. For a love that doesn’t exist, or has her heart committed treason? Lust won’t be ignored, doesn’t care for these wall of lies. And for every one she’s ever told, she’s always had another in mind. But he is truth—he is king. And the longer he is all she sees … and tastes … she can’t help but think, some nightmares are beautiful, and some are dreams.

In this dark and thrilling romance, the lines of lust and truth are blurred. Life seemingly ends the moment 27-year-old Kinley Hashawaye awakes to find herself inside of a nightmare. Fear and lies are covered in gold and darkness, and her heart won’t let her be when the truth comes back to haunt her. But perception is everything in this kingdom, and danger exists even in our dreams.

And this king will stop at nothing to have his queen.

You get a bit from the description but. There’s. So. Much. More. This book was incredibly interesting and crazily complex I can’t even begin to describe it! When I started it at first, I was immediately freaked out because it seemed like a terribly scary possibility (Especially for me), but as I continued reading, things…changed (in a great way)! While the author note in the beginning frightened me some, I’m incredibly glad to have stuck around!

Both of the characters were absolutely incredibly and insanely complex as well. As the story unfolds you gain insight on each of them and they take this story to an entirely different level! I couldn’t honestly pick between the two because they each brought something so different to the table. Dash was interesting within himself and there were many, many things going on with him. Because of that fact, everything he did had me looking at it…differently. Kinley was also such a complex characters, and completely unlike any character I’ve ever met! At times I really liked her and felt for her while other times I wasn’t rooting for her at all! I think it was incredibly interesting that Shana took it where she did with both characters and this book was wow because of it!

Reading this book was definitely a change-up from the lineup of reads I was treading through! It wasn’t long into the story before my mouth was dropping from awe and I was wheeled in like none other! The progression of this story was paced perfectly and there was no putting it down once I started it! This is definitely one of those books that just make you forget about anything going on around you and takes you to another frightening and yet loving world. I’m so glad I got a chance to dive myself into this story because this is one of my favorites of the year!