You Beautiful Thing, You

Bad Boys of Bardstown, Book 1

By: Saffron A. Kent

Narrated by: Amelie Griffin, Alex Kydd

Nineteen-year-old Tempest Jackson wants a baby.

No, her biological clock isn't ticking, but she's desperate for unconditional love. Rejected by all except her brother and soon to be married off by her father for financial gain, she aches for someone to hold close and call hers.

Enter Ledger Thorne. Soccer god, devastatingly handsome, and her brother's rival. Once upon a time they had a thing. A beautiful thing. But while Tempest thought she was madly in love, Ledger was only using her for petty revenge.

So Tempest has a plan: seduce the sexy jerk who broke her heart, use him to get pregnant, and then leave him in the dust like he left her, to marry a stranger.

Only the problem with making babies is that it doesn't feel like revenge. It feels a lot like that thing they used to have: Hot and stormy, and intense and intimate.

But Tempest isn't a fool. She'll stick to the plan. Because wasn't it Ledger who turned their beautiful thing into something ugly? Now, it's her turn....

Contains mature themes.

©2023 Saffron A. Kent (P)2024 Tantor

Ledger & Tempest finale get their story!

🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶.25

I have loved the St. Mary's Rebels books and was so happy that in Saffron A. Kent's newest series, Bad Boys of Bardstown, that Ledger and Tempest would be getting their own book! You get all the amazing tropes listed below, but you also get to see an inside to the Thorne family that you didn't get to see in the last series. Plus, you get more of Reed and Tempest dad in this book as well.

Tropes:
- Sports Romance (Soccer)
- Best Friends Brother
- Surprise Pregnancy
- Rivals Sister
- Forbidden Romance
- Unhinged Hero
- Touch Her, Look at Her & ☠️
- Arranged Marriage (to OM)
- Vrg Heroine
- It's Always Been You
- Obsessed/Possessive MMC
- Stalking (by her)
- Pierced 🍆

If you've read the St. Mary's Rebels books, then you were first introduced to Ledger and Tempest in book 0.5, the start of Reed and Callie's story and all throughout that series. You felt their angst, longing, love and hatred for each other. You first felt that Tempest had a crush on him, that turned to both them hating each other, it seemed throughout that series.

Well, this book takes you back to the beginning for them as well. All the way to the present where Ledger is playing professional soccer and Tempest is fixing to be forced into a marriage by her POS father. Only, Tempest wants one thing before that marriage happens, and that's a baby by the first guy she ever loved.

I never knew what made Ledger and Tempest hate each other, besides maybe him turning her down. It was so much more than that, though. Ledger did something to her, shortly after finding out Callie was pregnant by Reed. You will be shocked by it. Even more so near the end when you find out why Ledger actually did it for.

The Angry Thorn as he's known on the side field is broken, and it hurt my heart. How he was treated by his friends and his family. Especially his family that he did everything for. I couldn't believe how Conrad treated Ledger in this book. I would have never known. Especially when in Callie's book, Con sicked Ledger on Reed a few times. But to know that he thought that way about Ledger and how he treated him. It blew my mind and hurt my heart.

Tempest, also known as Ledger's Lovelorn Firefly, was the only one to see Ledger different and love him regardless. Yes, things happened that shouldn't have between them, at Ledger's fault, but he tried to push her away because he didn't want to hurt her or use her the way Reed used his sister. Especially, when Ledger found out she was stalking him in high school. She didn't even go to the same school as them. He called her his Pretty Little Stalker, lol.

Tempest is to soft hearted, and Ledger is so misunderstood. I mean for goodness sake, Ledger hated that he hurt Tempest, he wanted to hurt himself or feel pain himself. You see parts of that in The Hatesick Diaries, Reign and Echo's book with fights. But, Ledger also got his junk pierced 3x for the pain of hurting her. That ought to speak volumes. Not to mention other things he done.

This book was so good, and I can't wait for Stellan and Shepherd's books to come out on Audible. The narration was very well done. She did an amazing job as Tempest voice. I liked the guy who did Ledger's voice as well. It had the grit to it. I would recommend reading this book, but I'd start with the St. Mary's Rebels books if you haven't read them. Just so you get all the back story and see how these two were when everything else was going on. Although this book can be read as a standalone.

A spicy roller coaster

Oh my gosh, I don’t think I could have been more caught up in You Beautiful Thing You, than I was. The whole book was an absolute roller coaster of emotions, from hate to lust to love. I wondered if this was gonna be spicy, and oh man was it ever. In high school, Tempest had a crush on her brother soccer enemy, Ledger . She never expected for him to return her feelings. And years later when she was put in to a desperate situation by her father she knew that she wanted a piece of Ledger to take with her. There was so much emotion in this book and it truly pulled me in and I had no choice but devour this book in one sitting. There’s a lot of twist, turns and back and forth, I was on the edge the entire book. I’m just glad I got my HEA.
Amelie Griffin was the perfect Tempest, she really stepped in to Tempest’s character perfectly. And Alex Kydd was an excellent Ledger, she was broody and moody.

You Beautiful Thing, You - Saffron A Kent

⭐️⭐️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ This was an absolute dumpster fire of a book 😳. I wanted to DNF but I literally couldn’t stop listening because of how ridiculous it was.

* Tempest the FMC is only 19 so it makes sense how immature &unthought out all her thoughts are. Ledger is even worse. Someone needs therapy &anger management. I totally understand the alpha type guy but bro you’re still a baby, calm down.

* The whole reasoning &trapping for a baby was just 🤯. Then both of the main characters are calling them 3 (Ledger, Tempest, &baby) a family when they just got intimate 2 minutes ago, like he knows he got her pregnant 🤦🏻‍♀️. Then Tempest is worried something’s wrong with her since she didn’t get pregnant on the first try &that Ledger should find someone else if she can’t have a baby. Talk about dramatic 🙄. Then Ledger is over here saying how he’s not the guy for her. Tempest doesn’t want him. It was necessary to have her sign the papers to cool his jealousy down 🙄🙄🙄 (I’m being vague to avoid spoilers). She would then provoke Ledger &then doesn’t understand why he’s mad.

* The entire book was all just toxic &immature. The characters were messy &all over the place. Read this if that’s what you’re looking for.

Themes:
* Stalking
* Bully romance
* Soccer romance
* Her brother’s rival