“Beautiful Bad” by author, Annie Ward was a Grade A thriller with a banging plot. We have our lead protagonist, Maddie, a single aid worker in Bulgaria, her BFF Joanna who is a Red Cross worker in war-torn Macedonia, and Ian, a British soldier turned mercenary during the heady days of the War in the Middle East, Rwanda, and the reign of Sadam Hussein. Surrounding this fine cast of characters is a stellar second tier of very interesting people including soldiers, mercenaries, therapists, and family. What can go wrong when you have two girls who live on the edge of life and death all the time and feed off of the thrill like a drug mixed with the lethal cocktail of a gun-for-hire who has seen too many people die and is desperate for a soft touch and a good night sleep? If you want a metaphor for these three people, I would go with the “walking dead” because they just weren’t functioning well unless there was a risk of everything going all to hell. It’s a fatal cocktail. It’s sad that the life choices our soldier, Ian, makes is to help save people but he can’t save himself. I don’t want to say too much more because you need to read this one if you like a good thrilling novel, and dayum…this was a wild ride. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #familydynamics #book #books #read #thriller #murder #killing #mercenary #war #ptsd #thrilling #family #psychopath #war #survivalist #booksbooksbooks #bookworm #beautifulbad #annieward #bookstagram #bookaddicts #lindaleereads2019