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Exclusive Guest Post + Giveaway: Beautiful Beloved by Christina Lauren

Max Stella fans, it’s time to jump back in to life with Max and Sara! Beautiful Beloved is out today and I’m so excited to share a guest post from our favorite duo, Christina Lauren. Plus, make sure to enter to win one of two ebook copies!

✦ Beautiful Beloved: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes ✦

Synopsis

Beautiful Beloved The seventh work in the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling series that started with the Beautiful Bastard, Beautiful Stranger, and Beautiful Player novels. Featuring all the Beautiful characters…plus one tiny new addition to the group.

In Beautiful Stranger, finance whiz Sara Dillon met the irresistibly sexy Brit, Max Stella, at a New York City club. Through the series we’ve watched them learn to balance commitment with their less than private brand of playfulness. In Beautiful Beloved, Max and Sara take it to the next step. But the question is: Will they be able to find a balance between the wild sexcapades they aren’t ready to retire, and the demands of parenthood that come along with their new Beautiful bundle of joy? Parenthood: it’s not for the weak of heart.

Guest Post

When we decided to write Beautiful Beloved, we thought it would be a short little novella about adorable and shirtless Daddy! Max! holding an equally adorable naked baby. Simple right? There would muscles and sweet-talking, and we’d all have heart eyes when Max talked to his little girl. We’d throw in some sexy times and a few new parent mishaps and BOOM, a fun Max & Sara adventure. Better still, the reader would get to meet Niall, Max’s younger brother and the star of the next Beautiful novel, Beautiful Secret.

But once we actually started writing, we realized we couldn’t really write about becoming New Parents without discussing all the realities that new parents deal with. We wanted it to feel authentic, and show the intimacy that can come out of those chaotic first few months.

For most of us, it’s more than getting back into our favorite jeans or hoping the baby sleeps through the night. It’s about adjusting to a body that doesn’t always feel like it belongs entirely to us, one that looks and feels different—and is capable of doing new and amazing things. It’s about finding a balance between being wife and mother, learning how to juggle going back to work with wanting to be SuperMom and somehow doing it all while completely sleep deprived.

And what about our sweet, devoted Max? Suddenly alone time is limited, sex that used to be frantic and spontaneous and loud, is being dictated by a tiny ten pound baby. Sometimes it seems like tiny babies only need their Mamas. What to do?

As we wrote, Beautiful Beloved became something more tender. It still has its zany moments, and—trust us—it definitely has the sexiness we know readers expect. But in the pages are also versions of Max and Sara that are more vulnerable, more open, more connected.

We’ve never really had a number in mind when we think of the Beautiful series, and have maintained that as long as we have a great couple in mind and a solid story, we would love to write it. So as Max and Sara and their little Annabel’s story began to unfold, we realized it was the perfect opportunity to introduce Max’s sweet, shy and swoonworthy younger brother, Niall. We don’t want to give away how he saves the day . . . but we’ll give you this little glimpse and see if you can figure it out.

*****

A small sound emanated from the baby monitor on the end table, and I stood, explaining that I’d go get the baby up from her nap.

I could hear the men talking while I changed Anna’s diaper, hear the clink of their beer bottles and laughter, and I smiled down at my daughter.

“Ready to go meet your uncle?” I whispered, and she cooed, smiling up at me and kicking her little sock- covered feet. I gathered her up and we made our way into the living room, and both men stopped. Max looked like the proudest daddy in the world, but Niall looked completely in awe.

“She’s breathtaking,” Niall said, setting his bottle on the table and standing to meet me. “She’s absolutely bloody gorgeous, Sara. Well done.”

“She’s a beauty, yeah?” Max crossed the room to take her from me, kissing me on the forehead before sitting next to his brother.

“Mum must be over the moon,” Niall said, running a finger along the edge of the blanket.

“You’ve no idea,” Max said. “I’ll be at her flat not five minutes before she’s nicked her from me.”

My heart swelled as I watched them together, and I took a few steps back and into the kitchen, leaving them alone while they caught up.

*****