Into The Night Book Reviews: Blog Tour: Beautiful Failure by Mariah Cole

Title: Beautiful Failure

Author: Mariah Cole

Genre: New Adult Romance

Hosted by: Mary Elizabeth’s Crazy Book Obsession

If you're looking for a heartwarming story about a girl who falls deeply in love with a troubled boy who changes her life--a sob story with pretty metaphors and a million ways that'll tell you how "broken" she is, STOP. Don't read another word of this.

I'm not that type of girl.

My name is Emerald Anderson and I'm not going to bullshit you: I flunked out of college after my sophomore year, I've been fired from every job I've ever taken, and I've never had a fully functioning relationship in my life.

I wish I could say that I had a cheerleader in my corner, someone who says, "No, Emerald--You're great and you are good at something!" but I don't. My grandparents are completely oblivious to my life, and my mother's dying words to me were "You're going to end up just like me one day. A beautiful nothing."

She was right.

As I decide to start my life over and take two jobs that will forever change me--one from the inside, and one from the outside, I keep my mother's words close to my heart so I can keep the sexy and mysterious Carter Black away.

He's the first man who's ever pursued me, the first man who seems bent on finding out why I am the way I am, but he's wasting his time.

I'm not broken. I don't need to be fixed. I'm perfectly fine being a beautiful failure...

The beginning of a realization…

All this time, I thought the relationship that Leah and I had was pretty damn good. We had our strains here or there, but I accepted them fully, never thinking that things could’ve been different. Or better.

Sure, she could’ve been there for me more—should’ve been there for me more, but no one’s perfect. And all those things she wrote in her final letter—words that I still have memorized to this day, can’t be true.

They can’t be.

If they were, it would make everything we had in the past a blatant lie, and I just can’t accept that.

Was she really a ‘beautiful nothing’? Am I?
I’ve followed all of her early advice to the letter—never forming full friendships, never being open with anything except alcohol, and always knowing that looks will get me whatever I want.

And up until recently, it’s worked.

With no shame, I lie back against the sidewalk and stare up at the sky, thinking—for the first time in my life, that Leah could’ve been wrong…

Songs Albums

(A Flashback)

“Em! Em!” Leah walks through the front door with shopping bags dangling from her wrists.

“Yeah?” I hold the phone against my neck. “I’m ordering pizza. You want some? We could watch bad movies and make fun of them together.”

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “Riiiight. I’m leaving for New York tonight with Vincent. Look at what he bought for me to wear on the plane!”

She pulls out a white satin dress and holds it against her chest.

There’s no doubt that she’ll look beautiful in it. She looks beautiful in everything…

“When are you coming back?”

“Monday maybe? Tuesday? It’s not like I’ll be in a hurry. It’s New York, kid.” She perfectly imitates a New-Yorker’s accent.

I hear the pizza operator saying “Hello” over and over so I finish ordering the pizza, watching Leah pull out her other designer purchases.

When I set the phone down, she motions for me to come over.

“While I’m gone, feel free to invite your boyfriend over,” she says. “Do you need me to get you some condoms?”

“I told you I dumped him two months ago.”

“So?” She shrugs. “You can still use him for sex. Oh, wait. I forgot. He wasn’t good at it, right?”

“Right.”

She sighs. “I hate when that happens. I always have to fake my way through it when the man has no idea what he’s doing. It’s a damn shame, really.”

“My writing seminar is Monday night. Can you tell Vincent you need to be back by then so you can make it?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She presses her finger against my lips and sighs. “You put on too much gloss today….” She reaches into another shopping bag and hands me a new compact make-up case. “You should use this for your presentation on Monday.”

“Thanks.” I force a smile and listen as she starts to show off more of her purchases, knowing damn well that she won’t be in the audience Monday.

She’ll forget like she always does, and I’ll forgive her like I always do. Then we’ll both end up drunk and restless on our balcony…

Mariah Cole is a Starbucks addict (hazelnut shots please!), New Adult author, and an incessant daydreamer. Known for pushing the envelope, she’s an avid reader of indie books and is always looking to chat with readers and authors alike.