Something Beautiful

Pacific Grove Series

Romance - Contemporary
291 Pages
Reviewed on 12/01/2020
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

I'm a big fan of emotional love stories that make the reader feel like they're part of the story. In Something Beautiful, my characters are flawed and insecure but full of love and hope. I wanted to take the reader on Olivia and Grayson's journey as they discover their inner strength and learn to love despite their shortcomings.

Monterey Bay is one of my favorite places on earth, and I enjoyed bringing in the scenery and locations of this beautiful area into Something Beautiful. This is a standalone novel, the second in my Pacific Grove series. A few of the characters from my first novel, Letting Go, revisit us in Something Beautiful.

Clean romance, deep friendships, and strength after a loss are ongoing themes I love to explore.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jon Michael Miller for Readers' Favorite

Charity Jackson’s Something Beautiful is really something beautiful! It’s a love story, but it’s also about folly, redemption, forgiveness, and unification. Grayson is a rock star gone over the edge into drunkenness and despair after the death of his grandfather who taught him to play the guitar and to save the space over his heart for a tattoo that stands for what means most to him. Olivia is a fashion model whose looks are marred by a drunken driver. To hide her scars, she lives a nearly reclusive life, managing a rental apartment, baking brownies, visiting old folks, and creating sculptures of butterflies. As a bonus, we are treated to a tour of the magnificent Monterey, California coastline, including a trip to a park where monarch butterflies congregate during their annual migrations. Thus, the symbolic images on the lovely cover of a guitar and a butterfly.

As I breezed through Charity Jackson’s airy prose, I was particularly impressed by her talent for weaving various elements together into a magnificent tapestry. For instance, she has Grayson compare Olivia to a butterfly in terms of her ability to metamorphize herself into a new life after her defacing injury, and then brings the image back regarding that space on Grayson’s chest. Pure poetry! And of course, Grayson’s comeback hit—My Butterfly. Then, there’s the heart—that precious bodily space, but also Olivia’s quest for “a heartbeat that feels like home.” Not that there’s a lack of tension, there's loads of it. As I glided through the pages, something whispered to me that Grayson and Olivia were going to find a way to make it together, somehow. But how? That’s what kept me turning the pages. She tells Grayson that his love for her must be stronger than his past sins. Throughout the ages of literature, several transcendent love stories have emerged— Ms. Jackson’s Something Beautiful must now be added to that cherished list.

Risah Salazar

Kicked out of the band he co-founded, Grayson Taylor is now one of the hottest targets of L.A.'s paparazzi. Indigo Riot is more than a band to him -- it's a family -- and the members are the closest he has to brothers. Refusing to face the pain brought about by his grandpa's death a long time ago, he resorts to alcohol to feel nothing. But like any other temporary, not to say destructive, solution, his alcohol problem reached its ugliest peak until his bandmates can no longer keep him. Olivia Katella was also living her best life as a model. That is until the hit-and-run accident that happened behind the club where she was working that night, leaving her with screaming red marks on the left side of her face. To deal with her grief, she now hides from the world and helps her great-aunt run her rentals with great views of the ocean in Pacific Grove. Each nursing their own deep wounds, can these two find forgiveness and love together?

Charity Jackson's Something Beautiful is the second installment in the Pacific Grove series. It's a contemporary romance with beautiful imagery that appeals to the senses. This book's power lies in its story-telling. The well-thought-out dialogues and the careful choice of words capture the heart. It is touching and sweet, but not too cheesy. The dynamics between the characters are also well-written and realistic. There is a good balance between fictional drama and truth. The pacing alternates from heart-racingly fast to somewhat slower and then Jackson surprises with a mind-blowing plot twist, keeping everyone on the edge of their seats once again. Engrossing and brimming with life lessons, Something Beautiful is exactly what the title says. It may seem cliched at first but it also has its strong and unique points.

Jennifer Ibiam

After Grayson lost his grandpa, who introduced him to the guitar, he took to alcohol, partying, and a crazy lifestyle. His successful music band suffered, and he got kicked out when his friends/colleagues couldn’t take it anymore. Down the drain of alcohol he went until an event pushed him to clean up his act somewhere private. Enter Olivia, a former model and practicing sculptor. She lived with tremendous damage which stripped her of her confidence, self-esteem, and the will to be more. Somehow, Grayson’s and Olivia’s worlds collided; two broken people looking for solace, but it’s only the calm before the storm. A horrible secret connects these two people, and its discovery will either destroy them or lead to Something Beautiful, the romantic novel written by Charity Jackson!

Okay, can Harmony Discord Magazine give poor Grayson a break? Something Beautiful by Charity Jackson had me emotionally from the beginning of the book until the end. Charity has done a beautiful job of character development, especially those of the main protagonists. I loved how she made Grayson a flawed man who picked up himself, took it gradually, and eventually became better. This made his character human and relatable, reminding me that no one can help me if I don’t help myself. I have to first acknowledge that there’s a problem and be willing to seek help. I’m impressed with how Charity Jackson fleshed out the supporting characters, keeping them significant and vibrant enough to remain unforgettable. I loved the deep and stylistic dialogues, infused with humor and suspense. I hope to read a sequel to this great romance!