AMERICAN BEAUTY : Alex & Magnolia (Beauty Series 5) by Georgia Cates-review tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 27, 2025

True love stories never end. But they can be interrupted.

Magnolia Steel returns home from Australia, but her heart is still tangled up in Alex Sebring—the former rugby star who made her believe in something real.
Real enough to try the impossible––long distance.

The time zones are brutal. The distance, worse.
But they make a promise—to hold on, even when everything else tells them to let go.

Until someone in the shadows pulls the strings.

Two messages.
Two lies.
Two broken hearts—each left believing the other walked away.

For Alex, the silence becomes unbearable. The heartbreak. The what-ifs. It all spirals into a storm of anxiety and depression he can’t outrun.

Then—hope. A chance to reclaim the life he lost.
A shot at a professional comeback. One last opportunity to fight for the game torn away from him. To take it, he’ll need surgery.

The procedure brings him to the States… and back into the path of the woman he never forgot.

The heat between them hasn’t faded.
If anything, it burns hotter than ever.

They weren’t meant to fall apart. But they’ll have to fight like hell to come back together.

•••••

REVIEW: AMERICAN BEAUTY : Alex and Magnolia is the fifth instalment in instalment in Georgia Cates’ contemporary, adult BEAUTY erotic, romance series. This is thirty-two year old, former professional Australian rugby star turned hotel magnate Alex Sebring, and thirty year old interior designer Magnolia Steel’s story line. AMERICAN BEAUTY should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up immediately after the events of book one STEEL BEAUTY.

NOTE: For fans of Georgia Cates and her original BEAUTY trilogy, Laurelyn and Jack McLaughlan are Alex’s best friends and play a small role in the current instalment. The story line advances the series approximately ten-years.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Alex & Magnolia) AMERICAN BEAUTY picks up immediately after the events of book one, wherein Magnolia has returned to America at the end of her contract setting up a satellite office in Australia for the high-end matchmaking business Soul Sync. Having proclaimed their need for one another, promising to stay in touch, a betrayal from within pushes our couple apart, a betrayal that is further deepened with secrets and lies. Desperate to understand, Alex goes in search of the woman he loves, only to come face to face with the past, and another betrayal.

The world building focuses on the break down then the rekindling relationship between our story line couple, as well as Alex’s plans for his future. Betrayal comes from within, for both Alex and Magnolia, a betrayal that is set into motion by jealousy and obsession.

The relationship between Alex and Magnolia will face heart break and vengeance in the face of personal betrayal. Shock and pain are followed by acceptance and disappointment until the reality of what has happened pushes our couple back together. Alex is determined to reclaim the woman he loves, as Magnolia continues to face the ongoing betrayal head first. The $ex scenes are limited but passionate.

Once again, the secondary and supporting characters include Magnolia’s co-workers Violet, Elijah, Sophie, Whitney, Rebecca and their boss Gabby; Alex’s parents Alexander and Malie, and his brother Elias, PA Courtney; Magnolia’s best friend Violet, and Alex’s enemy Tyson McRae.

AMERICAN BEAUTY is a story of betrayal and vengeance, power, manipulation and control, secrets and lies, obsession and jealousy, forgiveness and love. The premise is intriguing, dramatic and edgy; the romance struggles in the face of mistrust and betrayal; the characters are desperate and determined. AMERICAN BEAUTY ends on a happily ever after -for now, the conflict has yet to be resolved.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one STEEL BEAUTY

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Georgia Cates is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author—and a former labor and delivery nurse who now delivers swoony love stories instead of babies. A lifelong reader and proud cat wrangler of three, she writes romance with heart, heat, and a dash of Southern charm. Originally from rural Mississippi, she’s married to her best friend and is the proud mom of two amazing daughters.

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