Christina Lauren gets nostalgic with 'Beautiful Beloved' novella

The writing duo of Christina Lauren joins HEA to share their anticipation for their Beautiful Beloved novella (out now!) and the audiobook, narrated by Jonathan Cole and Grace Grant.

First, here's the blurb about Beautiful Beloved (courtesy of Pocket Star):

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.

Christina and Lauren: For many of us, even in the fog of the newborn-baby-chaos, tiny reminders pop up that there is another relationship to care for:

There's some guy scrubbing bottles at the sink.

And now you just handed the baby to him so you could go face plant onto the bed and sleep.

And now that same man — wow, those exhausted eyes aside, he's pretty hot — is shaking you awake, wincing apologetically as he hands the now-crying, hungry baby back to you.

At some point a bit of clarity returns, and there is this unbelievable realization that this tiny baby will someday leave the nest and that somewhat-less exhausted bloke making dinner will still be in there. That is, take care of the marriage throughout all the chaos.

We had so much fun remembering those early days while we were outlining Beautiful Beloved — truly we did. The body that felt entirely new, the failed attempts at exhausted half-sex, the joy over the tiny miracle sleeping in the other room.

The scenes where Max is struggling to understand what Sara needs were sort of heart-wrenching, but once we agreed to make it as real as we could, it just flew out of us. The anticipation of hearing Jonathan Cole reading Max here — his struggles, his complete adoration for Sara and Annabel, and the way that he and Sara return to the side of their relationship that will only ever be theirs — makes us completely, out-of-our-minds giddy. Throughout the series, Jonathan has perfectly captured Max's temperament, and his portrayal was in our minds the entire time we were drafting.

And Sara — oh, how we relate to her. Returning to work is so hard, and so many competing expectations are placed on women: be maternal, be ambitious, be beautiful, wear all of the hats. Sara struggles with this, but she does it in the way that we've come to feel is quintessentially Sara — with quiet resolve, and the column of Max's unwavering support behind her. Grace Grant is Sara to us; from the moment we heard her speaking as Sara in Beautiful Bastard, we knew she'd nailed the character.

Some scenes we can't wait to hear?

• Jonathan as Max when he takes Annabel in to work.

• Grace as Sara when she and Max make a disastrous attempt at dinner out, alone.

• The hotel scene.

• The introduction scene where we meet Max's younger brother, Niall — who just happens to be the lead in our next novel Beautiful Secret — ohhh Lord.

And someone better be here to hold us up when we hear Jonathan narrating the final chapter. We may not survive it.

Check out an audio excerpt from Beautiful Beloved:

Contest tip-off: Simon Audio is giving away an iPad with 20 audiobooks and gift cards of $300 for Victoria Secret and $300 for Sephora. Christina Lauren's Beautiful Beloved is included, as well as audiobooks by Alice Clayton, Kresley Cole, Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd and more. Here's the link to check that out and enter.

Find out more about Christina Lauren and their books at christinalaurenbooks.com.