Whoa. Lauren Hammond, you have screwed with my mind throughout this entire series, I seriously feel like my own sanity needs to be evaluated after reading this! You write insanity like no author I have read before, you have managed to suck me into your delusional world and made me question everything!

This kind of writing is outstanding. But there are things I am so very confused about. I don't know if that was deliberate play, just to leave so many questions unanswered in the supposed last book in the series. There was an exert at the end of the book though from what appeared to be Aurora's book. And I read in a review of this book that the author said some questions left unanswered in Adelaide's story will be answered in Aurora's. I just had no idea that this series was continuing on, I was under the impression going into reading Beautiful Nightmares that this was the final book in the series, so I was a little disappointed to still be so confused as to what the hell was real or not in the story.

I thought this would finally be the LONG awaited book of answers, and at only a little over 100 pages on my nook, and having had waited over a year for it, I was hoping for a little more than I had got. It was a little hard to get right back in to such a complex story after so much time having passed between books. I wish I would have reread the other 2 books before starting this one so it all would have been fresh in my mind. I suggest to other people to do just that, so you aren't playing catchup throughout most of this book like I was. I still have quite a few burning questions, mainly what the hell is the REAL story with Damien???!! I have a theory about this, but unfortunately that's all I have because Beautiful Nightmares raised more questions about the truth of Damien then it did answer them.

      Poor Adelaide's story just continued to get even more troubled and heart crushing than it was before. You definitely get a better understanding of what brought her to Oak Hill in the first place, and why her mind is as confused as it is. Sometimes the mind does funny things to protect you from a terrible reality. It's a defense mechanism.

Be prepared for some tears to flow. Adelaide's is one of the truly saddest stories I have ever read. The few glimpses of happiness for her were very short lived. This book, along with the others has thrown me for curveballs. I have been blindsided with hard truths throughout it all, and it only made the experience more enjoyable for me. While I am sad to see where Adelaide's story had ended, I am really excited to get more of Aurora's story in the future, and hopefully in turn finally find a few answers about Adelaide along the way.

Everything in this book screams bleak and unfortunate, from the dismal setting at Oak Hill Asylum, to Adelaide and her whole families story, or even her mental state. I honestly felt the dreariness coming off the pages!  I'm going to go find something cheery to do now, this book has left me feeling raw, slightly unhinged and a little forlorn. I need a Disney movie or something to balance myself out lol.

My thoughts on this book are still a little jumbled. Insanity is a fast read with a storyline that makes it easy to keep readers guessing and turning the pages.  During the entire book I was dying to know what the truth was, we are given small clues to point us towards the truth but yet there were things that had me second guessing what I thought was reality.  It is really easy to connect with the main character and I instantly feel defensive of her when she has flashbacks involving her abusive dad.

As for romance, I really didn't get attached to Damien and Adelaide's relationship.  We never really get to see them interact or connect.  We just know that they love each other because Adelaide tells us so.  Also in the middle of the book it seems like the author decided she was going to make this for mature audiences and threw half a dozen sex scenes into the mix.  Now don't get me wrong, they weren't done in bad taste, I just felt by that point that it wasn't necessary for the story.  The book felt like it wasn't even going in that direction when BAM sex scenes, pretty much one after another.

There were a few instances where the plot didn't meet up correctly and there were quite a few grammatical issues, BUT my biggest problem with the book is that it is being stretched into a series.  I really feel like it would have been better for the author to make it a bigger book and finish the story off at the end, it just doesn't seem like series material.  Though I will probably read the next books because I am left curious about what Adelaide's true story is.

Overall I enjoyed Insanity but I am left with a LOT of questions.

Okay I have a pretty good idea what this book was trying to be, but sadly it just couldn't pull it off completely.

I give it 3 stars because of the potential this one has. And it did cause me to need to know how this one ends. Therefore I couldn't put it down. But the whole time I was wanting not only more of Adam's POV, but an in depth look into him period. Which I did not get.

The book starts off with how Adam comes to be. Then we hear Adam's voice, his thoughts, & see his actions. Which are beyond frightening & dark. Then it shifts to our heroine, Ellory But she takes up majority of the book with her POV. Which was too much, too long, and way less interesting. Unfortunately this continues till the end. You get snippets here & there of Adam but not nearly as much. So you get a huge shift in the story but it's very unbalanced. So much so that you often wonder "Ok, why am I reading so much about this girl's teenage angst, when I really need to be reading about Adam?"

And then of course this books ends with a HUGE & very confusing cliffhanger. It was so abrupt & jumbled, that it leaves you with the impression that the author just decided to stop writing.

This one wanted to come across as dark, sinister, & twisted but sadly it loses that mark once you're introduced to the heroine. And it never gets back on it's path.

Hopefully things will be more balanced, clear & take on the tone it was trying to take here, in book 2.

But I strongly advise if you pick this book up, make sure you have book 2 as well. But be advised, book 2's release has continuously been pushed back for the past year. I'm not certain if it has finally been released though.

Book - Beautiful Nightmare (Asylum #3)

Author - Lauren Hammond

Publication Date - November 19, 2013

Type - Series (Must read in Order)

Genre - Dark, Mind Fuck

Rating - 5 out of 5 Stars

Synopsis

The epic, final installment in the Asylum Trilogy. 

Sanity is a funny word. 
Sanity. 
Sanity. 
To be sane. 
To have clear thoughts. 
To be able to distinguish the difference from fantasy and reality. 
I used to think that my sanity was still intact. 
That all of my marbles were still in the bag known as my mind. 
That I would never—EVER—let Oakhill get the best of me. 
Now, I’m not so sure. Now I’m not sure if I really am sane… 
Or if I’ve lost my mind once and for all. 

Reading Order

Insanity (Asylum #1)

White Walls (Asylum #2)

Beautiful Nightmares (Asylum #3)

Review

This book BLEW me away!! I can't write a review because it would give the whole series away because this book was ONE BIG SPOILER!!

I thought and thought about how I was going to do this review and I think I finally came up with a solution.....

I'm going to show you how I felt while reading this book.....Ready?

This is how I felt when I remembered the book came out today

Then by the time I got up to about 10% in....

Then I read a bit more.....

Yes....that's how I felt.....but......NO readers...it don't stop there....

Yeah....I was confused all over again.....I kept shaking my head and saying "WTF?"

Then, yes, I started banging it...thinking something soon should make sense...

and by this time we are still only about 25% into the book. 

....ummmm.....but is he - or isn't he?  That my friend, is the question!

Yeah...this book is making just as much sense as granny above!!

I'm about 40% into the book now....and my mind is going a different way now.

You can take this one of two ways....Not gonna say anymore!!

I'm getting excited now...cause maybe just maybe I'm getting to the explanations that I have been wondering about for the past 3 books.....

Nope...I was wrong....now I need to drink my brain to oblivion!

Yup...I need more.....I gotta get some answers soon!!

Yes...that's me now - just thrown another loop.....WTF!

Have I gotten any answers yet by 70% in???

Wait.....wait......wait......are we gonna find out if Damien is real?

Was Elijah real?  Was she really married?  Did she have a baby?

Is she really insane?  Why is she in the asylum?  Is this just a dream?

Yes....YES.....we are getting answers but - wait.....but.....

Wrap Up

This is the end, my friend.....

Such a mind fuck!!  I feel the urge to stand up and give Ms. Hammond a round of applause for messing with my mind!