Thursday, September 3, 2015

Review: Beautiful Redemption by Jamie McGuire

Beautiful Redemption
(The Maddox Brothers #2)
Publication Date: January 27, 2015
Paperback, 260 pages, Atria Books
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary

If A Maddox boy falls in love, he loves forever. But what if he didn't love you, first?

No-nonsense Liis Lindy is an agent of the FBI. Deciding she is married only to her job, she breaks off her engagement and transfers from Chicago to the field office in San Diego. She loves her desk. She is committed to her laptop. She dreams of promotions and shaking hands with the director after cracking an impossible case.

Special Agent in Charge Thomas Maddox is arrogant, unforgiving, and ruthless. He is tasked with putting away some of the world’s toughest criminals, and he is one of the best the Bureau has to offer. Though, as many lives as he’s saved, there is one that is beyond his reach. Younger brother Travis is faced with prison time for his involvement in a basement fire that killed dozens of college students, and the media want a conviction. Travis’s only savior is his unusual tie to the mob. In a deal that will spare his brother, Thomas has agreed to recruit Travis into the FBI.

Liis is stubborn, defiant, and yet somehow softens Thomas’s rough edges, making her the perfect agent to accompany him to the ceremony. Posing as a couple, they must travel to Travis & Abby’s beach vow renewal and give him the news, but when the pretending ends, she finds herself wondering if they were pretending at all.

In the second installment of the Maddox Brothers books, experience firsthand the mysterious world of the elusive Thomas Maddox, and how good love can be when you’re not the first, but the last.

My Review

Very different from the other Maddox books, but I liked it.

This book is really different from Jamie McGuire’s previous additions to the series and I definitely enjoyed it more because of that. This one had a less juvenile/high school-esque feel than the other books. In the others, it’s obvious that the books are fiction because everyone knows who Travis and Trenton are, despite Trav and Trent being in college/the workforce. However, in this book, there was none of that overfamiliarity. The name-calling was thankfully absent as well. There was less slut-shaming, aggressive behaviors, etc. It was just a nice, complicated romance story that had me wanting so much more.

The characters, Thomas and Liis, know who they are, they’re comfortable with themselves, and they don’t have to put people down to be the great agents that they are. Liis doesn’t have that cliché bad childhood and Thomas doesn’t have anything like that either. It’s just two average Joes falling in love. And it’s what made me fall in with this story.

I also really enjoyed the plot of the book. It combined some of the aspects of the other Maddox books, but it had its own plotline. I was enthralled. I devoured this book in one sitting and I seriously don’t regret it. I just wish it had been 30 or so pages longer. I needed so much more.

All in all, this is my favorite of the Maddox Brothers books by far and I can’t wait to hear more about Thomas and Liis in future installments.


*Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

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