Beautiful Redemption by Jamie McGuire | Book Review

Beautiful Redemption by Jamie McGuire

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Reading Group Rating: M for Mature

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: 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.

Cover: For all of the Beautiful Series covers, they involve some animal.  A butterfly for Travis, a peacock for Trent, and an eagle for Thomas.  I think the eagle was chosen here because it's such a powerful bird, but it also has a sense of freedom to it, both of these traits can describe Thomas and Liis.

Summary: Liis Lindy goes to the bar across from her apartment the night before her new job and brings a very attractive man home with her.  However, the next morning she discovers that that man is her new boss, Thomas Maddox.  She was brought on as a translator because Maddox needs her to double check the work of the guy they already have.  He is purposefully messing up the translations.  Thomas and Liis have a weird connection-they slept together, they work together, he lives directly above her, he drives her to work-that causes them to grow close.  However, they have bigger problems.  Travis Maddox is at risk of going to jail for 20 years because of his involvement in an on campus fire that killed hundreds.  The alibi his wife, Abby, tried to come up with didn't work.  It's been a year and Thomas has to go to their vow renewal to try and get Travis to work undercover as a double agent with the FBI and Benny instead of him going to jail.  Thomas promised his mother that he would take care of his little brothers, but Travis promised to never lie to Abby.  But Trent also has plans for this weekend away.  He's going to propose to Cami, whom Thomas still loves.  But he also loves Liis.  A Maddox boy never falls out of love, he loves forever, but that's kind of difficult to explain to your girlfriend when you still love your ex-girlfriend.  When Thomas calls Liis "Cami" that's when she realizes that Thomas needs to be fully over Cami before he can love her.  At the end of the book Liis and Thomas are outside and the original translator comes and tries to shoot them.  He shoots Thomas through the back and the bullet exits him and goes into Liis' abdomen.  She wakes up in the hospital room next to Thomas.  Travis agreed to work with them.  The epilogue includes Thomas and Liis moving to DC, they are still dating and Liis is pregnant.        

My Review: Another great one!  Who couldn't love the Maddox brothers?  I like that it goes with the idea that when you break up with someone, but they're still apart of your life (and, ya know, marry your younger brother) it's hard to forget how much you cared about that person.  Especially the way things ended with Cami and Thomas.  He has to work extra hard to prove himself to Liis because he also has to prove himself to himself.  I also liked that Liis is a tough girl.  Now no girl in Jamie McGuire's novels are ever damsels in distress, but neither Cami nor Abby were trained to fire a gun by the FBI.    
The only thing that I didn't really like was the timing of the epilogue.  It's 11 years after Abby and Travis got married in Vegas, so 10 years after the vow renewal that Thomas and Liis went to.  They have been dating for 10 years and still aren't married?  Also, Thomas is the oldest brother and Travis is the youngest.  Even if all the boys are close in age, there would still be at least 4 years between them, but I think there is more than that (I can't remember if it says his age in the book.  Does anyone remember?).  No matter, he's in his late twenties, early thirties when the book starts, so he's in his late thirties early forties at its end.  I just wish it was a little sooner.  It's still a fantastic book.
I love how every Beautiful Series book is so different, but still the same.  Especially with the boys.  It's such a realistic example of a big family and I love it.

Smile!  I'll talk to you soon!xxx

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