Beautiful Burn by Jamie McGuire | Book Review

Beautiful Burn by Jamie McGuire

Reading Group: M for Mature

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: Fresh out of college, Ellison Edson has fallen through the cracks of rock bottom. While staying in her family’s vacation home in Colorado, her behavior has finally gained the attention of her parents—but not in the way she hoped. Cut off from the millions she’s always taken for granted, and left alone to fend for herself, Ellie spirals further out of control, making a mistake she can’t take back.

Like his twin brother Taylor, Tyler Maddox is a member of the Alpine Hotshots, fighting wildland fires on the frontline. As arrogant as he is charming, Tyler’s nomadic lifestyle makes it easy to contain his relationships to one night. When he meets Ellie at a local party during off-season, her extreme personality and dismissive attitude fascinates him at first, but as his feelings deepen, Tyler realizes that the crippling inner demons of the woman he loves might be the strongest enemy any Maddox has ever faced.

Cover: The cover of this novel shows a forest with a flame front and center.  In the flame are the feathers that are on the other Maddox Brothers Series books.  I like how they were all incorporated in this cover. 

My Review: Another Maddox boy to fall in love with!  It's so sad that they're all over!  This story followed Ellie and Tyler as they fell in love.  Ellie is an alcoholic who refuses to admit that she needs outside help to to stop drinking.  Tyler is willing to do whatever it takes to get Ellie to admit she loves him.  Their story is a lot different from the rest of the Maddox brothers because theirs took a lot longer to get to the happily ever after.  It was kind of nice that it took a while to get the two of them together because I think it's a little bit more realistic.  In all of Jamie McGuire's books she is able to add some element to her characters that remind us that everyone has something going on.  Abby spent her childhood with mobsters, Cami dated two Maddox boys, Liis had to pretend to be dating a Maddox when she actually loved him, and Fayln gave up her child.  I think Ellie's drinking problem is something that more people can relate to that maybe the problems the other girls had to deal with.  She was trying to love someone when she didn't love herself and I don't know if saying it's impossible is the right word, but it's definitely hard.  She didn't feel like she deserved Tyler's love and it hurt him more and more every time she rejected him.  It wasn't until she came to the conclusion that she need help that she was able to get it and then live the life she wanted to live.  I love Jamie McGuire's books and I can't wait to see where the Maddox family is headed to next. 

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Beautiful Sacrifice by Jamie McGuire | Book Review

Beautiful Sacrifice by Jamie McGuire

Reading Group Rating: Slightly Mature, it's under New Adult.  However, this is the third novel in this Maddox Brother's Series and the 6th book of the beautiful books so you've probably already read those and now what to expect here.

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: Falyn Fairchild can walk away from anything. Already leaving behind her car, her education, and even her parents, the daughter of the next governor of Colorado is back in her hometown, broke and waiting tables for the Bucksaw Café. After every shift, Falyn adds to her shoebox of cash, hoping to one day save enough to buy her a plane ticket to the only place she can find forgiveness: Eakins, Illinois. 

The moment Taylor Maddox is seated in Falyn’s section at the Bucksaw, she knows he’s trouble. Taylor is charming, breaks promises, and gorgeous even when covered in filth—making him everything Falyn believes a hotshot firefighter to be. Falyn isn’t interested in becoming another statistic, and for a Maddox boy, a disinterested girl is the ultimate challenge. 

Once Falyn learns where Taylor calls home, everything changes. In the end, Maddox persistence is met with Falyn’s talent for leaving, and for the first time, Taylor may be the one to get burned.

Cover: This cover certainly matches all of McGuire's other covers because it has the feather theme going through it.  However this one is different because it's burning.  I think the flames have something to do with the fact that the book talks about the sacrifices people make in the book, especially Falyn.  However I think it could also be because Taylor fights wildfires so that's just part of who he is.  It will be interesting to see what Tyler's book cover is as he and Taylor are twins and work together.

My Review: I loved this novel.  I loved getting to know another brother and seeing how he messes up with the girl.  I loved the plot twists and how so much of this book is dependent on fate.  I love that!  And how everything works out in the end.  I'm such a sucker for those types of books because I believe that their is some truth to it.  Where you end up is where you're supposed to be.  I also loved that even though Olive's biological father is never mentioned in great detail, he is in the book.  He comes into the restaurant with his family and as he leaves he says to Falyn that he's sorry for everything.

The only thing that I wish McGuire elaborated on was the fact that at the beginning of the novel Falyn uses her cell phone to listen to music as she cleans, but then she says later that she doesn't have one.  Does she have a physical phone but only uses it for music?  My guess is that that part was written and then somewhat forgotten about as McGuire continued so she didn't think to explain it.  

My favorite thing of all of the Beautiful Books is how they intersect.  There was a comment in Thomas' book about how excited Taylor was when Falyn got to the hotel on St. Thomas, but as a reader you weren't 100% sure why he was so excited.  I just assumed he was excited to see her.  I would of never guessed he was afraid she wasn't coming.  And there is so much romantic irony when it comes to what the brother's know about each other versus what the reader knows.  The only brother who hasn't broken his promise to stay out of a dangerous line of work is Trenton.  However, none of them know that yet.  It's also interesting that it's Trent because he was the one who lived with his dad the longest and seemed to have the closest relationship.   There are secrets within all of the books.  Who would have thought Olive would be such an important character?  

My dream for these books is that all of them (Beautiful Disaster, walking Disaster, Beautiful wedding, Beautiful Oblivion, Beautiful Redemption, Beautiful Sacrifice and the rest to come if they apply) are turned into movies and filmed simultaneously.  That would be awesome wouldn't it?  Because they all overlap so it would be dumb to film one at a time.  Just film them all at once and release them one at a time!  How do we make that happen?

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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.

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