Beautiful Redemption: Book Review (The Maddox Brothers #2)

I don’t know.

Don’t ask me what was missing but something was, probably in the last 10% of it. Maybe somewhere in how it ended.

Hello, dearies! 🚨

I finished the second book on The Maddox Brothers book series Beautiful Redemption, which is Thomas Maddox story. And no, that’s not spoilers because it is in the description of the book, unless you don’t all Maddox boys and how their stories would then get ready because everything on this review might be spoiler.

That said, let’s begin.

Beautiful Redemption

Year published: 2015

Book Series: The Maddox Brothers (Book #2)

Book Title: Beautiful Redemption

Author: Jamie McGuire

Genres: Romance. New Adult. College. Contemporary. Fiction. Love. Drama.

Page count: 260 pages (Huh, imagine)

Rating: 4 ⭐ 

Book Description:

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.

Now, the thing is that while I knew while reading Beautiful Oblivion that the logical choice was that book 2 would be about Thomas, I still was waiting for a bit more of… something. It felt a bit rushed I guess, in the end, it was a bit more of weeks passed, months passed without Liis and Thomas talking, and they avoiding each other because of her way of thinking, and then, oh yeah I cannot stop thinking about you and I want to be with you, I have a photo of us in our desk, so that must convince you that I do want you.

It’s cool as a whole and if you don’t put it like I just did, but seriously? That was how it seemed.

The truth is this:

Liss

Liis Lindy is a badass FBI agent who doesn’t want to admit that she has commitment issues and cannot accept the fact that a guy that she likes had a relationship before and was in love with somebody else, and was having issues getting over that relationship and didn’t want to share his affections. (I get that), but Thomas did tell her that he liked her and wanted to be with her (Liis) constantly.

So, she decided it was best to bury herself in work rather working on their relantionship (boss romance BTW), and so it went on, until she finally came to accept it all.

Thomas

The guy who basically went and fell for a girl who he was not supposed to because Thomas Maddox knew his brother liked her as well, and instead of telling his younger sibling: hey, I like her, what do you think?

No, he decided to go behind everyone’s back, lie to his whole family about his career and job, and then lie about who he liked. Of course that exploded on his face, he didn’t visit anymore, then he fell for Liis and realised how he didn’t love Camille 1000% more like 990% and that maybe what he felt for Liis was the real deal. But since he was not going to beg (much) then he let her go if she wanted and then miserable the whole time because they were not together.

All to end up protecting her from behind the scenes, loving her without telling her again and again (I get it, one can only take so much rejection), and then saying like: fu** this I love you so let’s be together.

And that’s when they both almost died and then the book was over with an epilogue that pretended to explain everything that happened in the end.

More on the story

Now, I think I got it, the book ended as they resolved their issues (sort of), and perhaps the part on Travis being undercover was not the main focus of the book but for about 30-40% of the story it was a main focus as Thomas was worrying about bring his baby brother into the mix, and then the rest of the time it was about their relationship, I get that all of it is a balance, but it seemed to be jumping from one thought to the other. This sounds like I didn’t like the book, I did like it, I gave it 4 stars after all, it was not 5 like Beautiful Oblivion but that angst and beauty of the book carried me the whole time. This time, the ending dragged for me.

Anyway, they were working on a case, right? These 2 FBI agents, but the book held back on that part, and only in the end (the epilogue) was like: oh yeah and this happened and after YEARS this and that came to an end, and so that case is closed thanks to Travis and Thomas. 🤔

Rushed.

In any case, I did like the book, yes.

Do I recommend it? Yes, I do.

Do I like Thomas more than Trenton? No, I do not. He was competing strongly, but no.

Is Travis in the past for me? So far, yes, because I would have to read Beautiful Disaster once more at this point and see how that works out, I liked it before but I am enjoying the Maddox Series more than Abby and Travis’ story.

So, next stop (maybe after another book, maybe not) is The Maddox Brothers Book #3, which is Taylor’s story and the girl that was mentioned on this book, so if this is in their past before they ended up together, I’ll probably still read it but I will know for sure how it ends.

That’s all for me on Beautiful Redemption, I think I got a bit more carried away then with Beautiful Oblivion, but they were close together in the story behind it all so I had to read them one after the other, and maybe it all got mixed up in my mind when it came to feelings.

As always, thank you for sticking to the end of my rambling, don’t forget that there is more here on the blog, and the like, share, and follow options are open, if you have read these books let me know, too.

Happy reading! 👮‍♀️