My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Get a copy here!
I’m really sad to say that this book had successfully disappointed me big time.
The first time I met one of Maddox family members, Travis, and I instantly fell in love with his characters. He used to have so much flaws but he knew alright how to fix things up and learned from the past mistakes. Paired up with Abby, they easily become everyone’s favorite book couple. I was so glad back then when I learned that Travis had four other brothers in which each of them would get their own stories on different books respectively. I was literally so giddy and wanted so damn bad to get to know each of them. Then Beautiful Oblivion came out with Trenton Maddox. While his story wasn’t as amazing as Travis’s, I liked it because of the mind-blowing part slipped in the end of the book. Which brought me to read Thomas’ story next on Beautiful Redemption. It was… well, it was okay and a little bit nerve-wracking even. I disliked how Jamie McGuire built Thomas characteristic into such a heartbroken and overly mellow guy who couldn’t move on from his previous relationship. I loved his protectiveness toward his brothers but the way he dealt with his own problems was really awful. And more, I hated how some scenes in this book could be easily interpreted for several characters of having ignorant and difficult personalities (such as Travis, Trenton, and Cami) while we all already knew their true personalities on their own books was nothing like that.
So, it seemed like my interest in Maddox brothers was slowly decreasing every time their books came out. And Beautiful Sacrifice managed to drop the final bomb that makes my love and adoration for Maddox brothers went down to very low level. It’s really sad, though, because Beautiful Disaster was the very first New Adult book that I’ve read that brought me to start reading this genre but apparently the sequels didn’t do the same deed.
It started with a girl named Falyn Fairchild who had been struggle with life throwing storm after storm into her path. When she had enough, Falyn decided to leave it all behind: her luxurious of life, her school, her parents, and her old self. She only attempted for one thing, forgiveness, to be able to go on with her new life. Eakins being that place. She worked hard to collect money to get a plane ticket there by waiting tables in a café where people there kind enough to give her new starter. Juggling with fair amount of money she got from work to pay the bills and to save up, Eakins seemed more and more far away day by day. With that, Falyn’s hope was slowly decreasing as well…
Until a Maddox boy came to her work place and gave her a kind of distraction from her tightness of life. Taylor Maddox saw her for the first time when he averted his eyes from the menu on his grips one afternoon. He saw a beautiful girl right in front of him but most importantly he saw a lost look in her eyes, making him wonder what kind of loss this girl had experienced. Falyn almost instantly took a step back the moment Taylor made his first move. But apparently Taylor wasn’t just simply a distraction for Falyn; he came with something that actually could help Falyn to reach her dream that lately seemed so far away. When Falyn decided it was okay to give in to the living distraction in order to get to her true intention behind it, something ignited between them, something undeniably strong charging between Falyn and Taylor. Falyn might want this as much as Taylor but her insecurities was flowing strongly from beneath her ribs making it hard to let Taylor came barreling in. But this was a Maddox boy we’re talking about here. A disinterested girl was the ultimate challenge. And most importantly, when a Maddox boy loved someone, he loved forever.
Falyn was a typical NA-heroine which basically strong-willed, a bit stubborn yet covered in insecurities due to past wound. I found her character rather boring actually because insecure girl is really getting old these days. I ached for her at some points for everything she’d been through and I even went a bit teary-eyed during that one certain scene. She seemed kind of mature there. But most of the time, her insecure feelings just kept coming back without any particular reason. It just made no sense as it was unclear why she felt like that after she actually succeeded in dealing much worse issues before calmly.
As for Taylor, I didn’t know him much in Maddox books before unless the little scene he was on in Beautiful Redemption. Turned out that scene was actually one of the twists in this book. Among Maddox brothers, Taylor was my least favorite Maddox boy.
I had so many reasons for this.
First, he acted less gentle than his brothers. As much as I disliked Thomas, he still showed some mature mannerism and he always tried to act gentle toward women. Meanwhile, Taylor was a bit of jerk. I didn’t like how he loved to play the I-suffered-the-most-for-us card on Falyn in every occasion. He didn’t literally force her to do as he wanted but his actions and words simply implied the same meaning. Moreover the way he handled the problem happening between them was really immature with all of his overreactions. And I don’t even mention that particular thing he did that makes me dislike him even more. This is so sad because it’s not what I expected at all from a Maddox boy.
The plot was a bit of a mess. Things that should’ve been the main big issues were brought up in such small portions and even left hanging without some clear closure in the end. Instead, things like unnecessary trust and insecure issues between Taylor and Falyn took a major part of twist in this book.
And the ending… well, what a cliché kind of HEA it got there.
I mean, I’m glad things turned out all happy for them, that miracle happened in the end for them. They, uh, Falyn deserved that I guess. But because it’s too good it looked unrealistic at some point. It made all the fights and arguments was just some nonsense fling because in the end POOF! Nothing else mattered ‘cause the answer of everything has come: miracle! I guess it’d be much better if things weren’t too pretty in the end because after all true love isn’t always about living a perfect life together but living a flawed life perfectly with love becomes the foundation that strengthen the ground where they stand.
Sad, sad, sad, really. I know Jamie McGuire could do better than this. She proved it with Travis story and I wished she could repeat the magic in another Maddox boy’s books.
Ah, it’s really hard to give a rating in this kind of situation. For some reasons I mentioned above, it’s obvious that I won’t give 4 or 5 stars. But as usual, Jamie’s writing style was so engaging and I always liked all of her side-characters. I guess, 3 stars are enough, simply as my respect for this series that used to be my best romance favorite (right until Beautiful Oblivion) and because I still have some faith for the next and last Maddox brothers book, Tyler’s. Hopefully, it’d make a sweet conclusion for the series and eased my all disappointments for the last two books. Hopefully.
Love, read, and review,
Cynthia D.
0 comments:
Post a Comment