Something Beautiful by Jamie McGuireRating:
/5
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AMAZON |
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Or with Jamie.
The graphic of me loving Jamie’s books slowly but steadily went downhill since Beautiful Redemption. Well, Trenton’s story, Beautiful Oblivion, was not exactly my best favorite as well but it was much more bearable than the following Maddox brothers’ books. So when Jamie announced that there would be a novella of Shepley and America, I was hoping that it would bring back a good time I had with Beautiful Disaster.
Something Beautiful started sweetly after such a long time we finally got a chance to see how Shepley first met America. Then it rolled down quickly as we were served with a series of Shepley and America’s moments from time to time. Reading about this couple did bring up good memories of how kind and patient Shepley was and how stubborn-in-head yet soft-in-heart America was. This couple actually completed each other much better than Travis and Abby who both were basically as hard-headed as each other. I loved every moment Shep and Mare had together. Even though Mare wasn’t my favorite type of heroine but I loved how Shep adored her so much from the very first time. During BD we knew that Shep and Mare fought several times and even broke up once but we never really knew that they actually had their own issues within their relationship. In this book, we got to see the truth from both Shep and Mare’s perspectives.
What’s sad was this novella that should’ve been all about Shepley and America (or so Jamie said) ended up losing its actual focus. We got to read about their first encounter, yes. We got to ride along the up and down of their relationship, yes. We got to know deeper about their feelings to each other, yes. But they all were in too little portions.
I know that Jamie always tried to draw a string between each book on both Beautiful series and Maddox Brothers series so the series could have this strong connection with each other. But it was overly done every time. She would always be too focused on threading the stories by putting too much detail from the previous books than focusing on the current storyline itself. Eventually, she would be repeating the threadbare issue―a.k.a. Travis’s drama―on each book, like she did on BO, BR, and BS. I think it’s enough to do it on Maddox Brothers series, but she had to do it again in Beautiful series novella. She had to steal a portion in an-already-short-story of Shep and Mare to be filled up with Travis’s drama and even his romance with Abby. I love Travis and Abby, really I do, but if Jamie kept slipping their story on literally EVERY book she writes then I think I have enough with this series.
Besides my issue with the shortness of Shep and Mare’s actual story on the book (and I’m not even talking about the length of the book), I pretty enjoyed the flow of Shep and Mare relationship shown in this book. How they went through a missed-communication issue where Shep was too patient/worried with things while Mare was too speculative, then there’s an involvement of a tragedy that made them realize sometimes you have to be quick in reading the sign of love coming to your way and grab it right away before it becomes too late. Even though it had similar vibes with BD’s ending I loved it anyway. I even cried a bit. Woman.
After that final twist, Shepley was jet-propelled to the top list of my favorite book-boyfriend from Jamie McGuire’s books. So imagined how disappointed I was when Jamie didn’t even provide a decent character wrap-up for him. Again, she had to focus more on Travis and Abby for the ending scene.
Something Beautiful might not come out as I expected it would be but I’m glad that at least there’s a book of Shepley and America after all. Hopefully Jamie would write another novella of them that is free from another miscellaneous detail (and couple). Hopefully she wouldn’t put too much story of The Couple on the last Maddox Brothers book as well ;)
Love, read, and review,
Cynthia D.
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