Review Wednesday: Beautiful Oblivion by Jamie McGuire

*This is a book meant for adults due to some inappropriate content for people younger than 18.*

Title: Beautiful Oblivion (The Maddox Brothers #1)
Author: Jamie McGuire
1st Date of Publication: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 1476759588
# of Pages: 320
Genre: New Adult, Adult Romance
Age Rating: 17+ (Language, Violence, Sexual content)

Buy it on Amazon

Book Description: 
Fiercely independent Camille "Cami" Camlin gladly moved on from her childhood before it was over. She has held down a job since before she could drive, and moved into her own apartment after her freshman year of college. Now tending bar at The Red Door, Cami doesn’t have time for much else besides work and classes, until a trip to see her boyfriend is cancelled, leaving her with a first weekend off in almost a year.

Trenton Maddox was the king of Eastern State University, dating co-eds before he even graduated high school. His friends wanted to be him, and women wanted to tame him, but after a tragic accident turned his world upside down, Trenton leaves campus to come to grips with the crushing guilt.

Eighteen months later, Trenton is living at home with his widower father, and works full-time at a local tattoo parlor to help with the bills. Just when he thinks his life is returning to normal, he notices Cami sitting alone at a table at The Red.

As the baby sister of four rowdy brothers, Cami believes she’ll have no problem keeping her new friendship with Trenton Maddox strictly platonic. But when a Maddox boy falls in love, he loves forever—even if she is the only reason their already broken family could fall apart.

In the first installment of the Maddox Brothers books, readers can experience the rush of reading Beautiful Disaster for the first time, all over again.  

Setting: Eakins, Illinois in the 21st century
Point of View: 1st Person- Camille "Cami" Camlin

Goodreads Rating: 4.15

My Rating: 4.5


Part of the Book that Caught My Attention: Both title and cover
View on the Cover: The simplistic beauty of it is great!
View on the Title: It felt like a humbler title because I questioned whether a character was beautiful and didn't know it.

Pros:

• First off, I absolutely love that the stories of all the Maddox brothers' lives all intermixed with each of their stories. I think it's a unique idea that authors have been more recently been doing with their stand-alone novels by making them into companion novels. You won't necessarily miss too much if you read these books out of order or just read one.
• I also love how the story is told through the woman's (Cami) view rather than the man's (Trent) view. It truly shows how hard and what Trent goes through in order to win Cami's heart. It shows his loyalty and love in a very personal way.
• I love that Cami gets tattoos and how she becomes more of who she is rather than feeling forced to do what her family wanted. I think she's super relatable to a certain demographic than that the other women in this companion series do not come from and deal with.
• Trent is awesome when it comes to kids. He is very protective of his little neighbor, Olive, who he acts like a big brother to her. His protectiveness carries to Cami.

Cons:

• Cami's family agitated me, but I think this is to show you how strong and independent of a woman she is. She's the only one that is smart enough to remove herself from the detrimental situation. Her father is abusive and an alcoholic who beats Cami's mother, which her mother refuses to do anything. One of her brothers makes her feel obligated to fix his mistakes to save her family from her father's anger.
• Trent is often sometimes a little controlling, which is partly because he is extremely protective from an incident in the past. I think this humanizes Trent more as a character because trauma can instill fear and insecurity like in his case.

Critics' Reviews:

"The author's pen flows with ease and fans of romance and NA will adore the raw emotion...Trenton's story will steal readers' hearts." -Romantic Times

Jamie McGuire's Website:

http://www.jamiemcguire.com/

Other Recommendations:

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Perfect Chemistry by Simon Elkeles

Easy by Tammara Webber