Review: How Beauty Saved the Beast by Jax Garren

How Beauty Saved the Beast
(Tales of the Underlight, #2)
By: Jax Garren
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: Feb. 11, 2013
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:



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Jolie Benoit left her old life behind to become an agent of the Underlight. Training under Sergeant Wesley Haukon, she’s honing her combat skills, all the while coping with the intense sexual attraction she feels for Hauk. She keeps their friendship casual, but when his high school sweetheart transfers into their division, Jolie finds herself grappling with jealousy.

The Underlight gave Hauk a purpose, but he can’t escape his past completely. The physical and emotional scars from the fire that killed seven fellow Army Rangers will mark him forever. Jolie sends his protective instincts into overdrive, but he’s convinced he’ll never be worthy of her love.

Hauk is determined to keep Jolie from harm. But when the Order of Ananke ambushes them with a new weapon that neutralizes Hauk, making him vulnerable, it’s Jolie who must tap into her hidden strengths to rescue him—or risk losing him forever…

How it starts...
Jolie Benoit tapped a nervous fist against the steering wheel of her Nissan GT.R coupe as she squinted through the gloaming at the abandoned slaughterhouse. "They've been done too long." She turned to Travis, the other newbie on the field team, for confirmation. "Fifteen minutes is too long, isn't it? They were supposed to be back in five."

My thoughts...
The story picks up 2 months after How Beauty Met the Beast. Jolie's joined the Underlight and Hauk is training her to handle herself in the field. They are still in the friend territory but there is still that spark there between the two. However, Jolie feels threatened when Hauk's ex transfers to their location. It's obvious that these two were really close and Hauk seems really excited to have Ashley around. But there's not much time for Jolie to stress about it too much because the enemy has set their sites on capturing Hauk.

When it comes to a series, I generally love the first book and then lose interest as the series continues. But I wound up liking this one MORE than the first book. I loved the sexual tension between Jolie and Hauk. I loved how close that they'd become in the 2 months time since we last saw them. And I LOVE that we finally get answers as to why Hauk blacks out and goes crazy when he's fighting.

The magical world that Jax creates is awesome. I love how her hero is not this drop dead gorgeous guy but yet has the biggest heart and by far the best character of everyone combined.

"He was a behemoth of a man with scars striping and pockmarking most of his body - he'd been in a fire in Afghanistan that had destroyed more than three-quarters of his skin-and had reclaimed his damaged exterior with tribal tattoos and metal piercings."

My one complaint about the entire book doesn't even involve the story itself but the cover. Like I said, the majority of Hauk's body is burned. So burned, to the point that the cartilage of his nose and one of his ears were completely burned off along with all of his hair. He has piercings in the place of his eyebrows and tattoos all over his burns. So why does the cover model look untouched? Granted, I probably would've disliked it more had they tried to photoshop some tacky scars in but I loved the last cover where Hauk was in the background and was not easily seen.

Cover aside, this is an amazing continuation of the story. You can't just jump into the storyline with this one though. You've got to start from the beginning otherwise you may be a bit lost with somethings that takes place. But if you're a huge fan of paranormal romance with an urban twist, this is a MUST. I mean you get magic, burlesque, transgenders, a wounded hero and a mythical mystery all wrapped into one awesome romance. I can't wait to see where Jax takes this story next but I'll be impatiently waiting for the next book to come out.

Favorite quote...
"I guess that's how people grow old together. You don't see wrinkles and receding hairlines. You just see what made you care to begin with-the beautiful things they have on the inside." -Jolie

Previous reviews from the Underlight Series
How Beauty Met the Beast