Product Description

Only passion can soothe the beast within... Known only as Jag, he leads the Knights of White against the soulless Darkland Beasts who took his wife and his life. Jag is immortal, destined to live with the vengeance he feels in his heart and the dreams that haunt his soul. Sensual dreams of a woman. Dreams that threaten to unleash the beast within...

Karen Gibson is an innocent mortal, unwittingly thrown into this millennia-old battle, and unwillingly under Jag's protection. She and Jag are about to discover that they have met before in the dreams they share. Neither trusts the other. Neither can survive alone. The secret of those erotic dreams may be all that saves them if Jag can only accept it. At risk is Karen's life. And Jag's immortal soul...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #779302 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Interesting world building but disappointing characters
Lisa Renee Jones leaps into a sex scene that drew me right into the story. I was disappointed when it was only a dream but appreciated her using it to set the stage for the world she was creating. The struggle between the Knights of White and the Darkland Beasts is a classic struggle between good and evil. Even the Knights must tame the beast within them, which I enjoyed because they were not perfect, making them believable and interesting characters. However, the villain was pure evil without one redeeming quality, which made him rather two-dimensional. After the amazing opening, I couldn't wait to see Karen and Jag on the same page but the author went through incredible plot devices to keep them apart so they couldn't talk to each other. I felt that one good conversation between them would have solved their conflict. Neither Jag nor Karen evoked my emotions because they were not consistent in their actions despite the author's attempts to motivate them. As the secret about the erotic dreams becomes clear I think most readers will be disappointed, because this secret leads to them falling in love without having spent any time together. This fact, that the romance was not developed within the story, caused me to give a much lower score. In addition, the later sex scenes are mostly dream sequences without graphic language or a strong emotional component. What really shined in this novel were the secondary characters and I think future novels in this series could be excellent.

An excellent read!
When Jag lost everything he loved hundreds of years ago at the hands of the Darkland Beasts, he is saved and given immortality by a man known only as Salvador. Present day, Jag begins to have erotic yet disturbing dreams about a beautiful stranger, and he is torn as to their meaning. Salvador can only tell him that the woman is important to his future and that he must find the answers for himself, which frustrates him even more.
When travel photographer Karen Gibson receives word that her brother-in-law has been killed and her sister injured, she rushes home to Texas to be with her sister, Eva. Karen has a strange run-in at the airport with a man (Jag) who is inexplicably familiar to her. She doesn't understand the angry accusations he flings at her, but is too concerned about her sister to dwell on it. The woman Karen finds in the hospital isn't the Eva she knows; something very mysterious is happening to Eva and she continues to fail, appearing to be near death. The search for answers suddenly turns just as frightening as not knowing anything. When a hospital nurse secretly suggests that Karen take Eva to the Jaguar Ranch for help, she immediately heads there, thinking she has nothing to lose. Karen doesn't realize that Jag has been having the same bizarre, sensual dreams as her; imagine her shock when she arrives at Jaguar Ranch and immediately runs into him.
Jag and all of the other residents of Jaguar Ranch have their hands full when the very evil that nearly destroyed him all those years ago appears, determined to take Eva away. There is no doubt that they will fight to keep Eva and Karen safe, but Jag has some important decisions to make - the most important being whether he's willing to risk his heart in order to save his soul.
Lisa Renee Jones has written yet another excellent story with THE BEAST WITHIN. Jag comes off as forceful and intimidating at first, but for good reason, given his past. Karen is a very strong heroine, full of independence and unselfishly dedicated to helping her sister. While Karen and Jag neither understand the familiarity or the attraction between them, they are seemingly helpless against it.
This will not be my last read from this series - BEAST OF DESIRE is next from Ms. Jones and I have no doubt that it will be just as satisfying.

5 Klovers - Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques
Under the guidance of the Archangel Raphael, the Knights of White were created to protect humankind against the evil Darkland Beasts. But the good knights carry their own beast, and must fight the dark instincts that come with it, else they lose their souls forever. They have one hope of truly harnessing that darkness - through acceptance and love of their true mates. Only then can they hold the beast at bay and come into their full powers.

Jag is the leader of this band of guardians, and has kept control of The Beast Within for centuries. Now a recurring dream of a strangely familiar beauty threatens to break his control in a way that would destroy him forever.

Karen has unknowingly shared Jag's dreams for some time, but it isn't until this human meets the imposing knight that she begins to remember them upon waking. How could two people have the same dream?

Jag isn't certain whether Karen is setting him up or being used as bait, but as the attraction between them grows stronger, he knows he has already lost both his heart and his soul - to her.

Once again, Lisa Renee Jones show her fans how talented an author she is - no matter the genre. Equally adept with contemporary, paranormal, or anything else she puts her mind to, the common thread is this writer's fantastic imagination that continuously creates worlds rich with realism (yes, even the paranormal) and characters you not only believe, but who you want to know. OK, maybe I just mean the good guys, because those bad guys - well, she can create some doozies! Never is that more evident than in The Beast Within.

A tale of good versus evil, this book definitely packs a wallop in the villain department. Just as we have a team of good guys, we have a whole army of baddies, with the dastardly Adrian leading them all. This demon is enough to make you cringe time and again as his evil deeds and plots escalate throughout the story.

Jag, however, is a whole other story. Jag personifies everything you need in a classic hero. He is tortured, noble, long-suffering, and loves with everything in him. As a leader, he cares about every knight under his command and every human under his protection. He puts everyone else's needs before his own - even at his own detriment. Believing his love for Karen doomed, he agonizes over her safety - both from the demons bent on destroying them and from himself.

Karen is the embodiment of goodness and light. Altruistic to a fault, and full of purity and grace, she's not above [...] when she needs to - especially when that [...] belongs to the man she loves. She is the perfect heroine for Jag, who finds Karen under his skin before he knows it.

The Beast Within launches Lisa Renee Jones' new The Knights of White series, and this book kicks off the saga with a bang! Not only does Jones create a beautiful romance between Jag and Karen, but she deftly spins interest in many supporting characters who are bound to find themselves the star of their own books very soon. Add to that the ongoing war against the Darkland Beasts, and I see a series that readers will crave many more editions of!

Series Order:
The Beast Within (Silhouette Nocturne Series)
Beast Of Desire (Silhouette Nocturne)
Beast Of Darkness (Silhouette Nocturne)