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Knights of White #1

The Beast Within

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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.…

Unknown Binding

First published November 1, 2007

197 people are currently reading
1214 people want to read

About the author

Lisa Renee Jones

372 books14.6k followers
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series. Suzanne Todd (producer of Alice in Wonderland) on the INSIDE OUT series: Lisa has created a beautiful, complicated, and sensual world that is filled with intrigue and suspense. Sara’s character is strong, flawed, complex, and sexy - a modern girl we all can identify with.

In addition to the success of Lisa's INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is presently working on a dark, edgy new series, Dirty Money, for St. Martin's Press.
Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women's Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.

Lisa loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her at www.lisareneejones.com and she is active on Twitter and Facebook daily.

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5 stars
205 (31%)
4 stars
182 (27%)
3 stars
173 (26%)
2 stars
58 (8%)
1 star
34 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
Profile Image for Jacqueline's Reads.
3,103 reviews1,528 followers
December 10, 2018
2 Stars

Have you ever started a series and wanted to so badly to like it but you just couldn’t? I did the audio version of this book, but I also read the book because I was lost at some points.

This book doesn’t read easily nor smoothly. The narrator is great and I like his voice, but he couldn’t save this book.

I listened to the first 30% of the book and after awhile I realized I had no idea what was going on, so I had to go back and read the book. I think Lisa Renee Jones tries very hard to be like J.R. Ward. I can see how she intertwines the secondary characters to get you hooked into the series, but it just adds confusion to me.

The writing is too forced and 100% overly descriptive. I hate descriptive writing, but I generally like listening to it, but you can tell it’s really bad if I don’t get it while I listen and I think it’s way too descriptive. It got to the point I didn’t know if the author was describing the scene or the characters where having an inner monologue, it just kind of mushed together.

I didn’t connect to the characters and I think the book would have been better if it was smut. At least the author could hide behind bad writing with a lot of sex scenes. But it was a really tame book and that was really disappointing.

Karen and Jag meet each other in dreams and it took awhile for me to get into the book. I felt like nothing happened and I felt like the pace was so slow like this book was the start of the series, but their story ends and each book is about a different couple.

I want to try one more time on another couple to see if it gets any better.
Profile Image for Coco.V.
50k reviews127 followers
Want to read
November 27, 2018
💝 FREE on Amazon today (11/27/2018)!💝

Blurb:
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...
Profile Image for Melindeeloo.
3,268 reviews158 followers
November 20, 2009
Lots of sex, not much romance in this series starter.



The Beast Within jumps straight into the steamy stuff, with an erotic dream encounter between the lead characters, that is about lust and temptation and nothing about romance. In fact the first several intimate encounters between Jag and Karen are in these shared dream sequences. Both the characters are interesting enough once we get to know them, but until we do there is not much emotional investment in them, so the love scenes were not that satisfying from a romance standpoint. After that Jag and Karen pretty quickly discover that they have been husband and wife in the past so voila they're in love again and the author doesn't spend much time to develop their relationship in the present. We just get a couple memories from the past and their romance picks right back up without much bother about the intervening century, even though they both admit that they are different people now. (minus 1 star for this)

So since the author hit the fast forward on the relationship, you might think that there was room for a bit of story then. Not really. To be fair there was a bit of world building that was done, since this was the first book in a series about these quasi-vampire good guys who fight the evil quasi-vampire bad guys. We did get to find out how truly bad the bad guys are since they enthrall and use women sexually while drinking their blood and stealing their souls. This was portrayed in a detailed scene where the bad guy revels in the woman's unhibited sexuality while she's under his spell. This is still a rape as far as I am concerned and I personally think there are less distasteful ways of developing the villians than this type of creepy voyeurism, it just takes a bit more effort. (Loses another star here) One thing I did like about this book was the supporting cast, Jag was the leader of a group of alpha males and there are several that have hero potential, cocky lady's man Des and hunky-but-vulnerable Rock with his forbidden love for healer Marisol. (Get half a star back for the heroes-to-be)

So bottom line is: interesting characters, not much story, not much romance, but plenty of sex. So a 'prety good' from me for The Beast Within, but the next one in the series could be better because I am guessing that Rock and Marisol are the next pair and the setup for their relationship showed promise.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Angela Charles.
662 reviews29 followers
July 24, 2019
So let me first off start by saying that I have never heard of Lisa Renee Jones. I read and listen to a lot of paranormal romance and she is someone that I have never heard out of all my reader group. With that being said I did not know what her writing style would be.

At first I was a bit confused. There were times within this story where I felt some scenes were being repeated. Take for instance the dream Jag and Karen keep having. The transitions where off so I did not know if it was a memory or if Ms. Jones forgot that she mentioned the dream in detail before. When I realized that it was a mixture of both I decided that this is just her writing style and I will have to get used to it very quickly and not think to hard.

The story itself was great. I loved the world building and I liked all of the characters. Karen's sister that is the one being used and controlled to bring down Jag was not a heard but seen throughout this story. I would have to liked to know her background so I got to see the full effect on how Karen knew there was something wrong with her sister besides the obvious.

I also wanted to know about Karen and Jag. I get that they are soulmates and all that but I wanted to know about them individually since this is their book and it seems as though this is the last we see of them for a while.

I loved the baddy, Adrian. He seems like he is going to be a fun character to explore. The only real issues I have with all of the bad characters are that they are rapist. They way Adrian described the way he used the nurse and the way he got her to comply screams predator!!!! I could have lived without that scene.

I am looking forward to continue this series and I did like the narrator, Eric Michael Summerer, who is new to me. I can see myself listening to him again since he made me feel like I was part of the story and not just sitting there on the sidelines.
Profile Image for Anya.
68 reviews
September 20, 2017
DNF - Did Not Finish.

I had to push myself to get to the 25% mark so that I could say I'd given the book a fair chance.

My problems are mostly with the writing style. I can't get into this story even though I'm intrigued by the premise. The writing seems stilted, contrived and forced. There is a plethora of adjectives and adverbs to the point that you could call things over described and yet I can't see them in my mind. With in the space of 2 chapters the author managed to use a two nearly identical phrases to describe the actions of 2 completely different characters.

All of the description is done in the seemingly endless monologues of the characters. It is nearly impossible to tell what is the character thinking and what is the author setting the scene. The characters all think in the same way and describe things in the same way. I think the problem is that the author spends all of her time telling us what's happening instead of showing us.

I am a fan of descriptive writing, Gerald Durrell is my hero in that style. This is nothing like that, it reads more like court transcript than a story.

I gave up, with relief, at the 25% mark (conveniently the end of Chapter 4) and will use my scarce and precious reading time on something else.
Profile Image for Rachel Hill.
854 reviews36 followers
August 12, 2013
I have loved everything Lisa Renee Jones writes, and this is no exception..It was an easy weekend reader. The characters leave nothing to be desired, they are well rounded and of course, HOT! I liked this especially because it finishes..so many books now leave you with a huge cliffhanger and waiting for MONTHS to find out...The Beast Within in part of a series, but it's the old fashioned series where it's more about a group of people and what happens to them individually, so you don't need to read #1 first or be left out in the cold.
Kudo Lisa Renee Jones for such good entertaining! Keep writing cuz we'll keep reading.
3,126 reviews
November 26, 2018
I really loved it

Jag is centuries old and a Knights of White. They have a beast inside them and fight the Darklands, they are evil and are under Cain. Karen has traveled the world but keeps having erotic dreams about a stranger. On her way to her sister Eva’s, whose husband was killed, she sees the stranger at the airport. Jag thinks she’s the enemy and out to destroy him.
When she gets to her sister’s, she not herself, it’s almost like she’s in a trance or something. Karen takes her to the hospital but there’s nothing they can find wrong. They suggest putting her in a facility but a nurse stops her in the hallway and tells her about Jaguar Ranch. Jag is there and his Knights. They have a healer that hopefully save her sister.
Jag had those same dreams that Karen did and he’s afraid of his beast coming out and harming her. But he’ll do anything to keep her safe.
Excellent story. Action, pain, sex, and love that lasts through the centuries. Supernatural powers and of course evil monsters.
Profile Image for Ana.
2,038 reviews6 followers
April 19, 2019
From Dark to Light.....

Jag leader of the Knights of White lives with the fear of giving in to the beast that lives within him and the seductress in his dreams isn't helping his cause, he feels she will be his damnation. When he bumps into the real life version of his dreamy delight he doesn't know if he should grab her and kiss her, or kill her before she seduces him like in his dreams... This can't be real, but if he and his men who exist to eradicate the Darkside Beasts are real, then why not this vision. Will this beauty that is Karen be his destruction, or will she be his salvation.

Will the leader of the Darkside Beasts accomplish taking the leader of the Knights of White down by using Karen against Jag, or will they only succeed in creating a leader the likes of which has never been seen?
Profile Image for Linda Thomas.
842 reviews8 followers
January 27, 2022
Karen and Jag meet in a dream, and clash at an airport.

Karen is called home for a family emergency. Jag is coming home from seeing his mentor. Both have been having weird sexual dreams that aren’t normal for either.
Karen has a problem at the airport and Jag comes to the rescue. After all he is the leader of the Knights of White and the guy he saved her from wasn’t a beast, he was a pest. But it sets up the wrong impression of each other for both and their battle get off to a rough start. Is she setting him up for the enemy or is she a pawn? Is he the enemy who is destroying her sister or her savior?
Great story not what I expected because of the start but really wound up enjoying it.

Profile Image for Eva.
748 reviews5 followers
December 29, 2018
The Beast Within is (1/5) of the Knight's oft White novels.
It's a "white against the dark" Fantasy novel. Although well written, I couldn't really connect with the story. This is one of those series that'll pull you into it's spell or not. For me it was a bit to shallow. With a bit more love to the details this series could've been so much more ( e.g. Rock's and Marisol's Story or Eva's story with (Adrian?).... So it just scratches on the surface. What a shame.
Profile Image for Sara St. Kelley.
917 reviews55 followers
February 20, 2019
It's DNF Day today and this one just happened to be another that didn't make the cut for me.

I got a short ways in, realized I'd rather be reading Midnight With the Devil again instead of this (or, you know, anything other than this) since it did a very, very similar premise in a much better and sexier manner.

I didn't make it very far in but life's too short to waste on boring smut. I'd rather read fun smut.
Profile Image for Jiamelishua Ammons.
113 reviews20 followers
December 29, 2018
Loved this book!!

I enjoyed every moment of this tale of reincarnation, love, battle, & beasts. It had every thing wrapped into one and there was never a dull moment. Every page was filled with even more and I just didn’t want to put it down. I loved it and I will definitely be reading the other books in this series. Bravo!!!😊
Profile Image for Edith .
780 reviews1 follower
January 17, 2022
Intriguing

The fight between good and evil has more players. While the Darklands try to ruin everything it is the job of The Knights of White to stop them. This introduction to a new series kept me on the edge of my seat. The writing of the author shows through and captures the reader’s interest. I can’t wait to read the rest!
Profile Image for Diana Proto.
288 reviews1 follower
January 19, 2022
Not only is this an amazing read...but it will push you to read all of the books in the series. Demons...turned knights...saving and protecting good...finding your mate. Holy moly...it has everything you ever thought should be part of an exciting read. Lisa is such a good writer...but this was even better than I expected.
Profile Image for Smhlavelle.
308 reviews3 followers
May 2, 2022
Not for me

This story was not for me. I truly struggled to get into the book, I struggled through the book and ended up skipping a lot of pages. It has a good concept, and world. Understanding the plot/characters, following along with it, and relating to the characters I truly struggled with. I would not continue with the series.
1,098 reviews1 follower
June 8, 2023
Personal Preference Rating 4/5 🌶️🌶 Audiobook (Audible)
I feel like if this was just a little longer a few scenes could have been more fleshed out and it would have made a little more sense overall. As it was, it was an interesting story, although (to my previous point) I felt a few points were a bit confusing and some of the resolutions were abrupt.
Profile Image for მოყ .
271 reviews4 followers
November 27, 2018
1 1/2 stars

TSTL hero... This started ok, I liked the premise. By the end I was hoping it would go another way and just be over. Seriously lacking character development. I don't expect a lot from this genre but this one was hard to get through.
Profile Image for Debra .
1,391 reviews
November 28, 2018
Karen and Jag are thrown together in dreams before they actually meet in an airport. That is the introduction to a world of Darkland beasts. I liked the characters who were the Knights of White, it will be interesting to see their stories in future books.
Profile Image for Karyn.
85 reviews3 followers
January 21, 2019
Sexy. Erotic.
Typical cheesy soulmate stuff. It had enough fighting and action to keep me interested. I feel the series is going to be very repetitive in its story lines.
It's got a very Lord's of the Underworld theme/feel.
Still I dig it.
81 reviews38 followers
January 24, 2022
Fun Read

An interesting take on the good versus evil fight between Heaven and Hell in that the characters who are not entirely human are not fully explained. What, exactly, are they?
13 reviews3 followers
March 29, 2018
Good, quick read for a beach day

The story is a bit rushed, but the spiciness is good. Great book for an easy, fun read. I’ll probably read the remainder of the series as well.
178 reviews3 followers
December 4, 2018
Most read

I enjoy reading Karen and Jag . Jag had to work his fears away to find her love . Karen has to show Jag to not fear his fears.
Profile Image for Lauri Tribbey.
359 reviews1 follower
December 9, 2018
Thrills and Chills

Once again Lisa Renee Jones delivered a page turning story filled in depth, intense and electricity characters. A most definitely must read story!👏🌟👏🌟👏🌟👏🌟👏
Profile Image for Jennifer Feltz Milkowski.
621 reviews1 follower
December 9, 2018
This was a great start to the series. I loved the internal debate of the H. I cant wait to read about the rest of the guys.
Profile Image for Ashley Cael.
239 reviews1 follower
December 14, 2018
DNF - too many viewpoints, no substance, feel nothing for any of the characters
Profile Image for Kelsey.
9 reviews5 followers
December 31, 2018
It was essentially a porno... which is fine if you like that stuff. But the plot was seriously lacking also.
Profile Image for Jana Giacomi.
132 reviews5 followers
January 6, 2019
Really hard to get into at first but finally got going and making more scense. After finishing I'll give the next book a chance a it had potential to bre much better. We shall see...
1,218 reviews
November 26, 2019
This interesting narrative covered the age old story of the light of good continuing to battle the darkness of evil and how the strength of an enduring and eternal love can win the day.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews

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