Review - Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Title: Beautiful Disaster

Author: Jamie McGuire

Series: Beautiful #1

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Published by: Simon & Schuster

Published: August 14^th 2012 (Paperback)

For readers 18+

Book Description

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand. 

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

This book is a funny, romantic story that will warm your heart by the conclusion.

My Review

I spotted Beautiful Disaster at the shops and decided to get it as it has been featured on so many blogs that I thought I’d better see what the hype was about. So I purchased it and added it to my StS and Sunday Post. After so much peer pressure, I put off reading some other books and decided to get right into it! Well, I must say I wasn’t disappointed, I really, really loved it.

Abby catches Travis’s eye at the conclusion of his fight in the very first chapter and it is obvious that this is going to be one hell of a ride!! Abby knows his reputation and tries to avoid him as much as possible and does her best to keep him at arm’s length but he is very persistent!  They settle as being ‘just friends’, although Travis sees there is something more to Abby and wants to pursue his feelings for her because she is not like any girl that he has met before.

I liked Abby right from the start. She comes across as an innocent girl, but I think it a bit of a facade. She has set herself some goals and a bad boy is not what she wants. When she is coerced into going with her cousin to Travis’s apartment she dresses in a t-shirt, sweatpants and flip-flops (trackies and thongs for us Aussies), wears glasses, no makeup and ties her hair into a messy bun. She does her best to try and repel him. When I was reading this I was already cracking up, but then Abby’s cousin America takes one look at her and says,

 “Why didn’t you just roll in dog sh*t and make this outfit complete?”

Then I was in hysterics trying to imagine her looking like that!

Travis... hmm...yum! What can I say, he’s a hot, motorbike riding bad boy! He is a bit of a womaniser and fights in the circle to get himself through College. But he also has some secrets and Abby is the first girl to see behind the wall he has built around himself. And when that wall starts to crumble I fell more in love with him! He actually has some self esteem issues, but from his appearance you wouldn’t think so.

Abby’s cousin America is dating Travis’ best friend Shepley and they are both incredible people and offer support to Abby and Travis. America has been the only person that Abby has been able to confide in and knows all her darkest secrets. She helps Abby through a lot of issues throughout the book and it makes me happy that Abby still has someone to turn to. Shepley is basically Travis’s manager when it comes to fighting in the circle and most likely the only person who knows how Travis thinks. He is able to set him back on track in most cases when he flips out. I liked both America and Shepley as they are a cute couple and they are both sweet. They give great depth to the story and it was entertaining to watch their relationship grow as well.

Jamie McGuire takes us on a very emotional rollercoaster ride when she shares Abby and Travis’s story. From the beginning they have amazing chemistry but boy do they have restraint!! There is no way I could keep Travis away for that long, I would’ve caved in long before Abby!!  Beautiful Disaster has an amazing plot, with a few twists thrown in when some secrets are unearthed. I would’ve read this book nonstop if I didn’t have to get up in the morning to take the kids to school! I was enraptured by the writing and I was so absorbed into the book that my emotions were all over the place! I loved every moment of reading Beautiful Disaster and I can’t wait to read Travis’s POV in Walking Disaster when it comes out in April!