E-book: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
Pages: 432
Genre: New Adult, Romance
Source: NetGalley
Short Synopsis: Abby is your usual good girl who does nothing wrong. That is, until she catches the eye of Eastern University's major player, Travis Maddoxx, and her whole life changes.
My Thoughts: A very fast paced interesting read, but there was quite a few situations in this novel I found to be a bit problematic.
The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from 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 wants—and needs—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.
-- From Amazon
Wow. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews with this novel and wanted to give it a try for myself. There's a lot of similarities with the series of 50 Shades of Grey. First, I loved how gripping it was. It was very fast paced. Abby is your typical good girl gone bad scenario, when she meets someone she's grown infatuated with.
First, the novel was a bit misleading, as Abby is portrayed as a good girl who never does anything wrong. It isn't until we find out later, that she has a much complicated past life which is what led her to a conservative style. It was kind of contradictory when Abby keeps insisting that there would be no connection, no attraction between Travis and herself.
I'm going to go into a bit of a rant with the romance involved. First, why would Abby keep insisting that nothing would happen, when she had obvious feelings for Travis? Was she in denial? I couldn't stand that Abby insisted that she didn't have feelings for him, yet she could help but be near him the whole time, and her one excuse was because there was a bet and she never backs down? Really? There is ALWAYS a choice to be made. She could have walked away any time she wanted. Why not just admit her feelings?
And then there's Travis. He was such a "bad" boy when they first met, and I felt that he changed a bit too much when he met Abby. He no longer fought, though he had some instances with some girls, for the majority, he avoided them like the plague, and he stood up for Abby when she was constantly picked on, and she still insisted that they had nothing going on.
And what about Abby's other love interest. I actually can't remember his name, which proves how insignificant he was, and I actually felt bad for him, when Abby kept stringing the poor shmuck along when she knew her heart belonged to someone else. There were times when I felt like slapping some sense into Abby and couldn't take what she was doing.
And don't get me started on the whole poker thing. I was more interested in the romance aspect of the novel, and felt that it was a bit odd, when everything turned towards the mob and Abby trying to get money for her dad. I don't know how else to explain it, but felt that that whole bit took away from Abby's and Travis' love story. There's so much more that I want to say about this novel, but these are the main points of my thoughts. Though I loved how intriguing and fast paced everything was, there was just too many downsides to this novel that didn't sit right with me.
Would I recommend this book: Maybe
Rating: I give this book a 3/5.
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