Review: Beautiful Disaster

Rating: 5 Stars
Genre: Mature YA Contemporary Romance
Author: Jamie McGuire
Publication Date: May 26, 2011
Buy: Amazon :: B&N
Blurb: 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.

When I originally posted that I'd be reading this book, all of you beautiful readers had so many different opinions about it. I haven't read a love/hate book since Fifty Shades (which of course, I ADORED) and I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into Beautiful Disaster.

Firstly, you have to know that I literally didn't sleep in order to finish this beauty. My coffee I.V. was slid in at 6am after completing BD at 5:30. But the lack of sleep was SO worth it! This book was emotional, honest and gripping - and the characters are ones that I've been thinking about since I put the book down. 

Abby is a good girl with some bite. After leaving Wisconsin with her best friend, America, to outrun her past, Abby is set on turning her life around. And if you think you know what Abby's problems are - you're wrong.

Travis is a super sexy bad boy with a temper, and this good girl couldn't wait to take a bite out of him! Travis is use to having girls throw themselves at him, so when he meets hard-to-fall Abby, he gets thrown for a loop.

With the entire college watching this bizarre friendship flourish, Abby and Travis must learn to trust their instincts - which neither of them have done for a long time.

Although the premise of this book seems like something you've read before, let me tell you, it is so very much more. There is so much depth to the friendship built between Travis and Abby and their supporting characters, America and Shep - Travis' roommate and cousin who is dating Abby's best friend. I enjoyed all of the tears fallen through this book and really remain connected to these characters.

As someone who has experienced a toxic relationship (as I think most of us have) I could really relate to both sides of the story...even while wanting to smack our characters in the back of the head and get them both to do the "right" thing. Although what's right may not be what we all hope for...

Familial loss and bizarre twists of fate and luck connect in this story to give us a relationship too good to leave, and too painful to stay. Excellent book - MUST BUY! 

xo,

 Jenna Lynne