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Title: Beautiful Disaster (you can Buy on Amazon here)
Author: Jamie McGuire
Published: 26th May 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (13th July 2012)
Genre: Romance, Drama, Young Adult
Pages: 434
Format: E-Book
Rating: *** (3/5 Stars)
About: 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 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.
Review: I honestly feel really conflicted at the rating that I gave this book. For starters, I couldn’t put this book down, and at the same time, I was so frustrated because the characters are so irritating.
My next concern is that when I was reading the reviews for this book, it scares me now that people think the type of relationship in this book is perfect? It’s borderline abusive and who the heck thinks that having sex is the perfect way to end a relationship?
One review said that this was the book to read if you were having withdrawal symptoms from the ‘Fifty Shades’ series. I don’t really agree with it, and not because the sex scenes aren’t so explicit.
I feel bad because it looks like I’m just complaining but just for the record, I will say this only once, I did like this book. I just want to make people aware of the effect it might have on some people.
This book is not for those who only like to read stuff that is believable and I get that the author was trying to create some sort of mystery for this 19-year-old girl, but I just kind of hated her at some points because she just wasn’t very smart. Some of the things she did (which she reasoned was the right thing to do), were just so stupid and wrong. I mean, I guess without all the stupid decisions she made, there would have been no drama, so I guess it was kind of needed.
Reasons why I actually liked this book, is because I quite enjoy storylines where the bad boy falls totally in love with the good girl, who swore she would never end up with him. It’s a cliche, a typical love story but one which I always enjoy. So no matter what, unless it’s so bogus and crappy, I always enjoy these types of stories.
Now I did say at the beginning that I found the characters irritating, I guess I should just give them a pass because they are still like young adults/teenagers, so if this was a story about actual adults I would have probably given up, but as they are just young adults, I’ll let their stupid decision making slide.
The next, and last thing, that I will complain about, is the tattoos that they each get. Warning slight spoiler might be revealed if you’re smart. So basically, he gets her name (‘Abby’) tattooed on himself and then at the end, instead of Abby getting Travis’ name tattooed on her, she gets the words ‘Mrs. Maddox’. I found this so disturbing because it’s essentially turning her into a piece of property. It’s like she belongs to him, and I really did not find that cute.
When I first started reading this book, I had no clue where it was actually going to go and I did like the fact that there were some small twists (nothing major though). The characters, although annoying at times, were very well written, and each had a very developed personality that never felt strained.
The writing style was very easy to read through and it did capture my attention, meaning that I read this book in one sitting unable to put it down.
It’s weird because I did like this book, I just think it gives out the wrong message and people don’t seem to realise that. This book is just fiction, not perfection. Please, please, please don’t think that this book shows how relationships should be.
Instead, just enjoy the fictional world it creates, a world which allows you to escape into something completely new and different. It certainly will keep your mind enthralled and, if like me, you won’t be able to put it down.
Just remember all the things that I said, this book’s story should not be taken to heart.
CastlesandTurrets 