Publication date: May 26th, 2011
Published by: Jamie McGuire, LLC
Genre: YA/Adult Contemporary
Rating: 5/5
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 America, 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 charming college co-ed. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his charms, 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’ apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.
Getting into Beautiful Disaster, apart from knowing it would be awesome since every friend of mine has told me so, I thought it was gonna be more or less a Perfect Chemistry kind of YA contemporary novel. Bad boy meets responsible girl, they date, something bad happens but they get over it, they date again and live happily ever after.
Yeah, right!
Beautiful Disaster was miles away from that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Perfect Chemistry was not good in comparison, far from it. I love PC with all my heart. Believe me, when I was done with Beautiful Disaster I longed for the "simplicity" of Perfect Chemistry! But no. BD was so emotionally draining that I still don't know if I love it or hate it for making me feel giddy with excitement one minute, only to leave me feeling miserable the next.
Beautiful Disaster is about the love between two college students: Travis Maddox and Abby (aka Pigeon/Pidge) Abernathy. They come from completely different backgrounds but how they ended up emotionally because of it, is exactly the same. They are both apparently very troubled and they have a lot of things in their minds and in their hearts that they definitely need to work out. But just when you think the combination of each other's baggage will end up in total chaos, by the end you accept that they can't live without it, this beautiful disaster they create when they are together.
Travis is not the typical bad boy who meets the girl of his dream and gets his shit together immediately and everything is fine and dandy from then on. He does finds the girl of his dreams, yes. At about 30% of the book. Throughout the rest, he tries desperately to figure out how to hold on to her, how not to lose her because of course a girl like Abby deserves someone better than him. And he gets obsessed. Very. Punching anyone that even glances her way, obsessed. I'm telling you, he did some things that freaked me out A LOT! And all the while I was thinking "Why isn't Abby freaking out??She's right next to him. Is she gonna let this or that slide?"
She did freak out and she did let a lot slide. Why? Because before Travis she felt no affection for any man. No boyfriends to speak of, a dead-beat dad who treats her like crap and then Travis, who adores her with every fiber of his being and she knows it, no matter what he does. Does that justifies her attitude towards his actions? I don't know. I don't know what I'd do if I was in her shoes, feeling something so strong. All I know is that if there is any person in the world that could put up with Travis's obsessive behavior is Abby, and if anyone could deal with Abby's tantrums is Travis. They are a perfect, catastrophic match.
Beautiful Disaster had some amazingly intense and powerful scenes I will never forget. For example, Travis singing "(I Can Get No)Satisfaction" by Rolling Stones in the school cafeteria, their break up(don't worry, there were numerous!I'm not spoiling anything)when he begs her to get back together (getting shivers just thinking about it), every scene in Travis's bedroom, I could go on and on.
When it's all said and done, I don't know if Beautiful Disaster is a good book or not. All I know is that it had a huge impact on me, stirred something in me and I know I will never forget it.
I really hope you feel the same when you read it, because it's moments like this that I fully comprehend my love for reading.
"You were going to say why you chose Eastern," he prompted.
"It's hard to explain," I said, shrugging. "I guess it just fell right."
He smiled as he opened his menu. "I know what you mean." 
Great review, this has been on my wishlist on Amazon for a while, it first caught my eye because of the cover! But it sounds like a really good book that sticks with you after the last page has been turned, I think it needs to move from my wishlist to my bought pile! Thanks for the review
ReplyDeleteSuzanne @ Under the Covers