Synopsis
INTENSE. DANGEROUS. ADDICTIVE.
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.
5/5 stars
————————————————————–
My Review
Abby Abernathy moves away to college with her best friend America to Eastern University. Wanting to distance herself from her past and everything to do with it, she arrives at college a ‘good girl.’ But when she encounters the univerisity’s walking one-night stander, Travis Maddox, her new beginning far away from her past is now being challenged.
Enter Travis Maddox. Your typical bad boy, covered in tattoos, hoards of girls throwing themselves at him and the ultimate winner in the floating fight ring. He is everything Abby used to know and everything she wants and needs to stay away from. But when his charms are resisted by Abby, he’s suddenly drawn to her and challenges her to a bet. If he loses, he has to stop whoring around for a month and if Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time.
But neither of them realized is that when the month is up, it’s changed both of them.
I read Beautiful Disaster many, many months ago. Long before I set up my book review blog. With Walking Disaster around the corner, and having the privilege to read it, thanks to NetGalley, I read this alongside Walking Disaster as there were certain scenes I had forgotten about. But now I have read it again, I think it’s time Beautiful Disaster graced my blog and had its own review, in courtesy of being such an AMAZING book and so Abby and Travis can go side by side on my blog when my Walking Disaster review goes up tomorrow.
Abby moved as far away as she could to start her life again. She wanted to leave the past in the past and tell no one her secrets, apart from America, of course, who has been her best friend since they were little and been there every step of the way. Wanting to just concentrate on university and not get mixed up with anything that will remind her of her past life, its then that she meets Travis ‘MadDog’ Maddox who ultimately switches her life upside down. She resists his charms, because she had been through this before. But then Travis can’t stay away, so the more time they spend together, the more feelings are starting to change. Making a bet, Abby loses and has to stay with Travis for a month. Easy, she can do that, but then everything from dating, to gossip and rumours being spread about her and Travis is tipping her and with Travis’s hot and cold tempers confusing her, can she make it through the month?
I really liked Abby. She just wanted to disappear from her past and start afresh. A place where no one knew who she was and the type of person she was. She tried to be the ‘good girl’ but throughout the book, you see her spark. The old her is slowly reappearing and you see her spunk, her attack back. But you also see the vulnerable side to her. The side she doesn’t want to show but with Travis and her feelings, she can’t help it. She tries for so long to keep them under wraps, not wanting to be dragged back into what she came to get away from, but it was too damn hard in the end to stay away. I could see her reasoning for not wanting to be with Travis, even though she blatantly wanted him like he wanted her. She wasn’t a doormat to the relationship, she spoke out and stood up for herself, even knowing that being with him probably wasn’t the best idea as the relationship was so turbulent and she even left him for a couple of weeks, but no matter what happened, they always came back together.
Travis is known throughout the university as being a ladies’ man. He bags them then dumps them. That’s just how he is. But every single girl wants to try and tame him, not getting far enough to do so. He’s never wanted to be with a girl long enough to include feelings but then Abby comes along and after one meeting after his fight, he sees something in her that kind of reminds him, of him. She had this innocent look but he could see through her. See that she had been hurt before. Knowing she is different from the girls he sleeps with, he wants to get to know her. So making a bet one night at his fight, Abby loses and moves in with Travis for a month. Never being in love, this month proves to Travis how much he can’t and doesn’t want to be without Abby. She is the first girl to ever make him feel that way and it makes him fight for her – even if he sometimes pushes her too far by his tempers and possessiveness as they aren’t going out…yet.
There are so many obstacles and issues standing between Abby and Travis. Abby acts like she doesn’t want Travis but deep down she does, she just doesn’t and can’t get involved with him. It was a real up and down rollercoaster with these two that at times I wanted to strangle them because they needed to get their shit together and just confess that they loved each other than going around in circles and starting back at the beginning once again.
But when they do get together, it’s still a rollercoaster of a ride. They have high and lows, break-ups, scream and shouts, and tears and I just wanted to throw them into a room, make them talk it all out and get them back together.
Their relationship as Shepley puts it: “When you’re happy, its love and peace and butterflies. When you’re pissed, you rake the whole fucking world down with you!” Yes, this is basically what it was. But, when they get all the jealousy and insecurities out of the way at the end, then yes, their love – even throughout everything that happened in the book – can withstand anything that is thrown their way and the ending was perfect for those two.
It started with a bet and finishes with one.
Many people don’t like this book because of Travis and his temper and possessiveness. The way he flies of the handle in some scenes, trashing the apartment, throwing punches at people who disrespect Abby. Okay, so most of the temper was due to his and Abby’s relationship but he would of NEVER hit Abby and although lashing out probably wasn’t the best way to act, remember he grew up with 4 brothers who, of course, you’re going to play fight and fight when you get angry at each other. (You’ll understand his temper and issues in Walking Disaster so much more better because it’s Travis’s POV). I’m not condoning his actions, but since reading W.D, I can’t see why he’s angry and jealous and insecure in B.D.
But deep down, Travis, to me, has so much love to give, he just needed to find and fight for the right one. The one being Abby. He is a jerk and jealous and protective but to me, I think it’s because she was the one who turned him upside down. The one who unlocked all these unusual and scary feelings within him that he had no idea how to handle it because he was a ‘screw them and leave them’ kinda guy for years but then Abby appears and throws him for account. Although it takes him a long time to control his emotions, you really does love Abby and them having a happily ever after was exactly what both of them deserved after the journey they had gone on to get to that point.
They both truly are a beautiful disaster together and I can’t see them being with anyone else apart from one another. It was a long journey to get where they got to, but in the end, no matter what they both said to one another throughout the book, no matter how much time they spent apart, they always came back together, like a magnet. People say us young ‘un’s don’t know real love…but this love? This hot, possessive, consuming, powerful love they have for one another? You can’t say that teenagers/young adults don’t know love, because it doesn’t matter how old you are, love hits everyone, and it certainly did for Abby and Travis.
If you still haven’t read Beautiful Disaster, I suggest you go and buy it/download it and then pre-order Walking Disaster because once you fall for Travis in B.D, you will definitely want to know his side of the story in Walking Disaster!
Z. Elizabeth 