Book Review: Walking Disaster

Author: Jamie McGuire
Publication Date: April 2, 2013
Publisher: Atria Books
Series: Beautiful # 2

Finally, the highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful Disaster.

Can you love someone too much?

Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.

The women that were worth that kind of heartbreak wouldn’t let you fall for them so easy.

 

I decided a long time ago I would feed on the vultures until a dove came along. A pigeon. The kind of soul that didn’t impede on anyone; just walked around worrying about its own business, trying to get through life without pulling everyone else down with its own needs and selfish habits. Brave. A communicator. Intelligent. Beautiful. Soft-spoken. A creature that mates for life. Unattainable.

 

“What are you, the Karate Kid? Where did you learn to fight?”

 

“One of these days you’re going to fall in love, son. Don’t settle for just anyone. Choose the girl that doesn’t come easy, the one you have to fight for, and then never stop fighting. Never.”

 

“You just admitted to it. Travis Maddox in love. Now I’ve heard everything.”

Travis Maddox is not what most girls look for in a serious boyfriend. He is abrasive, hard, has a foul mouth, and doesn’t give a girl the time of day much longer than a one night stand. He was raised without a mother and with three older brothers who liked to fight, gamble, and fight some more. He has a rather rough and hard exterior, but all of that changes when Abby Abernathy walks into his life. He starts to experience feelings that he has never felt before and he believes that he has finally found the one his mother told him to wait for. This is the brilliantly written second book in the Beautiful series, and allows readers to step inside Travis Maddox’s mind.

 

So many readers and bloggers have blown up the internet with news about Abby and Travis, and with good reason. I am in love with this new genre known as New Adult, and this is a perfect example of why it is so addicting and mouth-watering. I became very invested in Abby and Travis’s relationship in the first novel, and I didn’t think I was going to be able to wait until this one came out. These novels are very realistic and Jamie McGuire captures the relationship between these two as if she were a part of it herself. She has such skill to be able to write two books that cover the same events but just with different perspectives! I am still left fascinated!

 

I must say, however, that I enjoyed Travis’s perspective more than Abby's. I have read many reviews in which bloggers have stated that they did not care for Travis and his hard core exterior. I knew there were reasons as to why Travis acted the way he did, and I was pleased to learn his history and more about his life and family. Travis is a very realistic character. There are men that, and women for that matter, that live like Travis every day. He is sporadic, spontaneous, and completely fearless. I never knew what he would do when I turned the page. I loved his unpredictability and I loved the way he cared for Abby. His rough edges were quickly smoothed by his love for Abby!

 

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Atria Books in exchange for my honest and unbiased review***