New Adult Monday Review: Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Published by: Atria Books
Release date: 2nd April 2013
Series: Beautiful #2
I got it from: NetGalley
Quote:“Once she kissed me, my heart slowed, and every muscle in my body relaxed. How much I needed her terrified me. I couldn’t imagine love was like this for everyone, or men would all be walking around like lunatics the second they were old enough to notice girls.” 
 
Goodreads summary:
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.

My Review:
Oh yum! Travis Maddox is all kinds of yummy. After reading Abby's side of the story in Beautiful Disaster, having the chance to hear from the delicious Travis Maddox is a wonderful treat. In fact I think I actually enjoyed reading Walking Disaster more, although that might be because I didn't have to deal with the stress of not knowing the outcome.

I loved Beautiful Disaster, and I love both Abby and Travis (you can read my review of BD here). As a couple, they totally rock - the intense relationship that they have makes for a very emotional read. While Abby's story was an emotional rollercoaster, when it comes to reading Travis' side, it's quite a tear-jerker. If you can read about that kind of commitment and adoration without being reduced to mush then you're a hard person!

It's not easy for a woman to write how a man thinks, and either Jaime McGuire had some help from her husband, or she has an extraordinary insight into the workings of the male mind, because Travis seemed so very real and so very male.We get to explore his relationship with his brothers and friends a lot more here, which is good - we see a more developed, well-rounded character when taken in context with the people around him.

Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster are the epitome of the New Adult genre. They're all about the intensity of falling in love for the first time, about the fact that life isn't easy, and sometimes you have to fight for what you want. Abby is brilliant in Beautiful Disaster (ok, so lots of people don't like her, but while she's not always a good person she is a great character), but Travis is even better in Walking Disaster. He's a certain type of dream guy - the reformed rake. He meets the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with, and he becomes a different person. I think all girls dream that they can do that to someone on some level, even if it's a deep, dark secret - who doesn't want to change someone for the better - not because you're trying to change them, but just by virtue of being yourself and inspiring them to be more.

It is essential to read Beautiful Disaster before this book, and you really want to have it fresh in your mind, so that you can remember Abby's point of view during all the drama. Getting intimate with both sides of the argument is necessary to really understand what's going on - there's so much that these two think but don't say - they really could have sorted out their relationship a hell of a lot sooner if they just ignored their pride and said out loud what was going on in their heads! But they're only human, and we all do it. It takes time to learn to trust someone with your innermost thoughts.

The end totally blew me away - I really wasn't expecting to get a snapshot of Abby and Travis' life years down the line, and if I had thought about it, that is not what I would have expected from it! I need to get a proper paper copy of this book - seeing just Beautiful Disaster sitting on my bookcase, it looks lonely - it needs its companion!

New Adult Monday Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Published by: Atria Books
Release date: 14th August 2012
Series: Beautiful #1
I got it from: Bookshop
Quote:“I knew the second I met you that there was something about you I needed. Turns out it wasn’t something about you at all. It was just you.” 
 
Goodreads summary:
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.
 
My review:
This has to be one of the most stressful books I've ever read. Don't get me wrong - I loved it, completely and absolutely, but it was hard to read at times. Every now and then a book will really get under my skin and affect me emotionally. I don't just mean the funny bits make me laugh and the sad bits make me cry - it's more like I become emotionally linked to the heroine and what happens to her affects how I feel. When she's happy and in love I'm full of joy and affection; when she does something stupid I'm irritable and short-tempered; when she's heartbroken I'm depressed. Abby was one of these characters. I had to keep reading and try to make sure I ended up in a good scene before putting the book down!

One of the best things about Beautiful Disaster was its ability to keep me guessing. I mean, there's usually an outcome that you want - an ending that you think is the way things should go. Much of the time books subscribe to this and give you a nice, neat ending that ties up all the lose ends and finishes the story. I don't really appreciate books like that too much. Endings are a big thing for me and it's not that often I come across a book that, for me, really gets it right. Beautiful Disaster kept me guessing all the way through. I knew what I wanted to happen, but I really wasn't sure if it was going to or not. This is part of what made for some stressful reading, but it's also what made it excellent. Life is not a story. Stuff happens, things get in the way of what you want, and you can't always rely on things, be it fate, other people or even yourself sometimes. Beautiful Disaster illustrated this point - well, beautifully. The title says it all.

Abby is an amazing character. At the start she's trying to be this girl, who fits in, studies hard, doesn't get in with the wrong crowd and definitely doesn't get tempted by the likes of Travis Maddox. She's kind of damaged, but it's made her incredibly strong - too strong sometimes. She's proud, stubborn and a bit wild. 
Her sketchy past makes her really interesting, and her determination to escape and overcome it makes for a great story. Travis is not in her plan. He is too close to everything she's trying to get away from, but she just can't help herself. The very fact that she is proud of, rather than repelled by, Travis' fighting hints at the kind of past she's had and the kind of person she is. It's the point when we start to see this at which we begin to see the true Abby Abernathy. When she finally starts to let Travis in everything takes off. The chemistry between these two is incredible. The intense relationship they have is both a blessing and a curse. I know only too well what it feels like to experience that kind of love and need. Some people may say it's not healthy, that it's destructive, but when you've felt something that strong it's impossible to settle for anything less.

America, Abby's best friend, is the very best kind of best friend. She's unswervingly loyal and supportive, and exactly who Abby needs. Travis' support network of his flatmate Shepley and his band of brothers is a rare insight into the world of boys, and the relationships dynamics between them are brilliant to read. What's interesting about this book for me is that it's almost like part fantasy novel - the type of life these people read is so far out of my realm of experience that I can barely imagine it. Yet however different the lifestyles are, the relationships remain familiar, true and real.

However stressful it was to read the first time, I adored Beautiful Disaster and can't wait to read Travis' side of the story, Walking Disaster. Check back next week for my review!