Book Review: Beautiful Disaster

Title:  Beautiful Disaster
Author:  Jamie McGuire
Where I got it:  From NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review

Amazon 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 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.

My Thoughts:
So it’s kind of a funny story…  I have had a book called Beautiful Disaster on my wishlist for a while (different author), and every time I went to look to see if the price had dropped at all, this other version came up.  And not being able to remember off the top of my head what the cover looked like, or which author was the one I knew I wanted…  I must have looked at this book a thousand times and thought it wasn’t something I was interested in.  Then all of the sudden, a bunch of random people at work started talking about it, and at the same time, I had the change to read a review copy…  And let’s just say that I’m kicking myself for not reading this sooner, because it was a completely addicting, emotional (in a good way) page turner – I couldn’t put it down!

Abby Abernathy has left her difficult past behind, and moved to her college campus to start fresh with a “good girl” image…  But when she literally runs right into the campus man whore, Travis, her carefully constructed new life begins to wobble.

Travis is a dark and dangerous emotional roller coaster with a huge chip on his shoulder, and definite control issues.  He’s immediately drawn to Abby, simply because she isn’t interested in him, and they form a super deep, although somewhat unusual friendship – even though both of them start to feel a connection and want something more.  But Travis is convinced he’s no good for Abby, and Abby isn’t willing to drag him into her sordid past…  It’ll be a wild ride to see if the two of them can get out of their own way to make something beautiful from their relationship.

I seriously can’t even articulate what I loved so much about this book that I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want to do anything but find out how things ended for Travis and Abby.  I fell in love with the characters, and the concept, and the action, and the romance…  It’s just awesome.  If you’ve been holding off on giving this book a chance like I was – you just need to stop right now and go pick it up.