Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful #1) by Jamie McGuire

August 14th, 2012 · Simon and Schuster

Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 416

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.

I’m sure you're all familiar with the saying a picture is worth a thousand words. Now, this might not be a picture exactly (GIF alert) but whenever I see this, it reminds me of Travis from Beautiful Disaster. Why? Because like this guy who is chasing after this poor lady who obviously doesn’t want to be loved by him, Travis is a little extreme, desperate, possessive and I certainly wouldn’t put it pass him to chase after Abby, declaring his love all psycho-ish while she runs to lock the door (but knowing her, she’d leave it wide open or better yet, run towards him. When will this girl learn?).

Instead of the warm and fuzzies that usually happen when romance arises, I found myself cringing. I love chemistry, sexy times and a good old fashioned swoon but Beautiful Disaster just didn’t do it for me. I mean, cringing? Who wants that? Certainly not me, that’s who; I want to swoon and ache and giggle and grin and for my heart to skip a beat and I’m sad to report, but none of that happened for me.

Travis is clingy, overly jealous, bad-tempered, a loose cannon waiting to happen and deserves an honourable mention on the list of Worst Male YA Love Interests. I love a good male love interest to swoon over (who doesn’t?) but he definitely isn’t one. Also, Travis went from being this womanizer to a love sick puppy - talk about unrealistic! Oh, and Abby? I didn’t particularly like her either. She was all over the place and rather annoying, plus she just let the thing with Travis (whatever you want to call it) go on and on, letting it brew and simmer for a whole 416 pages.

I haven’t read 50 Shade of Grey, nor do I plan to, but in my opinion, this is what I would expect the YA version to be.

Some parts were that predictable and cheesy that at times I just couldn’t help but laugh and giggle out loud. Even though I had issues with Beautiful Disaster, I did appreciate it for its entertainment value and that it made for an addictive read but that is all.

2/5

P.S – Pigeon is the worst pet name ever. I don’t know about you but I don’t get the appeal at all. It’s not cute or sexy and if someone called me that I’d probably throw a pie in their face, just sayin'.