Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

E-ARC, 432 pages
First Published: May 26, 2011
Republished: August 14, 2012
Published by: Simon & Schuster, Inc. (Atria)
Series: Beautiful #1
Source: NetGalley*
For fans of: Realistic Fiction, Contemporary Romance, New Adult, Hot Guys

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and 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 THOUGHTS*
WARNING: This book does have sex, alcohol, and bad language in it. 
     Wow. This book. Too much to say, but I'm afraid there's not enough words to cover the greatness that is this book. When I first heard about it, it was last year when it was still being indie published. I didn't have my Nook then so I couldn't read it. Finally, I saw it the author had gotten a deal and she was being published and it would be available on NetGalley. I grabbed it as soon as it was available. Congrats to Ms. McGuire on signing the deal and continuing on to make it a series. 
     In the story, Abby is a girl with many secrets that she came to college to forget about. Travis is the dude that all girl's moms have warned them about. And this is the thing that pulls the two together. Although she fought tooth and nail to prove she wouldn't be another of Travis' girls, inevitably she falls for his bad boy (and I definitely mean BAD BOY) charm. This is a bit painful because he reminds her of everything she's trying to forget about her past. All of their drama is heart-wrenching and delivers plot twist after plot twist. Granted I felt like it got a little carried out; they were ALWAYS fighting. I had to remind myself that this was a contemporary romance. But then again, that's why it was called "Beautiful Disaster." Idk, I just felt like it was kind of drawn out after awhile and I wanted more romance, less fighting..... But the epilogue pulled it all together and made me feel better about it again :) 
     Before going any further, I feel the need to bring light to the negative reviews I saw this was getting. Yes the romance (if you can call it that) was a bit sketchy and the main male character was a bit crazy, but everyone gets crazy when driven by love. And for people to say that they dislike this book because its teaching girls to be pushovers and let dudes go crazy on them, I have one question........ HOW THE HELL IS THAT DIFFERENT FROM THE REST OF SOCIETY?! This book is amazing, and for one to miss out on it because they heard about the stuff Travis did and the actions that the characters took, is just crazy to me. Especially because as crazy as they BOTH were, it ended up working out in their favor. 
     Ok, now that I ranted a little, on to the characters. My favorites by far were America, Shepley, and Finch. They were there no matter what was going on, just like real friends are supposed to be. I also loved Travis' family. They had some rough patches through life, but who doesn't? They opened up their lives to Abby and didn't think twice about it.Then there was Travis... Poor, broken, in love Travis. He is the definite bad boy. He smokes, drives a Harley, has numerous tattoos, has "bagged" multiple females, and is involved in a fight club. But let me tell you, EVERY last bit of information I just gave you makes him incredibly hot. And the fact that he is in love with ONE girl, totally makes it even better. Granted he does do some crazy things, but all of that is overlooked when looking at the picture in total. All the things he did to me were reactions to the woman he loved doing the things she did. As for Abby, there was so many things wrong with her. She honestly made my head hurt. She played so many games with Travis and then expected him to just sit back and take it when she knew he was crazy already. Towards the end of the book, I found myself saying there was no way I could be her friend because she made some totally dumb decisions and at times had me thinking Travis should just move on.
     Overall, this story is really epic. I love contemporary stories that feature a troubled guy and a "goodie" girl, but this one tops my list, along with the Perfect Chemistry series, Something Like Normal, and Pushing the Limits. It was just that gooooood. 
Overall, I give this

*I would like to give a huge thank you to NetGalley and Atria (Simon and Schuster) for allowing me to read this advanced copy in return for an honest review. 

*EXTRA*
As I was reading this I came across a Pintrest board that she made based on this book. (See it HERE) That one picure of "Travis"...... Uh yeah, he's definitely HAWT! lol 

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