Review: Beautiful Disaster + Thoughts On New Adult

Author: Jamie McGuire
Release Date: August 14, 2012
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 418
Series: Beautiful #1
Source: Library
[add on Goodreads]

Summary:  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 Favorite Lines:

“My name’s Travis. Travis Maddox.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know who you are.”
“You do, huh?” Travis said, raising his wounded eyebrow.
“Don’t flatter yourself. It’s hard not to notice when fifty drunks are chanting your name. “
Travis sat up a bit taller. “I get that a lot.” I rolled my eyes again, and Travis chuckled. “Do you have a
twitch?”
“A what?”
“A twitch. Your eyes keep wiggling around.” He laughed again when I glared at him. “Those are some amazing eyes though,” he said, leaning just inches from my face.”

“I'm not your anything," I snapped, glaring up at him.
His eyebrows pulled in and he stopped dancing. "You're my everything.”

Why I Loved It:  A lot of people have recommended this book to me over the past year.  A LOT OF PEOPLE.  And it's a hard book for me to review.  On one hand, I read this book in a day.  It's like I couldn't put it down.  Travis and Abby's relationship is seriously like a train without breaks.  You know it's going to crash, but you can't look away.  And then some how, they seem to make something out of the wreckage.  I had that weird feeling that people must get when they come outside to watch a house burn or stop to see a car wreck.

The writing was actually really good considering that Jamie McGuire self-published.  I admire what it took to get all that accomplished.  And when authors manage to get up to very high spots without even having an editor?  It's impressive.  There were moments when I wasn't a big fan of the writing, but at other times I was blown away by how great the writing really was.  So I have no problem saying I love Jamie McGuire's writing.

I think my problem may be more of the reason I never got on the 50 Shades train.  I don't like the bad boy whose existence ends up being wrapped up in a girl.  I will say that the writing in this book is ten times of what I had read of 50 Shades.  So for those ladies out there that adored that series, you should probably read this one next.  I understand that the book has a huge appeal.  In all honesty, I know that I already requested Walking Disaster because I couldn't help myself.  And I will probably spend a whole other day reading that book.  The story sucks you in.  At the end though, I really hated that Abby stood by and allowed Travis to be so destructive to himself because of her.  The idea of "I can't live without you" has appeal and a "Romeo and Juliet" type of romance attached to it, but it's not the idea that I try to pass on to my teens.  Which brings me to this New Adult trend that has taken the YA/Romance genre by storm.

I honestly am a big fan of this new genre division being put in place.  There are so many adults that still love YA.  But the more adults you have reading the genre, the more heavy issues get brought into the books.  I know that teens deal with hard issues and books should reflect that.  But some issues are things that teens don't always have to deal with till later.  Which is why this whole New Adult genre is appealing to me.  It gives adults a chance to enjoy the book styles they love with more of a college setting.  It's a huge plus for those adults who LOVE contemporary.  Also I think it will help merge adult and teen and give readers a chance to find their crossroad between the two.  It can be hard to take the leap, and New Adult is making that leap much smaller.

Who Should Read It:  Sylvia Day and E. L. James fans.