Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

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.

RATING: 5 STARS

“I wish you and Travis would just get your shit together! You’re a goddamn tornado! When you’re happy, it’s love and peace and butterflies. When you’re pissed, you take the whole fucking world down with you!”

Beauitful Disaster has been one of my all-time favorite books since I first read it in 2012, and Travis Maddox is high on my book-boyfriend list.


Whenever my friends ask me for book recommendations, it's always Beautiful Disaster that get's recommended first, because everybody should read it. It's as simple as that!

Travis is a driking, fighting-for-the-hell-of-it, man-whore, who has never let women get close to his heart. Abby is the only girl who doesn't put up with his bullshit, and she has her own reasons for not wanting to get into a relationship with him. However, Travis and Abby end up getting closer and soon become friends. Friendship quickly leads to a relationship, and this is when things really become chaotic. Abby & Trav, love each other, but they have problems, both together as a couple and individually.

He watched me rake my fingers through the tangles in my hair and smiled. “Quit it. You’re fucking beautiful.” “Just point me to the nearest eighties rock video,” I said. 

Travis Maddox is amazing! He is the prime example of the man-whore who completely turns his life around because of that one girl that he never thought he would find. However, like so many other books with this storyline, Travis' transformation is actually believable because it doesn't happen overnight. In the beginning, he is interested in Abby because she doesn't want him, but slowly their relationship changes and becomes something more. 

When I first read this book, Travis was perfect in my eyes. However, during this reread I have realized that though Travis is swoony, he is also really crazy. 

Travis is swoony because he is loyal, however he is also crazy because he is so fiercely loyal that he becomes crazy jealous, even in ridiculous situations. 

He is swoony because he is protective of his girl, however he is also crazy because being protective in Travis-style means beating the crap out of every person who even looks at Abby the wrong way. 

He is also swoony because he is a nice guy beneath all the crap! However, I must admit that if he were my boyfriend I would have dumped his ass because of his ridiculous behavior, and I would have been embarrassed to be seen with him. But luckily this is fiction, so I can just sit back, relax and enjoy the freak show. I know this sounds like I don't like him, but I do. I love Travis! He is just a good guy, who has a lot of issues - especially with women. 

He scanned my face with careful hope in his eyes. “You love me?” “It’s the tattoos,” I shrugged.

Abby Abernathy is the good girl, who falls for the bad boy. Or so it seems in the beginning. 

She also has issues and demons from her past, but she "deals" with these issues by running from her problems and putting on a facade. 

I have a love/hate relationship with Abby. I know she means well, but in many situations her behavior is just as bad as Travis'. Abby hides her feelings behind her anger, so she comes across as very temperamental, and I just wanted her to chill the f*** out. She was also quite the hypocrite. She wanted Travis on his best behavior always, but it was completely fine for her to date two guys at the same time. It felt like she wanted Travis to "earn" the right to be in a relationship with her - but she never did anything to make it work. It was annoying to be honest. 

That being said, I also really liked Abby because she is really relatable. She is just a girl with a lot on her plate and doesn't know how to react to everything. I could definitely see myself in her, which made the reading experience better.

“You know why I want you? I didn’t know I was lost until you found me. I didn’t know what alone was until the first night I spent without you in my bed. You’re the one thing I’ve got right. You’re what I’ve been waiting for, Pigeon.”

Travis and Abby's relationship is fire - that's the best word I can use to describe it. It's pretty, fascinating, it is warm, but it can also burn down the entire world!

They had a really nice relationship when everything were going well, and I definitely swooned and fangirled a lot. However, when things were bad, they were really bad. 

Their relationship dragged me through too many emotions to count. Sometimes it was painful and it felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest and torched, sometimes it was heartbreaking and other times it was perfect and the fangirl in me freaked out. 

“I love you so much, Pigeon,” he said kissing me over and over. “Just remember that in fifty years when I’m still kicking your ass in poker,” I giggled. He smiled, triumphant. “If it means sixty or seventy years with you, baby … you have my full permission to do your worst.” I raised one eyebrow. “You’re gonna regret that.” “I bet I won’t.”

I love this book to pieces, and every book that can evoke as many emotions in my little fangirl heart as this book deserves a medal or something. 

I love the flow of the book (it flows so nicely), the title (because it fits the characters so well), the cover (I mean, seriously, look at all that pretty), the characters, the story, the author, I LOVE EVERYTHING!

I would highly recommend Beautiful Disaster to everybody, and though my perception of it has changed through the years, it will always have a very special place in my heart because it was the book that opened my eyes to NA. 

"The only thing I’m afraid of is a life without you, Pigeon.”