Author - Jamie McGuire
Genre - Romance, New Adult, Violence
Publisher - Atria Books
UK Release Date - April 16th 2013
Source - NetGalley
Synopsis - Can you love someone too much?
Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.
In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.
Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.
Walking Disaster is the sequel to Beautiful Disaster. I have not read Beautiful Disaster and normally that would have put me off from requesting this, but the cover is GOOD and the Butterfly is just gorgeous that I couldn't help myself. Plus I'd heard a lot of good things about Beautiful Disaster.
I did do a little research on the first book. I read a few 5 star reviews and a couple of the 1 star's. The people who loved it gushed about how perfect Travis was, and after reading Walking Disaster I have no idea where they got that from. The 1 star reviewers didn't like the book because of Travis's temper. And I get where they're coming from but at no point in the book did he even think about hurting Abby. Maybe it's because I've read a lot of Wolf books but Travis hitting people because of how they treated Abby wasn't all that bad...
I honestly don't know how to rate Walking Disaster. It's boggled me. I started this book, cried when Travis's mum died, couldn't wait to pick it back up after putting it down and finished it within 2-3 nights. I enjoyed reading this book. But there were parts that annoyed me and still annoy me. It's only after finishing the book that I look at it and think; really?
Let's start off with the YA rating. This book is NOT YA. It's New Adult. For some reason the YA rating really annoyed me. Imagine an avid reader; 13 years old about to pick her first YA book and Beautiful Disaster is the one she picks. Holy cow, she'd probably stick to kid books all her life.
Beautiful Disaster is written from Travis's POV. Travis is supposed to be a bad boy. He fights illegally on campus, smokes and has a temper... Oh and has every female throwing themselves at him. Yet in the book, he's crying, on his knees begging, and practically gushing about Abby from the get go and when he's not insecure he's incredibly possessive. Sounds more like the sensitive boy next door minus the illegal campus fighting.
I don't know how many bottles of whiskey and beer this story went through but it was unbelievable. Travis drank a whole bottle of whiskey and somehow not only managed to keep it down but also managed to escape any hangover. Now I don't drink but I've watched enough TV and read enough books to know it does NOT work like that.
Abby is supposed to be a good girl. I don't really know about that... I don't know if it's a case of me not having read Beautiful Disaster but there wasn't really anything that said Abby was a good girl apart from the fact that she didn't throw herself at Travis. Instead she went alcohol crazy on her 19th birthday party and nearly gave herself alcohol poisoning all in the name of winning money. Willingly went to an illegal fight, gambled and later set up some type of deal with the illegal fight organiser. Then there's also her past. She's a great poker player. Poker player does not mean good girl. I suppose she could have been a reformed character...? One thing I have to admit though is I could not connect with Abby. Maybe because this wasn't her book, but not only do I not know anything about her, I didn't understand the appeal. What made Travis so crazy about her?
I could probably nit-pick about this book till tomorrow but I won't. At the end of the day this is a fiction book, meant for enjoyment. And that is what it did. Whilst I read it I loved it. It's only when you step back and think everything through you wonder how somebody does and thinks the way Travis did.
I loved the way this book ended though. Not enough books end this way. A future happily ever after. They made it, I wasn't sure they would.
After a lot of going back and forth. I'm going to give this book a...
4/5 - I did like it when I read it. I can't forget how quickly I finished my chores and went to bed each day whilst reading this.
Image and Synopsis via Goodreads
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