Beautiful Disaster

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

    Y’all have seen the title, Y’all have seen it’s in the DNF section, and Y’all know this is like the mother of NEW ADULT books.... I’ve probably just been thrown out of the reading world.... So if you haven’t already realized, I DNF’ed Beautiful Disaster.. There I said it. 

   This book was another one of those books that I should have picked up way back when it released to really enjoy it. Most people I talk to that love this book read it back in 2011/2012.. and here I am in 2019 picking it up and DNF’ing it..... So to the one person out there who doesn’t know what this book is about let me give you a little summary... *Que dim the lights *

   The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink and has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from her past, but when she starts college with her best friend, her path is quickly shaken up by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.
     Travis Maddox is exactly what Abby needs- and wants- to avoid. Covered in tattoos, part of a fighting ring, campus charmer and most importunely Abby is immune to all of those. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance, Travis tricks her into his life with a bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must stay in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

      

      So this is literally 319 pages of exactly what I just described in the summary. Like I said, I DNF’ed it but I also skimmed the rest of the book to see if it got any better... Which it didn’t. One of my biggest.. no the BIGGEST problem I had with this book was that I felt like it was all over the place and on page one we jump into something with no context or back story. I literally double checked to see if my copy was missing pages. This continues throughout the book. We learn about a problem either after it happens or we get nothing to understand where the plot is heading and why this exact plot point is relevant.
      So other then the writing I just couldn’t get into Travis and Abby’s relationship. It almost felt like the author was trying to make it slow burn but then by chapter five it was like yeahhhhh scratch that, they need to love each other right now. The way the relationship was built was just not organic. Travis is supposed to be this bad boy who uses girls and then he just happens to know that Abby is the one for him after like 25 minutes? (Being dramatic but you get the point) Also the same can be said for Abby? WHAT GOOD GIRL CAN CHUG 20 TEQUILA SHOTS AT A PARTY...... Just saying. I’m pretty sure I gag before I even take one shot, yet cardigan wearing Abby Abernathy slaps them down like a trucker at a Texas roadside bar. Which once again we get hints at why the character is acting the way they do but then I kept reading waiting for them to explain it, but it was like we just kept jumping from one plot point to another and the whole thing was trying to be suffocated with enough romance and sex that you wouldn’t realize you weren’t getting a real plot.
      Like I said if I read this years ago I would have been talking about this book like it was Colleen Hoover’s newest release. Sadly I felt like the characters were just to immature and I couldn’t finish it. I envy the people that got to love this book the right way and I’m quickly realizing a lot of books from this publishing era that are labeled NA are either being DNF’ed or I’m giving them 2-3 star ratings. I wish this book would have worked out for me, but it didn’t and at least I can donate it and let someone else have the chance to love it!

If you want a cute enemies to lovers type of romance then check out Arrogant Devil by R.S. Grey!