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    Beautiful Disaster
    Beautiful Disaster
    Beautiful Disaster
    Audiobook10 hours

    Beautiful Disaster

    Written by Jamie McGuire

    Narrated by Emma Galvin

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Now a major motion picture! The “deliciously intense” (USA TODAY) New York Times bestselling phenomenon follows a good girl drawn to a very bad boy...

    The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear and has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. With the darkness of her past behind her, she believes her freshman year at college is the start of a new beginning. But then she meets Travis Maddox.

    Lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand is exactly what Abby needs to avoid. Intrigued by her resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in his apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match in this “beautifully sexy, beautifully intense, and beautifully perfect” (Jessica Park, New York Times bestselling author).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 17, 2012
    ISBN9781442359499
    Beautiful Disaster
    Author

    Jamie McGuire

    Jamie McGuire is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Disaster, Walking Disaster, A Beautiful Wedding, Almost Beautiful, and the Maddox Brothers series. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her children and two rescue pups, Finn and Coco. Please visit JamieMcGuire.com.

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    Reviews for Beautiful Disaster

    4/5

    1,875 ratings154 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Beautiful, no. Disaster, somewhat.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 1/5
      This book is terrible, I dont know why it is so popular to write story's about toxic and abusive relationships and have the characters end up together. I'm scared for young girls reading this thinking it is okay to be treated like this. More hooks need to show the relationship ending and the characters ending up in a healthy relationship.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 2/5
      It was unrealistic. Cheesy dialogue and the characters were annoying.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Do not read! Feat. Misogyny. slut-shaming and toxic relationships.
      I would not wish this upon my greatest enemy.
      Did not finish (if you read it you will figure out why).

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      This book was absolutely awful and should only be read as a cautionary tale. Abby and Travis' relationship is a textbook example of codependency. Travis, as a hero, sucks. He's a jerk who treats women like sexual objects, has zero respect for them, and uses them as he pleases. Except for Abby, of course. He falls head over heels for her the second he sees her and for some inexplicable reason, she's different from the rest. The scariest thing about Travis is his aggression problem. And I'm not talking about his illegal fights. Throughout the course of the book, he has at least THREE violent outbursts with the littlest of provocations that would have had me running for the hills. Travis is very controlling of Abby, going so far as to buy her a dog that she has to keep at his place just to ensure she'll have to come back to see him once she moves out. He frequently interrupts her dates with other guys and insists she has to be at his fights or else he's too distracted wondering where she is to pay attention in the fight. This last one is despite the fact the fights are actually a dangerous place for Abby to be.The crowds are out of control and Abby actually did get attacked once. Even then, Travis insisted she keep attending them.To try to make up for his asshole tendencies, McGuire gives Travis some unrealistically 'perfect' characteristics. For example, he never works out but is absolutely ripped. He never studies, but gets all A's in school. He never practices for a fight, but he never loses and in fact only allows opponents to get one hit in so as not to disappoint the fans.Abby's backstory is absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable. I won't spoil it for you, but there's absolutely no way those things would have happened to her at the ages written. She also seems to be co-dependent of her father. I don't understand why she chooses to stay involved in his life. Had it been me and my deadbeat loser dad showed up asking for favors like hers, I would have laughed in his face.Overall, the plot was absurd and the relationship was horrendous. Several times, I almost didn't finish it but I forced myself to continue because there were so many positive reviews out there, I thought the author must turn things around somehow. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Don't believe the hype.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      booknook — Young Adult book reviewsGuys. I feel like I have read every amazing book on the planet this year. But this one.. this one tops the list.I was terrified going into Beautiful Disaster. I don't know why I got so worked up over it, but I did. I was scared because Beautiful Disaster seems to be a "love it" or "hate it" kind of book.. and I so badly wanted to love it. All my worries ended on the very first page. I was totally hooked. I was in love.I barely even know how to describe my reading experience. The physical experience was every bit as valuable as the story. I spent one entire day reading this book in extremely awkward positions (including laying on the floor with my feet up in the air on a chair..wtf?), I took this book with me to the bathroom because I couldn't possibly part with it, and I quoted every other line to my amazingly tolerant boyfriend. I laughed, I giggled insanely, and most importantly, I cried like a little girl. I think my eyes were in tears the entire last quarter of the book. I went from sad, to desperate, to happy, to insanely happy, and back to sad when the book ended and I had no more amazingness to read.Jamie McGuire is a freakin' genius. I'm usually very picky about my bad boys, but Jamie set up Beautiful Disaster perfectly so that I would fall head over heels for Travis. Normally in stories like this there's the asshole bad boy and then there's the nice guy, and I always fall for the nice guy. Not this time! Travis had a great mix of bad boy jerk and sweet, sensitive, affectionate man. That way, when compared to Parker, Parker just looked like the boring, "safe" option, and Travis looked like the passionate, head over heels, to die for option.I think a lot of people don't like this book because they look at Travis and they see a troubled guy who's a bit of an asshole and objectifies women. That's why I was scared going into this book, because I normally hate that kind of thing. But when I looked at Travis, I saw so much more than that. In the first scene he has a bimbo on his lap, but as soon as she insults his friend, he's like "Get the fuck out. Now." I knew right then and there that I would like Travis. He may have flaws but he is loyal. He's not a jackass. He loves his friends, he sticks up for them, and he'll go the lengths of the world for them. His relationship with Abby isn't perfect, but my god, it is passionate. I honestly think the title for this book is so perfect, because their relationship was absolutely beautiful.. but it was also a disaster. It was a little dysfunctional, and a little crazy, and there were definitely highs and lows. But that's what made this book an absolute delight of a roller coaster. When things were going badly, I was desperately clinging onto every page, waiting for things to get better again. I rarely get that invested in books, but I literally felt like my life would end if Travis and Abby couldn't make their relationship work.Even the side characters were amazing and so full of life! America.. how I LOVED LOVED LOOOVED America! She is like the best friend I never had and always wanted. She's so fiercely loyal and always siding with Abby and always supporting her no matter what. I love how they always run to each others' sides when things get tough.My only 'problems' with the book are two small things:The blurb isn't exactly accurate. It says, "The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear.." Abby isn't as much of a "good girl" as the blurb implies. It clearly says, "She doesn't drink or swear," but Abby actually does drink and she has a fake ID. So if Abby is a "good girl" who has a fake ID and goes to clubs and drinks, what the heck am I? :P I don't drink, I never had a fake ID, and I don't go clubbing. I must be the virgin mary! I know that there is a big back story behind this, but I felt like there was never a point in the book where Abby was a good girl. Yes she was trying to start over with a new slate, but she was never ever innocent and never turned down a drink.The other thing isn't really a problem with the book, it's just something that kept making me laugh. Travis always calls Abby "Pigeon" or "Pidge," and I could never keep a straight face. Lady and the Tramp, anyone? The Tramps calls Lady "Pidge" ALL THE TIME! I just couldn't help but think of those cartoon characters every time Travis said it!I feel like I've barely scratched the surface with this review. This book really shook me to my very core. Do you ever feel silly when you yell at characters in a movie for making a mistake? Because obviously they can't "hear" you and nothing you say will change the movie. But when I was reading this book I was yelling at the characters and wishing like crazy that things would work out.. despite the fact that obviously my yelling and wishing wouldn't do any good. But that's how much I fell in love with this book and that's how much it affected me. I know my boyfriend will vouch for all the times I pasted him quotes from the book over Skype, and my mom laughed at me for shrieking in delight over the exciting parts and for screaming, "I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!"There is no doubt in my mind.. this is the best book I have read this year. Period. This is one of my all time favourite books. Danny: I first heard about Beautiful Disaster when I read your Bewitched Bookworms review. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I'm so incredibly thrilled that I discovered this book and I have you to thank!I can't think of a single guy I know that's good enough for you.Your skin was three inches from my face, and you're beautiful, and you smell fucking awesome when you sweat. I kissed you! I'm sorry!You're all I think about. You're all I dream about. You're all I want.I was his exception, and as much as I had tried to fight my feelings, he was mine.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Predictable and cheesy, but a good love story. The passion keeps you interested. Great YA book.
    • 5/5
      I have just seen the new movie and read that the books are so much better. So I had to read it (the 1st.. for now?)
      And it really is a good book. I would recommend ti everyone who loves romance and a little ?️
    • 5/5
      Loved this book I couldn't read this book fast enough! Love the cute pet name pigeon, the bad boy and the good girl. But is she? Family drama test even the strongest relationships will they make it? Highly recommend
    • 3/5
      Travis is a walking red flag the type of man I wouldn't want around me ever. He does everything to protect Abby but all I kept thinking is what happens when he turns on her. It gave me an awful feeling he made he almost lose friends he doesn't want her having sex with anyone yet he can have sex with whoever he wants. I gave it 3 stars because other parts of the story were good I liked his cousin and Abby best friend. I was constantly hoping Abby would get with any other guy in this book. Travis needs therapy he isn't dreamy. Abby ticked me off at times also. The on and off again relationship didn't work for me. This is the first book in awhile I didn't like the male main character. I hope Abby leaves him one day ?
    • 5/5
      would recommend to others a enjoyed the lay out and the female lead was on point.
    • 5/5
      Ya me moría por releerlo después de más de 10 años y lo ame.
    • 5/5
      I loved reading this book years ago and now I just listened to it, and I still love it. It is pretty relatable story and the main characters do t do everything is a span of a week like other books. Now the books after this in the series I thought were pretty bad. I'd just stick to this one.
    • 5/5
      Great book! Can't wait to read the next one! Thanks!
    • 5/5
      I read this book years ago. When I saw the audiobook available I knew I had to listen. It was just as great the 2nd time around. The narrator did an awesome job. Travis and Abby are up there with Christian and Anna.
    • 3/5
      The only reason I am giving this three stars in stead of four is because I honestly hate reading about the love interest fooling around with other people. It was tearing at my head strings. If you can hand a sad, funny, suspenseful romance give it a read.
    • 5/5
      I read this book in middle school and I still love to reread it! Amazing book!!
    • 1/5
      I don’t know how this book got so many positive reviews. I made it to chapter 18 before I hung up the towel. Its full of red flag behavior from a man, not just a “bad boy” with tattoos or whatever, but legit red flag behavior. Everything from gaslighting the main character to love bombing her and manipulating her and she just keeps going back. Travis is not a “good guy with a bad rap.” He’s a narcissistic manipulative jerk and Abby keeps forgiving his truly abhorrent behavior and keeps taking him back “because he needs someone to love him.” Ladies, let me tell you, you are not that man’s therapist. You don’t need to fix a man. You don’t need to be codependent with him. This book idolizes abuse. Plain and simple.
    • 4/5
      I like the story, but the narrator.... Eek. They sound like a 12 y.o. boy....not masculine nor feminine. This would be fine, but the main character is an adult straight woman.
    • 4/5
      Phew. I'm glad that is over. I can't decide if I LOVED this or loathed it. It is seeping with toxicity, ridiculous drama, and unexpected twists. This is the kind of red flag relationship that you really don't want anyone to be in but you still want them to end up together. Literally sucking you into their up and downs... There is a lot of violence that you maybe wouldn't anticipate in this genre. Honestly, the book could have ended after the first quarter, and left you feeling giddy but it continued with crazy story telling that took things to a whole new level. Two or three times. I was sucked in and lived in the universe of Pigeon and Travis. And poor forgotten Toto.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorites! I wish people weren't so critical of this book
    • 5/5
      Loved it ! Favorite book !!! Loved the jokes and how light weight and the flow of the book !
    • 4/5
      Has a problematic relationship but yet I still very enjoyable. The narrator is awesome.
    • 5/5
      This book had me thinking about these characters and missing them when i was away. That's what i love in a book. I have read/listened to a lot of romance. This one was different, unpredictable. Loved the voice of the audiobook narrator, she was perfect for Pigeon. Now I see there are more to the story so offffff i gooooo.
    • 3/5
      So there were no slow parts during the story, quick and lots of action. I loved how perfect the title described the book. Thank goodness there's a good ending to the book! I would hate to have known that the straight 7hrs I sat through reading this book was wasted. College life was a new type of genre and this was the first book about it other than Been there, Done That (by Carol Snow). After BT,DT book, I didn't really want to read anymore about college since it sounds too unrealistic. I haven't graduated HS yet and this view of college in BD sounds really aggravating. There was absolutely no talk, none, NADA, nothing at all about college classes. 90% of the book takes part in the night life and skipping classes to have fun.
      Not to say I didn't like the book, I do, but this corrupts my view of college life. Drunk all the time, sex, wtf? seriously, the characters are still managing As in all their classes? Kara is probably a stellar student...but the other characters, to hell with them!
      There are many redeeming parts of the novel. Travis is a good character and charming enough but he is very cliche and a total dream. Aside from his HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE anger problems, he can say he's every girl's dream. A freaking Ken doll. gehh...but the author tried. She tried to dab some flaws into Travis and even deliberately slipped a couple in Abby. Whatever, the author just takes personality traits and shows them to readers to the extreme. She just exaggerates the characters' actions. Not to say it just becomes funny after a continuation of more hyperboles.
      Haha this book taught me a lesson and I'll be sure to keep it in mind during senior year. I'm going to choose my college carefully. extremely careful. There's obviously a ridiculous amounts of whores and many crazy stunts have been pulled in the book. Just hope that my choice of college isn't a replica of EasternU in BD.
    • 2/5
      Spoiler alert: And then everyone was investigated for several charges of manslaughter and suspended from college, thereby leaving them to continue their lives of alcohol poisoning and drunk driving without interruption from pesky classes.
    • 5/5
      This was a very well.written book. Sure, a little unbelievable at times. Kinda wanted to shake Abby more than once. But overall, good.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book, I definitely would recommend it!
    • 5/5
      Whew!! I started this book yesterday and finished it this am. This was a page turn for sure. I enjoyed it for what it was, entertaining. If you have fallen in love and had a passionate all consuming love affair you will get this story. If not, you'll think it utter nonsense. It was a wild ride from start to finish. There were some grammar issues and such but those didn't deflect from the story. I liked all the characters. Some incidents and dialogue were over the top but I find this to be true in most romance books. I was hesitant to read this book due to all the hype. I purchased this book as an Indie with a different cover. I will be reading the sequel next and hope that it will be just as entertaining and edge of the ledge as this one.
    • 2/5
      I’m not sure where to begin with my review of Jamie McGuire’s young adult/new adult contemporary romance Beautiful Disaster. As you are about to discover, this particular “romance” didn’t impress me tremendously when I read it, and yet it started out with such promise! It is a classic romantic set-up with a “good girl” falling for a “bad boy” and the ups and downs they experience in their relationship. Normally, I’m all for this type of fairy tale (especially if the bad boy isn’t really all that bad on the inside) but Beautiful Disaster had three major failings in my eyes: the protagonist was bland, her romantic match fell a bit too far on the psychotic side, and the relationship was a co-dependent mess.

      I’m going to start with the three big negatives Beautiful Disaster held for me.

      (1) Bland Protagonist: Abby Abernathy may wear cardigans, but she’s drawn to Eastern University’s most notorious student, Travis Maddox, who is into one-night stands and fighting in the underground college circuit for extra cash. For his part, the moment Travis sees Abby it’s over for him; he has found the girl he knows he wants to spend the rest of his life with. I just have no idea why he feels this way. The only thing to set Abby apart from other girls is the cardigan and the fact that she refuses to dress to impress Travis when she finds herself at his apartment. There is a deep, dark secret in Abby’s past that caused her to lose herself at Eastern University, but when it was finally revealed it wasn’t that deep or dark – leaving me underwhelmed. She had no spunk, no snark, no wit – nothing to set her apart in a crowded field of young adult heroines. Even as I was reading Beautiful Disaster I couldn’t recall Abby’s name when I tried to describe the book to a family member, she was that forgettable.

      (2) Romantic Lead With Major Issues: Oh, boy, Travis Maddox is a hot mess in this book. Ironically, he is written in such a way that he is both completely unbelievable AND believable.

      On the one hand he is an unrealistic character: he is an “A” college student who doesn’t ever seem to study, have papers, or really need to be in class; he is known for having sex with girls once and then tossing them aside, yet they are throwing themselves at him in droves; and, finally, he is an unbeatable fighter who spends zero time in the gym or training. On the other hand I saw moments of realism: after a major fight where he was physically threatening to Abby, he comes to her begging for forgiveness and falling to his knees in repentance; he has moments where he struggles with the way she dresses, feeling that she is displaying too much skin; and then he flies into jealous rages when anyone insults Abby or even looks at her wrong.

      Sadly, the moments that ring true also point to an abuser who needs extensive counseling. If Travis’s problems were treated seriously in Beautiful Disaster and explored in-depth, I probably would have given this book a higher rating. Instead no one – including the author – seems to recognize the danger signs and instead he is seen as a tragic figure who needs to be forgiven because he had a rough childhood. Only problem? It wasn’t that terrible. Yes, his deep, dark past is just as shallow and underwhelming as Abby’s – so I guess in that respect they are perfect for each other.

      (3) A Co-Dependent Relationship: As I noted in the previous section, Travis has a habit of blowing his lid and then crawling back to Abby for forgiveness, and every time she gives it. It may take a few days or weeks, but eventually she caves and allows him back into her life; after all, she “loves” him and he “loves” her. Too bad it isn’t a healthy love. Nowhere is Travis’s dependency on Abby more pronounced than when he gets a couple of new tattoos, one on his wrist with her “name” and one along his side stating that he belongs to his beloved and she belongs to him. The reason I put the word NAME in quotes is he doesn’t actually tattoo “Abby” on his wrist; instead he has her nickname “Pigeon” (I can’t make this up) inked on. Another time, during one of their breakups, he has to break his cellphone to keep himself from calling her. Forget the fact that he could borrow his cousin Shepley’s phone (they are roommates); he seriously cannot hold himself back without breaking something? When they are together, Travis has to have Abby at his fights so he can focus. Apparently if she is not there he gets distracted worrying about what she is doing and who she is doing it with. This is not a good relationship.

      On the positive side, Jamie McGuire’s writing style is such that I was practically hypnotized by this dysfunctional romance and had to know what would happen next. It was a fight to put the book down to go to sleep, and I picked it up again first thing in the morning to finish it up. It also started off well, with Travis more a bit of a selfish charmer who was willing to just be friends with Abby and not pressure her into a sexual relationship. Abby seemed relatively stable, determined not to be one of Travis’s conquests and to keep their relationship platonic. Once they moved in together on the flimsiest of excuses, however, Travis’s neediness began to show and Abby’s sad willingness to put up with it materialized. From then on it was a snowball rolling down a hill, growing and growing into the disaster mentioned in the title and eventually settling into a rather manipulative “happily ever after” ending.

      A few moments of sanity managed to appear in the narrative, but they were few and far between. Most of the common sense actually came from a rather minor character, Abby’s roommate Kara, who tries to ignore the insanity of Abby’s relationship the best she can but eventually points out how dangerously co-dependent it is. Of course, Kara is the one person Abby never listens to so her opinion held no water with anyone except me.

      Reading Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster left me with the same feeling I get passing an accident along the freeway – fascinated and disturbed. I know many readers will actually fall more on the fascinated end of the spectrum when they read this story, but I definitely landed on the disturbed side. If I knew characters like these in real life (and, sadly, I think they are out there) I’d be more like Kara, urging them to take a good hard look at their relationship and then go get counseling instead of urging them on like their friends and relatives do here. That is really the biggest problem I had with Beautiful Disaster; the story centers on a dysfunctional relationship and romanticizes it. Utilizing flimsy excuses and shallow back stories to shore up this “romance,” it is manipulation at its finest. By tacking on a happily ever after ending, a stamp of approval is placed on an unhealthy relationship and all of its disturbing aspects are washed away. This relationship truly is a disaster, but not a beautiful one.