Beautiful Disaster

By: Jamie McGuire

Narrated by: Emma Galvin

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The new 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 needs—and wants—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.

©2011 Jamie McGuire (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

" Beautiful Disaster is insanely addictive. Beautifully sexy, beautifully intense, and beautifully perfect. Jamie McGuire has written a damn good book." (Jessica Park, author of the New York Times best seller Flat-Out Love)

Love it

Love this book. Such a good romance read. Easy to ingest quickly but still sucks you in to keep reading!

Great book

I loved the book… i didn’t really the person reading it but it was still good.

Just read it

I listened to this in one day while madly spring cleaning my house. Certain points had me rolling my eyes in frustration for them to just do it already…but it was super cute and sweet in the end. Plus…who isn’t a sucker for a bad boy?

Awkward

Much of the subtext of this book was foreign to me. My college experience was nothing like this. I am not familiar with illegal fight clubs, know very little about professional poker and the thought of getting a tattoo makes me queasy. But at its heart, this is the story of two immature kids, both raised in very dysfunctional families who become obsessed with each other and their final act, designed to give the book a HEA ending, ultimately seals their fate.
If this was nonfiction, even if the book ended exactly the same, everyone would know that the fate of the two protagonist would not, could not, end up well.

I believe that two people can fall in love at a very young age and remain in love the rest of their lives. But not these two. The mini-explosions throughout the book tell the reader that this relationship can't end well.

If the book were really well written, it could go part way towards making it an enjoyable book. But it isn't particularly well written. And the contrast between the sophistication we are told these two possess - her ability to walk into a Vegas casino and take on a table of hardened professional poker players then stare down a crime boss without blinking an eye and his ability to somehow calmly and methodically overcome all of his fight opponents, even those that are bigger and badder - and the immaturity they continually exhibit are impossible to reconcile. How much simpler it would have been if she told him why he scared her so much rather than sneak away from him and then hide out while he made a fool of himself. And how could you believe someone who was so controlled in the fight ring, would regularly trash his apartment, and throw temper tantrums in public. It is as if there were 4 main characters instead of two and the author kept confusing them with each other.

I did enjoy the narration. I will listen to more books by this narrator.

I read a lot of positive reviews of this book. I realized it was a little YA for my usual taste. And I admit part of my dislike of the book came from my inability to relate to the characters and their point in life. But the reviews gave me hope. I hoped the characters would have been far more consistently developed and that even if young, since they were old enough to star in a romantic yet troubled love story, they would at least be somewhat mature. I hoped the conflict and tragedy would be genuine and not contrived.

I was disappointed.

Dysfunctional College Love

This book is a 3.5 stars for me. I enjoyed it, but it isn't a book that I would return to over and over again like Slammed.

Abigail Abernathy was a young girl who went to a far away College (from Kansas) to get a new lease on life. She wanted to forget her past and reinvent herself in the new environment. She gets drawn into a friendship/relationship with the campus bad boy Travis Maddox. I don't know if I really think Travis is a bad boy, but he engages in underground fights to pay for schooling. He is academically smart, but a shameless womanizer. Abby's best friend America,is a relationship with Shep, Travis's best friend and cousin. So of course those two will get thrown together often. Abby is determined not to be one of the notches on Travis' belt, and she is very vocal about it. She begins dating a nice boy named Parker, but there is some magnetic pull to Travis. So Abby is stuck with a decision, should she be with the guy that appears great by society's standards or should she be with the guy who makes her feel comfortable enough to be herself at times?
Abby's answer was rooted in her past, and she had difficulty with her past so Abby made the choice to avoid the guy that resembled her past lifestyle---a decision that caused confusion and hurt to almost everyone involved with Abby.

The writing was a tad predictable and a tad unrealistic at places for instance Abby's venture to Vegas. Many of Travis' fights, but I still enjoyed the story. One of the things that I loved about Abby was that she wasn't that naive heroine who was attracted to danger and had to sneak out to meet bad boy over mommy and daddy's objections. Abby knew who and what Travis was, and wasn't really fazed. I also disliked the exact same thing about Abby because she should not have made so many bad decisions because she wasn't a naive, sheltered little girl. She had real life experiences so some of her rookie mistakes were unbelievable to me. She was very clear and communicative...except for when it counted the most.

Abby was the real enigma in this story and she didn't achieve peace and contentment until she made peace with herself and truly shared herself with her friends. That freedom allowed her to pursue her heart's desire and that was fun to watch.

The writing style was easy to follow, it wasn't emotionally charged to me, so I was entertained. I just wasn't blown away by the prose or the plot itself. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy that bad-boy-saved-by-the-love-of-a-good-girl stories. But not for those readers who want more mature love/relationships.

Great Story & Loved the Characters

Where does Beautiful Disaster rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In the top 3 for sure!

What other book might you compare Beautiful Disaster to and why?

It is just a great story. I have read 50 Shades and Bared to You. It doesnt have all the love scences but the story is so entertaining it makes up for that.

Have you listened to any of Emma Galvin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Very good story teller.

Who was the most memorable character of Beautiful Disaster and why?

Travis, he is the guy that every girl dreams of having.

Any additional comments?

Very good book listened to this book within 24 hours.

The Best Audio Book I've Heard

Would you consider the audio edition of Beautiful Disaster to be better than the print version?

The audio edition is much better than the print version. The print version is really good but the narration of this book is even better!

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoyed the entire story and all the ups and downs encountered.

Have you listened to any of Emma Galvin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not but plan to seek out other stories by her.

If you could rename Beautiful Disaster, what would you call it?

I wouldn't rename it, the title is perfect.

Any additional comments?

A great story and the best performance by a narrator ever.

Highly Entertaining

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The narration of the story was AMAZING! I would listen to anything by Emma Galvin! As a literary book I would give it a four instead of 5 stars but as an audiobook it was fantastic; it kept a smile on my face the entire time I listented to it (during hour long workouts) and far surprassed several other audio books I tried to listen to but couldn't stomach. It is a mature young adult book with college aged students that dealt with sex, gambling, fighting/violence...plenty to talk about that was a bit controversial but it was just so entertaining...never short on drama! I'll reccommend this to all of my friends.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Beautiful Disaster?

All of them but I loved chapter 10!!!!!

Which character – as performed by Emma Galvin – was your favorite?

Travis and Abby!!

LOVED

Loved the entire series!!! At the end I felt like Travis and Abby were part of my family!

Great story and narration

I loved the story and Emma Galvin was a great narrator, as always. I definitely recommend this book.