Beautiful Disaster - Jamie McGuire - UPDATED REVIEW

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): 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.

UPDATED REVIEW
MY OPINION: *****

This is my second time reading this book and although I did end up finding it a lot more problematic than I originally thought, I ended up really enjoying it as usual.

I was thirteen when I first read this book and loved it SOO much. Now, at fifteen, I feel as if I have grown from what I originally thought was good and did find problems with this book. However, because of the pure joy this book has given me not once, but twice now, I had to give it the full 100%.

Abby (AKA Pigeon) is a good girl who doesn't want to get involved with bad boys, or gambling, or drinking, etc. She's a freshman in college with her best friend (lucky!) and her best friend's boyfriend, Shepley. She's determined to stay away from her past--not gonna spoil--until she meets Shepley's cousin, Travis Maddox.

Gosh, even his name reeks bad boy.

She meets him in a fighting ring, no joke. He's in the midst of punching some guy when she gets blood splattered down her entire cardigan and they lock eyes. Not the most romantic setting, to say the least but slfjljsdfiajsfi all the same.

She doesn't want to date him, especially when she learns that he's a player, a man whore, whatever you want to call it. He's "bagged" every girl in the college basically and Abby doesn't want to get caught up with that. However, Travis is set on knowing her and they become friends (and no, not friends with benefits or anything like that!).

They make a really easy bet and basically, it ends up with Abby staying at Travis's and Shepley's apartment for a month (her best friend, America, is always there too so I mean, it's a win, right?). Of course, Abby tries to stay away from Travis but she ultimately realizes she has feelings for him. She's also a virgin, so she's almost afraid of what he might want to do. However, with her around, Travis starts to change his player-ways and is careful and respectful of her (THANK YOU!).

MY MAIN ISSUES:
-Travis is over-the-top violent. I get that it's in his blood, what with his father and four older brothers always roughing him up and causing him to get really good at fighting, but sometimes it's as if he's insane in the brain. He really needs anger-management help. He will literally kill somebody for saying something that any stupid horny college guy would say and he breaks everything in his path when Abby literally goes home. He's not okay, but I mean, I guess some people find it hot when a guy does that. I mean, I for one, would think it's admirable for my guy to tell another guy off if he's harassing me, but Travis took it too far, especially since most of them were innocent people.

-Travis is sort of unfair and very possessive. He doesn't own Abby. She's not an object. He doesn't have a right over who she dates or who she talks to. Even when they're not dating, he's overly-angry at her boyfriend, Parker, and it's like STOP. I get that he wants to protect the first and only girl he's ever loved, but I mean, there are better ways to do it.

-IT MOVED SO FAST. It started from them meeting to something very extreme that I'm not going to spoil. I honestly would have liked it better if the last 50 pages or so were just cut out altogether because we have to remember, they're freshman/sophomores in college. SLOW DOWN.

I loved the sheer amount of drama in this book. I feel as if it's rare to find these kinds of things in books and I loved it. I don't care if something's "cheesy" because I honestly love that. HAHA. If you ever read Wattpad stories, you know what I'm talking about and I honestly love that.

Parker. For some reason when I first read this book, I ABSOLUTELY HATED HIM. But now, I didn't find him so bad. Sure, he was annoying and overbearing, but I don't think he was necessarily wrong about anything. I think the reason for my past disgust towards him is because he's a shipwrecker through and through. He also said a lot of cringey stuff but I mean, that's to be expected from a guy like him.

I read this a lot quicker than I wanted to and I'm tempted to reread the best parts because it's so good! I love this book and I'm going to try to finish this series because I never did the first time around.

I would recommend this book to readers looking for a new adult romance filled with TONS of drama and relationships and everything that comes with love. *Disclaimer: if you're not a fan of graphic and explicit content, I would maybe look into this before reading it because it does get a LITTLE graphic*

Let me just say: every breakup made my heart hurt.

Main Character: Abby
Sidekick(s): Travis, Shepley, Finch, America, etc
Villain(s): Anger, misunderstandings, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.