Review - Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Title: Beautiful Disaster
Author: Jamie McGuire
Publisher: CreateSpace 
Pages: 344
Source: Bought 

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend America, 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 charming college co-ed. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his charms, 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’ apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

I really wanted to like this book. I tried to like it, but I just couldn't. Which was really disappointing because I've been into contemporary lately & this sounded amazing. Especially Travis ;)  Unfortunately there was just too many things wrong with it.

The writing style was okay, there's not really a lot I want to say about it because I didn't really pay attention to it, so it wasn't spectacular, but not terrible either.

It was mainly the characters that let this book down. They annoyed the hell out of me -__- Abby Abernathy was whiny & spoilt. Seriously, I know authors want to make their characters realistic but we aren't all whiny & spoilt, & not all the time. I just felt like smacking her round the head for most of the book. It was like she had NO MORALS. You would think that when she got a boyfriend that she would stop sleeping in Travis' bed. But no, she doesn't, because she NEVER backs of a bet. Then she complains that there are rumours that she's sleeping with both of them. SERIOUSLY? Her stupidity amazes me.

Not only was Abby annoying though, but Travis too. I felt really sorry for him in the beginning because of the way Abby was treating him but then, he turned all psycho. He took controlling & possessive to a whole new level. To kind of put it into perspective when she sleeps with him & leaves before he wakes up, he goes CRAZY. As in, he trashes his room, throws his stereo, takes a swing at his room mate, knocks his door off its hinges, the list goes on...

On top of all this I thought the story fell through when they went to Vegas. First of all, Abby's whole relationship with her father had not been developed at all. So it was very unrealistic when he popped up out of the blue & begged her for thousands of dollars to pay back a debt to some evil Mafia lord.

They all hop on a plain to Vegas after this and Abby tries to win all of the money at a casino. She turns into some pro and there's loads of people there that are all 'oh lucky 13, can't believe it's you!!!' Again, the fact that her past has not been developed makes it all seem unrealistic and stupid. The whole winning the money back doesn't last long either. She has 2 days to get all the money, but what does she do? She goes to this evil Mafia lord after only 1 day, without the full money, and begs for more time. WHAT THE HELL? ARE YOU COMPLETELY BRAIN DEAD?!

I got so confused at his point.

It all just seemed so rushed. In fact, after this bit, the rest of the book seemed really rushed & the plot was the only thing this book had going.

So overall, I was really disappointed with this book. It wasn't developed enough & the characters were just crazy, but I guess this is what I get for reading all the negative reviews on Goodreads and still buying it :( The only reason I read it till the end is because I liked Finch :}