Jamie McGuire
Genre: NA (New Adult)
Cover: Eh, it's okay. Not really my taste
Coffee Beans: 3.5/5
Instalove: Kind of, but it's a worked-for instalove (if that even makes sense)
Spoilers: No. Same story as Beautiful Disaster
Content Rating: “R” for sex and for Travis’ extremely creative use of cussing
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for this honest review.
Publisher’s Summary:
Finally, the highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful
Disaster.
Can you love someone too much?
Travis Maddox learned two things from his
mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.
In Walking Disaster, the life of
Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when
he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.
Every story has two sides. In Beautiful
Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through
Travis’s eyes.
My Take: This book has been waited on in anticipation by A LOT of
people. To be honest, I totally forgot it was coming out until I got an email
reminding me about the ARC. You all remember by review about “Beautiful
Disaster”. Well, Walking Disaster is the exact same story, but told from Travis’
point of view.
And I must say, after reading Travis’ side, and knowing his
backstory, I like him better that I did the first time around. As extreme as
they are, his actions are clearer and make more sense, for him. Abby comes
across as the whiny, inconsistent, brat that I thought she was in the first
book, so I’m glad the author was consistent.
I won’t go into all the issues I went into on the BD
review(and they’re still here, believe me, just not as severe) because I don’t like
beating dead horses.
So, what goes on in this version? Travis meets Abby (and we
learn why he calls her that ridiculous nickname; it’s actually kind of
endearing) and is attracted to her because she’s not like the other girls on
campus.
Mainly, she doesn’t put up with his shenanigans and isn’t throwing
herself at him like all the other girls. One thing leads to another, and now
Travis is on the prowl for Abby. He just has to make her his. With that goal in
mind, he concocts all sorts of schemes for them to spend time together. His
biggest one is making a bet he knows he’ll win so that she has to stay with him
and his roommate (which happens to be her best friend’s boyfriend) for the next
month.
During the entire book, they both dance around their
feelings for each other. Travis keeps waffling internally about pursuing Abby.
One minute he thinks things could actually work out, the next he tells himself
that she’s too good for him and he should just stop. But he still gets mad when
she dates other boys. And she still gets mad when he hooks up with the random
girl from Red Door. America is still a little bi-polar when it comes to
supporting or condemning Abby for her relationship with Travis. But, the voice
of the narrator (Travis) was the best out of the two. Everything he say, all
the words he uses, are spot-on him. You get a good feel for who his drive in
life and the story seems all around better this time. Something that really bothered me about this one, the very end. It was waaaaay too cheesy for me. Like, 10 year aged, extra sharp cheddar kind of cheesy.
Rating: Worth the
read, especially if you’ve read “Beautiful Disaster” and want more of Travis,
but be prepared for the same elements and dysfunctional moments.
Happy reading!
--Me
