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Review

Let me start this off by saying that I am a MASSIVE Beautiful Disaster fan. If you haven’t read it – DO IT NOW! Don’t try to read this one first, because parts of it will probably seem disjointed. Walking Disaster reads more like a companion novel than a standalone book. The main attraction, of course, is more Travis Maddox *sigh*, and the opportunity to see his and Abby’s epic love story through his eyes, and for that reason alone, I have been practically foaming at the mouth since I found out about this book, waiting to get my grabby little hands on it.

I adored being inside of Travis’ head. The set-up, both from his childhood and in the present day, gives us some insight into why he is the way he is. He’s a total manwhore, and absolutely owns it without apology. But there is a deeper side of him that is funny, sweet, and fiercely loving and protective towards those he holds dear.

“I had one rule: respect. For me, my family, and for my friends … It might sound hypocritical to the women that have passed through my apartment door, but if they carried themselves with respect, I would have given it to them.”

And then along comes the girl who knocks him right on his ass. A gorgeous, sexy, smart girl who seems to be impervious to his ‘charms’. His reaction to Abby and her initial dismissal of him is hilarious.

“Most girls bored me outta my gourd, but this girl was intriguing. Entertaining, even. I didn’t faze her, at least not in a positive way. My very presence seemed to make her want to puke, and I found that strangely endearing.”

I loved seeing the early days and weeks of their relationship, and what that meant to him. And seeing him fall so hard and so fast for his “Pigeon” was absolutely brilliant!

“You know what, Mr Maddox?”
“What, baby?”
Her expression turned serious. “In another life, I could love you.”
I watched her for a moment, staring into her glassed-over eyes. She was drunk, but just for a moment it didn’t seem wrong to pretend that she meant it. “I might love you in this one.”

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!

Seeing how deeply Travis felt for Abby so early in the book surprised me, and I loved every moment of him coming to the realisation that he had fallen for her, and seeing just how hard he was prepared to fight for her. But it also made the rest of the book one long heartbreak. Even with the dizzying moments of happiness and swoon that they had, there is a lot of angst – Abby’s total oblivion, her dates with Parker, and her refusal to admit her feelings to Travis… just … ugh!

This may sound harsh, but I’ve gotta say, I got so pissed with Abby in this book. Of course it’s because I’m a mad Travis fan, and feel ridiculously protective of him, so actually feeling Travis’ reaction to everything that happens right along with him is heartbreaking. I knew it was coming, and it still gutted me. What made it worse was seeing his confusion over it all.

“Trying to speak to her at all seemed futile now. Every interaction just added to the growing snowball of clusterfucks that was our relationship.”

Abby gave him such mixed messages, and it made me want to smack her. Hard! This scene in particular had me fuming!

“I can’t win with you. I can’t win with you! You say you’re done…I’m fucking miserable over here! … and you’re fucking mad at me? You broke my fuckin’ heart!”

Oh, my poor Trav!!!!

There is a lot of repetitiveness from Beautiful Disaster in this book. Obviously I was expecting some level of repetition seeing as though it’s the same story told through different eyes, and I was glad that we got to see the main events from Travis, but I was hoping for more new interactions between Travis and Abby that we hadn’t already seen. There were some great moments featuring Travis and the men in his life – his cousin and best friend, Shep, his brothers, and his Dad (there’s something very special about the Maddox men, I absolutely adore them all!). But I was hoping for more moments with Travis and Abby, and even though there wasn’t a lot of it, the tiny glimpses of new that we saw were a definite highlight – particularly the gorgeous epilogue which is set years into the future and gives us a great picture of Travis and Abby’s HEA.

I want to send out a huge thanks to Jamie McGuire for being brave enough to delve in the mind of one of the most beloved bad boy heroes of contemporary romance, and give us this book. For me, it didn’t have the epicness of Beautiful Disaster, but it’s still a great read, giving us the complete picture of a beautiful love story, and a must for hard-core Travis and Abby fans.

4 stars.

The Beautiful series