Book Review: Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Walking Disaster (Beautiful #2)

By Jamie McGuire

Release Date: April 2, 2013

Source: Own (SIGNED!) Copy

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Summary: 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.

Review: I was already obsessed with Abby and Travis's story in Beautiful Disaster, but reading everything from Travis's perspective was just so much more. Instead of getting the same exact story as the first book, we get to fall in love even more with Travis and enter his beautiful, disastrous life. 

Travis Maddox is used to living life in the fast lane. With an endless line of girls out his door and a place as the champion in the underground fighting ring at his school, he couldn't ask for more. Until Abby Abernathy walks into his life. Travis is enthralled with this feisty girl who doesn't fall for his charms and he soon realizes that she's the one. The only one. But Abby doesn't need someone like Travis in her life and Travis knows she's way too good for him. What Travis also knows, though, is that he can't live without her and will do whatever it takes to keep his pigeon his forever. 

I'm literally just staring at the screen not sure how I can even start talking about this book. Being inside of Travis's head was unlike anything I've ever read. I don't think I've ever read a romance from the guy's perspective except for Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover, and that was a pretty phenomenal book. There's always that fear, though, that a retelling is going to be exactly like the first book, but Walking Disaster is anything but a retelling. We're let inside of the dark and possessive mind of Travis Maddox and it is absolutely beautiful. We skip over parts that weren't as important as they were to Abby in Beautiful Disaster so that we can focus on the intense moments that really affected Travis, like his fights, moments with his family, and the times when him and Abby weren't together. Some people had a problem with how possessive Travis was in the first novel (which I totally didn't have a problem with), but everything he did makes so much more sense after seeing why he did it and I just fell in love with that man even more. 

I already got to watch this couple fall in love once, but watching them fall in love again through the eyes of Travis was so different than watching it from Abby's eyes. This is a real first for Travis and we get to see how truly changed he is after Abby comes into his life. It's fun to see the moments where him and Abby weren't on the same wavelength because we get to see exactly what he was thinking while Abby was thinking the complete opposite. We also get to see Travis at his lowest and my heart just broke as he fell apart without Abby. His reactions to Abby's actions were so heart wrenching and made Abby and Travis's relationship that much more real to me. Also, I loved how we got to know Shep and Travis's family even better than in the first book. Everyone in Travis's life comes alive and becomes a much bigger part in the story. 

Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised how utterly amazing this book was. While the ending threw me for a loop initially, I thought it was an interesting, unexpected way to end Abby and Travis's story. And we get Trent's story next in the third book!! Excuse me while I go hunt down a copy right now because I don't think I can wait any longer to get another story about the maddening Maddox men that are just too irresistible. If you haven't already, you have to pick up Jamie McGuire's Beautiful series. You're missing out on a new adult romance that will stay in your head for weeks after finishing it.