Simon & Schuster Beautiful Disaster

I should have read all of the reviews before spending £6 on this piece of junk.First off - this is the sort of teenage romance that belongs on Wattpad - the main guy, Travis, is quite clearly (at least) semi-abusive. He punches any guy who says anything to Abby (the main girl), he wasn't in a relationship with her and yet he intimidated the guy she was seeing, and told her what to do, he insinuates that she's going to get roofied and raped by any guy that isn't him - I mean, SERIOUSLY? It's disgusting.Second off - the amount of slut shaming in this book is ridiculous - Abby is a virgin, the only virgin that Travis has ever slept with, and every other girl that wants him is seen as a tramp; worth much less than Abby because they're lining up to get used and thrown away by Travis. The author tries to make it seem as if it's so unbelievable that a woman would want anything from him other than a full blown relationship: because women don't have casual sex.Finally - it's simply unbelievable as a story - Travis is this bad-boy type who can get any woman he wants and yet in the first two times he does it with Abby (the love of his life) he doesn't even attempt to give her an orgasm? Do the other girls he gets with have such low standards that they are desperate for him despite the fact he clearly doesn't know what he's doing?????? Travis also beats a guy to a pulp in a university cafeteria, TWICE, and there are no repercussions? I don't know if the author has been to a university, but where I'm from he'd be thrown out. And considering he's not some jock-superstar, I doubt they'd be so lenient on him there either.I only made it half way through, so for all I know this all gets answered at the end but, to be perfectly honest, I couldn't stomach any more of it. And I love angst-y, will they won't they, rubbish books, but this was awful. I wasted £6 and I hate myself for it. Save your money, save your time.

Spoilers in the below reviewI'm not sure what to think of this book. I like a bad boy in books, but there must be something redeemable about them and in this case there was very little. He was angry, aggressive, and he behaved terrible. Even when they finally get together, the first time she gets some attention from another guy, he is almost so angry to fight. He never seems settled in the relationship to trust her, but she needs to trust him. Don't even get me to the times he just plainly refuses to listen. Or that he is angry at her and takes two girls home to use and gets upset when she wasn't in his bed in the morning.She mentions she didn't want him as it reminds her too much about the past she tried to escape, but this is much worse. He carries her over his shoulder out of a house, into a car, gets the DD to drive him home, takes her inside and then she changes her mind about her objections. Someone should have stopped them. He cuts in on a dance and the girl has nothing to say about it. I find it appalling that a woman is portrayed like that.Sure, I've liked some damsel in distress stories, but in this the girl had no say in it at all. I didn't like Travis at all, but I didn't like Abby either. Even though we follow her, we don't get the understand the decisions she makes and why she makes them. Her best friend is one of the worst ones I've ever read. One moment she is standing up for her friend, the next she is taking side of the guy. She changes her mind so quickly and often, it is hard to keep up. It was like the author wanted to make this a story with as much drama and tension and horrible characters as she could.

If you want to read about a codependent nightmare with extra helpings of anxious attachment disorder, this is a book for you.I’m giving it two stars because the writing was not boring, it kept making me say “what in the ever loving hell is wrong with these characters?” Over and over. Clearly I can’t fault the author for making it compelling enough to review. But seriously if there were ever an epitome for an unhealthy relationship goals, this book showcases them.

Pretend good girl, cardigan wearing student Abby (she has a murky past and can drink you under the table), and pretend bad boy fight star Travis (he is an ace student who loves to help with homework), meet, blood splattered at an illegal boxing match, and there is an immediate spark between them. She tries to run - he is everything she needs to avoid. He pursues her, hard. After a few strange plot twists and she ends up living in his house for a month, sharing his bed. They are just friends, of course, no funny stuff. She even has a real boyfriend, one she doesn't sleep with.Anyway, turns out that Travis can be a bit controlling. He is prone to violent rages and beating people to pulps if they so much as look at him the wrong way (he never gets in trouble for this, which is annoying - I can help but feel that he has stored up some really bad Karma for the future). Safe to say there are plenty of trials and tribulations on the path to true love. He never hurts Abby though, fortunately, or any of the other female characters (most of whom are quite annoying one-dimensional 'bimbo' types). Plenty of the male characters (most of whom are quite annoying one-dimensional 'football' types) end up with a fist in the face at some point.It took me a while to get into the writing style. There is a lot of explanation at the start and the characters initially seem quite thin, this improved as the story progressed. The plots seemed quite unlikely, very unlikely in places, decisions are based on the flimsiest of contrived excuses, but i am quite capable of suspending disbelief. I did enjoy the building tension between our two star-crossed cohabitees, but once they 'got it together' (that is no spoiler - we all know where this type of story is going) the sparkle really went out of the tale. It rolled along merrily enough to its unlikely conclusion but never really grabbed me.

After a very very busy week I was able to finish Beautiful Disaster last night 😊🙌.Abby has moved away and started at a new college with her best friend America, not wanting any reminders of her old life and determined to change. She tries to become the woman she thinks is better, which includes dating the 'perfect' guy. So she could never ever be more than friends with Travis "Mad Dog" Maddox, because he maybe be dangerously good looking but he is anything but perfect 😍.Travis lives life to the beat of his own drum, he's smart (incredibly), hot 🔥, he does underground fights to earn money and has girls throwing themselves at him. One thing he doesn't do is love or relationships and that works just fine for, until he lays eyes on Abby at one of his fights. He's never had a girl dismiss him before, nor one who is balsy enough to put him in his place 😊, so when she does both, he is instantly intrigued. Abby only offers him friendship and he takes it with both hands, but can he keep his feelings for her platonic.I REALLY loved Travis, yes he was cocky and sometimes made stupid mistakes where I wanted do punch him 😂 but he was also the sweetest person, if he was your friend then he had your back all the way. He loved Abby (pigeon) and he loved her hard, I think because he had never felt this way before it scared him and he was almost clueless on how to act and this resulted in some silly mistakes but no matter what you couldn't say he wasn't all in with this girl.Abby frustrated me on so many occasions, I found her to be confused with her feelings. Almost all of the time she was in denial and really made things alot harder than they could of been. I felt she strung Travis along alot throughout the book as well which angered me on so many levels. What was more annoying is that she loved him too but she was so focused on leaving her past behind that she sabotaged herself when it came to her and Travis' relationship.Even though it stressed me out sometimes, I still loved this book so much and I can't wait to read Walking Disaster from Travis' POV. I think it would be interesting to see how he was feeling throughout their relationship. I would definitely recommend if your OK with a little angst 👌❤.