Walking Disaster - Review

Walking Disaster (Beautiful #2)

By: Jamie McGuire

Published: April 2, 2013 by Atria Books

448 pages

Source: Netgalley ARC from publisher

(Goodreads / Amazon)

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 Review:
First of all, my review of Beautiful Disaster is here.  A lot of what I said there could be said for this book as well and so in the effort to not repeat myself unnecessarily  please refer back to that review for more of my thoughts.  I rated that book fairly high (4.3) and it is listed as a favorite. But for some reason I actually enjoyed reading Travis' POV more than Abby's.  I still had the same reservations I had in book 1 about the incredibly demented relationship they seem to have.  Their relationship is like a train wreck that you can't look away from.  It's very addictive and yet extremely warped at the same time.  I didn't find this book at all to be just a repeat of Abby's story, though a lot of moments do overlap.  It still had it's own uniqueness to it.

The prologue literally had me tearing up and parts of the story seen from the eyes of Travis - especially when Abby breaks his heart, had me tearing up again.  We are able to understand a bit more why Travis acts the way he does and the reasoning behind his decision making.  Reading both her POV and his POV puts everything into better perspective to better understand the craziness that is their love for one another.  The epilogue was a special bonus, a nice surprise to the end of their story, and bumped this book up to earn just a wee bit higher score than book 1.

The only thing that would make this series sweeter....is a story for each of the Maddox brothers!  I do believe they would all earn ranks in "top swoon-worthy guys"!

Favorite Quotes:
"One of these days you're going to fall in love...Don't settle for just anyone.  Choose the girl that doesn't come easy; the one you have to fight for, and then never stop fighting. Never...stop fighting for what you want." 

I decided a long time ago I would feed on the vultures until a dove came along.  A pigeon. 

She was my opposite: innocent on the surface, and damaged deep within.

Sometime between the moment we met, and holding her on that bathroom floor, I had fallen in love with her.

My conflicted feelings about her were maddening.  I was in love with her, couldn't imagine a life without her in it; but at the same time, I wanted her to have better.

"...all I need is you.  You're all I think about.  You're all I dream about.  You're all I want." - This still has to be my favorite line from both books!

How much I needed her terrified me....Maybe together we were this volatile entity that would either implode or meld together.

...five Maddoxes were downright frightening to most....We were broken, but came together as a solid fortress if necessary.

"You know why I want you?  I didn't know I was lost until you found me.  I didn't know what alone was until the first night I spent without you in my bed.  You're the one thing I've got right.  You're what I've been waiting for, Pigeon."

Final Rating - 4.5 stars!