Abby and her childhood best friend America, who has stood by her side, have traveled down a long and bumpy road. One that consisted of Abby’s gambling father, alcoholic mother and dangerous childhood. That is, until college came along. Abby left with the attempt to be as far as possible from the crazy lifestyle she once had, and America followed to experience college life with her best friend. Abby lays low and remains conservative to avoid any spontaneous acts that may ruin her new beginning, but then she meets Travis.
When I began to read this book, I felt myself getting attached to the characters and the relationships the author built between them. America reminded me of my own best friend while Travis was the reminder that every girl dreams of romance. I’m not saying Travis is prince charming because he definitely is not. Throughout the book, he was an emotional wreck that used violence and sex as an answer to solve every question. However, isn’t putting an unattainable bad boy to rest what we all want?
The relationship constantly has ups and downs because of their way of avoiding their overwhelming feelings of intimacy due to the scars each of them hold. Yet, even so, the romance that blooms around them is beautiful in every way it possibly can be. After all, if relationships were perfect then they’d be boring.
Though I believe that Beautiful Disaster is a must-read, I also think that the author should’ve included more about Abby’s past to emphasize what the big deal was about getting away and never speaking to her father. She constantly brings up the past, but when she introduces what the past actually is it isn’t detailed enough to come across as the reason for many of Abby’s actions. The book also held a couple of typos that bothered me, but once I flipped through the first couple of pages I was hooked and placed upon a roller coaster of emotions. Jaime McGuire showed us through Abby’s voice that the broken can heal.
