Beautiful Disaster Book Review: Not Your Typical Romance

Hello reader friends! Welcome back to the blog. I recently read Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire for the second time and I’m going to be sharing my Beautiful Disaster Book Review here on the blog.

To give you some backstory, I first read Beautiful Disaster back in 2016. I would have been 24 at the time. My favorite genre at the time was new adult romance, so I wanted to know what the big deal about this book was. It seemed like all of my reader friends were reading this book. It also felt like a lot of book bloggers were reading it. And while some people really loved it, others didn’t care for it that much. I was very curious.

What’s the big deal about Travis Maddox? Why are all the girls so obsessed with Eastern University’s walking one-night stand? Is this even the kind of book I would enjoy? If Abby decides to date Travis, will she make him get tested first? A girl can’t be too careful after all.

Well, I soon found out. And while I didn’t think the book was terrible, I had a lot of issues with the characters. Reading this book for a second time took me right back and reminded me of these issues. The reading experience was interesting.

So if you want all the dirty details on Beautiful Disaster, make sure you keep reading. I have a lot that I want to talk about today

Keep reading for my full Beautiful Disaster book review for all the dirty details! The first time I read this book I was shocked and this time… I was still shocked.

What is the Beautiful Disaster Book About?

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. I mean, in the book description she’s noted as having an appropriate number of cardigans in her closet. She’s modest and nice and cares a lot about school. So when she meets her best friend America for lunch one day and is introduced to Travis Maddox, she isn’t interested. He’s the ultimate college campus charmer, but she’s uninterested in his bad boy antics.

Being a student at Eastern University is supposed to be a new beginning for her. She has worked hard to put enough distance between her and her family back in Kansas. But as she and America spend more time with America’s boyfriend Shepley (Travis’s cousin), they inadvertently increase the amount of time they spend with Travis. The two boys are cousins, fraternity brothers, and roommates. But Abby’s resistance to Travis isn’t as strong as she originally thought. The two quickly become friends and study partners. A lot of people on campus think they are dating, and Abby is appalled. But it’s not their fault. No one has every since Travis have a platonic friend who is a girl before.

When Abby and Travis are goofing around one night before one of his fights, they make a simple bet. If she wins, he’ll be celibate for a month. If he wins, she has to move into Travis’s apartment for an entire month.

That’s when their relationship goes from just friends, to incredibly complicated. Travis has never been a relationship guy, so why does he have such strong feelings for Abby? And Abby could never go for a guy like Travis ‘mad dog’ Maddox. 

But the heart wants what it wants. Through Travis’s eyes, Abby is the girl he wants in his daily life. And in his bed. And Abby? She’s still working through her dark past to figure things out.

Is Beautiful Disaster Based on a True Story?

While not based on a true story, author Jamie McGuire explained on her website that Beautiful Disaster is inspired by many of her own college experiences. I think this is very apparent by the structure of the story. She has a really good grasp of what college life is like and the kind of people you meet and what happens there. I do feel bad for the Eastern University students because Travis doesn’t seem thrilled by the food, but when I was in college the meals at our dining hall were fantastic!

What did I Like about Beautiful Disaster?

• The relationship/friendship between Abby and her best friend America.
• Some of the supporting characters like Abby’s friend Finch, who dances with her and America at her birthday party.
• The underground fight club. As ridiculous as it is, you have to admit that would be a fun event to attend in college.
• The slow burn between Abby and Travis. She really does not like him at first but slowly changes her mind after he helps her study and takes her out and befriends her. I hate to admit it but they do have some good sexual tension. Haha.
• Abby’s backstory. It’s clear that she’s running from something, but what? We know from the beginning that Abby has issues with her Dad. But Abby’s Father was way worse than I imagined and it made for good drama.

How old is Abby in Beautiful Disaster?

At the beginning of Beautiful Disaster, Abby is a freshman in college and eighteen years old. She does celebrate her birthday in this book and so she does turn nineteen.

Was Abby a virgin in Beautiful Disaster?

Yes, Abby was a virgin in Beautiful Disaster. She explains to Travis one night that she had the same boyfriend for all four years of high school and that he was an aspiring minister, so sex wasn’t really on his agenda.

Does Beautiful Disaster have a Happy ending?

I think it depends on how you look at it. For a love story to have a happy ending, it is supposed to end with the main couple riding off into the sunset and starting their lives together. But Abby and Travis have such a dysfunctional relationship throughout the story that it’s hard to say whether them ending up together is good or bad. I do believe that people can change, but I think that usually require extensive therapy and soul searching.

But who knows? Jamie McGuire did write a companion novel called Walking Disaster. Maybe Travis going to therapy or anger management is addressed in that.

Why does Travis call Abby Pigeon?

Travis begins referring to Abby as Pigeon or Pidge at the beginning of the book, and it becomes her pet name throughout the story. He explains about halfway through that it symbolizes a winning card in poker, a beautiful woman, a dove. This is especially interesting as poker becomes a bigger part of the story later on.

Why is Beautiful Disaster so controversial?

Beautiful Disaster is a controversial new adult or romance novel because the main characters are so flawed.

When we first meet Abby, it becomes apparent pretty early on that college is a fresh start for her. Attending college at Eastern University was what she needed to put space between her and her family back home. She has a past that she wants to remove herself from and going to a place where nobody knows her (except for her best friend America) is freeing. She can be anyone she wants to be.

Meanwhile, Travis is a man on campus with a reputation. In the opening scene, we find out that he if a fighter. He participates in fights as part of a floating fight ring around campus and makes big money from winning. 

What didn’t I Like about Beautiful Disaster?

• Why does Travis get away with punching so many people? It’s truly insane. I’m not even talking about at his fights either. Anytime someone of the opposite sex looks in Abby’s direction he’s ready to knock them out.
• Travis and Abby getting a dog together. No. Just no. I am 100% certain that these knuckleheads do not have the maturity to take care of another living thing. Especially with the dog living at Travis’s apartment full time.
• America was a pretty good friend to Abby a lot of the time, but pushing her towards Travis kind of makes her the worst best friend ever. I mean, come on.
• Abby being completely proud of her unhealthy relationship. I loved how when Kara pointed out that Abby and Travis were a disaster Abby was just like, laughing at her like she was crazy. Okay.
• How Abby treated Parker, the guy she dated before Travis. It’s obvious that they weren’t right for each other, but she still could have treated him better. He’s one of Travis’ frat brothers so she had to know that she would be seeing him again.

If you don’t want to read Beautiful Disaster, You can watch it!

That’s right. Beautiful Disaster was made into a movie that was released in 2023. I know. I was having a hard time believing it myself. But here’s the thing. Travis Maddox is played by Dylan Sprouse so I am very curious. It’s kind of funny because some people compare the Beautiful Disaster books to the After Series by Anna Todd. Meanwhile, Cole Sprouse is in the After series while Dylan Sprouse is in the Beaitiful Disaster series. For some reason I find that kind of thing very interesting.

Anyway, I’m going to hold off to watch it until it’s free. It looks like you can streat it right now, but in order to do so you have to pay. And although I’m a firm believer in supporting the arts, I think I have good reason to wait for it to come to Netflix or Prime. Haha.

Is Beautiful Disaster worth Reading?

Yes and no. Although I found the relationship between Travis and Abby to be troubling, I did find this to be a fun college story. Abby and America are friends from way back so I loved their friendship and how to were so real with each other. And some of the scenes were America and Shepley and Travis and Abby were all hanging out together were fun.

And I really liked Abby for the first part of the story. She seemed to really have a good head on her shoulders. She was doing such a good job of telling Travis off and reminding him that she was NOT going to be his next one night stand. But then she got kind of hypnotized by Travis and it was very cringeworthy. Sigh.

I’m not an expert on abusive relationships, but I felt like Travis was very manipulative in this story and I don’t know if he really changed in the end. So while I did find this book to be entertaining and interesting, I don’t think it succeeded as a romance novel. I didn’t necessarily want the two of them to end up together because they weren’t good together.

Something to note is that the second book in the Beautiful series is called Walking Disaster. It tells the same story as this book but from Travis’s perspective. Maybe I would feel more sympathy for him if I read that, but at this point I’m not really interested. One of my biggest concerns is young adults reading books like these and thinking these kinds of relationships are normal and enviable. That’s a bad thing.

In Conclusion

So there you go! I think I’ve been fair in my review. For a romance novel to be good you need to have drama, but in real life the behaviors that both Abby and Travis showed at times would not be a good thing. I did enjoy Jamie McGuire’s writing style and for entertainment purposes, this book definitely kept me entertained. But the main issue is that it’s a romance novel with a very problematic romance.

Travis admits to his stupid decisions but it made me sad. I hope that if young girls read this book, they realize that Abby deserved to be respected by a much better man.

xo Marian

But wait, there’s more!

If you enjoyed today’s Beautiful Disaster book review, you can read some more of my book discussions here.