Spoiler alert!

I think we’ve all read books whose reviews were so great but once read it we were like ” what was all the fuss about?” This was one of those for me. Not to take anything away from the author because the book was very well written, it just didn’t strike a chord with me. Here’s what I felt were its issues; the characters were too flawed, kind of whiny, and way too tortured. I’ll admit that I might be a little older than this book’s target audience but I read YA and NA books a lot and that doesn’t usually bug me.
Abby Abernathy and Travis Maddox’s best friends were dating. This fact throws them together and while Travis is hot, he is also a slut. So Abby declares him in the friend zone and they stay in that zone getting to know each other. Travis starts to have feelings for Abby, but she’s clueless. Each time someone tries to make her see it, she says he’s just a friend, she’s not attracted to him, etc. He gets mad, gets drunk and has a one night stand with one of the many girls who chase after him. Yeah, that’ll endear you to her Travis. First strike. Travis  also fights in these underground college fight clubs. That’s how he pays for his school and living expenses. Ok I’ll give him this one, a guy has got to pay his way, right? But dating material? Let’s see how this goes.

On to Ms. Abernathy. Abby comes from a dysfunctional family. Her dad is an ex famous poker player who has fallen on bad times and bad luck. Abby has run away from her troubled past and is trying to start fresh. Not a bad thing, true. However, she decides that leaving that life also means she has to act and date a certain way. She wears pearls and cardigans and wants to date guys named Parker. Kind of stereotypical which probably wouldn’t have annoyed me so much if we weren’t getting glimpses into her not so perfect past. Hypocritical? Yes.

So the two of them finally give each other a chance, but they fight all the time and  they are both so insecure that those insecurities start to eat away at them. Abby constantly gets scared of the strength of her or Travis’ feelings that she runs away from him constantly. Why does he like her so much? I just can’t figure that out!  At this point I’m really tired of the back and forth, angst, pain and crying, but I’m almost done so I keep reading.

Abby’s past comes back to haunt her in the form of her father who owes the mob $25k. I’m thinking what?? Where did this plot turn come from? Abby, now a pro poker player who was blamed by her father for making his luck go bad, must go to Vegas to win the money to pay her father’s debt before the mob “teaches him a lesson”. They are short on the cash, Travis has to beat up everyone to save them and then takes the mobster up on his offer of being his “fighter”. This just keeps getting worse, right? The mob tries to kill them yet our boy Travis wants to be the mobsters fighter? That makes no sense! Abby does the first sensible thing in the book and leaves his ass.

Travis cries, begs and pleads, she says no way Jose and they are broken up. Though they still love each other. Months go by. I’ll say that again. Months go by! She goes on a date with Parker, Travis see’s her with him. He’s got an underground fight that night and he asks her to leave her date and go support him. She does! I’m tearing my hair out! The place the fight is being held in  catches fire. He saves her they declare their love and run off to Vegas to get married. Seriously. That one is a divorce waiting to happen. Yet we have our HEA.

As you can tell, I did not like this book. Yet I finished it.  I can only give it  ❤️❤️❣️. Just in case you’re interested in reading the story from Travis’s POV, you can! The book is called Walking Disaster. I kid you not! Lol.

Click the link to purchase! Beautiful Disaster: A Novel (Beautiful Disaster Series)

Copyright 2017 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

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