Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire is a New Adult Contemporary Romance. This isn’t a book review but an actual summary of what happens in the story, so keep in mind there will be spoilers ahead.
- Book Title: Beautiful Disaster
- Author: Jamie McGuire
- Publication Date: July 12, 2012
- Category: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
- Print Length: 431 Pages
Abby’s best friend America and her boyfriend Shepley introduce her to Travis a little after Travis wins in a Circle fight. Travis shows his interest immediately, but Abby is repulsed, influenced by how everyone talks about him being the bad boy who sleeps around with random women daily. Shepley and Travis, who live together and are also cousins, invite the girls to meet in their apartment. Abby shows up dressed horribly and without any makeup on, wanting to make it clear she is not interested in impressing him.
Travis takes her out for pizza when he asks if she had eaten before she went there. In the restaurant, they get to know each other, and Abby makes it clear she has no problem with being friends, but she has no intention of sleeping with him like every other woman he talks to.
As the days pass, they start hanging out more in school, and everyone sees and talks about that, making Abby feel insecure. Travis shows her how she shouldn’t care, just like he doesn’t care about what people are talking about him. America suggests Abby should temporarily move in with the guys since Abby’s building has problems with the boilers. Abby refuses because people are already talking about her and Travis, and she doesn’t want to make it worse by moving in with him, but America convinces her when she tells her she is there all the time with Shepley anyway so that Abby wouldn’t be alone with the guys.
Moving there, Abby is shocked when Travis tells her the only place she can sleep is in his bed with him. They start waking up every day tangled and hugging each other. Abby can’t deny to herself that she starts to feel something for Travis now that she gets to know him better, but she tries to stop herself from feeling something deeper because he is not the kind of guy she wants to be with.
Travis slips in and kisses Abby’s neck while they are dancing in a club, but she makes it clear that’s not going to happen and goes to sit at the bar. Another guy approaches her, and they start talking when Travis goes and separates them, acting like Abby is his property. Once they are back in the apartment and off to bed, Abby is mad about his reaction since they aren’t a couple, but Travis explains that the guy that was talking to her was accused of rape last year. Travis also mentions, among others, that now he is the one that doesn’t want to just have sex with her because he got to know her, and he knows he doesn’t deserve to be with her for even a night.
By the time Travis has his second fight since he met Abby, they have become good friends. Before they leave for the fight, he insists she has to change her clothes and wear something more decent, explaining that wearing a tight dress will make him lose the game because he will look out for who is trying to approach her instead of his opponent. They also make a bet because Travis always seems so sure he will win.
Abby says that if he loses, he has to stay a month without having sex, and Travis says that if he wins the game, Abby has to live with him for the whole month, even if the boilers in her building are going to be fixed sooner than that. He wins the game, and when Abby tries to escape the bet, he says that she would make him keep his promise if he had lost.
A few days after that, Travis sees Abby talking with Parker, one of the guys in their class. He overhears them talking about meeting up later. Abby sees Travis silent for the rest of the day, and then she talks with America, who tries to show her the truth – that Abby pretends she doesn’t see – that Abby and Travis are practically a couple that doesn’t have sex yet and that he is getting jealous. Not wanting to admit it, Abby agrees to go out with Parker.
Starting to date Parker, Abby finds Travis waiting at the door for her after every date, asking her how it went and listening patiently to her when she talks about how much fun they had. Parker starts sitting with them in the cafeteria at school, making Travis feel even more distant, and everyone can see how different he has become.
Travis asks Abby to go out bowling, but she tells him she already had planned to see Parker. Later that day, though, she cancels dinner plans with Parker in front of Travis, letting him know they will spend some time together as he wants. They stay up late talking and not realizing the time has passed.
After a while, Abby wants to leave the apartment, asking Travis to cancel the bet because she doesn’t feel well hanging out with him while she is supposed to be dating Parker. Travis doesn’t let her leave, saying a deal is a deal. After they fight about it, he gets drunk, finds her in Parker’s car while they are making out, and makes a scene.
Going back home, Abby and Travis have another fight, in which she tells him what she does it’s none of his business, and she admits she wouldn’t do it in a car with Parker anyway since she is a virgin and it is something important to her. After their fight, they come really close and start kissing. Abby feels she is ready to give in, but Travis separates them, saying that this is wrong and it isn’t supposed to be this way.
Travis gathers everyone home to have a surprise party for Abby’s birthday, in which she gets drunk and has so much fun. Parker visits just to say hi since he is supposed to be somewhere with his family. He shows his disapproval when Abby tells him drinking was something her father and her used to do from a young age. Travis wants to beat the diamond bracelet Parker gave Abby for her birthday, so he takes her a puppy for a gift that he can keep as an excuse so she can visit after her month there is over. He takes care of her the whole night when she gets drunk, but in the morning, she tells him not to worry because she had grown up in an environment full of alcohol and absent parents that made her learn to take care of herself.
Abby and America have a fight when America tells her she needs to admit that she has feelings for Travis, and she has to end things with Parker. Parker hears the rumors that Abby was with him, and after that, she goes home to sleep (have sex) with Travis, so he visits to make things clear, but he finds Abby and Travis sleeping together and not knowing that they usually share a bed, he thinks they had done something more and leaves. Abby finds out about all that when Travis goes to fight the guy that started the rumors. Even after that, Parker finds Abby, and after they talk, they agree to start seeing each other again when she returns to her apartment, and she has all the time to focus on him.
On her last day, Abby and Travis stay up late, talking about how things will change now that she is going to leave. After a deep conversation, Abby decides she wants to sleep with Travis (have sex), so his curiosity will burn out, but after they do it, he tells her this was her last first kiss making her realize Travis’ feelings for her might not have been as shallow as she believed. That thought shocks her.
Abby leaves without saying goodbye because she doesn’t feel she can handle it. The next morning her roommate wakes her up, saying her phone has been ringing nonstop, and at the same time, America knocks on the door, worried something might have happened since Abby doesn’t answer her phone, and Travis destroyed the whole house when he saw she was missing. She talks to Travis and wants to make it clear they can be friends but nothing more, even when he tells her he doesn’t feel he can stay away from her.
Abby and Parker go out on a date, but she starts feeling like something is missing until the moment Travis calls to ask her out the next day. Wanting to “win” her back, Parker invites Abby to the Date party the school will have, but Abby tells him she had already promised Travis to go with him as friends, and they have their first fight.
The next day Abby and Travis go out and talk about random stuff until the moment Travis makes a love confession Abby didn’t expect. He tells her to call Parker and tell him to end things now, and she does, telling him she is in love with Travis, and she now realizes it.
Abby and Travis start going to school, holding hands and kissing in front of everyone, so people know they are together now. Rumors start again, and Travis is ready to start a fight with Parker and another guy, but Abby tries to calm him down. Travis is happy to feel that he can be controlled for the first time.
Going out for a drink with America and Shepley, Travis starts a fight because he gets jealous when a random guy buys drinks for the girls. Abby feels disappointed but explains that he feels overwhelmed because he has never felt like that before and doesn’t know how to act in a relationship. He also tells her that he is afraid she will understand how worthless he is and she will leave him.
Some days later, Travis surprises Abby by taking her to meet his family. They spend the day playing poker, where Abby doesn’t share that she knows to play well and gets all of their money. Later she confesses she knows how to play because of her father, a poker legend. All of Travis’ brothers know about her from poker magazines and can’t believe they are actually meeting her.
The next night, Abby’s dad tells her he owes money to a big name in the mafia. He asks her to help him, and she makes him promise that if she finds him the money he needs this time, he will have to leave her alone for good.
Abby, America, and their boyfriends go all together to Vegas so Abby can win some money playing in a casino. One of Abby’s old friends is working there, and he tells her she should leave because she is under 21. They agree to go out for dinner the next day, and he gives the pass to stay until midnight, but Travis doesn’t like the idea.
Travis and Abby visited the Mafia boss when Abby’s father had agreed to give him the money. Abby is missing 10% of the money and asks for a little more time, but the Boss doesn’t like that and calls his guys to hurt Travis. Being a good fighter, he takes them down, impressing the Boss, who suggests Travis should work for him going to fights.
Travis is excited, but Abby warns him that the Boss is really dangerous and won’t let him leave after a year, as he first said. When Travis tells her he wants to do it, after all, Abby gathers her stuff and leaves the house again, this time for. Her reason is that she wanted to leave her father’s illegal stuff away from her for her whole life, and Travis is starting to remind her a lot of her father.
They spend some days apart before they make up again after a guy has her cornered in the club, and Travis saves her. They all go to another Circle fight, where a fire starts, and everyone tries to escape the big building. Travis finds Abby when she gets lost in the long corridors, and they both go out safe.
Returning home after this tragedy, Abby realizes she wants all the forevers Travis wants, even though it seems overwhelming for her to make such huge steps into a relationship. But she swallows her pride and asks Travis to marry her. After he realizes she is not kidding, Travis shows her a diamond ring he had already bought for her, and they leave to get married in Vegas the same night.
Beautiful Disaster is now available on Amazon.
The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear and has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. With the darkness of her past behind her, she believes her freshman year at college is the start of a new beginning. But then she meets Travis Maddox.
Lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand is exactly what Abby needs to avoid. Intrigued by her resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in his apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match in this “beautifully sexy, beautifully intense, and beautifully perfect” (Jessica Park, New York Times bestselling author).
