Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire
Jamie McGuire’s Walking Disaster (ISBN: 978-1-4767-1299-4), the sexy sequel to Beautiful Disaster (ISBN: 978-1-4711-1503-5), isn’t just a retelling of the same story from the male perspective. McGuire has deftly captured the male persona in Travis Maddox, right down to the quintessential male quality of always wanting to fix anything that goes wrong in his relationship with Abby Abernathy.
If you’ve read Beautiful Disaster, you know the plot line. Even if you haven’t read McGuire’s first rendition of Abby and Travis’s disastrous beginnings, you know the plot line: good girl tries to tame bad boy by pretending to be disinterested only to fall in love with him and overcome any other character flaws that each has and any obstacles to true happiness. Yet McGuire’s story has a twist: Abby’s not as good as she seems and it is Travis and Abby’s clashing streaks of badness that repeatedly bring them together and tear them apart.
The Maddox brothers, as minor characters, are well written although somewhat stereotypical. Being raised by a father in a household of boys, the brothers grew up fighting with each other and against the world. None of them have permanent relationships, which is obviously an effect of having lost their mother at such young ages and not having the influence of a stable parental relationship as a model. Apparently, though, McGuire has worked that to her advantage because rumor has it that the Maddox brothers are getting their own series. Readers will be able to indulge in the seduction and shamelessness of Thomas, Tyler, Taylor and Trenton as they find their own pigeons.
If you love bad boys who are redeemable, love stories with a twist of deviance, and just good old-fashioned college fun, both Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster are must reads.