Review: Walking Disaster

If you think having your heart broken over a fictitious novel is outrageous, then having your heart broken over the same fictitious novel written from two different perspectives is downright bizarre. With Walking Disaster, the sequel to Beautiful Disaster also written by Jamie McGuire, it’s true. It’s damn true.

RELATED LINKSBeautiful Disaster review on SolSat

Walking Disaster - every story has two sides.

Walking Disaster – every story has two sides.

In Walking Disaster, the reader takes the perspective of Travis Maddox, the badboy hearthrob from Beautiful Disaster. The novel travels through the events written in Beautiful, except from Travis’ perspective, making the story more interesting and intriguing as a whole.

The world of Travis and Abby was much more clear in Walking, not just because you saw the second half of the story but just because Travis as a character had a much more clear head than Abby and knew what he wanted from the beginning. It is because of this clarity that I was glued to this book. It tied up all the loose ends created in Beautiful and did it in such a succinct manner that Jamie McGuire needs to be given some sort of medal for it. Seeing all the “skipped scenes” in Beautiful being written in Walking was very fulfilling to those like myself who were thirsty for some more of Travis and Abby shenanigans.

In regards to Travis knowing what he wanted from the beginning – that being Abby – the relationship between the two protagonists was much more beautiful from Travis’ opinion. While Abby was in denial about her feelings for Travis in Beautiful, Travis knew he was head over heels for the fiesty girl from the get go and it was so beautiful seeing this troubled heartbreaker go through such a dramatic change. I empathised with this book so well that I had my heart broken again – in the same parts as last time – even though I was reading as Travis.

Walking Disaster was written in the same manner as Beautiful Disaster but the way the words fell onto the page clearly illustrated the difference in minds between Abby and Travis which, ta da, made this book so great! The language used was grabbing and sophisticated and made the book all the more enjoyable to read. McGuire captured the mind of a young male very well and I have to say that I thought the inner workings of Travis’ mind was much more entertaining than Abby’s.

The storyline was the same as Beautiful Disaster, obviously, but even saying that I still found it interesting just because I was going through the other half of the story, especially with the little tidbits not touched upon in Beautiful. Travis and Abby’s love story is addictive and as dangerously obsessive as they the characters find it. Seeing what was going through Travis’ mind when he made some of his (foolish) decisions made me empathise with him and not mentally throw a shoe at him for bringing home two girls from the Red.

Solst-o-meter
Storyline: 8.6/10
Style of writing: 8.2/10
Overall: 8.4/10

I’m hooked on Travis and Abby and I can’t get over it. I even have a couple of songs on my playlist that remind me of their relationship and I get emotional when I listen to them just because I think of their love story. Walking Disaster is just as great as Beautiful Disaster, if not, greater. I’m hanging out for some kind of third book in the series to fill this void in my life but if that doesn’t happen, I’ll happily go back and read through Beautiful and Walking again – and let Travis break my heart another two times.

Absolutely excellent read and I recommend this to everyone, no matter what your preference in read is!

– by The Black Widow

Review: Beautiful Bitch

So curiosity got the better of me and I went out and got the sequel to Beautiful Bastard, entitled *gasp* Beautiful Bitch. I was so taken by the first novel and totally encapsulated in the world of Chloe Mills and Bennett Ryan so I had high hopes for this one. I had planned to purchase this book after my next pay, but I couldn’t wait and decided to buy it straight after finishing Beautiful Bastard. Besides, twelve dollars to my credit card isn’t going to hurt anyone.

RELATED LINKS: Solstice Satisfaction reviews “Beautiful Bastard”

The sequel to Beautiful Bastard follows the now official relationship between Chloe and Bennett.

The sequel to Beautiful Bastard follows the now official relationship between Chloe and Bennett.

Following the events of the previous book, Chloe and Bennett are now officially in a relationship. Beautiful Bitch takes place a bout a year after the events of Beautiful Bastard and it mainly follows the busy work routine lives of Bennett and Chloe. Of course, however, the business is not explored as much as the lust and desire these two sexpots seem to have for each other. Bennett is just dying to take Chloe away for a holiday so he can have her all to himself but work seems to get in the way time and time again.

The storyline in this one was a sad let down, I must say. It wasn’t as much a sequel as it was a timeline filler, and by timeline filler, I mean this book just revisited scenes that either fit into the first books timeline and wasn’t touched upon or could have fit in the first books timeline but wasn’t.  This book mostly featured flashback scenes, from either Bennett or Chloe’s perspective, and didn’t really bring anything new or fresh to the plate, which I was hoping for.

I thought the extreme personalities of both Chloe and Bennett were quite watered down in this book as well; Bennett wasn’t as nearly as bossy and arrogant as he was in the first book and Chloe wasn’t really sassy or manipulative. The two characters seemed to have had an overhaul just because they finally admitted that they loved each other. I didn’t have the same connection with either Chloe or Bennett in this novel as I did in Beautiful Bastard. In saying this, biffs between the two were still evident and still made me chuckle.

It was written in the same manner as the last book which I liked; it made me feel more relaxed as I was familiar with the style of writing from the previous book. The concept of using two different fonts for Chloe and Bennett was used and the contrast in writing between the two was also evident.

The length of the novel was also a let down; after a stellar first novel which left fans chomping at the bits for more, Beautiful Bitch went for 132 pages and that was it. I was really hoping for longer so we could get into more of the infamous Ryan-Mills relationship but sadly I had to settle for 132 pages.

Solst-o-meter
Storyline: 6.0/10
Style of writing: 8.0/10
Overall: 6.8/10

Overall, I was disappointed. I found it entertaining but my hopes for a solid sequel after Beautiful Bastard were quietly dashed by this installment. Fortunately for me, a third book in the series is coming out so hopefully, fingers crossed, I am extremely pleased with that edition.

– by The Black Widow