Bestseller Jamie McGuire is back, starting at the beginning of Beautiful Disaster, but this time from bad boy Travis’ point of view.
Set in the same time-frame as Beautiful Disaster, now we hear the story from Travis’ point of view.
Travis lost his mother at a very young age, but before she died she taught him two important rules… Love hard. Fight harder.
Growing up in a family of men who … family of men who like to gamble and fight, Travis Maddox is a tough guy. Known for his bad reputation with women, and feared for his incredible fighting skills, all the boys want to be him, while the girls simply want him…
Abby Abernathy is the first girl to treat him the way he feels he should be treated, with dislike and disinterest. It is her lack of interest that sparks his determination to win her round.
Will the invincible Travis ‘Mad Dog’ Maddox be defeated by a girl?
See what readers are saying about Beautiful Disaster:
‘A great antidote to my Shades of Grey withdrawal symptoms’ J Stephenson
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One of my favorite series.. absolutely of the characters in the story line just a great read.
Jamie McGuire is an author I’ve known about for a long time. I read Beautiful Disaster when it first came out and loved it. I was in the midst of a fairly busy writing career of my own when her Walking Disaster (Travis’s POV) came out, so I never got around to reading it until now. One thing about this story that blew me away is the similarities that Travis Maddox’s backstory has to my Tristan White’s backstory in “The Venture Capitalist.” Both young men lost their mothers at an early age to cancer. While reading the prologue of Walking Disaster, it made me go back to The Venture Capitalist and read Tristan’s backstory again. It’s uncanny how great minds really do think alike sometimes, and we tell a story that has similar plot points, but in a totally different way.
Unlike my Tristan, Travis is a wild man. In fact, he meets Abby during college, so he’s very young, but very intense in his feelings for her. Tristan has intense feelings for Keisha, but he’s very polished in his pursuit of her. Travis pulls out all the stops and then some. OMG, this guy was like a bull in a proverbial china shop. From the moment he gave Abby her nickname–Pigeon–I was a goner! And my the introduction to his brothers. There are Maddox Twins–Tyler and Taylor! Much like Tristan and Nathan, my twins, these Maddox Twins are scorching, and not only because of their career as Firefighters. Then there’s Trenton, the tattooed tattoo artist, and Thomas the FBI Agent. So, Walking Disaster has reeled me in, so I’m currently binging on the rest of the Maddox Brothers stories.
So far, I’ve completed Trent and Cami’s story, Tyler and Ellison’s story, and Thomas and Liis’s story. Each story shares more about each of the brothers and interweaves the overarching story of the Mobster that Thomas and Travis will eventually take down. I’ve even read former FBI Agent Scott Trexler and Darby’s story. Jamie McGuire writes stories about hard-loving men, who pursue their women in such a dogged fashion, you can’t help but root for them.
So, read the Maddox stories in the Beautiful series. You’ll be glad you did.
Love the struggles and the characters in these books!
I loved this book and series.
Travis’s POV…5++stars!
A remarkable read with a cast of great characters. Walking Disaster mirrors the first book, Beautiful Disaster, but it is written in Travis Maddox’s point of view. We get into his head about the undeniable and irresistible attraction he has to Abby Abernathy. Feisty, street-smart Abby is unlike any girl Travis has ever met and is drawn to her for no reason other than she avoids him at all costs. Unlike, the other girls on campus who swarm to him with his fighter’s physique and edgy, good looks, Travis knows Abby is hiding something.
Abby Abernathy avoids Travis at every turn. He’s the kind of trouble she doesn’t need in her life. With an unconventional upbringing and family whose ties to the mafia is noteworthy, Abby seeks normalcy in her life. And going to college with her best friend, America, hopefully, Abby can achieve this.
If you thought Travis’s actions from the first book were unpredictable, rash and over possessive, Walking Disaster provides all the answers to his near-desperate possession of Abby. We get a true glimpse of the myriad of emotions he feels for her. And of course, as a young man in love for the first time, Travis stumbles spectacularly, but what a ride he takes us on. Finally, we learn why Travis calls Abby by the nickname, “Pigeon.” *sigh*
I loved every word of this book and this series is becoming one of my favorite. Jamie McGuire brings us an amazing story filled with great characters, witty dialogue, and a heartwarming young romance.
Did you think Travis was a tool after Beautiful Disaster?? Well now you can understand what he was feeling and why he did what he did. He might seem like a player, and he was, until he met his Pigeon. He comes across as this take no prisoners underground MMA fighter, but once he finds the woman who has had his heart her whole life, he becomes a caring, thoughtful man.
Loved it!
Beautiful Disaster from Travis’s POV. It was nice to see some of the scenes from his perspective.
This one made me feel all types of crazy things about Travis Maddox Made me loveeeee him. Loved this book more then Beautiful disaster.
Hilarious! This was an instant classic in my mind. Mildly steamy, but not steamy enough that it detracts from the story. This book had me rolling on the floor laughing and crying happy tears. Can’t wait to read the rest of the series.
All I can say is wow!!! Seeing everything through Travis’ POV put all the puzzle pieces together 🙂
A must read! Jamie McGuire never disappoints.
Going into Walking Disaster I expected to see Abby and Travis’ story from a different point of view. In other words, I expected to see mostly all the same scenes from Beautiful Disaster, just from Travis’ perspective, not Abby’s. I wasn’t wrong. Some scenes are indeed repeats from the first book, however, McGuire expands upon some scenes and manages to weave in a few new scenes.
I loved Travis “mad dog” Maddox in the first book, and felt the absolute same in this book. He is extremely rough around the edges, and we saw how much he changed when he was around Abby. This book gives you so much more than that. We are able to witness first hand the transformation he went through and how deep his feelings really are. It is absolutely fantastic!
The back cover explains that there are two sides to every story. It’s not often that an author gives you both sides either. This seems to be happening more and more, and I am so grateful for it! Don’t get me wrong, not all books and series need to do this. Even when an author switches between points of views in the book is enough.
McGuire was able to add a little something extra to Walking Disaster also…an epilogue! It was absolutely perfect and I wouldn’t change it, not one bit! Although it’s not necessary to read both books, I highly recommend to! Do not read them back to back though, take a break in-between…trust me.
Apart from the Prologue, Epilogue and the parts of the story where Travis wasn’t with Abby, this book is pretty much the same as book one. Maybe I shouldn’t have read it immediately after reading book one. It was great getting Travis side of the story, and the prologue was a great way to start the book. The epilogue was great too but it took a couple of pages to work out exactly how far in advance it was. I enjoyed this one but not as much as BD. I think that’s the better of the two and has a bit more detail. If the prologue and epilogue of this book were mixed in with BD it would’ve made it complete instead of telling the whole thing again.
Let me start out by saying that I did not read Beautiful Disaster, based on the numerous reviews about Walking Disaster being pretty much the exact same story as BD, just from Travis’s POV. I’ve gotten tired of reading NA stories from the female POV, so I skipped BD.
This has, by far, been one of the best NA romances I’ve read in the male POV. I love Travis and being able to read the struggles he goes through to be with the one he loves is amazing. The story’s pacing starts out a little slow and stilted, like some of the things he did were getting generalized and glossed over. For example, one minute, Travis is talking to Shepley about possibly getting a puppy for Abby (not really agreeing on anything), then not long after it gets mentioned that a puppy greets them, but it wasn’t even mentioned even briefly when he got it or maybe him shopping around the pet stores on a Saturday just to give a little indication that he took time to do it. Perhaps that little bit wasn’t needed, but I think it would’ve added a little more character to read about a guy who takes time out of his busy schedule to go pet shopping. I notice this sort of trend with the glossed-over pacing a lot in many traditionally published books I’ve read, and I guess it’s understandable to keep the pacing going, but sometimes it feels so abrupt, like I’m watching a 30-minute show on TV where they have to make the scenes brief and generalized.
But after Abby ‘loses’ the bet, that’s when things start to pick up. The way Travis falls head over heels for her is cute. The things he does for her like cooking dinner, getting her a puppy, and even being protective of her like not letting her walk out of the house wearing revealing clothing was so sweet to read.
There were times I thought Abby reacted a little too extreme to situations that I did not like. One of the big things was her going out with Parker. To me, I didn’t think it was believable for her to be sleeping in Travis’s room, in his bed, and still be happily going out with Parker. It didn’t make sense for her to do that. There were other little things that annoyed me with Abby, that made me glad to skip over BD, because I do not think I could stand to be in her head for the entire story based on some of the decisions she made (and having to deal with her super-annoying best friend, America).
I realize this is a romance, and part of a romance is that things need to happen to threaten the relationship here and there. There were some places I thought the author forced into the story to bring in the drama, rather than it happen naturally. One such example was Abby continuously packing her bags and leaving, only to come back again. And Travis’s continuous thinking she’s going to leave because he did something wrong. I mean, I understand how anyone can think this, but this has been brought up over and over almost every chapter. It makes Travis sound so insecure, and because it’s been done so much throughout the story, it starts losing its initial impact and sounds more monotonous than anything. I would have liked to see more than just Travis always assuming “Oh, I sneezed. Now she’s gonna leave me tomorrow. I know it.” (I’m over-dramatizing, but you get the idea).
The story had very few cliches (thank goodness!), though one that really annoyed me was when they went to Vegas. Seriously. Big fat mobster dude in an office with two goons on either side of him? That scene is so cliche it makes my eyes burn. Honestly, I think the Vegas stuff wasn’t even needed in this story. I mean, we hear and see bits and pieces about her father from Abby (though I still wonder how in the world he managed to just conveniently find Abby at a frat party), and I think this could’ve been handled differently rather than involving some mobster, to spark the big falling out afterward in which Abby stops talking to Travis for the good part of Winter Break.
All in all, the story ends in a very sweet HEA, that feels genuine. Travis becomes a very changed man when it’s all said and done. The author has portrayed the perfect elements of a true New Adult romance, and I loved it. She captured the aspects of character development from beginning to end. Travis begins as a brash bad boy, but through his undying love for Abby, he changes in amazing ways and becomes a great man.
The sex in this book is steamy, but nothing too overly detailed or erotica-ish. It’s really cool how you don’t have to mention so many details and still get the desired effect. I thought all of the sex scenes were done really well.
Overall, this has been a great book, and would recommend it to anyone who likes the New Adult genre and is looking for a good read in the male POV.
I was a huge fan of Beautiful Disaster and was so looking forward to Travis’s POV in Walking Disaster. I really enjoyed this other side of their story but I didn’t love it. I felt there was a little too much of the same information and it lacked a little. Jamie McGuire did give us some more insight into what was going through his mind but I just felt like it needed more and I wanted more. Don’t get me wrong I am glad I read his POV just felt like the story could have been shorter or we could of got to experience more through his eyes that we hadn’t already witnessed through Abby’s. The ending however left me with a huge smile on my face and a full heart knowing that these two had proved everybody wrong that didn’t think they would make it long term. Travis was in no way a walking disaster he just need his pigeon in life to realize his true worth.