And yet when he overhears Abby telling America her reasons for not dating him, he feels slighted, and sleeps with two girls that very night while Abby is in the apartment. The entire time, however, Travis insists on the two being just friends. If he wins, however, Abby must spend a month at his apartment. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. Travis decides to take matters into his own hand and, to trap Abby, makes a bet with her: he will purposely not take a hit during his next fight. She soon begins dating one of Travis’s frat brothers, Parker, which infuriates Travis even more. Travis, though, becomes angry, and will not allow her to pull away. However, Abby tries to distance herself a bit more when she learns that her reputation is being affected by her friendship with Travis.

Initially disgusted by his reputation on campus, Abby begins to see that Travis is different than his actual reputation in many regards, thus making the attraction even more stated. In sum, neither want to fall in love with the other person. For her part, Abby is attempting to distance herself from her past, and so is not interested in getting involved with Travis, especially with his reputation. Besides, he does not really believe in relationships. He is drawn to Abby because, of all the females he knows, she is the only one who does not want to date him. It is actually when Abby goes to a floating, underground fight circle with friends America and Shepley (America’s boyfriend and Travis’s roommate/cousin) that she meets Travis. With his good looks, tattoos and dangerous personality, Travis is everything that Abby is not, and everything she has traveled so far to avoid.

And yet soon after arriving into town, Abby meets the university’s proverbial bad boy/ladies’ man: Travis Maddox. Abby Abernathy moves far away with her best friend, America, bent on leaving her troubling past behind altogether and starting fresh at Eastern University. The novel’s author, Jamie McGuire, does not hold back with this tale of romance and opposites attracting, with poignant themes of jealousy, fear and belonging sharply characterizing the novel’s character-driven plot. Beautiful Disaster is a New Adult novel that helped to define the genre, which typically deals with Young Adult novel themes in a more mature manner.

Jamie mcguire beautiful disaster series