I was skeptical about Walking Disaster. I didn’t think it would be possible for me to love Travis Maddox any more than I did in Beautiful Disaster. I was wrong. In WD Travis’ POV enables the reader to see a different side to him than we had in BD. Travis is broken, and vulnerable and exposed. His anger issues seem to make more sense, and seem to be of less consequence. Because we are privy to his thoughts, his actions seem less random, more justified. There is a natural flow, almost organic in nature, to Travis and Abby’s relationship. While we knew Abby’s thoughts and feelings in BD, trying to discern what motivated Travis and his actions was almost impossible. Walking Disaster affords us the luxury of doing so.
“I know,” I said, my voice breaking. “I never once convinced myself that I was good enough for you.”
From the early death of his mother, Travis learned to guard both his heart and his emotions. Feeling nothing is better than feeling pain. While he loves to “bag” girls, he doesn’t do relationships. He has a few frequent flyers, but he is more of a one and done kind of guy. When he meets Abby, his “Pigeon”, he finds himself feeling and wanting things he swore only fools should feel. Being able to get inside his head (which is no easy feat) allows us to see how quickly and how deeply he fell for Abby. Why he is so jealous, why he is so possessive, why he is so insecure.
“I haven’t felt like this since Mom died. I don’t know what to do,” I choked out. “I’m going to lose her.”
Abby’s reactions seemed to exasperate me even more in WD, than in BD. Whenever she pushed Travis away and we saw how each rejection left another scar on his heart, I found myself wanting to knock some sense into her. She is far too flighty and whimsical for him and yet underneath all that fluff she is the only person for him. Seeing his pain after the break up after Vegas, and Thanksgiving and the loneliness of the holidays fills in all those blanks of how he managed to keep it together, when everything around him was falling apart.
Reading again how they resolved the huge Grand Canyon that separated them and their reunion and the fire at Keaton Hall and Abby’s ring and their wedding, and …Travis oh Travis, how I fell in love with you all again and how this love was even better the second time around. My real guilty pleasure with this book was the epilogue. I had hoped for a glimpse into a few weeks after their wedding, and if I was feeling particularly greedy maybe I could get a few months. But never did I imagine 11 years, 11 freaking, fantastic years. No longer teenagers, they have both blown out the over the hill dreaded 30th birthday candles and then some.
For me, I would have bought the book just for the epilogue, being someone who always has to know what happened after that last chapter, did they stay together, did they get their happily ever after?Jamie McGuire has written a hell of an epilogue, and one which left me satisfied.
“I thought about my mother, and the words she said to me almost a lifetime ago. That’s when it clicked: she had asked me not to settle, to fight for the person I loved, and for the first time, I did what she expected of me. I had finally lived up to who she wanted me to be.”
We received an advanced copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
No comments:
Post a Comment