Sam's Book Basket: [Review] Walking Disaster

Released: April 2nd, 2013

Finally, the highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful Disaster.

Can you love someone too much?

Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it's time to see the story through Travis's eyes.

"One of these days you're going to fall in love, son. Don't settle for just anyone. Choose the girl that doesn't come easy; the one you have to fight for, and then never stop fighting. Never."

MY BABY IS BACK, BITCHES! Do you know how excited I was when I heard that it was released early?

Man, that's a creepy gif but that summed up how I felt. My God, I was freaking ecstatic! I read this book months back when it was released so bear with me if I miss any details. All I know is:

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK!

Jamie McGuire gives us an inside look into Travis' head during his pursuit of Abby. Through Abby's eyes, we can see how much he's changed for her and how he's gone from the major player to the whipped (in a good way!) lover. Here, we go deeper into Travis' character as we see scenes that weren't in Beautiful Disaster.

So, we probably think that: "Hey, Trav loves that lifestyle! The booze, the women, the money." But then.

"Fucking vultures. They could wait you out for hours."

The first few paragraphs of the first chapter blew my mind. They were so brilliantly written with the perfect extended metaphors and symbols. Travis' mindset is just wow.

"What they don't know, what they've never anticipated, is that the prey is faking. It's the vultures that are easy. Just when they think all they have to do is be patient, to sit back and wait for you to expire, that's when you hit them. That's when you bring in the secret weapon: an utter lack of respect for the status quo; a refusal to give in to the order of things."

The last phrase. A+++! An utter lack of respect for the status quo; a refusal to give in to the other of things. Jesus, when a guy says that, you know we've got a bad boy in our hands. But damn, Travis. He's got a way with words. It's so simple yet it's such a strong phrase.

And, what I didn't get in Beautiful Disaster, was why didn't Abby ask about her nickname? So I was beyond happy when Jamie answered my unspoken question here.

"I decided a long time ago I would feed on the vultures until a dove came along. A pigeon. The kind of soul that didn't impede on anyone; just walked around worrying about its own business, trying to get through life without pulling everyone else down with its own needs and selfish habits."

HOT DAMN. And that isn't even the full paragraph. These quotes are only from the first chapter. I just fell head-over-heels in love with this book.

With this being in Travis' point of view, we learn more about his past. We learn about his mother and her last words. We also get the talks between Travis and Mr. Maddox that we didn't in BD. Their relationship is sort of, EXTREMELY ADORABLE.

Travis: "There's a girl, Dad."

Mr. Maddox: "[smiled] A girl."

Travis: "She kinda hates me, and I kinda…"

Mr. Maddox: "Love her?"

Travis: "I don't know. I don't think so. I mean… how do you know?"

Mr. Maddox: "When you're talking about her with your old dad because you don't know what else to do."

Jim is just perfect. God, I love how we get more on Travis' family in this book so we see how his past was like.

But I'm not going to go on and on about this. I just really damn love this book. You will too! Trust me. I think it's better than the first one hehe.

Plus! You've got an extended epilogue; there's more in this one than in the first one.