Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire (2012)

That old adage, don't judge a book by its cover came true again - literally. I picked this book up, because I liked the cover. (Maybe I will explore this again sometime. When I had a bookstore, all the horror books had black covers with dripping red or purple letters. The romances too could be classified by their covers. Westerns had a certain style, so did science fiction and fantasy. I am sure the publishing industry puts a lot of thought into the type of customer they want to draw in with their cover.) I read the blurb and thought I was up for a contemporary book about college age kids. But it disappointed in so many ways. I will write what I thought and then look at what other people have said.

The opening chapter was good. She - Abby - gets drawn into a basement where there is an illegal fight going on. He - Travis - is one of the fighters, the reigning champ of Eastern University from some Midwest state not too far from Wichita, Kansas. The story is basically a romance with the usual push - pull. He isn't the type of guy she wants tatoos and all, she is getting away from some past and he reminds her of that too much. He doesn't want any woman - he sleeps with them but doesn't call or date. She has a best friend America, who is going out with his roommate and cousin. He talks her into a bet she loses, and ends up having to live with him for a month - just friends. But then it gets frustrating as they work things out. Maybe things have totally changed since I was in college, but since when are freshman looking for the one and only? Sure, people are looking for relationships, learning in them, but rarely do they end up forever. (OK, so my best friend in college was an exception, but they started in high school, and did some soul searching before they realized they really are meant to be together and still are.) I had a hard time with the college life depicted. Everyone meeting for lunch in the cafeteria every day, like in high school, sitting in clicks? With everyone watching what everyone else is doing? Maybe that happens in small schools, but it seemed so immature.

Then there was the physical fighting. Not my favorite thing, but I could get there being impromptu fights called together through cell phones like a flash mob, with bets going on, where everyone keeps mum, but there was some major fighting outside these situations, that never seemed to draw the attention of authorities. Maybe it is literary license, like Clint Eastwood movies, or the norm in that part of the country, but my sense is that any fight, especially if someone is injured, gets the attention of the police or campus safety. That seemed to barely graze the consciousness of the characters, especially in the last fight when a lot of people were injured. No way that would have gone unnoticed.

I was going to give up on this book early on, but since I have dropped a few books recently, I decided to stick with it and see if there was anything redeeming about it. It did get exciting about three quarters of the way through, when we get a glimpse into Abby's past, as she is forced to play her former role as an expert gambler. Now this I found interesting, but it was over way too soon. I wanted to know more about this life, how her friend America had gotten to be her sidekick at times like these, why Travis was not more impressed with her skills, more about her mother other than a brief mention. When Abby broke up with Travis, because he did not understand some aspects of her past, I never felt that he got it in the end. I do get that they were both broken in some way and in that way worked together, but I have a hard time understanding the "forever" sentiments at that age.

When looking for the book covers, I look at reviews. Of course, I must be getting old or way off mainstream, because this book got some sort of romance of the year award. I actually like Amazon personal reviews, there one reviewer that said it better than I: "the relationship was so raw and emotional that the rollercoaster that was their relationship became quite stressful. By the end of the book I just wanted them to stop fighting!" Though she did point out that the ups and downs in their relationship were more like real relationships than in many books. OK, I'll give it that.