Summary:
The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend America, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.
Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the charming college co-ed. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his charms, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’ apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.
My Thoughts:
This book is seriously like crack. Because I felt like shit for liking it, but I couldn't pull myself away. And then I read it a couple more times. There are so many typos I wanted to tear my eyes out, but I seriously love Jamie McGuire, regardless. I have nothing but respect for authors who self-publish, and McGuire is doing one hell of a job because she is very popular. This is yet another book who's setting is a college campus (love!).
Ms. McGuire has a real talent for developing her characters. By the end of all of her books, the reader has developed a strong relationship with all characters, even the more minor ones. I spent most of the book wanting to slap both of the main characters (Travis and Abby), but still rooting for them at the same time. I told you, it's like crack. Travis was absolutely crazy at times, but strangely, this just made me love him as a character even more. I loved him, then I hated him, then I loved him again. There are some characters that I love so much that I want to kick the female lead out on her face and take the boy for myself. This was not the case with Travis and Abby. Yeah I liked Travis, but I really loved his relationship with Abby even more. McGuire developed their relationship, however disfuctional it might be, so well that had no choice but to root for both of them. I liked Abby for the most part, but she made some really poor decisions that made me want to wring her by the neck and knock some sense into her.
Abby was a good narrator, but I wished that the book had been from both her and Travis' point of views. Good news, though! Jamie McGuire has started writing a new book, Beautiful Disaster from Travis' point of view. YEEE!
I really loved America's character as well. I would love to have a best friend like her. You gotta love Shepley and Finch too, even though they were more minor characters. Shep and Finch both just kind of popped up when it was convenient. I would have liked to know more about them. I wish I could have killed Parker in his sleep, that tool of a boy. Harsh, but true.
The cover is really confusing to me. A butterfly in a jar? Really? This really has nothing to do with the story at all. This first cover that was released was even worse. It was a picture of a close up of a girl's tongue with a garbled up painting replacing her tongue. Just plain weird.
My favorite line:
"To douchebags!" he said, gesturing to Brad. "And to girls that break your heart," he bowed his head to me. His eyes lost focus. "And to the absolute fucking horror of losing your best friend because you were stupid enough to fall in love with her."
So...read this book. I stayed up until 4am reading it because I couldn't tear myself away.
