Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Beautiful Disaster

2.5 stars, which feels generous.

I initially bought this book because I had just finished reading the Beautiful Bastard series by Christina Lauren (which is a new adult series of stand-alone romances with character crossover, mostly office romance and heavy on the spice) and everywhere I looked, people recommended that if I liked that series that surely this book would be for me.

WRONG!

This book was nothing like that series. Different in every imaginable way. Even with multiple years in between reading the different books, this still left a sour feeling for me.

But, lets put that aside and talk about this book without the comparison to the previously mentioned series.

This story follows a young college student, Abby, who has fled her old life, which includes a gambling and emotionally abusive father. She then meets Travis, an underground fighter with a bad attitude. The two characters enter into a toxic friendship, followed by an even more toxic relationship. The two make a bet, leading to Abby living with Travis for a period of time and sharing one bed.

The characters are not loveable, at all. Both characters are extremely immature. Similarly, the narration of the audiobook portrays the characters as such - it feels childlike. The writing was subpar with horrible pacing, especially towards the end, and unnecessary plot points that distract from the book. Also, after reading the book I found that the author was simply not a good human.

Do not read this book if toxic relationships are not your thing in books, because that is all that this book is. So much gaslighting, emotional abuse, lack of communication, and just nonsense that in reality is never okay. However, if you enjoy that in your fiction, well, here you go.

Overall, I hated the characters, hated the toxicity (which, I often enjoy in stories, but this was not the one), hated the plot, and did not find the writing to be good in any way. This book is being made into a movie, however given the above information I do not recommend that medium either.

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anoelle896's review

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emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

elizabrown's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Interesting concept but I found all the main characters toxic. I struggles to finish this book.

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bookrecsbyjess's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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annpikul's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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careliza's review

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Honestly I had heard such good reviews about this book that I was sure it would become a favorite. To be honest, it really wasn’t all that good. The sex scenes were non-descriptive, and the relationship was unhealthy. I also hated the unneeded events at the end.

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