When I first read Beautiful Disaster, I gave it four stars. I still stand behind that rating. There were flaws in the book, no doubt. Many readers criticized the relationship between Abby and Travis as being abusive and very controlling. I can see where they were coming from but I just saw it as intense, passionate, and something completely new for both of them to the extent that they had absolutely no idea what they were doing. I thought Travis was a dog in the beginning, but forgave him fairly early on because of his obvious attachment to Abby.

In Walking Disaster, we are greeted with Travis' view of their relationship and I have to say, it was really difficult for me to connect with him this time around. Let me start by saying that the first six pages (a prologue) were heartbreaking. I teared up within the first 2 minutes of reading this story. But then we are greeted with Travis the Pig, and any empathy his tragic past had earned from me was wiped away. He frequently refers to the women he sleeps with as "conquests" and "vultures"...the latter apparently because they hang on him all the time...or something. He also refers to them several times as whores and sluts, and even justifies it by pointing out that women will call each other "whore" and "slut", so he should be afforded the same right without repercussion. (pg. 55-56)

He seems to put himself above the women he sleeps with, especially in the beginning of the book. Later on he calls himself a slut, but it's almost in an 'it takes one to know one' kind of way. But he definitely puts himself on a pedestal of sorts when it comes to his "conquests" and also where it concerns Parker Hayes, the main protagonist of the story (unless you count Travis as a protagonist, but I don't think we're supposed to considering it's through his point of view). He says that Parker is just as big a player as he is, but he isn't honest about it like Travis is. "Whatever girl I bagged, he usually swept up my sloppy seconds..." "I tolerated him, but just barely." (pg. 38) He also talks about his frat brothers at different points in the book as being "man-whores" like it's something to look down on, but he seems to have a certain level of pride in his own behavior. It's odd.

Another flaw in this narrative is the way characters are just thrown into the story without any introduction, like Kara, America and Abby's roommate, as well as several of their friends from school. They are just there, and if you hadn't read Beautiful Disaster (or hadn't read it recently, as was the case with me) you'd be left scratching your head. Also, there are huge events that happened in the first book that are completely glossed over Walking Disaster. (Spoiler for those of you who haven't read Beautiful Disaster coming up): The incident with Abby being attacked at one of Travis' fights is mentioned after the fact. To me, that would've been a pretty important moment to show from Travis' point of view. I still don't quite understand why it was all but cut from WD.

All of this leads to what I see as the biggest problem with this book. It is NOT a sequel to Beautiful Disaster. But it is NOT a stand-alone book either. Too many things rely on the assumption that the reader has picked up Beautiful Disaster, even though it tracks the same span of time. For example, if I had never read Beautiful Disaster, I would hate Abby. Really. Hate, hate HATE her. Without her inner thoughts being explored she comes across as whiny, changeable, petty, and bitchy. Travis actually throws out a line about having a "shrew to tame" which gave me a knee-jerk reaction of "What a sexist ass!" to "Well, she IS a little shrewish..." Her motivations aren't really clear. However, when I read Beautiful Disaster, I never felt that way with Travis. He seemed crazy at some points, but I always felt like I understood his motivations. He was so intensely (and perhaps un-healthily) in love with Abby that there were times he couldn't think straight.

Even so, I still mostly enjoyed this book, especially after the first 100 pages. There were parts that just had me smiling as I read them. Abby meeting Travis' family and kicking their butts at poker was a great scene. I also enjoyed Abby's birthday party scene and the Valentine's party. And the prologue, which some may think was hastily thrown in at the end, was satisfying to me. I liked that he was able to turn his life into something productive while still maintaining an edge about him. It felt true to his character