Beautiful Disaster, Jamie McGuire

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Abby Abernathy starts her college life at Eastern University with her best friend America, and one of the first things she´s dragged to is a fight, where Shepley´s, America´s boyfriend, cousin will be fighting. A guy that goes by the name of Travis Maddox. That´s the first time Abby meets Travis, a hot and swoony guy known as Eastern University´s Walking One-Night Stand. Then, Abby meets Travis again Monday morning at the cafeteria, where she´s trying to have lunch with America and Shepley, and Travis decided to follow Abby until she finally accepts being around him because he has NEVER been rejected. So, a fun "game" begins between the two of them. After a little bit of knowing each other, yet still bothering, they become friends and extremely close. But both of them decide to make a bet, if Travis wins the fight, Abby will have to stay at Travis´ apartment, yet if Abby wins, Travis will have to remain abstinent for a month. Although it is really predictable what will happen, the two characters become really close and soon they fall in love, yet they cannot believe it themselves, so they start telling themselves that they don´t like each other. But before they can know it, they are deeply in love with each other and there´s nothing that can hold them back anymore.
The first time I read this book I was just SO in love with it! It was like I was getting to know this new type of characters because this novel was one of the first books that I read, therefore, I had only been exposed to characters like Patch, Daniel Grigori, Cam Briel or Maxon. So, reading about a character that was way more realistic in the sense of not having powers or a title, made me realize that even though, it felt weird for me to read New Adult books being only like 12 years old, I could really enjoy it and I was soon in love with way more mature characters instead of teenagers. Also, I loved the characters so much! I loved the way Abby was because although she was a little stressful with the whole Parker thing, it was still logical why she would act the way she did because whenever you are put in her shoes, you don´t have much of a choice, especially because personally at first glance, I would go with Parker instead of Travis. I mean, Parker seemed more like my type of guy, he was going to study at Harvard Med School, he drove this fancy car, he was sweet, his family had an Italian restaurant and he would treat Abby "right." So, even though, as a reader I loved Travis and I wanted to punch Abby in the face, I still understood her. 
Yet, Mare was my favorite female character because she was the type of friend you just need. She is understanding, loved Abby and always protects her because she knows her the best. Also, seeing the relationship she had with Shepley was beautiful. 
Shepley is that character in many novels, where you end up loving a male character almost as much as you love the main one because they are caring, sweet and just lovely, and in this case, it was Shepley. He fits the typical Maddox style, yet he´s super sweet and nice, which really makes you naturally love him!
On the other hand, Travis Maddox is just AMAZING! He´s charming, arrogant, has a killer smile, has a dimple, everyone wants to sleep with him, has several tattoos, smart and wins EVERY fight. In other words, he´s like the type of guy every girl needs by her side. But, that´s not it, he gets really jealous and he´s extremely caring and sweet when it comes to his pigeon. Also, he´s very protective of the ones he loved, something that is normal for the Maddox family.
Aside from the characters being amazing, I loved the way the story was written, it was very fun and clever. The story would have been great without the brothers, but they made it so special, they made me love the story more because they are so amazing! You just have to read all of their stories. 
A thing that I absolutely loved about the writing was how much the author thought about Abby because she totally skipped a chapter because Abby hates that number! So, it was very refreshing to see an author that really tried writing with the main character´s personality.
I really recommend this book to anyone that is not very picky in the sense of mature content because it did make me feel shocked to read certain parts being only 12, but if you are willing to read amazing characters and a beautiful story about love, friendship and family with mature content, this book is right for you! And I guarantee that you will end up falling in love with the Maddox Brothers!

5 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua

Dating You/Hating You, Christina Lauren

Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren

Okay, so I loved this book so much that I want to marry it. It met all the high expectations that I had for it when I first discovered it at Barnes and Noble abandoned on one of the tables and I thought that we were destined to meet. Now, I believe that we were destined to meet each other and for me to fall in love with it.
Carter and Evie meet at an awkward Halloween party at their best friend´s house, and they were basically paired by the couple and they immediately like each other because they seem to have a clear understanding. Well, that´s until they both realize that they are both agents in competing agencies, the problem doesn´t really matter at that point because they adults and they are allowed to like whoever they want. The real problem starts when their agencies merge into one and Carter is now working at Evie´s agency, and their boss makes them compete for the SAME job because apparently there´s only one available. So, after being all flirty and heart-eyes with each other, their relationship turns into a war, where they attack one another trying to follow their passions and the only thing they have left. Carter and Evie start to develop a hot love and hate relationship, which could end with their careers. 
As I mentioned before, I LOVED this book because the story was great, the characters were fun and I absolutely loved Carter and the writing was amazing! 
Dating You/Hating You has a good title because it immediately makes you curious about the type of story it will tell. I mean, even my US History teacher liked the title! But, the title shows only a part of the story because the whole novel talks about many different topics that are not always found in contemporary novels. 
I really enjoyed the insight they gave us to Hollywood because we are very used to reading about famous or rising actors and actresses, or famous singers, but we never really get to read about stories involving people that love Hollywood, but are not dealing personally with the audience, like in this case, the agents that support talents. 
Hollywood is such a big media platform today because I think that pretty much everyone knows what it is since we have had the tendency of wanting to recreate what we are shown as right or correct by the media, and seeing how bad it may be on the inside, was different. I mean, I am aware of the fact that the media is probably horrible because it is managed by people that are eager to be famous and become richer, but seeing it portrayed in a book, where everything is supposed to be fictional was very disappointing since it made me realize how bad we were acting as a society. So, I found it very interesting to read about a story where main characters loved Hollywood, but they also had to deal with its bad sides, like sexism, which is something that Evie, our main character goes through and no one really seems to talk about. I do believe that it is something that happens a lot today, but no one has the courage to talk about it and confront it. 
Also, I thought that putting the main characters was agents was super creative and fun because as I mentioned, it is something that is not mentioned a lot, but it also fits very well the romantic comedy setting that I believe the story wanted to create. 
Adding on to the romantic comedy theme, I loved the part where Carter and Evie start getting competitive because it was so much fun! I thought it was very creative because the things they did to get the other one to be angry were things that were pretty simple but clever, and the best part was that it showed how much they cared about each other because they somehow managed to remember everything they did and what they liked and disliked. This novel has scenes that are just so funny that I was about to laugh very very loud in front of everyone in class. So, if you do read this, please read it in a place where you don't have high expectations like at work.
I loved the relationship that they shared because it was fun to read about, they had their funny moments, but also their sad and real-life moments. I believe that the part that I liked about the most was the way they appreciated their small moments and they cherished them. Also, the way they started falling in love and dealing with it was something that I enjoyed since they fell in love very quickly but softly like it wasn't rushed or forced at all, so I really liked that.
I really liked their first encounter because it seemed like something that would happen only in YA novels, so it was fun to get a little bit of that in a contemporary novel.
Now, I have so many things to talk about the characters because of Carter. 
Carter, Carter, Carter...
I LOVE HIM! 
I think I fell in love with him ever since he was described at the beginning because Evie describes him as the ideal person that every girl would see themselves with. He´s very attractive, but not in the Hollywood style, but more in the type of guy that you would dream about. Also, he has these amazing green eyes that would take your breath away and even though, I have not met him in real life, I was breathless every time he appeared because his green eyes were just SO beautiful. I couldn't stop thinking about him because I became too obsessed with him, a little bit in the sense of Peter Kavinsky, but unlike with Peter, I was never mad at Carter, which made it even worse. 
But aside from Carter being super hot and adorable, I think that the part that I liked the most about him was the way he started growing up on his own throughout the novel, I am aware that he is older and that he is over 25 years old, but I think he grew up in the sense that he realized that there are better ways to live a life and there are many things that may be affecting someone, even though you don't realize it, so I liked reading about someone that is older but learns something new.
On the other hand, I loved Evie too. She is very professional, but she is also really funny and she will keep you laughing the whole time because she has the best comments for everything. 
It was interesting to see a woman that is over her thirties desperately holding on for her dreams because at my age, you are too stuck with the idea of going to college and getting a career that it seems hard to imagine where you are really going to be later in life and what you will want next, so reading about Evie being older and chasing after something she is passionate about was very new, yet inspiring.
The other characters that surround Carter and Evie were fun, it was nice to read about Steph and MC because they had a very different reality compared to our main characters, they were already settled and they had a kid, reading about different stories at the same time was very fun and refreshing.
As I mentioned before, I really liked the writing of this novel, it includes text messages, which I absolutely loved, and it includes both points of view and the thing that I liked about that was that it gave each character a different personality because whenever you were reading, you could always know who you were reading, sometimes they mentioned some characters in a different way, but mostly it was the comments they made, for example, Evie made me laugh the whole time!
Even though the novel is not that long and it stands by itself, the authors did a great job opening a door to their story and giving us a very good insight because I felt like a read a complete story and that I traveled to a different world. 
I had the amazing idea of reading this novel in my second week of school and it was absolute torture because I kept thinking about Carter as I mentioned, and I just couldn't put it down, I was so eager to finish this book that I think I only lasted like 3 days with it, so I think that it is a pretty fast reading, but please clear your schedule because you will be eating those pages. 
In general, Dating You /Hating You is a fun, flirty, sexy and sweet reading, you will want to devour it if you love a good romantic comedy movie and you will want to read this novel over and over again, just keep in mind that it includes scenes that are meant for an older audience. 

5 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua