I recently took part in two successful swaps – one was a handmade gift exchange and one was a book swap!
I shared what I made for the Handmade Gift Exchange over here, but if you click over to Nichole’s site, you can see her wearing the hat I made! Nichole sent me the sweetest yarn ball shaped stitch markers and earrings, plus a crocheted cowl! I am excited for it to keep me warm this winter.
For the book exchange, my partner was Kaitlyn from Kaitlyn’s Crazy Life. She made it super easy for me to pick a book for her by having a wish list on Amazon! I sent her a book that I have already read and I hope she enjoys too – The Book Thief. I was a little late sending it out to her – sorry about that Kaitlyn! My package from Kaitlyn made me super happy – I sent her a list of ideas of books I wanted to read and she chose to send me Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire.
She also included candy! Yum!
So this week I read Beautiful Disaster! I don’t remember where I heard about this book, but I decided to add it to my books to be read list because I thought it sounded good. “The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, 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 wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, 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’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.” My first issue with the book was that even though the back says Abby doesn’t drink, she actually does. The actual text of the book makes no mention of her having decided not to drink. Nitpicky, I know. But why include something in the blurb that isn’t part of the story? The book covers Abby’s freshman year at college and some of it reminded me of my own freshman year. Mostly it was a story of angst filled first love, dangerous activities such as fighting and underage gambling, and fraternity parties. For some reason Travis calls Abby “Pigeon,” and if having a main character named America wasn’t strange enough, there was also a boy named Brazil! This was a quick read and I do agree with other reviews saying the story is addictive. The author is publishing a follow up novel called Walking Disaster and instead of it being a sequel, it is going to be the same story from Travis’s viewpoint! Not sure if I will read that one or not.
Thank you Kaitlyn for the book! And thanks again to Nichole for the handmade gifts!