Marita A. Hansen: Total Disaster

Rating: 1 1/2 Stars.
Please note: This is just my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree with it, so I'm sorry if it upsets anyone, that's not my intention.

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I shouldn't have read this book, since the first one was only ho hum for me, but because I gave Beautiful Disaster 3 stars I thought maybe Walking Disaster might be an improvement. Unfortunately, the parts that I didn't like in Beautiful Disaster were doubled in this book, and it was mostly due to Abby, who irritated the living snot out of me. Though, I didn't mind Travis too much in Beautiful Disaster, and because he was psychologically not right I thought his viewpoint might be interesting to read, hence why I read Walking Disaster.

BUT I WAS WRONG, because it was a total disaster. It started off good, making me actually like Travis, and I still liked him by the end of the book, but I didn't respect him, because I cannot fathom why he loved Abby, because I HATED HER. I disliked her in the first book, but seeing Travis's point of view made me utterly and absolutely loathe her in this one, and she is now at the top of my most hated characters list, with her friend America coming in second. God, that bit when America went off at Travis and her boyfriend made me so infuriated, hence the pictures below. I REALLY, REALLY hated America after that. She was a blind, hypocritical creep, totally full of herself and horrible with the way she treated her boyfriend and Travis. Those woman should be linked with Kathy Bates with how they treat men. THEY WERE HORRIBLE! Which leads me back to Travis, and why I didn't respect him, because he was a pussy to let these two run all over him. No respectful man should allow themselves to be treated so badly by stone-cold bitches without any feelings. *Taking in a big breathe now, calm down* These observations have nothing to do with the writer's ability, she just created characters that I hated (Abby and her HORRIBLE friend).

However, where the writer did fall flat was the structure of the book, which was so loose and all over the place. You really can't read this book without having first read Beautiful Disaster, because there were so many jumps between scenes it left me scratching my head and trying to remember from the last book where it was up to. Usually authors fill in the blanks, do connections so readers can remember what went down in the last book, by including one line or a few words to clue us in, but it wasn't so here, there were giant chunks missing out. I realise the author didn't want to rehash what was already said in the previous book, but still, a line here or a line there would've pulled the structure together and made it easier for me to read.

Another thing I didn't like was that I didn't think Travis's personality was hashed out fully. We were only given the death of his mother as to why he acted wild, and of course, his rough and tumble, although good, relationship with his brothers. These things weren't enough to explain a lot of the things he did. Well, not for me anyway. I would have liked to see his character more fleshed out.

Also, I wasn't fond of that happily ever after, so bloody unrealistic ending. It just came out of the blue, and to me was ridiculous. Others might like it, and may think it was cool, but I didn't, I thought it was silly.

However, all said and done, the readers who love the first book will probably love this one, but for me, it fell flat, so I won't be reading anymore books from this author. It's just not my taste. Sorry.

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May the 9th and I can't seem to finish this, but I will, I promise, it's just making me feel like someone is doing this to me:

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