*Update December 2011 - original rating dropped. I realized after much thought that the ending really bothered me. I wish (view spoiler)[the author had worked in an ending that would have appeased both those who wanted the relationship to die, and those who wanted the relationship to succeed, in such a way that would have been responsible. Perhaps some therapy would have been in order. (hide spoiler)] 
 Review revised to add a warning : You may cringe at the ridiculous amount of nickname usage in the book. 
 Beautiful Disaster is an appropriate name for this book. We're talking seriously messed up people with seriously messed up issues, and a book that could possibly glorify this sort of behavior. This couple should have never gotten together. This couple represents everything that you should run away from in a relationship. 
 Having said that, I found the book to be realistic to a fault. Oh man, someone is going to flame and skewer me for this statement. 
 But, I'm going to get real here. Volatile and destructive relationships happen. Maybe not to most people, but there is going to a be a select group of people who read this book and think, "holy crap...been there." And I was one of them. I've been in this relationship before. Did it work out? Of course not. Hence, my issues with (view spoiler)[the end of this book. (hide spoiler)] 
 Book relationships are often glossed over. Couples come together, and problems are usually just tiny obstacles to the happily ever after. Or...the problems come from a source outside of the couple itself. The world is falling apart, supernatural creatures are invading, etc. The actual problems aren't with the people, but with the hurdles they have to jump before they can be happy. 
 This book dealt with real issues, real drama, and things that do often happen when people become obsessed in a relationship. Should this be romanticized? Probably not. Does it make for an interesting read? I guess it depends on the reader. I like train wrecks, maybe because I've been inside of them myself in real life. I didn't have my shit together when I was younger, and sometimes it's nice to read about other people who don't always have their shit together. I wish I had been one of these teens in books who seem to have their head on straight, but I was flitting around doing stupid things and hanging out with other people who were doing even stupider things. In that sense, I can relate. Did I grow out of my wicked ways? Haha, I hope so... 
 Abby and Travis are (and pardon my language) fucked up. Nothing about this relationship is healthy. Even knowing that it was all wrong, I was still rooting for something good to come out of this. It just didn't go down in the way that I would have liked to have seen happen. There was opportunity for the author to take a tough story and turn it into something responsible and this just didn't happen. I say this all the time : I do enjoy reading about flawed characters. Mistakes are fine. People are flawed. People screw up. I just need real growth to happen at some point! For me, the resolution didn't show growth so much as it showed hesitant compromises from people who didn't want to lose each other. Again, been there. It's called desperation and fear of losing the other person, so you tentatively make concessions in order to keep them. Again, that's the relationship doomed to fail without some sort of hardcore change or therapy. 
 I feel bad for going back and picking apart a book that I enjoyed reading to start. Train wrecks are pretty damn entertaining. Travis had issues and scared the shit out of me, but his vulnerability and fears reached out to the part of me that wants to comfort hurting people. The responsible side of me says that he's damaged goods and women need to run far, far away. The empathetic side of me wants to just cuddle him. I have a weakness for people who are hurting and in real life, those are the people I would reach out to - the people who want love, but don't know how to make it happen. 
 I'd only recommend this book for older teens and up. There was a lot of smoking, drinking, fighting, sex, womanizing, etc. Even though the drama made it feel a little younger, the content was more adult in nature.