Ellelou's Book Corner

 

I'm still confused about rating this book. I didn't read any reviews prior to starting so I didn't know what to expect. Yes I knew it was a taboo story, teacher/student relationship but somehow I couldn't help feeling uncomfortable throughout the book. It was very difficult for me to fall for Mr Connelly "call me Marc", I just couldn't shake this bad vibe and I only saw him as a predator. Yes, I said it! He abused his position as a teacher and used her vulnerability and her weak state of mind. 

I don't care that he said he loved her, I don't care that he was direct with her, he was the adult in this relationship. He kept saying that she was mature for her age but to me Candace was sheltered, innocent, vulnerable, impressionable and eager to have someone she could trust and she was desperate to be accepted and prove that she was a good girl.

So in a roundabout way I think he did pressure her to start this relationship. I don't care that we were told that he truly loved her, that didn't come across... As I mentioned I felt uncomfortable as their relationship progressed. 

And then about 79% 

 “So you want me to get an abortion?” I asked, panicked.
“We don’t even know if you’re pregnant yet.”
“But if I were, you’d want me to kill the baby?” I pressed. I felt lightheaded.
“It’s not a baby. It’s a parasite.”
I gasped and watched him shudder.
“A parasite?” I whispered.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” He eyed me carefully. “Cadence? I’m sorry I said that. I didn’t mean to be offensive.”


I'm sorry but I couldn't stomach that! He was 28 years old, I don't care what has happend to him in the past not that we learned much about his previous life, that was a horrible thing to say. If you're really in love you don't have secrets, you talk about everything, you try to learn about each other and Candace knew nothing about him. 

“Don’t insinuate I’m some fucking asshole. You don’t know my past,” he said.”
-----------------

“What happened in your past?” I demanded.
“It’s not your business, Cadence.”
“The hell it’s not! I’m your girlfriend!”
“I’m not discussing it with you.”
“Stop talking down to me like I’m a child!”
“I’m not.” 

So yes as you can tell I wasn't impressed.

Have I mentioned that I hate cliffhanger? Well, I'm saying it again, I do, I really do. I suspect we will learn more about Mark's past in the next book and maybe that will explain some of his behaviour but I'm not convinced. 

I couldn't understand how some of his friends were ok with him having an interest on a 17 year old and what's worst one of his students. Remember the record guy and then Angel, the bouncer? That was weird, on both occasions. 

Another instance that raised alarm bells for me was when they were discussing their inappropriate relationship and it looked like he knew about the laws in Georgia.

“Could you go to jail?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I mean, it’s a little tougher to put away teachers here in Georgia because of the way the laws are written.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s complicated and not worth talking about. But I need you to understand that this isn’t me using you. I’d never take a risk like that knowing all I could lose if I didn’t genuinely care about you.”


I mean why would he know about the laws in Georgia, why did he look at them in the first place. I might be wrong but that didn't feel right to me. 

Cadence did question his motives on various occasion, in fact she did ask him if he was taking advantage of her because she was vulnerable and in a bad place. Were her instincts right? She decided that she was wrong but I'm not convinced. 

 

 

“Well, maybe he liked the girl-next-door types. Or maybe he sensed my emotional vulnerability, my loneliness. Maybe he thought he could take advantage of that. I wasn’t a complete idiot. I knew this was all wrong, and I knew I had to confront the possibility that Mr. Connelly was a bad man. A user. An exploiter. So why didn’t I believe any of it? Why did I think he was genuinely nice and kind instead? That he had fallen for me apart from any insidious motive? Was it just my naiveté?”


He gave her alcohol. He said that she didn't have to do things but why did I get the impression that somehow he was pushing her to do things, knowing that she wanted to prove herself that she was mature enough and good enough for him. I mean she was scared of kissing him at first!

 

Oh, well I'm definitely going to read the next book and hopefully will get all my answers and they better be satisfactory because as it is Mark is an antihero for me and I can't see a single redeeming quality in him.

 

I'm sure all these goodreads posts are of no use to existing booklikes members.  And I've seen a few postings from them wondering about all these new followers (please don't blames us -- signing up for a booklikes account makes us initially follow 25 members that booklikes assigns us.  We'll eventualy sort it out to only follow others with similar reading tastes or whose posts we enjoy).

 

Please don't think we all came over here to post offensive, threatening material.  Allegations of bullying, rape threats, etc. sure do make good headlines.  And good headlines go viral.

 

 

4.5 starsMeet Trent, the wrestler, the artist, the forbidden apple:“You fill the hollow places life has left behind.And now your soul is tangled into mine.When I needed an angel you were there,you, to all my secrets I bare.I needed you then,and I need you now.Someone, somehow”----------------------------“You picked me up and helped me heal,You taught me what it meant to feel.Now I can, now I do, and everything I feel is you.I would never do you wrong,or let you down or lead you on.I can’t stop now, I’ll come unglued, when everything I feel is you.” ----------------------------And now meet Alessandro, the "not a priest...yet""Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”“Excuse me?”“Matthew 7:7.”I really wish he’d get to the point. “------------------------“When we lurch into the sky a few minutes later, I feel a joint in Alessandro’s hand pop under my death grip. “I think I broke you,” I mutter, trying to lighten my grip a little. “Sorry.”“I am yours to break.”------------------------“I want to share the places I love with you before I don’t have you anymore.”So when it comes to who do you want to spend the rest of your life with and you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible, who are you going to choose?

3.5 stars A bit slow to start with. I usually prefer the first person narrative and this book is written in third person. This would have been ok but I found it a bit disjointed at places, especially when it kept changing from one person to the next.I couldn't understand why Val would refer to her parents as Mr & Mrs all the time, when mother, father would have been normal.There were few issues I had with this book, mainly her mother's response and "lack of action" when Val told her about the possibility and then the creepy emails from the stalker. Her mother's solution was to block this person and change the FB profile photo, the one posted being inappropriate... And later to go with her daughter's wishes to not press charges?!!! Val is a minor, as a parent you are responsible for your child's wellbeing, you do all is best for them. Picking up your daughter from a 18 year old's house (with no other adults in sight), and then deciding not to share this with your husband?!!! I find that very hard to believe. Being a parent myself, I found all these issues very disturbing and I have to blame her mother. My daughter is 11 years old, she has a mobile phone that she's been told to keep it switched on all the time, all her gadgets have parental control and the social networks she's signed up to (with age restrictions!) are constantly monitored.We have done so not because we don't trust her, but to stop any possible bullying ( which unfortunately have happened to one of her friends). So going back to the book, my initial reaction to Val's mum about the heart to heart about the stalker was that this can't be happening. Val came across as very naive, no that's not the right word, more like sheltered and not as street wise as her school friends. So to find out that your daughter is friends with an older boy (adult) it should ring all the alarm bells! A fourteen and a eighteen year old have nothing in common. Val has a father, but I felt his absence all throughout the book. When I started this book, at first I thought I noticed some supernatural elements in the story, the weather changes when Val was near Gavin. I thought he could control natural elements. And then I thought that there could be some kind of link with Val's love of pets, personally I thought she was too old to still be so obsessive with them. At one point in the story she thought Gavin's hair resembled animal fur, and that only reinforced my imagination that he might be some shapeshifter especially when he started throwing the wolf and deer analogies.I can tell you that while reading this book I had few suspicions and theories, special powers, shapeshifter(admittedly this one wasn't very strong), maybe he was someone incarnate, but the strongest was that Gavin was a psycho. Having now finished the first book I can't wait to start the next one. Somehow I still think (and hoping) that there's some connection to the animals, and that we'll get some answers about Gavin's family, his mysterious father and why do I get the feeling that Val's parents might not be be her real ones?So overall this was a good book, not as dark as I was expecting and I really hope that the next one will have some kind of mystery and not just a cat and mouse chase game.

DNF at 78%....

3.5 stars

3.5 stars! couldn't understand the scene where the boys gang up against Analise and Sam does nothing. Regardless how annoyed you are with your parent you wouldn't just stand there and let outsiders manhandle and offend your family. So trying not to think much about my issue included in the spoiler and some other minor ones and taking into the consideration the hotness that is Mason I've rounded my rating to 4 stars.

OMG! ...that ending? And so starts the long wait until the next book...

2.5 stars!

3.5 stars

3.5 stars

4.5 stars!“He wrapped strong warm fingers around my wrist and drew my palm forward, leading me where he wanted my hand to follow. When he set it on the center of his chest, right over his heart and pressed my flesh flush to his as if fingerprinting my soul to his, I blinked back gratified tears.“Start here. No one’s ever touched me here before.”-------------------------“You’re the warm sun that shines when everything else is dark,” he went on, lifting his hands to rest them against the wall on either side of my face. “A smile and a hug in a roomful of disapproval. You’re…” Wincing, he pressed his forehead against mine. “You’re everything.”------------------------“I was in love with him.Dear God.I was in love with a gigolo.It was crazy insane; I was fully aware of that. But this was Mason.”

Quick review for the series http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/702123728

Quick review for the series http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/702123728