I needed more.
I generally love Whitney G’s books. They give me the banter I love with some of the feels as well.
But this felt rushed to me. I enjoyed the first half of the book way more than the second part (after the separation), and it’s because too many twists and turns were placed without enough development for me 😐.
The book opens up with with Genevieve (17-21) at a bar (with fake IDs); she’s there to hear about love, but she shows up two weeks early, which means it’s Open mic night 🥴. Genevieve loves anything with creative writing, especially when it comes to romance. She gets texts from the Warden asking where she’s at, and she calls her back by sneaking into the male restroom (the women’s bathroom’s line is too long 🤦🏻♀️ what’s new 🤣). That’s where she meets Liam (35-39) the handsome AF man who ends up invading her dreams.
When she’s back at school, she gets in trouble for the fake ID situation she has going on and has to fulfill a punishment of cleaning. She also meets her new creative writing teacher, and it’s none other than Liam 😅👀.
Liam’s grandfather is the headmaster/principal of the high school. He has a reputation to uphold and work for students to fulfill, so he has Liam temporarily replace a teacher that just had surgery. Which means that Genevieve ends up being one of his students 😬.
And the taboo/forbidden aspect comes to play 😈.
What I liked/loved: possible spoilers
—the tension 👀. I love how into each other they are. There could be tons of people in the room, but they only see each other 👀
—Whitney G’s banter 🤣. I smiled many times, like usual, even though this is more of an angsty book, there were times where they were bantering back and forth, and I luuuurved it 😉
—the 🔥. Ufff. We gets many scenes (not super detailed, but I wasn’t complaining 💅🤣). Their first kiss happens at about 43% and by the low 50% ish, it’s full throttle 😉.
—duuuurty talk 🥵. Liam has a diiiirty mouth 💦. He gives no Fs and says what’s on his mind 🔥
—the forbidden/taboo aspect 👀. Oh yes. Definitely got the teacher/student taboo part right😉.
—how smart Genevieve is ❤️. I love me a smart queen 👏🏻
—she’s not exactly celibate during the separation 👏🏻 (but I’ll talk about this more down below).
—the reasons for the separation 😬. Um. I actually understood both sides 🫣
What I didn’t like/wanted more of: SPOILERS
—who did the blackmailing??? It caused the separation yet we don’t know who did it 😐
—no epilogue 😏. Luckily, I’ve already subscribed to her newsletter, so I had it
—her roommate🥴. Really? 😐. Why did ow have to be the roommate 🤦🏻♀️
—the fact that we DON’T know exactly how many people either of them are with during the separation. He says not that many, but I don’t know if that means 3, 5, 10? And for her, she sarcastically says she was celibate and then later jokingly says 80… so, which is it? Was she celibate until her current boyfriend? It’s implied she’s slept with her current boyfriend, and it’s also implied that he slept with her roommate 🥴
—lack of communication 😬. I wish more was done so that they weren’t separated, buuuut I also understood why it happened. We never get told WHO was blackmailing/extorting Liam’s grandfather
—grammar mistakes/lack of continuity. There were some other mistakes too. For phone numbers, it’s area codes, not zip codes. The scene where they almost get caught when Ms. Shaw shows up to his place has Genevieve looking for her shirt. When did she lose her shirt? There were a couple of other times where I felt I missed a sentence somewhere and had to reread/make it up in my head. 😬
—talking about almost getting caught, I don’t know why Genevieve’s answer to show Liam that she’s ready to do more with him is to show him just how much she’s ready for him… with her mouth 🥴. This is right after Ms. Shaw almost catches them 😬. They’ve barely only kissed up until this point, so this was surprising
—her parents 😐. I didn’t care for them, especially because they only cared about their image. We never get told what ends up happening with them either
—I wish we had more about Liam’s romantic past and how Genevieve was different
—so many things were rushed 😐. It’s like, she only had a certain amount of pages to tie all the loose ends, but to me, they were wrapped up way too quickly. I had to suspend my belief for a lot of it
—for being angsty, it needed more
Overall, I was disappointed 😏
⚠️safety squad⚠️ SPOILERS
-no cheating*/sharing
-attempted suicide
-the MCs kiss while they’re both dating other people
-underage sexual relationship
-OWD: the H has a woman who keeps pursuing him in the past. In the present, his current girlfriend is the h’s roommate
-OMD: the h’s ex makes an appearance early in the book while in the past. In the present, she’s dating OM
-parent abandonment issues/lack of love
-biting/dirty talk
-condoms
-4 year separation. Both with other people but it’s almost implied that she might’ve only slept with her current boyfriend. He waited 2 years before sleeping with women. He tells her it hasn’t been many (not sure how many that is though). She says she slept with “80” men, but it seems as if she’s just riling him up. Her current bf might be the only one 😐
-HEA/ NO epilogue in the book/sigh up for the authors newsletter to get a 1 year later epilogue