Unteachable

Well it's a hard fact that I am a sucker for forbidden romance storylines. And I also really like those forbidden romances that push the envelope, i.e., feature taboo subject matter. I blame it on early exposure to Flowers in the Attic and The Thorn Birds. Yeah, I feel a bit pervy saying that out loud but considering how many books there are with these themes, I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone in my feelings.I have read quite a few student/teacher romance books--it's probably my favorite of these risqué type reads. So when Unteachable started showing up on some of the blogs I took notice. And when three of my favorite bloggers gave this book sparkling reviews, I knew I had to get on it. I am really glad that I did. Unteachable is, without a doubt, the best teacher/student romance I have read. But you know what? It's also one of the better romances I have read. The characters and their story are deeply compelling. It's sexy with a kind of seedy edge but in a really good way somehow. And best of all--it tackles a thought provoking subject and raises questions--or it did in this reader-- and THOSE are the type of books that stick with you for a long, long time.The synopsis above is actually really good, and gives you an idea of what you can expect when you start this book.But here are 5 things that I loved in particular about Unteachable:1. The bad girl protagonist on a journey of self discoveryBad-girl protagonists win me over EVERY SINGLE TIME. But here is the thing--I think that Maise, our main character and narrator, only reads as "bad" because she is a) sexually empowered and b) owns up to all her actions--even the questionable ones. She has few regrets. So is she really "bad" then? Eh... It's debatable. She's not an innocent when it comes to her sexuality. But she is quite naive in many other ways. Guys, Maise is such an INTERESTING heroine. There is so much about her that I adore--admire even. She has a freedom of attitude that is sorely lacking in most female teenage YA characters. She's strong and self reliant. She goes after what she wants and she has dreams that extend beyond her small town, wrong-side-of-the-tracks upbringing.But on the other hand, she's definitely a broken girl in many, many ways. She has had a harsh childhood, her mom is a meth head, among other things, and Maise essentially raised herself along with assuming the parental role. Maise was forced to grow up very early but there are parts of her that show she is still a child. This maturity countered with a naivete brings Maise's character to life.The great thing about Unteachable is that you have this very compelling YA heroine that undergoes that familiar journey of self discovery that we love to read about in young adult fiction--but achieves it through unconventional means--and does it while in a relationship with a man nearly twice her age who also happens to be her film studies teacher. Much of the narration is introspective, Maise is constantly questioning herself and her choices. And even though some of those choices might not be the "right" ones in many ways, or might not be the same choices you or I might make, I was still able to connect with her as she stumbled along the path to finding out who she was and what she wanted from life.2. The CoupleSo, what about this couple, Maise and Evan? Well, I have to say, I am a fan. Is it a shady thing? YES. Do they break all kinds of rules, both from a legal standpoint and an ethical one? Maybe not so much legally as morally, so yes. Did it make me feel uncomfortable at times while I was reading? You bet. But did I also feel like their romance, which started off as purely physical, developed into something much deeper and more meaningful over time? ABSOLUTELY.Let's talk about Evan a little. Our introduction to him is...interesting. Here is this 32 year old guy (though we don't learn his actual age until later), hanging around the local town carnival and striking up conversation with a CLEARLY younger girl (although Maise doesn't disclose her age either.) I know--it sounds all sorts of sketchy already, doesn't it? But there is more to their meeting than that. Maise may not have gone to the carnival to pick up and seduce an older man--but she definitely went there to play her favorite game of "going for the full Lolita effect." When Maise and Evan meet, things progress VERY fast. Evan isn't the one who instigates this--but he certainly doesn't put the brakes on either. But I gotta say, even from that very first encounter, Evan comes across as very different. Yes, there is sketchiness to his actions--just as there is with Maise's--but there's much more to him than meets the eye--and I definitely got a sense of that right away.When Maise and Evan meet again, it's in her high school classroom. This is usually the big "Uh, OH" moment. But Evan's reaction to this turn of events surprised me, again. As the book moved forward I grew to like him more and more.Does that mean that I think he was completely right in his actions? No. Does that mean that I let him off the hook just because Maise pursued him, she was of legal age, and they actually fall in love? Surprisingly, no. But that's the thing about this book and these characters. Even though a lot of what happens is questionable-- there is the age factor--and that the two of them are at different stages in their lives, and the fact that he is a person of authority--this bothers me more than the former, by the way, I still found myself completely buying into the idea that these two people might be absolutely perfect for each other, and good for each other, in so many ways. It's a fine line they walk in their romance--and it's a fine line I walked as a reader, always questioning whether I could or should support this idea that the two of them should be together.3. Forbidden romanceLet's delve a bit deeper into this romance. First off, as you can see from the disclaimer in the above synopsis--this book has a lot of sex in it. It's not erotica, but it is graphic. And it's not all love and deep declarations of love kind of sex either. This works for me because, hey, not all sex in real life is love and deep declarations, so why does it have to be in YA or NA or even adult contemporary romance? That doesn't mean that all the sex in Unteachable is meaningless or lacking in emotional depth, because it's not. I'm only saying that, just as in life, there are many sides to Maise and Evan's sexual relationship and I applaud Leah Raeder for writing it that way.So back to all the sex. Clearly, Evan and Maise have a very physical connection. I mean like, WHOA. Sparks flying and chemistry and total, total hot and heavy ACTION. And I don't think the book would have worked as well for me had it not been written this way. I loved that Raeder really got into the nitty gritty of their sexual relationship--and not just for the cheap thrills. Even when Evan and Maise's relationship moved beyond just physical--once they started connecting, discovering who each other were and actually starting to fall in love --there was always, always this taint to their romance. Raeder never let's the reader forget that this relationship started on very shaky, questionable grounds. One way she achieves this is by having Maise switch back and forth between calling Evan, by his first name, and then referring to him as her teacher, Mr. Wilkes. I thought that this was a brilliant move. Even when Maise and Evan are well into their relationship, Maise will go back and refer to him in the manner that denotes he is an authority figure. I don't think I have ever read a teacher/student romance that does this--and the effect was that you never once forgot how illicit this affair really is. Whereas most characters in a teacher/student romance are trying to justify their relationship, Unteachable takes a different approach. And it also raised questions about just what Evan's motivations, as well as Maise's, are in this relationship. There is a darker aspect to this romance-- psychologically speaking. There is an acknowledgement of the taboo aspect of the relationship on both Maise and Evan's parts--and the admission that that is one reason it is so exciting to them both. There's more to this line of thought but I'll stop here. I'll just say that this was a really interesting examination of a forbidden romance--and it was very refreshing and unlike the other teacher/student romances I've read in the past.But it definitely has full blown, swoony moments too.There is some intense chemistry and passion between these two. And two, both Maise and Evan are pretty out of control when they are together. And when they aren't together they are wanting to be together. I don't think that addiction, or obsession, is too strong a word in this case. But again, that's not to say that a more meaningful connection doesn't form between the two of them as the book progresses.4. AuthenticityAnd speaking of authentic and refreshing! Guys this book is raw and intense and gritty and SO, SO REAL. This book, this romance, these characters are not prettied up for mass market appeal. It's complicated and messy and utterly unforgettable. You know there is so much wrong--but yet there is also so much right with what they are doing. You empathize with both Maise and Evan--but you are torn at the same time because of the taboo nature. I easily identified with both Maise and Evan, even Maise's best friend Wesley. I've either been them or known people like them.And never once while I was reading did I think that this book was going to wrap up with an HEA. But as I continued to read I began to feel like it may not end it complete destruction either. There isn't a lot of black and white in this book, guys--just many, many shades of gray. And you know what that says to me? That says "true to life."5. The writingThe writing in this book! I'm not the first to mention this--most of the reviews I have read have already mentioned it, but I was really floored by how beautiful it is. It's not that it is simply "lyrical" (God, that term is so overused these days, isn't it?) it's just really HONEST and TRUE.Unteachable is told from Maise's first person perspective, which is my favorite POV because we really get deep into her head and her thoughts. But the narrative is a bit different in that Maise seems to be recounting the story to the reader--she foreshadows events to come in her narration--and you get the sense that she is in some future time, telling us this story--as a friend or parent might recount a story to someone. Is it a life lesson--a warning? You aren't quite sure because you aren't quite sure how this will play out. I will say that I read much of the book biting my nails--waiting for the inevitable--waiting for the bottom to drop out. I don't think I'll be spoiling to report that IT DOESN'T. At least not in the way that I expected. That's not to say there isn't drama along the way--there is. There is actually some drama that felt a little off center and overblown but not enough to distract me or cause me to feel that this book isn't truly amazing in any way.Mostly the writing surprised me. This is not a dig at the majority of New Adult books out there--God knows I enjoy reading them--but Raeder's book, which I think straddles the line between YA and NA, is really in a class all it's own in terms of writing. I have read several other reviewers say it first but I have to repeat it: it is what I wish most New Adult could be and what I wish a lot of Young Adult books would be. I love the realness of it. I love the honesty. I love that's it's a fresh take on a well written subject. I love the questions that it poses. I love that it is begging to be discussed in book clubs and reading groups.There is much more to Unteachable. There is a complicated and heartbreaking relationship between Maise and her drug addicted mom. There is a really wonderful friendship between Maise and another classmate, Wesley, that was awesome to read. There are fantastic film themes in the book. There are big, revealing secrets with some of the characters. There is a strange little subplot with another student and a sketchy character who her mom owes money. But really the meat of this story is Maise, her character growth and development, and the relationship between she and her teacher, Evan. The ending of this book left me with mixed feelings. On one hand I liked it --but on the other I wondered if it wasn't just a little off. I won't say any more than that but I will say this: Unteachable is a book that will STICK WITH YOU. And it's a book that I will read again. It's a book I have and will recommend to friends--because I want to talk to them about it. I want to dissect it and analyze it further. It's gotten under my skin in a big way.And you know what? This is Leah Raeder's DEBUT. I am seriously excited about this author. I feel all giddy that I have gotten a chance to read her early stuff while it's still, you know, early:) I have no idea how she plans to follow up Unteachable, but I can't wait to find out. If you have't figured it out already, I totally endorse this book for you fans of NA out there and I really hope that you YA and Adult Contemporary Romance fans will give it some serious thought as well. I do not think you will be disappointed.

What a book!! Beautiful. Forbidden. Captivating.Forbidden love is so alluring. I think all of us are drawn to it one way or another. The thrill, the fear, the heightened sense of awareness... everything about it is dangerous and yet totally irresistible."The night I met you was like someone handed me a winning lottery ticket and said, 'You can only have it if you don't tell."Now, this book is a student/teacher romance so yes, the taboo is there. Loud and clear. But, for those of you who are unsure based on that, it might help to know that the heroine is 18 so the issue here is purely moral, not legal.Before I even speak about the story though, I need to take a moment to gush about the writing. Unteachable is a beautifully written book. I am in awe of Leah Raeder's writing talent. Her unique style is lyrical, poetic and vivid. The story grabbed my attention from the very first line and, by mid-way through the first chapter, I had goosebumps and spent the rest of my read desperately overusing the highlight function on my Kindle.I'm going to do something I very rarely do in reviews... I'm going to share the book's official blurb instead of describing it myself because, in all honesty, reading this blurb was what sold me on the book - especially that last line. Here, see for yourself:********************************I met him at a carnival, of all corny places. The summer I turned eighteen, in that chaos of neon lights and cheap thrills, I met a man so sweet, so beautiful, he seemed to come from another world. We had one night: intense, scary, real. Then I ran, like I always do. Because I didn't want to be abandoned again.But I couldn't run far enough.I knew him as Evan that night. When I walked into his classroom, he became Mr. Wilke.My teacher.I don't know if what we're doing is wrong. The rules say one thing; my heart says screw the rules. I can't let him lose his job. And I can't lose him.In the movies, this would have a happy ending. I grow up. I love, I lose, I learn. And I move on. But this is life, and there's no script. You make it up as you go along.And you don't pray for a happy ending. You pray for it to never end.********************************Holy wow! Right?Well, the whole book is written like that! So if you liked that blurb, you definitely want to read this one! It's the kind of story that has just enough reality in it to keep you grounded but just enough fairytale to sweep you away.My first love from this book goes to the heroine, Maise. I wanted to be her best friend. She had that kind of quiet inner strength, raw cynical outlook, pure honesty and quick-witted sass that made her a refreshingly real character. She was the kind of girl who wasn't going to make any apologies for who she was and yet wasn't going to blame anyone else for her problems. She owned them and she owned herself despite the fact that she was still figuring herself out and finding her place in the world. She was both vulnerable and yet tough as nails; sharp, smart and perceptive beyond her years and yet still naive in other ways and still learning the ways of the world.Evan was an interesting character. For the record, he was 32 years old. He wan't super rich, or super kinky, or really super anything. He was just a sweet, gorgeous, flawed guy who fell for a girl he shouldn't have."He listened to us earnestly, his face filled with curiosity, amusement, respect. He was smarter than us but not smug. He shared intelligence like a secret, making us conspirators in it. I could feel the whole class falling in love with him. And every time his eyes touched me, the air jolted."I kept wavering back and forth with my feelings for him. Yes, a part of me fell for him but the questions kept running through my mind... Granted, he didn't know she was a student when they met but after wards, was I able to consider him a hero? Was I okay with what he was doing? Should I judge him? Should I accept him? What about his actions - were they right, wrong, acceptable? How much did age really matter when the heart knew what it wanted? I felt very conflicted. My heart and mind battled over it. I was uncomfortable with his actions to be sure but at the same time, he really was an okay guy and so that zone between right and wrong was getting fuzzier and fuzzier."Was he my boyfriend? Secret lover? Person abusing his position of authority and trust?"I mean, what if your happily-ever-after person didn't come neatly packaged up in the body of a person society thinks you should be with? Would that make being with them ok? Or are there just some relationships that are just not meant to be? If the heart says yes, shouldn't that be enough? I struggled at times but I loved the questions the story raised. And I didn't see all the twists coming because there were elements in the story I won't reference directly that made me consider him differently in the end than I did in the beginning. But despite all my questions, I couldn't help but feel right about them. Wrong, but right. I loved them together and truthfully, if you looked at them just as two separate people devoid of titles or age gaps, they were perfect for each other."It seems like the whole world has figured out how to be happy, but no one's letting me in on the secret." There are moments, when you're getting to know someone, when you realize something deep and buried in you is deep and buried in them too. It feels like meeting a stranger you've known your whole life.We're told the story from Maise's POV but she was telling it after having lived it so she was looking back on the story almost as though she was remembering what happened and giving little warnings and hints of things to come and what to watch out for. It made the whole story even more thrilling and exciting because the anticipation and tension kept building.Maise went through a journey of self discovery in this book. There were constant shifts in language - referring to Evan sometimes by name and at other times as 'my teacher', and referring to herself as both an adult and a girl. She was figuring herself out and these subtleties depicted the conflict going on in her mind."Human brains don't fully develop until age twenty-five. Seven more years until I was a full person. Who the hell am I? I thought. Too old to be a real teenage, too young to drink. Old enough to die in a war, f*** grown men, and be completely confused about what I was doing with my life... I thought about the man I was waiting for, the way my eyes had been gradually opening, sincerity replacing sarcasm, the way I felt I was constantly waking up and yet slipping deeper into a beautiful dream."The story pulled me back and forth. I'd be lulled into the beauty of them falling in love and then jerked back to the reality of what they were actually doing and then pulled into the forbidden thrill."I kissed my teacher in the shadow of the water tower, beneath the stars."I loved Maise's raw honesty and Evan's open understanding. I loved the simplicity of having characters make mistakes, and simply tell the other person and then be forgiven. Nothing that happened in this book made me roll my eyes. The way they handled their relationship and situation was refreshing. I loved that when things got tough, their answer was first to try to work together at finding a solution rather than throwing their hands up in the air and walking away.I have quotes highlighted on nearly every single page. There'd be points where I'd just stop and just seriously take a minute to just stop and reread a section because they were so well written.The book is told in such a way that within each chapter was several sections and each of those sections told it's own little story. At the end of almost each one, I'd just sit back and go 'woah'.This book doesn't try to convince you of anything. You're not 'made' to be okay with the relationship in it. Rather, the author presents you with the story in a beautiful, lyrical way and regardless of what my brain was telling me, my romantic heart believed in Maise and Evan."Who fixes broken people? Is it only other broken people, ones who've already been ruined? And do we need to be fixed? It was the messiness and hurt in our pasts that drove us, and that same hurt connected us at a subdermal level, the kind of scars written so deeply in your cells that you can't even see them any more, only recognize them in someone else."The first three quarters of the book is a slow burn - captivating and yet not intense. But then, around the 75% mark, there was a big switch and things really became to speed up, come together, and sometimes fall apart. I appreciated the change of pace and I didn't see the twist coming. Not. at. all.I've heard some readers say that it needed an epilogue and I have to say that I actually agree to a certain extent. It both does and doesn't need one.First - yes, it's a happy ending. No worries there. But I did want more. I mean, in some ways, the ending was absolutely perfect. It tied it back the the very beginning of the story beautifully and left you absolutely hopeful for the future in a way that was full of potential. But, the romance reader in me wants more. I guess, I always want more... ;)I give the writing 5 stars and the story 4 stars. Rounding off to 4.5 stars overall.Unteachable was a beautifully written book that wrapped me up in the thrill of forbidden romance. I can't believe this was a debut novel. What an entrance into the writing world! I can't wait for more from Leah Raeder!"You can call it love, or you can call it freefall. They're pretty much the same thing."

I love forbidden romance stories, and this one didn't disappoint.When Evan and Maise meet they're just two strangers at the carnival, and they're very much attracted to each other. They have hot and steamy sex in Evan's car and then Maise walks away, sure that she'll never see him again.So when she walks into her film class at the start of school imagine her surprise when the E. Wilke on her class schedule turns out to be Evan. Cue panic and heart-pounding tension!It was just one huge car-crash after that, one that you know won't end well, but you can't look away from it. I was sucked into the book, and even though what they were doing was morally wrong, it wasn't illegal, and I loved the effect the relationship had on Maise.The story is narrated by Maise, and she describes an unpleasant childhood. She didn't have much of a childhood at all. Her mother is a drug addict, selling herself for money, leaving Maise to fend for herself. She learnt at a young age that men are only after one thing, so she decided to play the game and treat men indifferently, she used them and didn't get involved emotionally.Evan was different though, from the moment she met him she felt something. When she discovered he was her teacher, the taboo nature spurred her on, the sneaking around made it more exciting. It was more than that though, and they do have a relationship that is more than just sex. He encourages her to aim high and follow her dreams and their relationship is her haven in her otherwise bleak life.I couldn't put the book down, I was just waiting for the moment the proverbial would hit the fan, and when it does it is spectacular. I didn't see it coming at all.The fall out was devastating for Maise, but she is resilient and resourceful, and revenge is sweet! I loved how things came together, and the end had me in tears

"I see the lights every night. It seems like the whole world has figured out how to be happy, but no one's letting me in on the secret."Okay.Wow.Guys.This was really hard for me to rate because it was actually, like, a brilliant book. Just - really well written and engrossing and engaging and the overall quality of it should get it five stars alone.But!But but but.I just couldn't connect with the characters *sad face*.I know this is an it's-me-not-you thing because obviously no one else had any problems connecting with Maise and Evan. But, the fact that I couldn't connect meant that their love scenes? Didn't do it for me. Their situation? I wasn't bothered. Their angst? Sorta annoyed me. And it is so frustrating for me to sit here and realise that this book is sort of incredible and I can't fully appreciate it because I couldn't drum up an affinity for the characters.So.I'm going to try and be objective about this.Unteachable deserves all the hype that it has received. Like, hella.Firstly. The writing? Woah."The thought of how much happiness lay scattered across the universe, unrealized, in fragments, waiting for the right twist of fate to bring it together."I believe Leah Raeder once described her own writing as "pretentiously lyrical" and that is a completely accurate description but it actually really works. There's only a certain type of fiction that can make pretentiously lyrical work; this is also true of certain types of writers. Maggie Stiefvater is one of these writers. Her books, the Raven Cycle, is an example of this certain type of fiction. Leah Raeder and Unteachable are another example. Even though the two sets of writing are pretentiously lyrical in completely different ways.But yeah. What I'm trying to say is that Leah Raeder does with her writing what people like Tahereh Mafi epically fail at. So, the writing is incredible.The plot is simple yet effective: Girl meets boy. Girl sleeps with boy. Girl leaves boy. Girl pines for boy. Boy turns out to be her teacher. They get it on. Repeatedly. Things start to go to s**t. Formulaic and simple. Also, very effective. I think the fact that the story is so realistic helps us engage with it.How many of us, at eighteen, had a thing for one of our teachers? How many of us, at eighteen were sexually aware enough that given half the chance we probably would have gone along with it. I remember "that" teacher for me: He was the P.E teacher. He was young, he was beautiful, he was funny and he gave a s**t about us and given half the chance I would have jumped his bones.This is something that is happening all over the world. But instead of making this about the teacher abusing his position of authority, Raeder makes this a story about two genuinely messed up people trying desperately to pull some happiness into their lives; trying to claw out a hand-hold for themselves in the world. I never once felt like the relationship between Maise and Evan was unequal because they were both equally infatuated with each other.In fact, Raeder gives us quite a few gritty topics in this book and then gives us a completely different way of looking at all of them: Maise's drug ruined home. Wesley's single parent home. Hiyam's privileged life. Nothing about this book is "typical."This book deserves five stars. Because I'm emotionally stunted, I wanted to give it three. I settled on giving it four.

To give a book 5 stars means it has to do something to me. Something that is different from other books that I have read in this genre.It began "When your eighteen there's Not much to do in a Southern Illinois summer but eat fried pickles, drink tallboys you stole from you Mom, and ride the tilt-a whirl till you hurl. Which is exactly what I was doing the night I met Him. You can call it love, or you can call it freefall. They're pretty much the same thing!.So I was sold.The plot has been done before - a story of a teacher/pupil forbidden relationship, but what has Leah Raeder written that is so different? The prose, it was simply beautiful. It stood out and each sentence was smooth and evocative.Maise is the captain of her own fate. Her childhood was not normal and boys of her own age bored her. To Maise they were like over sensitive car alarms. Her experience with boys was limited, her first time she didn't know it had happened, second time lasted seconds. That was it - until she met Him.They met at the carnival, he kissed her in the back of his car, and then they had sex, slow languorous sex. All inhibitions lost. That night Maise knew him as Evan.Then she ran.Her first day of school she saw Him first - Evan became Mr Wilke - her class teacher.So what made me give this book 5 stars. Well for me it was refreshing to read a book that I felt was like real literature. This was not a pretentious lyrical young adult story. It was much more. The prose was hypnotic and there was nothing mundane or boring about Leah Raeder's writing style.Neither was it just a story about a teacher and pupil who fall in love. The author makes the reader feel how good it is to be alive, to learn to be the person you are and don't look at the world through rose tinted glasses.I loved her characters. Maise was confident, witty and intelligent and sometimes you had to kick back and realize she was eighteen.Evan was 32 - 14 years older than Maise and I loved that. Both had childhood issues and both thrown into adulthood by their dysfunctional families.In the movies they would have their happy ending - they lose, they learn ,they love and they move on. But this is their life and there is no script. So what happens in the end to Maise and Evan?Read it and see where their script takes them. I cannot recommend it enough.Note that I have had to alter the quote taken from the book as Amazon apparently did not like the use of the F word despite it being in the book that they are selling!

Unteachable is such a hard book to review because, on the one hand, teacher / student relationships creep me the hell out and I don't find them the least bit sexy. But on the other hand, this is one intoxicating book that I couldn't tear myself away from.This is a romance (and a steamy one at that), but it's also a coming-of-age story. It's about Maise finding out who she is, learning what's best for her and taking her first steps into an adult world. It's about her fighting to grow up, but also struggling to stay young. And it's about the ups and downs that come with staying true to your heart.Maise is bitter, cynical and unabashedly blunt. She says exactly what's on her mind, swears like a sailor and is completely charged by sex. She's a loose canon on the path to self-destruction and what starts out as one more attempt to throw herself over the proverbial railing turns into something far more.Maise has a lot of pain. Her father left and her mother is a drug addict who's not beyond pimping out her own daughter and stealing all of her money, which leaves Maise without any kind of role model in her life, or any sense of self-respect.There are a lot of NA novels that feature messed-up heroines, but Unteachable really captures Maise's raw struggle and the growing darkness inside of her. This isn't a teen rebelling for the sake of rebelling, this is someone with real issues who's trying everything she can to escape, in any way she can.There's a haunting wistfulness to Raeder's writing; a beautiful sense of serenity that echoes from her descriptions, coupled with gritty and crude characters that make for uniquely organic, melancholic prose.This book is narrated in the past tense, which allows Maise to interject in her own story with ambiguous hindsight. This really helps create an almost addictive sense of anxiety, by both foreboding what's to come, but also leaving us with hope that things might just work out.The romance itself left me mixed. As I mentioned, I really don't get the teacher / student thing and find it more creepy than anything. But I did like how this novel didn't try to justify it by making Evan only twenty-four, or something ridiculous, which a lot of novels that cover this subject seem to do. Instead, Unteachable thrives on how wrong the relationship is and explores the idea that the forbidden aspect is what keeps Maise and Evan going back to each other.They don't try and ignore that he is her teacher, but instead love the thrill of mentioning it and testing their boundaries. Leah Raeder knows how to write steamy scenes, and for the most part the intense passion she was able to portray left me willing to gloss over the creepiness of the situation. It even made me forget how boring Evan was. And yes, I did find him boring. And also a little shady.He wasn't a love interest I swooned over, but I don't think I was supposed to. I was, however, swooning over his scenes with Maise, and found myself rooting for them. In my opinion, it wasn't Evan we were supposed to be invested in, but his relationship with Maise. And that worked for me.The one gripe I did have was that the intensely steamy parts took up a little too much of the book. There were a lot of very descriptive sex scenes that went on for pages and they ended up becoming a little repetitive. But if my only real issue is that there were too many hot moments, then this book has done pretty well.Unteachable pushes your boundaries, making you re-evaluate how you define right and wrong. It hits you over and over with its desperately gritty storyline and characters that are intensely raw and well-captured. The story is charged with passion, emotion and gut-wrenching sadness, and the ending will leave you with a small, knowing smirk, that makes the whole journey worthwhile.

5 rollercoasting stars..Unteachable has got to be the most captivating book I have read in a long time.Maise O'Malley visits a funfair one night, and makes a decision to enter the Deathsnake rollercoaster's front car. She is jolted out of her petrified stupor by someone else entering the car...a guy..a hot guy!"You're pretty brave. Must be a veteran, sitting up front." he said."It's my first time" I replied."Mine too" he smiledMaise felt something she had never felt before, a connection. Their flirtations continued as they worked their way around the fair. This guy was different, but at the end of the night she left him..before he left her. Evan Wilke."Thanks for the abandonment issues, Dad. F*** you very much"Maise struggles to enrol for a Film studies class that she desperately wants to attend. After great persistence, she enters the class to find her teacher is known to her. Evan Wilke.This isn't you usual teacher/student tale. It is just so much more, justified purely by the beautiful writing of the author. The story pulled me into every situation, every emotion, every effing page.Maise was strong, unloved, a natural, raw beauty, who's thoughts and functions belied her 18 years. Probably due to the train wreck of her existence. But what a fantastic character, and Irish too!I absorbed this book internally, highlighting like a maniac, re reading pages just to enjoy how the prose organically flowed..beautiful!I will be recommending this book with gusto...thank you Leah for a most excellent escape!