Monday 14 October 2013

Review ~ Good (Too Good 1) by S. Walden

Reviewed by Donna ~ 4 Stars 

“Love comes in all kinds of packages. Some are neatly tied up, and some are messy. It doesn’t mean that the messy ones aren’t every bit as good.”

Cadence Miller made a mistake, admittedly it was a big mistake, but it was one mistake none the less. Little did she know that she would pay for this mistake for a long time! Her parents would never let her forget! Her punishment for her crime was a short stint in Juvie and whilst she was in her orange jumpsuit picking up trash at the side of the road she meets “Midnight In A Perfect World.”

This is the song playing when she meets one of the hottest men she has ever laid eyes on. Little did she know that their paths would cross again.

When Cadence came out from juvie her parents, who were staunch Christians basically put her on lockdown. She had no life, no freedom, her friends disowned her and everybody looked at her as if she was a second rate citizen. She keeps herself to herself, goes back to school tries to do well to try and gain the respect back from her parents. Her efforts always seem to be in vain though.

When back in school she attends her first calculus class, she is not in the best of the moods as the school bullies have targeted her in force, when she goes to take a seat, she catches the eye of the teacher and it is none other than “Midnight In A Perfect World” aka Mark or Mr Connelly.

“Apparently I was a murderer, slut, bitch, drug addict, whore, crackhead, dyke, hooker and Nazi facist. When I asked one student what made me a Nazi facist, she replied, “The fact that you are an effing whore!” Okay…

Mark takes Cadence under his wing and does his best to make her school life bearable, unfortunately neither of them can deny what they feel for each other and so their forbidden romance begins.

“But once you declare your love for that other person, and vice versa, the real work begins, because butterflies don’t last forever.”

I know that this relationship is wrong on so many levels, but throughout this book you couldn’t but will these two along. Mark is a lot older, he is 28 and Cadence is only 17 but she is legal, so there is nothing underage going on. The main problem is the student/teacher relationship and also to some extent a touch of grooming by Mark, although this is how it could be interpreted I did not feel that this was his motive. I genuinely felt that what these two had together was “real” and that each others feelings were reciprocated, however the odds are stacked well against them.

Cadence did come across at times as extremely immature and naïve, especially when it came down to sex, however, Mark never forced her to do anything she didn’t want to do and it was all at her pace. I never felt uncomfortable at any point during the book and actually as I said above I was rooting for them.

As you can imagine, a love like this is going to have it’s ups and downs and this is so true with this story, but the plot is addictive and I personally could not put it down. I can’t wait to read the next in the series.

S Walden has managed to capture a forbidden subject in print beautifully. It is a captivating story that you can’t help fall in love with. I know that this book will get it’s fair share of criticism due to the age, Christianity and teacher/student issues but if you have no problem with the above then you will certainly enjoy this story.

“People grow and change. You have to choose to grow and change together. It doesn’t mean the feeling isn’t still there. You just have to work at it a little harder.”

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