He's more dangerous than she thought.
Violet thought a week or two of embarrassment would be the worst outcome of being dared to hit on Mr. Brennan.
Instead, she got threatening notes and attacked in her back garden.
Mr. Brennan is neck-deep in his problems, and Violet finds herself right in the middle of them. He tries to protect her, but being pushed together ignites a burning tension that only lands them in even hotter water.
As the stakes sky-rocket, Violet and Mr. Brennan are forced to make tough choices one after the other. Can they make it through, or will the pressure tear them apart?
Violet thought a week or two of embarrassment would be the worst outcome of being dared to hit on Mr. Brennan.
Instead, she got threatening notes and attacked in her back garden.
Mr. Brennan is neck-deep in his problems, and Violet finds herself right in the middle of them. He tries to protect her, but being pushed together ignites a burning tension that only lands them in even hotter water.
As the stakes sky-rocket, Violet and Mr. Brennan are forced to make tough choices one after the other. Can they make it through, or will the pressure tear them apart?
I love a good romance novel. This genre has been my thing lately and I've read my fair share. If there is one thing that I've discovered it's that I should probably stay away from authors that are British. Weird thing to say, right? I've read tons of books by authors from different countries than the United States. But the problem that you get into is basically a translation issue. Hey, they speak English in the UK and you wouldn't think that there is much difference but there is. And it's not just words or phrases that are different, sometimes it's the way that the sentence is structured with a few extra (or less) words than we would use here in America. There's nothing wrong with that at all ... but a lot of the story can get lost within all of those differences.
There were quite a few typos and I didn't remove a star from my rating for this because I wasn't totally for sure if what I thought was a problem was actually normal within the slightly different version of English that the UK speaks. It is something worth nothing though because all American readers will notice these typos. Some of the typos were spelling, some were where extra words were randomly placed within sentences, almost as if someone cut and pasted and then plugged it into the wrong spot and never corrected it. Kinda like 3/4 of the way through the book, there is a part that says: ************* Write this part later. Really? That needs to be removed. It just doesn't look professional but it also shows that a great editor is worth their weight in gold.
There was also an issue with Mr. Brennan's brother ... he was referred to as Jack, Jed and Jake at three different times within the book. The name Jake was used the most, so I'm assuming that the other names were typos? Maybe Jack, Jed and Jake are all the same name in the UK? Like how Dick, Rich and Rick are the shortened version of Richard? I have no clue. But if you do pick this book up, I'm 89% sure that Jed, Jack and Jake are the same person. Make that 83% sure.
The bulk of the story was okay ... I liked getting to know Oscar, Violet and her friends. Although, I did find that when Violet was trying to act grownup that she actually came across as more immature and that didn't do any favors for the plot because it slowed things down with temper tantrums and the resulting aftermath of those fits. The student/teacher romance dynamic was interesting. I've read a few student/teacher books that I really enjoyed and I think that I would have enjoyed this one just a little bit more if I was British. That sounds weird, I know. But there is a different pace to books written by British authors. It's just like those old British comedies that I used to watch as a kid. I loved those damn things but a lot of people that just didn't get it ... the humor is a bit more dry and anyway ... I just don't think that I was the right demographic for this one.
The story chugged along at a nice clip and kept me interested and believe me ... if it hadn't, I would have just put the book down. But even with the typos and the lost in translation moments, I still enjoyed the journey that Oscar and Violet were on and the sometimes dire circumstances that they had to pull themselves out of.
I think that I might pick up another book by Gray in the future. I will just need to either have the author on speed-dial for some translations (what the hell are crisps ... ) or make friends with someone that has spent a lot of time across the pond.
**UPDATE** I received a message from the author, Ms. Georgette Gray, stating that I had accidentally received an older version of this book. She accidentally sent me a version that had not gone through the full editing phase of her writing. I know that at least the "WRITE THIS PART LATER" portion has been fixed (since she told me) but since I've not seen the rest of the finished copy, I can't say what else has been changed.
**UPDATE** I received a message from the author, Ms. Georgette Gray, stating that I had accidentally received an older version of this book. She accidentally sent me a version that had not gone through the full editing phase of her writing. I know that at least the "WRITE THIS PART LATER" portion has been fixed (since she told me) but since I've not seen the rest of the finished copy, I can't say what else has been changed.
* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *
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