Review: Unteachable by Leah Raeder

UnteachableUnteachable by Leah Raeder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Would you believe it? I raced through this book like I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I was hooked on the first page, and surprised on the last page that it was over already.

Was this romance?? Erotic romance to boot?

Yes, and no.

I mean, it was both. But again, it was more than either. More importantly, it was a story, and an intriguing one at that.

I kept thinking of the Stanley Kubrick directed Lolita. The original, not the shitty remake. Add some sex scenes and bring it to the modern age, and you've got it. Sorta. It's probably not surprising to think of that movie, as Raeder refers back to both Kubrick the director and the original book by Nabakov (which I've never gotten around to reading). But if you liked the movie, this book might do it for you. While the plot and scenery are much different, it has a dark brush with taboo feel to it that's similar.

Well, maybe more than brush. More like full penetration.

But hey. Where the majority of sex descriptions in books are awkward and silly, Raeder's come out alright. She has a knack for making it real, not using a bunch of stupid fluffy words to pump up the action and make it bigger than life. It feels authentic and isn't clunky at all. (All innuendos are at least partially intentional).

The romance isn't heavy handed either. Well, without it you don't have much story, but at the same time it's not sparkly and unrealistic.

I picked this up after seeing something of a craze for it on GoodReads, though the author had my attention a couple of months back when I'd seen her posts on the site. I found that I liked the way she thought, as a reader of great books. All authors should be readers first, and she pulled that off. Not only that, but she seemed cool and funny too. So what the hell? I saw her book getting great reviews and even scoring a write-in voting on the Choice Awards. It was worth $0.99 to give it a try. It was well worth full price, as it turned out.

So how should a book like this end? Sappy and fairy-taleish? Or depressing and wrist-slittish? Or somewhere in between?

I won't say how it went. I won't even say how I wanted it to end. I will only say that I was pleased with it, as a fan of good story writing.



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