Sweetest Taboo
There was not one thing I didn’t love about the book. The author had a way of writing that will get the reader upset, yelling at the book, and then crying. That is the way that you know how good the author is! Anyone can paint a picture but this was like a 3d landscape.
Isabel Cruz was fifteen years old when she met Tom Stevens. Tom was her swim coach and she had a crush on him. Coming from a very traditional family Isabel was reserved until Tom said “write me a letter”. She was not sure what to write, but she wrote from her heart. Now at this point I am so deep into the story that I read for an all-night marathon! She was 15 when they started meeting. Before anyone goes on about the subject matter, let us not get carried away! She is old enough in my opinion to make a choice. She does and so does he. They really do love each other and there was nothing in the past. NO molestation, no psych consult, and no father issues, it was love. This is one of the most taboo kinds of love there was, a relationship between a student and her teacher.
Read it NOW and go with Isabel as she explores a dark love. She goes on in turmoil, hiding and lying to be with her “one and only”. Another reason I LOVED the author is that she didn’t let people judge Isabel. What I mean is that if everyone found out and told her to stay away from Tom, then she would just go to him even more. Isabel internalized all of her feelings and made her own choices As for Tom, things are not what they seem to be. I think it is refreshing to get worked up about a subject or book when you do, it was told correctly. I was not bothered by the age or the fact that he was older and married with two kids. Men will be men and I do think it was love and not anything more sinister.
I hope that you all love it as I did. Yes I think Tom really is in love with this 15 year old girl, and Isabel is equally as in love. The sequel is Tainted Love and it was a little bit better!
Here is my idea of Tom
My idea of Isabel
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, daughter of European immigrants, Eva Márquez has spent most of her life outside of her home country. At the age of five, Eva accompanied her parents to the United States, where the family settled permanently. After graduating from university, she went on to complete graduate studies in International Relations in Spain. Eva received her Master of International Studies degree from the University of Sydney and went on to work in the global health field in Sub Saharan Africa and South East Asia. Eva currently resides in Southern Africa.
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Visit Eva’s Amazon Author Central Page
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*I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.*
Also, if you haven’t read book one, The Awakening, you can pick that up for only $0.99 USD/ £0.75
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The Awakening Amazon UK- http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Awakening…
The Awakening Amazon US- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AMJDAJ2
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Darke
Compassion was a sentiment I thought I’d forgotten long ago, that was until I heard Ana’s pleas to Ella. She
understood nothing of Ana’s life here in this prison. Ella and Hélène were so different, but that was a long
time ago.
Hélène had understood more about Laurent and the dire situation that Fate had placed her in. Ella was
naïve, annoying; and I doubted her ignorance was real. Surely the Council had told her the kind of man
Laurent was—the kind that took loved ones’ prisoner to guarantee fealty. His kingdom was one that few ever
entered of free will, and even fewer—if any—had left him and lived.
Ana was one of the few innocents; my own hands were tainted by so much blood, my sight was red with it.
She was here because of her parents—their greed for power only awarded them with death and their only
child with slavery, losing even her name. Calling her Sophie was forbidden, and no other Chorý here but me
had ever risked using it.
She stood in the corner, shaking with fear. So beautiful and petite. With the strength of ten men and a thirst
for blood, she could easily be considered a monster, but it didn’t lessen her beauty in my eyes. “Calm
yourself, Ana. She will not tell him anything.”
She had felt the wrath of Laurent too many times to be calmed so readily. As soon as I uttered the words to
Ana, I knew that they meant nothing.
“Let’s go.” I gently pulled her down the hall toward the double doors that led to the courtyard, to take her to
the one place she often visited after a hard day. The patio was filled with foliage strong enough to face
winter’s wrath. It was dark out, but the moon was high in the sky and shone brightly through the double
doors.
Her eyes widened, and she pulled from my grasp.
Ana shook her head. “I can’t leave her in there, upset. I heard what you said to her. How could you?” Fear
and concern filled her small face. Ana knew what it was, to be held against her will, to be hopeless and
afraid. Even when she should have been angry with Ella and her assumptions, she wasn’t. She understood
Ella. In a way, she and Ella were similar—only Ella’s life had an expiration date darkening it, set by Laurent.
“I had to make her understand, Anastaise.” I placed my hand on her shaking shoulder. “She must be made
to understand what has truly happened.”
Anastaise would hear nothing of it. I looked at her big golden eyes and had to make myself remember that
she was no longer a child. She had been brought here at only fourteen, and in the four years that Laurent
held her believing that she was the Arc, she’d been forced to become something she wasn’t.
Though in that time, girls her age were married and with child, she was still so innocent; and in my eyes,
she’d remained that way. I did the dirty deeds that Laurent insisted she do. Anything a child like her
shouldn’t have had to see or do, I shielded it from her. Maybe my shelter had weakened her in the world
where she would have been forced to maim or kill. I took her sins as my own to keep her own hands clean.
“You shouldn’t have told her that. It wasn’t fair of you to do that.” Anastaise shook her head.
Her disappointment burned through me. I went to place my hand on my chest but stopped.
Anastaise held her hands to her face. “You think she has no right to be angry, that she should just trust
what we say to her, but why would she? How could she? We keep her here for him, and we know what he
will put her through when he returns.”
The hole where my heart once belonged shuddered again.
“Darke, we are the monsters she believes us to be. When will we admit that to ourselves?” She sighed
heavily and headed for the door.
I stopped her. “Do you truly believe that, Sophie?” I stared at her, amazed at how little she thought of
herself. Such a beautiful innocent creature she was in front of me. “Do you truly believe that you are a
monster?”
She glanced away from me for a moment and then peered into my eyes, as if debating how to answer me.
How could she feel that way? I had worked so hard to protect her from the dark deeds that she would’ve had
to commit for Master, yet she still felt as tarnished as I was.
I looked down at her hands, smooth, pale, and clean, and then to mine—dark and calloused, they
announced all my sins and the innocent lives I had taken. The ties I once had with the Council were long
gone, and though I believed that they were corrupt, I still believed in their ability to protect Ella from the fate
she’d been promised too long ago. I only wondered if they’d gotten my clue. Would my brother follow it and
save her? Such a small slip might have gone unnoticed.
It wasn’t that I was trying to redeem myself. I had given up on that hope long ago, but if the myths were true
about this Arc, her life was worth more than my own. I just hoped that they would save Anastaise, as well.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Awakened-Few-Are-Angels-ebook/dp/B00BIX062U/ref=cm_rdp_product
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1046080691?ean=2940016171494
EXCERPT
“You’re my sweetheart,” he told me, his voice sad. “I can’t imagine life without you. I don’t want to have to imagine life without you.”
Tom rarely used terms of endearment with me, these days. When he did – in these rare moments when he called me his sweetheart – my heart melted. All of the turmoil, the sleepless nights, the protracted nature of our relationship, became nothing more than a passing inconvenience and very worthwhile. Tonight, though, I knew that the word came with drawbacks. They gave me the courage I needed to say the words I’d been dreading.
“My graduation won’t affect our relationship, you know that,” I told him. “Look at how much we’ve been through together. If we made it through all of that, we can make it through anything. Tom, I want to be with you always, no matter where life takes me after graduation.”
I spoke passionately, fully believing in what I said. I was absolutely devoted to this man. But somewhere deep inside, I knew I was being dishonest. Neither of us wanted our relationship to change, but it was clear that things were going to change, and soon. I had just been offered a place at a small, private liberal arts college on the East Coast. The choice had been difficult because although I wanted to stay close to Tom, I also wanted to move forward with my life. In the end, I accepted the offer. Tom hadn’t really reacted when I told him. It hadn’t affected our relationship. Now, though, the cracks were starting to show.
“I want to believe that,” Tom answered quietly. “I loved the last letter you wrote me. Every time I read your letters, I feel like I’m sixteen again. I feel like I’ve come out of a deep sleep.” A pause, and then, “I can’t lose you, Isabel. You’re the reason I wake up in the morning; I can’t love anyone more than I love–”
Suddenly I heard a distinct click on the line. My heart plummeted.
“Did you hear that?” Tom snapped, his tone suddenly terse. “Did someone pick up the phone at your house?”
“Hold on a minute, let me check inside.” I slipped back inside and listened, but the house was completely quiet. The kitchen phone was on the counter, my mom’s office was dark, and I was holding the only other phone in the house.
“Who picked up the phone?” Tom repeated, worry coloring his voice.
The click had not originated on my end of the line. I should’ve been relieved, but my panic rose even more.
“Tom,” I whispered into the receiver. “It wasn’t here, everyone’s asleep…”
“I have to go,” Tom interrupted abruptly. “Danielle’s coming.”
EXCERPT 1 (from the Preface)
Dear Reader,
My story begins in the early 90s, when a young girl started her high school career. She may have been any girl – young, impressionable, and fresh into the wide world of older boys, harder classes, and more choices. She may have been quite beautiful, well developed for her age, and smarter than most of the other students in her class. She may have been destined for the same high school career as anyone else – honors courses, braces, a few high school crushes, photography classes, a first kiss, and then a straight shot into the college of her choice, and her future as a doctor, or teacher, or architect.
Instead, she fell in love with her swim coach, one of the most popular teachers in the school, and became romantically involved with him.
I don’t believe that I have to tell you how dangerous this would have been. She was a young girl of 15, 16, 17 and he an adult man in his late 30s, old enough to be her father. Although this type of relationship would have passed as acceptable and even normal in Medieval England, the modern world frowns on such dalliances, and prosecutes the men – and women – who take advantage of adolescent students in this way. The two of them, then, would have been facing the threat of discovery, tarnishing of reputation, and even time behind bars; throwing their relationship in the face of society, if you will, but doing so quietly, in order to avoid detection.
Have you guessed, yet, that the story I’m telling you is true? Have you guessed that it’s more than just a rhetorical question, more than an idea that developed in my head one day?
The girl in the story is my mother, Isabel Cruz. She never told her story to the world, though she could have, because she didn’t want her love and relationship to be tainted by society’s judgments. This was a story of an illicit – and illegal – love. It was a story of lying, cheating, and misleading the authorities. My mother’s love for this older man was forbidden, and would have been highly scandalous to the world at large. She might have lost privileges, opportunities, and even her family, had they found out. And for him … his future and very life would have been put in jeopardy if the nature of their relationship were revealed, regardless of whether my mother sought to prosecute him or not. Even when she was older, my mother feared that the truth about their relationship might bring a backlash to the man she had loved so dearly. She fought against that with all her might, with the ongoing wish to keep him from any risk or pain. She never lost her love for him, scandalous as it may have seemed to others.
She is older, now, and the man in the story is long gone. When I happened across her diary from that time and asked her permission to write the story, she acquiesced. It was time that the world knew, she said, so it could see that this type of love – though it may be frowned upon, and even prosecuted – isn’t always what it seems. Sometimes, regardless of the ages of the participants, it is just that. Love. True and pure as it can be between two people, and strong enough to last through the years. It was time, she said, for our family to know its past, and its future.
I have just closed her diary, having squeezed every word from it, and written my own last words, which means that the book is done and her story has been told. I must pass it to you now, Reader, and trust you to hold it dear and keep it safe. I must trust you to see the love that shines through, rather than the social mores of the situation. I must trust you to care for my mother and her past, as I have during the writing of this book.
This, then, is my mother’s story. It starts when she was very young, only 15 …
~ Claire Stevens
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Goodreads Author page
Sweetest Taboo
There was not one thing I didn’t love about the book. The author had a way of writing that will get the reader upset, yelling at the book, and then crying. That is the way that you know how good the author is! Anyone can paint a picture but this was like a 3d landscape.
Isabel Cruz was fifteen years old when she met Tom Stevens. Tom was her swim coach and she had a crush on him. Coming from a very traditional family Isabel was reserved until Tom said “write me a letter”. She was not sure what to write, but she wrote from her heart. Now at this point I am so deep into the story that I read for an all-night marathon! She was 15 when they started meeting. Before anyone goes on about the subject matter, let us not get carried away! She is old enough in my opinion to make a choice. She does and so does he. They really do love each other and there was nothing in the past. NO molestation, no psych consult, and no father issues, it was love. This is one of the most taboo kinds of love there was, a relationship between a student and her teacher.
Read it NOW and go with Isabel as she explores a dark love. She goes on in turmoil, hiding and lying to be with her “one and only”. Another reason I LOVED the author is that she didn’t let people judge Isabel. What I mean is that if everyone found out and told her to stay away from Tom, then she would just go to him even more. Isabel internalized all of her feelings and made her own choices As for Tom, things are not what they seem to be. I think it is refreshing to get worked up about a subject or book when you do, it was told correctly. I was not bothered by the age or the fact that he was older and married with two kids. Men will be men and I do think it was love and not anything more sinister.
I hope that you all love it as I did. Yes I think Tom really is in love with this 15 year old girl, and Isabel is equally as in love. The sequel is Tainted Love and it was a little bit better!
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, daughter of European immigrants, Eva Márquez has spent most of her life outside of her home country. At the age of five, Eva accompanied her parents to the United States, where the family settled permanently. After graduating from university, she went on to complete graduate studies in International Relations in Spain. Eva received her Master of International Studies degree from the University of Sydney and went on to work in the global health field in Sub Saharan Africa and South East Asia. Eva currently resides in Southern Africa.
.
Buy it on Amazon
Goodreads Author page
*I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.*
The class has a limit of 12 students, so you’ll be sure to get personalized feedback on your work. You’ll write four poems over the course of the month (April 1-30), and I’ll give you constructive comments on all four pieces. We’ll also read a variety of published poetry and do freewriting exercises each week to generate ideas for poems. You’ll receive instruction in free verse poetry, with emphasis on techniques like imagery, line breaks, repetition, and voice.
Note: This class will function as a workshop in that you’ll read and comment on the work of other students, but it isn’t a critique-focused class. The focus is on the writing process, not the end result (though you likely will complete the class with some finished poems!) Comments will directly relate to each week’s assignment. The class will have a weekly schedule and run for a month. I’m also looking at offering an individualized, self-paced class, so plese let me know if that option would interest you.
I have an MFA in English (emphasis on poetry writing) from the University of Washington, and I’ve been teaching writing classes at Edmonds Community College since 2004. My book of poetry,Postcards to Box 464, was published by Bootstrap Press in 2010, and I’m the author of several published chapbooks as well. For samples of my work, please see my website.
If you have any questions about the class, or would like to see a sample assignment, please feel free to email me. I hope you’ll share the information about this class with friends, and keep an eye on this page for information about future classes.
Thanks again,
Amanda Laughtland
I’m going to say if I can give more than 5 stars I would. I loved November, every single thing about her! I totally go for the love at first sight story, November “Ember” Harris and Bowan “Bo” Cavanaugh were so awesome together I gush, swoon, and have sweet dreams!! Besides the story filled with angst, there was quite a scandal and thrilling blackmail plot. I was so pleasantly surprised. You know when you read your type of book and whiz right through it. Sometimes I feel like it is a tell tale sign that the book is great, and then I think maybe it is insulting that they worked so hard I was too eager to finish. I was not eager, I swear it was great.
I adore when there are two best friends like November “Ember” and Monica. They are both kind, caring and honest. The way that they care about each other and tell each other every detail is just what I like. Ember grew up an only child inside a lifestyle of the 70’s. The first time she had a real school and apartment was in high school. Her parents are up front and honest. Jeez they tell everything. Made me laugh. Even though Ember grew up in a very nontraditional way, she turned out traditional.
Bo Cavanaugh is just so swoon worthy!! When he enters the bar and they meet you can gather how he is, but you would be wrong. That was the first twist!
Adrian Turner, Ember’s ex, was involved after years of being out of the picture.
Believe me this is a ride you want to take. Nothing but great things to report in this one.
There is a bar, a musician, a secret, a long relationship and lots of friends! Swoon worthy men 5* I highly recommended it!
twitter username @ARandallAuthor
Other books:
Reckless Abandon (November2) Release March 2013
In the Stillness Spring/Summer 2013
Reading Renee 
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