Unteachable by Leah Raeder (Elliot Wake) 📚 BOOK REVIEW

Elliot Wake (formerly known as Leah Raeder)

I read a paperback version of Unteachable as a part of my Exploring Erotica project.

Genre: Adult & contemporary fiction, Erotica

Publisher: Atria Books

Originally published: July 27th, 2013

Pages: 320 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 9 Hours 49 Minutes

Blurb by the publisher:

Maise O’Malley just turned eighteen, but she’s felt like a grown-up her entire life. The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and absolutely do not, under any circumstances, screw up her own future. 

But life has a way of throwing her plans into free-fall. 

When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can’t get Evan out of her head. He’s taught her that a hookup can be something more. It can be an unexpected connection with someone who truly understands her. Someone who sees beyond her bravado to the scared but strong girl inside. 

That someone turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke. 

Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they’re real and genuine; apart, they’re just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too. 

Smart, sexy, and provocative, Unteachable is about what happens when a love story goes off-script

My thoughts:

I’ve been on the search for good adult fiction and erotica through my Exploring Erotica Project that’s been going on for a few years now. Around my birthday last year, I ordered a big bunch of erotica novels that were recommended to me in the comment section of one of the first Exploring Erotica videos I posted on YouTube. That is how I came across Unteachable and I was immediately intrigued by the story and the good reviews.

One of the first things I noticed that made me instantly like Maise as the main character was how strong and funny she was. Having read quite a few erotica novels by now, I feel like it’s a way too common thing to put young and inexperienced characters in these stories as sort of damsels in distress, and honestly, I’m not a fan.

When it comes to stories of love and sex, I much more enjoy experienced and strong characters that stand up for themselves. Maise, although she comes from a problematic upbringing, she is a very strong and passionate character. She’s very aware of her femininity, sexuality, and the power that comes with both.

I was worried that I would see the overly dominant and submissive character tropes when I saw that the story was about the relationship between a teacher and a student, but it didn’t have that.

Both characters are quite young(18 and 32), and the age difference between them doesn’t make the relationship between the characters uncomfortable and weird.

It’s more the story of an inconvenient setting of two young people that find themselves attracted to each other and trying to find out how to rightly maneuver their way through the jungle of love, lust, and judgment.

Something that adds to the depth of the characters is the fact they do carry each of their own demons into the relationship they start and that complicate things, as those pesky past demons tend to do. This makes it into a more realistic story.

Talking about realistic; the sex is very well written and fairly graphic, and there’s quite a lot of it, so this one is not for those readers who’re looking for “clean romances”. I really appreciated the erotica parts of this story. I thought it was well balanced with the rest of the story.

Unteachable is also a sort of coming of age story as well. It has the elements of worry and uncertainty about making big life choices, which is something we all can relate to on some level.

I think that this book also does a really good job of portraiting that slightly unhealthy obsession that sometimes happens when falling in love.

These characters and their relationship was interesting to observe as it grew and changed.

The secrecy and potential drama that comes with this forbidden relationship also make this story into a pageturner that’s hard to put down.

Unteachable is a breath of fresh air in a genre that really needs exactly that, and more awesome storytellers like Elliot Wake (formerly known as Leah Raeder).

 Click on the Bookdepository banner below to get your own copy with free shipping, make up your own mind, and let me know what you think of it💛

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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – REVIEW

A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book in a new adult fantasy trilogy inspired by Beauty and The Beast. 

Published: May 5th, 2015

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA childrens

Pages: 432 (hardcover)

Audiobook length: 16 hrs, 7 min

 

 

 

 

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Synopsis by the publisher:

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

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The Writing

After reading (and loving) The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas, I had extremely high expectations for the writing in this book. I was not disappointed!

The writing in ACOTAR is just as beautiful, but different as it is written in first person perspective.

Maas has a unique way of building up fantastic fantasy worlds that you can picture with ease even though they are so detailed and well made.

The way she writes about the emotions of the characters is also perfectly done and her writing is poetic and beautiful while it is brutal and real at the same time.

The Characters

Feyre was an interesting character that I really liked from the beginning. She is a strong female protagonist in a world where she had to be a grown up at a young age. But even though she is such a strong character she has her shortcomings which made her an even more relatable character.

Feyre had a lot of character development through this book and I’m really looking forward to seeing how much more is to come in the next two books.

Tamlin was very mysterious at first but definitely a character that charmed me early on and had me invested in the story and the love interest.

Lucien and Rhysand found their ways into my hearts as well!

Needless to say: this book is packed with interesting characters!

The Plot

Beauty and The Beast shone through in the story so many places and I loved it! Fairytale retellings can have a way of becoming somewhat cliché, but not this one.

It had just the right amount of inspired pieces as well as being a truly original story with twists and turns that I did not see coming. It had fantastic build up to the dramatic pieces and the last fifty pages or so really had me at the edge of my seat (almost to the point of nail biting).

I loved the way the story wrapped up in the end!

Thoughts

I loved the story from the very beginning, but for some reason it took me a couple of chapters into it before I was really invested in the story. This could be that I was sort of on my way into a tiny reading slump, but thankfully I found my way back and when I got into this story I was hooked!

This was a refreshing, sexy and unique read! I can’t believe I have to wait a whole year before getting my hands on the next chapter of this epic story.

Oh, and let’s not forget the stunning artwork on the cover! It deserves mentioning! Designer Donna Mark did an amazing job!

I have no doubt that this will be just as much of a success as The Throne of Glass series has become.

Sarah is a brilliant writer and I’ve loved all of her work so far! Her books are future classics in the making!

Want your own copy of ACOTAR? Click on the Amazon or BookDepository logo below:

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