Lovin' los libros

The Truth About You and Me
   by: Amanda Grace

Publication Date: Sept. 8, 2013
Publisher: Flux
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: Young Adult
Source: e-ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 229 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N
My Rating: 3/5 stars

When I first saw this on NetGalley, I was quite intrigued by the premise and I'm all for a case of forbidden love. I also really enjoyed the fact that the book was written in letter form from Madelyn to Bennett. I felt we were able to get a pretty good feel for Madelyn and her reasoning behind why she did what she did. However, because of this, I wasn't able to get that firm of a grasp on Bennett. I realize the point of this was for Madelyn to tell the story from her eyes and also be able to give an apology to him for everything that had happened. Still, I was curious as to his feelings regarding everything and we didn't get that.

Madelyn was not a perfect protagonist. In fact, she was far from it and I can see why people struggled to like her. Madelyn knows the difference between right and wrong. She warred with the fact that she hadn't come clean and told Bennett the truth about her real age. For as much as she stressed over it- and then later researched age of consent- she couldn't claim ignorance about the whole situation. She knew what she was walking into and I think that's why I found her to be so selfish. She is infatuated with Bennett, but really- I think she was infatuated with the idea of him. For so long, her overbearing parents have expected perfection from her. She is incredibly smart and therefore has her entire life mapped out by her parents. She's tired of the high expectations they have set for her. She wants someone to understand- someone to relate to. She finds that in Bennett. He is a good listener and he does care about her.

Don't get me wrong- I feel really bad for Madelyn. I can't imagine the stress and pressure she's been placed under by her parents to be perfect and excel. But for someone as intelligent as her, I just find her moral compass to be very skewed. Surely, she had to know the repercussions for her actions. Not to mention, it's not just her own life here- Bennett, being the older party, will lose everything if their relationship is brought to light.

Oh, Bennett. I felt for him too. He is attracted to this girl, but he is struggling with the fact that she is one of his students. He knows being with her would be wrong and so he tells her they must keep their relationship platonic until she is no longer his student. I just felt like he really got the short end of the stick here. He is attracted to this girl, who happens to be his student and who also happens to be 16 years old. Said girl lies to him for months and then after crossing the point of no return, finds out the truth in a rather crappy way, and then has to deal with the repercussions that come with what has happened.

Just from the tone of Madelyn's letters, you can pretty much deduce that things are not going to end well for Madelyn and Bennett. I can't say I was shocked over the ending, but it definitely wasn't the type of ending I'm used to. However, I found it be fitting and very realistic considering the sequence of events. I did enjoy this story for what it was though and I really did like that it was told in letter format.