This student-teacher romance was an absolutely wonderful read: very realistic, very sexy and very moving in parts.

It also has a proper sense of the forbidden that really gives a thrilling sense to Cadence’s and Mark’s relationship. Yes, there’s a darker edge here, but life isn’t a Disney movie and people are flawed and needy and tempted. (Cite: The Bible).

It’s great to see a contemporary author brave enough to actually tackle this subject, and put a proper age and experience gap there (she’s 17, he’s 28).

There’s a sequel to this book – which I also highly recommend – but even if there wasn’t, the ending to this book is satisfying in itself.

One more thing I admired was that despite its contemporary setting the book has a sense of timelessness, there isn’t over-reliance on or excessive reference to modern communications technology and social media that makes so many books outdated so quickly.

For international readers, this is far more than another US-teens-at-high-school book. It’s actually interesting in itself and it’s very well written.