Rowena’s review of The Truth about You and Me by Amanda Grace.

Smart girls aren’t supposed to do stupid things.

Madelyn Hawkins is super smart. At sixteen, she’s so gifted that she can attend college through a special program at her high school. On her first day, she meets Bennett. He’s cute, funny, and kind. He understands Madelyn and what she’s endured – and missed out on – in order to excel academically and please her parents. Now, for the first time in her life, she’s falling in love.

There’s only one problem. Bennett is Madelyn’s college professor, and he thinks she’s eighteen – because she hasn’t told him the truth.

The story of their forbidden romance is told in letters that Madelyn writes to Bennett – both a heart-searing ode to their ill-fated love and an apology.

Every once in a while, I’ll get the urge to try a book out that I wouldn’t normally read to see if I’d like it.  This was one of those books and I’ve spent a few days trying to figure out what I thought of this book…and I still don’t really know.

This book follows Madelyn, a sixteen year old girl as she tries to explain her actions to the man she fell in love with, who was her teacher.  The entire story is written as a letter to Bennett, Madelyn’s college professor.

Madelyn is really smart.  Her high school has a college program where kids from their school can participate in the program and attend college courses during the day to earn college credits and finish high school, only to enter college as a junior.  That’s how Madelyn meets Bennett.  Bennett is her biology professor and he’s ten years older than her.  He doesn’t know that he’s ten years older than her so when she starts seeing Bennett around town and strikes up a friendship that turns into something more, he’s trying to do the right thing and stay away because he’s her professor.  He has no idea that he should stay away from her because she’s minor.  But Madelyn does.  She knew all along how old she was and what they were doing could get Bennett in trouble but she does it anyway because she’s got some big time feelings for him.

And here’s what I don’t understand.  When you’ve got minors in your class, aren’t professors supposed to be made aware of that?  When students are part of a high school program, aren’t the teachers and administrators of the college supposed to know?  I can’t believe that Bennett was a professor and didn’t know that he had minors in his class.

And another thing that I don’t understand is how girls can think that they’re in love with a guy that is so much older than them and think that the relationship can survive lies that can land the guy in jail.  If you love someone, why in the world would you risk their job and their future jobs by getting them in trouble for cavorting with minors?  It never fails to amaze me at how selfish these young girls are…that they think only of the lust coursing through their veins and not the consequences of their actions.

It was hard to get through this book.  I spent most of the book wanting to choke Madelyn out and even in the end when she’s trying to “save” Bennett from jail, I couldn’t like her.  I didn’t think that she was a bad person but she was a selfish person and even though she learned her lesson, she still wasn’t a character that I could say that I liked.  But I did like the way that this book ended.  It ended the way that it was supposed to end and even though I didn’t love this book, I didn’t hate it either.

Grade: 2.75 out of 5

This book is available from Flux.  You can purchase it here or here in e-format.  This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.