How do you repair a broken life?
Home is a dark place of anguish and pain for seventeen-year-old Bree Jacobs, forced to endure emotional and physical torment daily at the hands of a violently unstable mother. Bree’s only escape is high school, particularly her history class taught by young, handsome, kind and caring Axel Taylor. Mr. Taylor becomes Bree’s dearest friend, a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to cry on, and soon their shared affection grows into something greater. But by reaching out to protect her—to mend her breaks and soothe her wounds—Axel has crossed a dangerous line, resulting in two shattered lives instead of just one.
Six years later, they will meet again: Bree, still battling the demons that continue to possess her, and Axel, reduced to taking work as a substitute teacher wherever he can find it. Once again he will feel compelled to rescue her. But this time it will be different, because now the yearnings of a loving heart won’t be silenced by suspicious minds. And now there’s more than one life that desperately needs saving.
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Isaac, the kid in the back, sat for a moment, staring at me with narrowed eyes. “If my dad was beating me, and I couldn’t handle it myself, then yeah, I’d want someone to try to help. It’s called humanity.” His eyes held mine as if he could read me. As if the bruise on my face gave me away and he saw everything. “You’re saying you’d sit by and watch a friend get abused just because she asked you to? What if your friend dies while you do nothing? You’d just say, ‘oh well, nothing I could’ve done. She didn’t want help’?”
Luckily, at that moment, the bell rang. Everyone started to stand, yet no one said a word. I, however, couldn’t find the strength to leave my seat. “No homework tonight. See you back tomorrow morning,” Mr. Taylor said quietly from his podium.
The atmosphere in the room had become very heavy, and it seemed to affect everyone, including me. I blinked at the floor a few times before standing, becoming weak on my feet. I couldn’t shake the worry that I had just led my entire class to believe I was an abused child. I’d allowed my anger to get the best of me, and without thinking about how it would appear, how it would sound coming from the girl with the black eye, I decided to question people’s morals regarding child abuse. We were in high school, I’m sure rumors would spread before fourth period. By the end of the day, people would be talking about how my dad tied me up in the basement or how I had to eat dog food for dinner. Like I said, no one knew my life but me. But that would never stop people from talking.
Mr. Taylor blocked my exit from my row, but I didn’t care. I had bigger fish to fry. I had bigger things to worry about than what he had to say. “Please, Mr. Taylor, I can’t do this right now.” I couldn’t even look at him, my eyes trained on the open door on the other side of the room as I fought back the sting of tears born in embarrassment and anger.
“Come here after school, please. I’d like to talk to you about what happened.”
I shook my head and finally met his stare. “I can’t. I take the bus home, and I can’t be late. If you want to give me detention, just do it and get it over with.”
“No. I would like to talk to you. Come see me during lunch today since you can’t stay after school.”
“Lunch? When am I supposed to eat?”
“Bring it with you. You can eat in here while we talk.” He waited until I nodded before moving out of the way enough for me to get by. “Oh…and, Bree? That detention slip will be written if you don’t show up.”
Well, it seemed as though I had a lunch date with Axel Taylor.
Leddy Harper had to use her imagination often as a child. She grew up the only girl in a house full of boys. At the age of fourteen, she decided to use that imagination and wrote her first book, and never stopped.
She often calls writing her therapy, using it as a way to deal with issues through the eyes of her characters.
The decision to publish her first book was made as a way of showing her children to go after whatever it is they want to. Love what you do and do it well. Most importantly Leddy wanted to teach them what it means to overcome their fears.
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My Review:
OMG, this was such an emotional and touching piece of writing that at times I had to stop and take a breath. I could feel the MC pain and I could feel the love that they had for each other. I am one of those who loves a teacher/student storyline and when I heard that this is what the book was about, I was all for it. I expected it to be a hot read and this was so different than that. Oh there were hot and sexy moments but really this was more of an emotional read.
Bree Jacobs’s home life was a dark world, one she hated. The only place she found peace and some sort of happiness was when she was at school. Her mother was very unstable. She was horribly violent to her daughter. She had no one to talk to, no friends, no life. Her teacher, Axel takes notice and is the one who listens and pays attention. He is a few years older but they instantly connect like no one else. He wants to protect her , he sees her an someone who is being abused but no one really cares. At first it’s strictly innocent and he is there for her, making sure she knows he is there and listens but when she has the flu, he takes her home and cares for her and that when the boundary is crossed. I won’t go into details but its not tawdry but beautiful. You can feel the love between these two people. The story is told in mainly Axel’s viewpoint but at times we hear Bree’s side of things. We see how their relationship goes on and how they try to hide it so he won’t get in trouble but secrets are bound to come out and when that happens Axel ends up losing his job and leaves Bree behind. Heartbreak ensues and there is a separation when Axel leaves—really he has to because of all the turmoil when everyone finds out that that they have been having a relationship. Axel is a strong, loving man and his love is for Bree. His heartbreak is so deep when he leaves her…but he isn’t aware that he is leaving a piece of him behind. Bree is devastated when Axel leaves her. I cried several times while reading this book because the emotions are so real and raw in this story. Years pass and suddenly they are back in each other’s’ lives again. Bree is not the same girl she was years before. She has had to grow up, and all this time she wondered whatever happened to Axel and Axel has gone back to teaching which is how they end up meeting…without giving too much away, there are secrets involved and Bree is scared and hiding everything inside of her. There are twists and turns but the way the story ended was wonderful. I would love to read more in this story and the cast of supporting characters are great. Bree and Axel’s love story was so heartbreaking at times but the HEA was truly fantastic and will grab your heart and this is one romance story that you will remember and read over and over.
My Rating: 4.8. Stars ****
***A gifted copy was provided by the author for my honest review****
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