Five Star Reviews — Love or Lust by Jaye Edgecliff

This book is not the sort I’d ordinarily be interested in at all.  In fact, I first read the rough draft only out of a sense of obligation . . . the author is my best friend, so I have to read her stuff, right?

I loved it.

It’s a teen romance that managed to draw me in and keep me interested.  Teen romance usually ranks somewhere around Neonazi propaganda in my opinion.  So me liking this novel is not far short of a miracle.

The description, via Goodreads:

The first installment of Now & Forever.

It’s a week before her freshman year when Lauren Conners is thinking, for what feels like the billionth time, of breaking up with her boyfriend of the past couple of years. In a seeming answer to her fervent prayers for guidance she looks up into the hypnotic eyes of the quiet little Washington town’s exotic, dark, and alluring new addition.

The two fall immediately for one another when their eyes meet. But Lauren can’t be sure – is this love at first sight? An answer from God to her prayer for guidance? Or is this simply lust as she wrestles with newborn passions and desires for the beautiful creature that has entered her life?

The relationship is fraught with other issues on top of the poor young ballerina’s internal and spiritual uncertainty: the two attend the best school in the area, a private school, Immaculate Conception, a Catholic school Lauren has attended since she was in sixth grade and where she has a reputation as a pious, studious, bright, Good Girl. So … what’s the problem here? Oh, her newfound love (or is it lust?) is a girl.

My review:

The story is exactly as described in the description. The two high school freshmen fall in love at first sight, and the book is about them questioning whether it’s really love or if it’s just lust and the complications they experience at things like a school dance due to being homosexual. One of the things I liked the most about it was that most of the problems between the girls stemmed not from things like lusting after others or any of the other typical romance novel clichés, instead 99% of their problems stemmed from simply misunderstanding what the other meant. It reminded me of a romantic comedy, which, as far as I know, doesn’t tend to be a WRITTEN genre. There are things about it that may make it wrong for some people: Both sets of parents are rather open-minded even where their children’s sex lives are concerned, and the girls are more mature acting than many, but by no means all, real world 14-year-olds. And a little bit of suspension of disbelief might be necessary to deal with just how quickly they fall in love — but I think this is handled well since the girls themselves question it. All in all, a very good book, and I eagerly await book two.

I’ve since read book two and given it five stars as well.  It wasn’t as good as the first one — it probably was more of a 4.5 — but it was still really good.

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