Broken English by Marita A. Hansen Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads
Published by Self Published on August 2nd 2016
Genres: Romance
Purchase links: Amazon
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Source: Purchased
For me, the name Dante conjured up two images. The first was the epic depictions of Hell from Dante’s Inferno, with people burning for their sins. The second image was a sexual depiction. I don’t know where it came from, but as far back as I can remember, I had always associated the name Dante with a beautiful and sexy man. I'd imagined a dark-haired, dark-eyed, gorgeous lothario, the type who could capture a woman’s heart with just one look. Dante was the Fabio of my generation, the heartthrob that got women’s hearts beating fast, made us want this man to rip our clothes off and to throw us onto the bed.
Little did I know that the Dante that walked into my life was very different from the one I’d imagined. Oh, he was dark-haired, dark-eyed, gorgeous, even a lothario ... just ... he wasn’t a man. He was a fifteen-year-old boy who was going to send me to the Hell his namesake had written about.
And I was his teacher.
Tags: Taboo, Literary Fiction, Teacher/Student Relationship, English Teacher, Male Student, Mental Health Issues, Abuse, Poetry, Gangs, High School.
Book Review: 4 stars
Honestly, I have no idea how to rate this book properly. It was a very odd mixture of strange, appealing, confusing, eye-opening and shocking to me. I love forbidden romance, the juicier and the more controversial, the better. But “Broken English” was more than a forbidden romance. It was the life-story of two individuals, whose paths have crossed and maybe or maybe not have started to walk a certain path together. Does that makes sense? LOL
Marita A. Hansen has a really amazing gift for writing. The strange accent (Kiwi or Maori) was hard to get into at first, but this book took place in New Zealand after all. I even took on a few words towards the ending, therefore I was tempted to use words like “hefta” (have to) or “wuz” (was) in my own speech. Her ability to create very vivid and realistic characters and environments was stunning and I have been seriously impressed by how much I wanted to do something good for the characters in this story.
The only complaints I have, is that whereas the writing was very realistic, it was too much trivial stuff included that didn’t interest me in the slightest and a result of that was, that I felt that the romance was missing. I wouldn’t shelf this as romance at all. There was a definite chemistry between Dante and Clara, but they didn’t act upon it until right at the end of the book. The whole story was too slow-burning for me unfortunately.
Three warnings (contains spoilers!): First one – This book is about a forbidden affair between a 15-year-old student and his 24-year-old teacher. And yes, there is a bit of PDA and one very explicit sex-scene at the end of the book. It made my pervy lady-parts tingle, it was so hot. The slow build-up throughout the whole book made for one explosive get-together at the end. But everyone who has a problem with the hero being so young, should probably stay away from this book. Second warning – There is cheating in this book. And last but not least the third one – this book ends in a cliffhanger, it’s the first of a trilogy.
All in all, I agreed with me, myself and I to rate this book with 4 stars and will have to decide if I’ll read the second book as soon as it’s here… Not sure if I really want it yet. This book definitely made my thoughts go round and round in a weird circle and left and impression. Only if good or bad is not decided yet LOL
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