Random Reads is a segment I created to tackle my TBR list in light of the mandatory quarantines going on due to the Coronavirus. I have created a list of all review requested books I have accumulated (there are A LOT) and, using a random generator, I have it select the book I read and review. Today's Random Read is...
Blind Side by K.B. Nelson
Publication date: May 23rd, 2016
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
I accept the part I played in the demise of my marriage.
I accept the things I cannot change.
I'm a cheater. I'm a whore. I'm an outcast in that place I left behind the second the first embers fizzled against the cracks of the night sky.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Anyone with the faintest understanding of decency would know this to be true. But it did happen this way. It went exactly like this, because maybe that's the way things had to go.
There was no way out, and just when I thought of pulling the proverbial trigger, he appeared to me.
He was a student.
And I was his teacher.
And he saved me in every way I imagine one could ever be saved.
So, he became my teacher and I because his student as he taught me how to love again...
Available at:
Review:
Every reader needs a break from the norm from time to time. You can only read so many stereotypical romance books before it all just becomes the same thing over and over again. That is usually when I turn to Erotica to kinda spice everything up for a second. I was kind of getting to that point again and my randomizer came through again as if understanding exactly what type of book I was anxious for without even being asked.
Stassi Hamilton is in a prison of a marriage with a man who had betrayed her completely. She also suffered the guilt of not being able to save a student from himself when she felt a responsibility to do so. All this brings her to the point of no return. She is ready to end it all and finally be free of all the pain she has suffered in the last few months. But then he appears. He saves her from herself and brings her back to life when she thought she was dead. She found a way to feel again and he was the reason for it. Then she realizes he's not just the man causing her heart to beat once more in her chest, but also a student. Forbidden fruit that she is irresistibly drawn to. Morally and ethically she should distance herself from him, but fear of losing herself once more to the darkness makes this decision harder than she would have ever imagined. Can she find a way to be happy or is she doomed to a life of pain and suffering that has become her norm?
The taboo in some books can be distasteful. I am not one of them. I think the story was beautifully written with a strong morality dilemma that made he hurt for Stassi even when she was doing things I wouldn't approve of as a married woman. I could recognize she was grieving and dealing with a heaping portion of guilt over the downfall of one student, the corrupting of another, and the betrayal to her husband even though the score between them should be ultimately settled at that point. I didn't much care for Brock, Stassi's husband. I felt he was more focused on appearances than his wife's turmoil. A spouse should be there for you even when you are doing everything you can to push them away.
I was rooting for Stassi's student to win over the girl because I just had no love for her husband. I felt he was cold and calculated. He had no true love for her left in his heart. I may have been wrong, but that was the overall impression. I thought the book was good but I felt like it was a sizzle and then quickly snuffed out. I wanted more depth to the plot than what was at surface level. But I did enjoy it all the same.
All in all, Blind Side shows sometimes it takes a walk on the wild side to truly find peace.
