supposed to happen.
supposed to be my life.
girl, living a typical life. Nothing was out of the ordinary until tragedy
threw me into a turnstile I couldn’t see my way out of. That was, until him.
imagined my heart falling the way it did. Hard, fast, and with unbounding beauty.
everything, and I became his, so we risked it all. It was only a matter of time
until I realized that our risk came with unimaginable consequences.
Hale and his is David Andrews, and this is our love story.
Blair, takes her readers on an emotional roller coaster with her books. Blair
tends to drift towards love stories that are deeply layered with emotional
angst. Give her a character and she will dig into their core to find what lies
beneath.
Aside from writing, E.K. Blair finds pleasure in music, drinking her Starbucks
in peace and spending time with her friends and family. She’s a thinker, an artist,
a wife, a mom, and everything in between.
**MY REVIEW**
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
My Rating: 2 Stars
This review has been really hard for me to write. I’ve wavered on my rating more times than I can count, changing it from 2, to 3, to 2.5. Even as I type this, I’m still not sure how I want to rate the book. The first thing I will say is that there are some trigger warnings here: self harm, alcoholism, and physical abuse play large parts in the plot.
First, I will start by saying that I did not expect this book to be as dark as it was. I was expecting a student teacher romance – some angst, some longing, some steaminess, and then some sort of conflict. I was also NOT expecting for the main character to be 17 years old. Yes, 17. Now, before you justify it and think to yourself, “Well, the male lead must not have been that much older. Like 22 or 23, right?”. NOOOOOOO, David is 31 years old. Yep. 31. I’ve read a high school student/teacher romance before. Hell, I enjoyed it! It was a bit dark as well and it was certainly taboo, but the main character was 18, and the teacher? He was 23. But 17 and 31? I’m sorry, but that age gap made this a really challenging read for me. I’m 28 years old and I just can’t even fathom finding someone under the age of 22 attractive.
Cam just felt so young to me. She was certainly dealing with big issues: death, alcoholism, and self harm. However, her narrative was absolutely still a young one in my eyes. Her immaturity as a character made the book even harder to accept for me. It just wasn’t something that I could see past.
Now, there were things about the book I enjoyed. The emotions were raw, real, and painful. E.K. Blair certainly has a talent for making her readers feel. I cried at multiple points throughout the book, the final chapters most of all. Her writing really does flow, and the plot was solid. If the characters had been more appropriate ages, I may not have been so freaked out about the whole thing.
My Takeaway: Though the writing of Secret Lucidity was stunning, I just couldn’t see past the age gap between the characters. If Cam had been 18 and David no older than 25, I really think that I could have enjoyed this novel more. The emotion was certainly there for me, but there was just an ick factor that I couldn’t see past.
As The Book Ends 
Amazing review! I loved that we had a discussion about it! I liked seeing our different points for this.
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I loved that we did too!!! You’re so amazing 😘
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