Sweetest Taboo - Eva Marques

Title : Sweetest Taboo
Series : Sweetest Taboo #1
Author : Eva Marques
Publication Date : October 1st, 2012
Date Read : January 9, 2012
Synopsis :

Isabel Cruz was fifteen years old when she met Tom Stevens. She was 15 when they started dating, and 16 when she lost her virginity to him. By the time she turned 18 and went to college, everything had fallen apart. This hadn’t been an ordinary love, though. Not a love between two dear friends, or even high school sweethearts. This had been the most taboo sort of love there was: a relationship between a student and her teacher. Isabel started her high school career as a normal student, but set her sights on Tom Stevens as soon as she met him, and pursued him with an intense – and sometimes reckless – fascination. When he finally approached her after swim practice and told her that he shared her feelings, it was the start of a forbidden and dangerous relationship. Join Isabel as she makes her way through this dark love story, hiding from teachers, lying to her parents, and defying the authorities to make a life with the man she loves. Watch as she discovers the wonders of love and romance, and the terrible betrayal of jealous friends. And cry with her when she learns the hard truth about life and the people in her world. Sweetest Taboo is inspired by the true and tragic stories of students who fall in love with their teachers, and live with the hard truths of forbidden romances. In a world full of after-school specials on sexual predators, this touching book seeks a different path, casting both student and teacher in a gentle light, and showing that true love may lie at the base of even the most illicit romance.

Review :

Sweetest Taboo is a true story of a young teenager who fell in love with her swim coach. The girl, Isabel Cruz is in her age of 15 when she fell head over heels in love with Mr.Steven. It's definitely taboo since he's a married man with two children and he could be his father instead of his lover. The fact that she's still 15 and he's in his late thirties makes things get more complicated. But love has no age limit, I guess since even a grandfather could get married with a teenager. So it's not a problem (Although I'm not sure if we're talking about love or money in that case) What annoys me the most is when they never considered how Mr.Steven's wife and their children feelings if they know about this affair. But we don't really know how they feel since this book centers on the life and relationship of Tom and Isabel.

Isabel is a home-wrecker who plays with fire by falling in love with her swim coach. At first they are just giving compliments to each other, then they start writing letters. The affair getting more intense when they started kissing, groping, cuddling, etc (you figure it out yourself) I don't think if I'd ever like Isabel,though. Secrets are supposed to be kept to yourself, but she just told everything to her best friends. She doesn't even try to hide the fact that she has a crush on him since the beginning.  

Lesson to be learned :

1. Don't fall in love with your teacher. 

2. If you can't help it then at least don't fall in love with a married teacher. 

3. If you have fallen in love with your teacher and he/she loves you too, it'd better to get things straight from the beginning by telling him/her that you want a normal relationship, not based on lies, hiding,lust,backstreet, etc. But then it'd just make you a home-wrecker. (so, the best thing is don't fall in love with him/her)

4. If by any chance you have already falling deeply in love with your teacher or having an affair with him/her (which I wish would never happen) but if it should happen, then don't ever tell anyone, because you can't risk someone report it to other teachers or your parents, or worse, to the police. 

How do you see this book is all depends on your personal beliefs. It's either you like it so much or you'll hate it. I won't say I support this kind of relationship because it is illegal and feels so wrong, but things would get easier if he's not married and he's not his teacher. I won't judge anyone since this is not a made-up story but based on reality. What's done is done and we couldn't go back to the past and correct our mistakes, instead we should move forward and work for a brighter future. However, I'd give my best appreciation to Eva Marques for writing a controversial story like this.

PS :
- Not recommended to teenagers.
- Just like Fallen Too Far, I didn't know the book is over yet ;__; thankfully the second book will be released on this March.

Rating : 2/5