Scan barcode
jackiehorne's review
4.0
3.5 This YA romance came across a bit differently than I was expecting, given the book's blurb. Super-smart high-school senior Ruth Robinson isn't motivated by competition, but by simple attraction, to Porter Creed, who arrives at her school mid-year. Ruth first spies Porter during a major meltdown outside the "Affective Needs" classroom (the room set aside for kids with emotional problems), as he's struggling in the arms of two police officers. Despite her prickly nature, Ruth is drawn to the boy who everyone else fears, and wants to know why a kid shunted off to Affective Needs could possibly also show up in her upper level Calculus class. When Ruth and Porter are assigned to be partners on a Calculus project (really? Math has really changed a lot since I was in high school if you work on projects, and with partners!), and Ruth confesses her attraction, the two begin an intense emotional and physical relationship, a relationship that often requires cutting class and skipping school, behavior that should be anathema to rule-bound Ruth. How long can she keep her relationship a secret from her mother, who also just happens to be the school psychologist?
Taylor is great at depicting the intensity of first love, as well as the ways that young lovers can avoid talking about the hard things out of worry of losing their beloved. Ruth's fascination with Porter was completely convincing, as was her careening on in her course of rule-breaking, even knowing that she was bound to get caught eventually. Readers might be frustrated with Ruth for refusing to think about just what it is that led Porter to Affective Needs; it's pretty obvious pretty early on. But it works in the context of teenage love being almost more focused on oneself and one's own feelings than on the feelings and needs of the person inspiring such overwhelming feelings in you.
Ruth's actions do not come without consequences, but none so tragic that we're left bereft. And being a romance, we do have a happy ending, although one that doesn't happen without some time apart during which both Ruth and Porter do some much-needed growing up.
Taylor is great at depicting the intensity of first love, as well as the ways that young lovers can avoid talking about the hard things out of worry of losing their beloved. Ruth's fascination with Porter was completely convincing, as was her careening on in her course of rule-breaking, even knowing that she was bound to get caught eventually. Readers might be frustrated with Ruth for refusing to think about just what it is that led Porter to Affective Needs; it's pretty obvious pretty early on. But it works in the context of teenage love being almost more focused on oneself and one's own feelings than on the feelings and needs of the person inspiring such overwhelming feelings in you.
Ruth's actions do not come without consequences, but none so tragic that we're left bereft. And being a romance, we do have a happy ending, although one that doesn't happen without some time apart during which both Ruth and Porter do some much-needed growing up.
More...