A review by harrietrose98
Love Lessons by David Belbin

2.0

Mmm.. I'm on the fence about how to rate this book. It was a quick and easy read, but the subject matter isn't good. In the afterword, the author seems to somewhat explain that he knows that teacher/pupil relationships are wrong, but he doesn't take a strong stance against it, and for the majority of the book, I really thought that the author was trying to portray this as romantic, rather than the manipulation and crime that it really was. If this was a real situation, the red flags are insane - the fact that people (pupils and staff) found out but didn't report it?? The fact that the teacher had started dating his previous girlfriend when she was 15 too (he was younger then but still weird)?? The fact that the teacher saw his 15 year old pupils in a nightclub when all parties were drunk and decided to talk to them?? The fact that the co-worker who is clearly quite a bit older is dating an 18 year old?? The entire relationship is so problematic, and I'm glad that the ending happened as it did, although the teacher definitely got off way too lightly.
If you (somehow manage to) overlook the awful relationship, this book is very predictable, not particularly well written and ultimately has little plot, but I'm settled at a 2 star for now because it was very easy to read and is set in Nottingham.