Title: A Season of Eden by Jennifer Laurens
Series: Standalone
Available Formats: Ebook/Paperback
Details: Published October 20th 2008
Source: Gifted
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He's my teacher. I shouldn't be alone with him. But I can't help that he's irresistible. I let the door silently close at my back. He stared at me, and a taut quiet stretched between us. "I like hearing you play," I said, moving toward him. He turned, in sync with my slow approach. He looked up at me but didn't say anything. I rested my clammy hand on the cold, slick body of the baby grand. "May I?" The muscles in his throat shifted, then he swallowed. "Eden." My knees weakened, like a soft tickling kiss had just been blown against the backs of them. "Is it okay?" I asked. His gaze held mine like two hands joined. He understood what I was really asking. "Let me stay," I said. "Please." "You're going to get me in trouble," he said.

Review

Season of Eden really rubbed me the wrong way, I read Season of Eden in one sitting, and while it did keep my attention it overall was a letdown. There were far too many things that bothered me while reading Season of Eden.

Going into Season of Eden I was nothing, but excited. I had wanted to read a student-teacher romance book for a while now and was eager to jump into it, there were some good and some bad reviews on goodreads, but since I enjoyed Lauren's other novel Overprotected I decided to ignore the bad and see for myself.

First and main thing that bothered me when it comes to Season of Eden, was our main character Eden. She is in my mind, a horrible person in which I would never want to meet or ever EVER be acquainted with. She is flat out a very shallow, self-absorbed, spoiled girl. She has everything she could ever want, is the 'it' girl at school, but thinks her life is oh so horrible because her mom died, and her dad is married to a gold digger. Now I'm not trying to say she has no reason to be sad, her losing her mom is tragic, and her dad being married to some gold digger (who though he is happy with) is sad. But she constantly made it seem like she had the worst life ever, when in reality there are people out there in much MUCH worst situations than she is. She throughout Season of Eden made things about her, her feelings, and thought the world revolved around her.

Eden is also a mean girl, she gives other girls dirty looks if they are even talking to James (even though he is those girls teacher too, earth to Eden he is NOT just your teacher and not all the other girls are trying to get in his pants like you are) She talks about how she is confident and knows how she is hot, yet constantly gets jealous of girls, who she then talks about as less than her or weird, or ugly. She is very very insecure, Eden may think she is hot shit, but anyone can easily tell she really doesn't think that.

A side thing that bothered me immensely was a word that Eden likes to use on a regular basis. Retard, or retarded. This may not bother other people, but for me it rubbed me the wrong way everytime Eden would say it. I feel it isn't a word to be used, and I think it also made EDEN sound very stupid. She had said on multiple occasions “It is so retarded how you do that” “You're being so retarded” “You're a retard” ARG! It just annoys me and makes me angry, if she had only used the word once, I could brush past it, but it wasn't used just once. I would have liked Eden a lot more just by her simply not using that word.

The romance was another thing that was in my opinion flawed. Eden thinks she loves James, without even really knowing him and pursues him like a killer whale goes after a seal. She constantly talks about how she loves him, but in my head she just WANTED him, she lusted after him. Eden and everyone else in the book constantly bring up how 'Eden always gets what she wants'. AND THAT is the line that to me explains Eden's feelings for James and why she is so keen on getting him. He is simply something that is different than what she usually gets, and something that for once she CAN'T have…and I think deep down knowing she couldn't have him is what made her chase/stalk after him. Do I think she had feelings for him ? Yes I do think she did more towards the end when she got to know him, but to call it love is ridicules.

Now let me just say this book had A LOT of promise, and I am so mad that it ended up such a letdown. I felt like the story was sort of boring also on top of the irritating Eden and flawed romance, I kept waiting for something exciting to happen, and just when things start to get exciting romantically, the book ends. (this next part of the paragraph is a semi-spoiler) Something that really bothered me was the fact that Eden and James never get caught, or even almost caught. There was one tiny part where a girl suspects something is going on, but she brushes off the suspicions within seconds. I kept thinking okay, maybe someone is going to catch them and then this book will get more exciting…but no..it never happened no one ever catches them or suspects anything. The storyline just felt flat and nothing that interesting happened.

Overall Season of Eden just wasn't what I wanted it to be. Would I recommend this? Ya, if after reading my review it still sounds like something that would interest you then I would recommend it, but if the things that bothered me would bother you, then maybe it should be something to hold off on.

• I am very bummed I did not enjoy this more, BUT I did however enjoy Jennifer Lauren's other novel Overprotected, you can check out my review for that one by clicking here.