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2 Book Lovers Reviews
The synopsis of this book drew me in like a moth to a flame. I enjoy reading books with a forbidden/taboo love story, so I knew that this book would be right up my alley.
Hannah is a fine arts student by day and she transforms into Alicia, the tattooed, glitter wearing stripper at night. She is not your typical stripper – she’s extremely boney and she isn’t very abundant in the chest department. She is a small town girl who is just trying to make ends meet and avoid the heavy debt that usually comes with being a university student.
When Hannah is paid to give a lap dance at the club one night, she is greeted by a man who looks like he would rather be anywhere else than at a strip club. She is a little surprised by his lack of enthusiasm, but proceeds to try to fulfill her duties (much to his chagrin). She might not be the stereotypical stripper persona, but he certainly doesn’t fit the stereotypical customer either.
Things get awkward when Hannah shows up for her first Classic Photography class and meets her new professor. Yes, he was the lap dance recipient. Emmanuel is handsome, sophisticated and obviously intelligent and there is a definite attraction between the two of them…but they aren’t supposed to act on it.
There is drama and angst in the book, but I felt a bit disconnected to the characters. Hannah had issues from her past, she was gloomy, antisocial and lonely. She was extremely jaded, but then again I could kind of understand why. Emmanuel was a “nice” character who seemed to chase after her relentlessly. I know that he said that he tended to be drawn to the “broken” types of women, but it just made me wonder why a sophisticated man in his thirties would bother with such an immature young woman (despite his attraction to her). There seemed to be a lot of back and forth between them that just got a bit frustrating and unbelievable at times.
I thought that Nina Lemay’s writing was very good. Her descriptions of the characters and locations throughout the book were very vivid and enabled me to visualize everything perfectly. The way that the story played out for Hannah in the end was very well done. I generally enjoyed the story, but it just lacked that certain something to put it over the top for me.
*3.5 Stars*