(received an electronic copy from the author for my honest review. I did not receive any other compensation for my opinion.)
I'm not really sure what this was supposed to be. Once again, I have great hopes for an independent/self published book and once again, it is not at all what I was hoping for.
The main character in Broken Ever After, Olivia is an 18 year old British girl. She is just about ready to graduate and see what kind of university she can get into. Her parents, a doctor and a nurse, neither of whom has very much to do with her, have determined what her course should be, even though Olivia has other ideas.
Olivia has had a crush on her math teacher since she was 12 years old. She gets one ride home from the teacher, which includes a kiss and by the end of the night, she's sending him pictures of herself nude/semi-nude and sexting. From the beginning, there are allusions to a sexual abuse of some kind. It's hinted that Olivia did not have sex with her last boyfriend, because of the repercussions she is still experiencing. In fact, the first time she's alone with the teacher, who comes to her house and sneaks into her room while her parents are home, she panics and makes him stop. The sexual activity triggers some kind of flashback and she knows that she can't follow through. But, that's just then, after that, she can't get enough of it. In fact, the only thing that brings the abuse back up is when she has to deal with her past head on.
There's this whole other plot that involves the abuse she sustained and the business she doesn't want to run, but it certainly doesn't explain her parents very casual attitude to her health and well-being. I'm pretty sure that if you were Olivia's parent, you would not be so cavalier about what she's been through and trying to protect her. In fact, this should really be considered a teacher/student fantasy sex book, with a protagonist in peril of bodily harm thrown in to give the impression of plot.
I didn't find Olivia at all believable. Her baggage has her terrified of sex, but throwing herself at her teacher with very little provocation. How a girl with her history could be ignored by her parents, is beyond me.
If you want to read about sex, then you could do worse than Graham. The sex did seem pretty good. You know how stilted sex scene writing can be. In fact, there are plenty of talented authors who find their work up for the Literary Reviews Bad Sex Awards. Graham's work still had a huge creep factor with the teacher and the whole back story that got thrown in. I think when I started to read the story that it would be along the lines of Forever, but that's an insult to the inimitable Judy Blume.
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