Me & Mr J by Rachel McIntyre

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 309

Publisher: Electric Monkey
Released: 5th of February 2015

Fifteen-year-old Lara finds her soulmate. There’s just one problem – he’s her teacher. 

Lara’s life is far from perfect, but being an upbeat kind of person she saves her venting for her diary. It’s the only place she can let out her true feelings about the family dramas and hideous bullying she has to face every day.

And then a shining light comes out of the darkness – the new young and MALE teacher, Mr Jagger. The one person who takes Lara seriously and notices her potential. The one person who is kind to her. The one person who she falls madly and hopelessly in love with. The one person who cannot love her back … can he? 

What I Have To Say 

I went into this assuming it was a book about a predator. For a while, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't. But having finished it, I'm okay with it. It shows the complications that come with relationships. It shows that there are types of student/teacher relationships that aren't a teacher preying on a student, but without glorifying it. 

Lara is a train wreck. Let's be honest here. Her life is a mess and everything is ganging up on her at once. I think that there need to be more books like this. A lot of teenagers find their lives falling apart, or even just seeming to, and it's good to have a book that acknowledges that teenage problems can be serious. 

I really enjoyed reading this book and I really enjoyed Lara's voice. If I have one complaint, it's that it ended so abruptly. I'm not a fan of books that wrap things up so quickly in a short epilogue like that. 

Still, overall it was a good and interesting read.