LOVING MR. DANIELS

 

Synopsis:

 To Whom it May Concern,

It was easy to call us forbidden and harder to call us soulmates. Yet I believed we were both. Forbidden soulmates.

When I arrived to Edgewood, Wisconsin I didn’t plan to find him. I didn't plan to stumble into Joe's bar and have Daniel's music stir up my emotions. I had no clue that his voice would make my hurts forget their own sorrow. I had no idea that my happiness would remember its own bliss.

When I started senior year at my new school, I wasn’t prepared to call him Mr. Daniels, but sometimes life happens at the wrong time for all the right reasons.

Our love story wasn’t only about the physical connection.

It was about family. It was about loss. It was about being alive. It was silly. It was painful. It was mourning. It was laughter.

It was ours.

And for those reasons alone, I would never apologize for loving Mr. Daniels.

-Ashlyn Jennings

Purchase:

Amazon | B&N

5+++ smooches

There is something about the tragic stories of Shakespeare. It’s as if we all know how it will end, but the adventure makes it worth it.

This is how I feel about these forbidden romances.  You know it is a train wreck… a heart-break waiting to happen and yet you have to experience it.   And, what an experience Loving Mr. Daniels is!  I have a new author crush on Ms. Cherry!  She seriously blew me away.  This is her DEBUT novel… WHAT?!??!  Still can’t believe that!  This is in my top three reads this year and absolutely somewhere in my top ten ever!

Let me start with our MCs.,  Ashlyn and Daniel.  Oh how I loved them both.  These two have each been through extreme heartbreak and find everything missing in their lives in the wrong place, each other. 

I hated that I couldn’t tell her how beautiful she looked each and every day. I hated that, when she walked into my classroom, I had to pretend that she wasn’t on my mind…. I hated how close we were but how distant we felt.

This starts off like most student/teacher romances.  Girl and guy meet… there is an intense connection… walk into the first day of class and tadah!!!!   That’s about where the similarities end though. 

What makes Loving Mr. Daniels more special than all of the others out there?  The writing for one.  It is so fluid… so poetic.  The FEELS!  From the first chapter I was on an emotional roller-coaster.  From grieving to giddy, swooning to heart-broken, from extreme hilarity one moment to raging mad the next…  this book takes you on a journey.  More than one actually.  This isn’t just Daniel and Ashlyn’s story.  So many relationships  are formed, tested, lost…   It is a rare thing to feel as connected to supporting characters as the MCs but Brittainy does it and does it beautifully.  Gabrielle and Ryan… WOW!  I won’t even go into who these characters are bc I won’t spoil anything but they touched me to my soul. 

Being a teenager is a curse and a gift. It's the age where fairytales cease to exist and Santa isn't real but parts of our hearts want to say 'What if...

With all of the tragedy… and there is a lot in Loving Mr. Daniels.  There is also love and trust.  Above all there is hope.  Where would any of us be without that?  This is a book I feel that just about everyone can relate to and will be touched by.  I cannot say enough good things.  If you haven’t read it yet, seriously move it to the top of your TBR. You will not be sorry!

5 Smooches

Anyone on this planet would be lucky if they had the chance to love Mr. Daniels.

Yet I was the luckiest.  Because for a moment he loved me back. - Ashlyn

Holy tear-jerker Batman!

I put off reading this book for a bit ... I wasn't in the mood for another student-teacher romance.  I'd recently read one and just wasn't feeling it. 

Someone really should've smacked some sense into me!  Loving Mr. Daniels is phenomenal!  Yes, it is a student-teacher romance but it is SO, SO much more.

There are so many facets to this story that I didn't expect.  Brittainy explores many different relationships and the complexities of them in ways that I was not expecting.  This book made me cry too many times to count.  This book made me swoon too many times to count.  This book made me feel so happy and so sad at the exact same moment too many times to count.  Brittainy is clearly an emotional master manipulator.

I love you slowly...

I love you deeply...

I love you quietly...

I love you powerfully...

I love you unconditionally...

I love you gently and hard, slow and fast.  Before time and after...

I love you because I was born to do so...  -Daniel

Seriously.  *SWOON*

Even though there is a forbidden element to the story, there is absolutely no 'ick factor'.  Ashlyn and Daniel are close in age and they met before they realized their relationship was off-limits.  Her estranged father being the assistant principal only complicates matters.

I strongly recommend this book ladies!  It is a definite must-read and worth ever single tear.  And there will be many I promise.  This is my first Brittainy Cherry read and it most definitely won't be my last.

What Our Readers Thought:

We read Loving Mr. Daniels with our fantastic reading group!  Here is what some of the girls had to say!

Brandi:

"I expected to like Loving Mr. Daniels based on the positive reviews I had seen....what I didn't expect was to LOVE this book. One of my favorites of 2014. A beautiful, heartfelt, and emotional love story that made me live and experience every single word Brittiany wrote."

Hilarie:

"This was one of the most well written books I have ever read! I could feel the chemistry from the moment Daniel and Ashlyn met and the array of emotions I went through with this book was crazy."

  

Jennifer:

"Definitely took me on an emotional ride. I was worried that this was going to be yet another forbidden teacher student romance; I am happy to say this book was so much more! The connection between Ashlyn and Daniel jumps off the page."

Donna:

 "A five star read, made me ugly cry!"