Unteachable by Leah Raeder

"Maise O'Malley just turned eighteen, but she's felt like a grown-up her entire life. The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and absolutely do not, under any circumstances, screw up her own future. But life has a way of throwing her plans into freefall. When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can't get Evan out of her head. He's taught her that a hookup can be something more. It can be an unexpected connection with someone who truly understands her. Someone who sees beyond her bravado to the scared but strong girl inside. That someone turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke. Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they're real and genuine; apart, they're just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too. Smart, sexy, and provocative, Unteachable is about what happens when a love story goes off-script"--

4.5/5 stars. So swoony and sweet and unexpected and happy sigh.

I'm going to echo the same sentiment that many other readers have about this book. If I could rate it on the writing alone, it would have been a definite 5-star book. The writing was beautiful and it hooks you to this book from the very first paragraph.

The chemistry between Maise and Evan is evident from the first moment they meet on the roller coaster. I went back and forth on being okay with their relationship because of the whole teacher/student thing but they are both adults and technically they didn't know when they first hooked up that they would soon be in that situation.

My opinion of Evan changed drastically when a secret about his past comes to light in the last part of the book. At that point, I didn't know if his feelings toward Maise were as genuine as he claimed they were or if he was just a big perv who was taking advantage of the situation they were in. I'm still not sure even now that I'm finished reading.

I felt the ending was too rushed. There are questions I didn't get the answers to, such as what happened with Maise's mother and what happened when they got to LA. Perhaps these things could have been answered in an epilogue but there wasn't one. Overall I'm disappointed because I liked this book enough to give it 4-5 stars up until about the 80% mark.