Smart girls aren't supposed to do stupid things.

Madelyn Hawkins is super smart. At sixteen, she's so gifted that she can attend college through a special program at her high school. On her first day, she meets Bennett. He's cute, funny, and kind. He understands Madelyn and what she's endured - and missed out on - in order to excel academically and please her parents. Now, for the first time in her life, she's falling in love.

There's only one problem. Bennett is Madelyn's college professor, and he thinks she's eighteen - because she hasn't told him the truth.

The story of their forbidden romance is told in letters that Madelyn writes to Bennett - both a heart-searing ode to their ill-fated love and an apology

Plot: ★★★
Characters: ★★
Readability: ★★

Maddie Hawkins is a 16 year old in a fast track programme, attending some college classes early. Whilst there she meets, and falls in love with, Bennett…her teacher. Afraid of owning up to the fact she’s only 16, she deliberately avoids mentioning her age to Bennett, who nonetheless says they have to wait until he’s no longer her teacher, regardless of the fact he believes she’s of age.

The Truth About You and Me had the misfortune to be read very soon after I first read Drowning Instinct.  I say unfortunately, because I really liked Drowning Instinct so I had really high hopes for The Truth About You and Me.  While I didn’t dislike The Truth About You and Me, it didn’t live up to my hopes, and I found it virtually impossible not to draw comparisons between it and Drowning Instinct, which I much preferred.

The Truth About You and Me is written in the format of letters from Maddie to Bennett, in second person, so it reads as if you are Bennett.  It’s an unusual format, and I really liked the novelty at first.  Unfortunately, once the novelty began to wear off, the format didn’t really work for me.   The past-tense letter format made it a little more difficult to get really caught up in the story, because it’s hard to feel any urgency.  There’s an awful lot of telling rather than showing, which makes it hard to get lost in the story.  The second person format also began to feel a little awkward at times, because Maddie’s telling Bennett about events he would have known about (having been there).

Maddie was ultimately a frustrating character.  She’s pushed academically by her parents, and we’re told often how smart she is.  Unfortunately, that just didn’t come across to me.  She falls in love with Bennett, and from there it’s hard to see her as smart at all.  She becomes quite stereotypical and vapid, and despite the fact she claims to love Bennett, she knowingly puts his career at risk by hiding her age.  Bennett was nice enough, and I liked the way it ended, although I felt the conclusion was written in such a way as to be skewed against Bennett.

Although I found the characters and the format lacking, I did enjoy the plot, and Amanda Grace’s writing is beautiful.  I easily finished The Truth About You and Me in a day.  It wasn’t really that I disliked The Truth About You and Me so much as that I just didn’t overly like it.  It was an okay read, and I’m not sorry I read it, but it isn’t one I’m likely to re-read or purchase.

 Buy it? This is a library borrow for me.
In a nutshell: This was okay, but ultimately disappointing.

Other Reviews of The Truth About You and Me: Little Book Star | WinterHaven Books | Lose Time Reading