Learning To Love by Lauren Howard

‘Innocence personified, Aimee Dalton dreamed of the day she’d meet her Prince Charming… but love at first sight isn’t always as simple as a fairy tale.

When Aimee discovers that Ezra Franklin, the drop-dead gorgeous tattooed hunk that rocked her world, is her new professor, she is forced to make a difficult decision between right and wrong.

But to Ezra, Aimee is the light in his darkness and he won’t let her go without a fight.

With the lines of morality starting to blur, can Aimee and Ezra build their relationship on a secret… or will secrets only lead to heartbreak?’

I was lucky enough to receive this from Lauren to review, thank you Lauren.

This is Lauren’s debut, self published novel. I found it very engrossing and hard to put down. That being said I did have a few parts that I didn’t enjoy.

But before we get to all that let’s talk about the book.

Amiee is a twenty-year old student, who is a virgin and proud. She has no plans to have one night stands and meaningless sex, she wants it to be special. On a night out with friends she meets Ezra, older, tattooed and sexy as hell.

The connection between them is instant and Amiee flirts like crazy, something she has never done before. She also kisses Ezra, her first kiss EVER. After flirting and dancing they go back to Amiee’s.

Amiee tells Ezra that she is a virgin and intends to stay that way, being a real gentleman Ezra doesn’t care, he is happy to wait and get to know Amiee.

The next morning when Amiee is in her morning lecture, who should happen to be her teacher…. Ezra!

Amiee pushes Ezra away and bans the relationship from progressing. Ezra isn’t about to let Amiee walk away quite so easy though.

Now this isn’t a new concept, but all the same it was still an enjoyable read. The vocabulary used by Lauren is not what you expect of the New Adult genre, it was well written with a higher standard than what you may be used too.

What I enjoyed most was the intensity of the relationship between Amiee and Ezra, the will they/won’t they and the sneaking around. It kept me turning the pages.

I did want to slap Amiee a few times because she frustrated the hell out of me. One second she was teasing and all over Ezra the next she was slapping him for kissing her. I felt sorry for the guy, he took a beating. I wanted him to put her in her place.

The issues I had with the book was Amiee’s friends hardly made an appearance for most of the book, if they did they didn’t speak, because we would only be told about the text messaging between Amiee and Ezra or how she was missing him. I would of liked more input from the friends.

I also found Amiee’s description of herself in the beginning contradictory of the same girl who brings home a stranger then has oral sex with him. For someone who is a virgin, and who wants to have sex with someone meaning full, I found this a bit frustrating.

The only other issue I had was when Amiee lost her virginity. For me the detail involved was a bit too much and made me squirm.

Other than those small things, this was a really enjoyable read and for a debut novel it’s brilliant. The cliff hanger at the end was very dramatic and yes Lauren annoying, because I now have to wait for the next. This is so unfair on us bookworms!

Learning to Love is out August 30th and it’s certainly worth getting a copy!