Book info

• Title The Necessary Marriage
• Author Elisa Lodato
• Year 2018
• Genre Contemporary

Sixteen-year-old Jane has a crush on her history teacher. He's everything she has ever wanted - handsome, bookish, kind - and before long they break the rules and fall in love. It is only once married and tied down with two children in 1980s suburbia that Jane realises what she might have given up. When Marion and Andrew, a couple whose passion tips into violence, move in next door, Jane is forced to confront feelings she didn't know she could have. As desire and loyalty are blurred, it becomes clear nobody can escape the devastating impact of a family falling apart.

Thoughts

This started out so well, I was absolutely gripped to the story at the start - a quiet young woman falling for her teacher in a questionable but not creepy way. The writing was really easy to read and it felt like we were bedding in for a really interesting life story. Unfortunately for me, it drifted a bit once the kids arrived and the neighbours moved in and everything that happened with Andrew.

The ending just seemed so far removed from where we started… it lost me a bit. But I read the whole thing and it was an interesting experience so certainly nothing lost.

Rating: 2 / 5