Review: the laws of society vs. the laws of the heart
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 27, 2014
Addison Lancaster was more woman than girl, and she was dangerous.Veiled Innocence is a story of forbidden love….love that society says is wrong, but the heart says is right.  When I read this beautiful love story, I couldn’t help but wonder how often this happens…how often students have affairs with their teachers. I taught High School, so I had heard the rumors. I had seen girls who seek out the young, hot teacher and wish they could have a piece of him. If you think that Addison is a bit mature and aggressive, she is not. She represents a huge segment of teenage girls today that set their eyes on something and GOES for it….with a vengeance. Do I think this forbidden romance occurs a lot, no….but I DO think that Addison and Mr. McKendrick are not alone in their affair.Heaven or hell? At this stage, it could have been either. I didn’t care.As I read Veiled Innocence, the first question that came to mind was, “if Addison would not have gone after Mr. McKendrick, would they have been together?” and 2 weeks after reading it, I still do not have an answer. For as much as Addison needed him, Mr. McKendrick needed her just as much. They were, in my heart of hearts, kindred spirits.  But what my heart says and what society and the law says are two vastly different things. Should he have stopped the love affair? Should he have been the strong one? Should he have been the one walk away? In a perfect society yes, but again….when it comes to love, you just can’t help who you fall into it with.No longer was she the student and I the teacher. Right here, in this moment, she was a woman, and I was the man about to have her.As an adult when I look at the forbidden love affairs, and let me tell you – I love to read them, I always think that the younger one will miss out on so much jumping out of high school into the arms of lover years older than them. A lover who has already experienced their youth….but I must say that in the case of Addison and Mr. McKendrick I really never felt that way. Addison was an old soul and Mr. McKendrick was walking blindly through life in search of himself. These two just worked for me….they felt right and it never felt wrong to me at all.You want her heart? Go and take it….Veiled Innocence is told in the past and present timeline. Each time the timeline changes, Ms. Frank does an amazing job of keeping you glued to find out what will happen next. Your emotions will run the gamut over these two lovers and they will not soon leave your mind or your heart once you finish the last page.  I truly loved this story….it made me think, it made me cry, and in the end it made me wish that the laws of forbidden love were not so black and white….that maybe if they saw a bit of grey they would have understood Addison and Mr. McKendrick.With a shaky breath, she finally admitted, “I’m broken.”I shook my head. “No, Addison. Just perfectly imperfect. None of us are perfect.”