Review: 4 out of 5 Stars - and a feeling of déjà vu...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 24, 2014
19-year old Ashlyn Jennings just lost her twin sister Gabby, but her alcoholic mother is too busy dealing with her own grief to help her daughter overcome the loss of her soulmate and best friend. Ashlyn is thus sent away to her father, who has found himself a new family and feels more in tune with his stepchildren than with his own daughter.On the train to her father's, she meets Daniel Daniels, who recently lost both his parents. Both Ashlyn and Daniel have to deal with a tremendous amount of grief, and that's what ignites the spark and the deep connection between the two of them. However, things start to change when school begins and when Ashlyn discovers that Daniel is in fact her literature teacher.I basically started reading Loving Mr Daniels since my Goodreads feed was overflowing with comments and reviews, and when I heard that it was a student teacher affair I just had to give it a go! Well if there's one thing I liked, it was the pace and the depth of the book itself - everything was there: romance, drama, suspense and heartache. And the characters were perfect too Daniel, Ashlyn, and even Ashlyn's almost step-sister and brother. I also loved the fact that the story did not only revolve around Ashlyn and Daniel alone, but around other issues as well, such as drug abuse, dealing with grief, and acceptance in general.All in all it was a wonderfully crafted story that will definitely have you shed tears and feel deeply for each and every character.Now why did I not give it the full 5 Star rating and why did it not make it into my all time favorites? Well because I just believes it takes the best out of many worlds and even though it was perhaps not intentional, there is a semblant of déjà-vu. Loving Mr Daniels definitely feels like the Colleen Hoover classic Slammed, which features the same student/teacher affair and both student and teacher are fan of poetry (well in Loving Mr. Daniels' case it's the love of Shakespeare but that's all the same). Oh and there's some Pretty Little Liars in there as well because Ashlyn's is incidentally also the Principal's Assistant at Ashlyn's school, which makes the whole "affair" even more compromising. No wonder why I kept picturing Ezra (yum) and Aria all the time!So all in all, the story as such is great, and it is indeed a plot that work almost every single time (the dealing with grief + student teach affair plot; that is). And if I wasn't so regarding on the déjà-vu elements, it zould totally deserve 5 stars. But let's give credit where credit is due and leave it at 4.