Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: 245 Days
AUTHOR: Isabelle Peterson
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 252 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 7, 2017
BLURB:
Ashley Brennan, son of a luxury hotel chain billionaire, is happy teaching business and consulting. Moving from California to an opportunity in Connecticut at the prestigious New England University, Ashley takes it to escape a string of bad luck in the romance department. Meeting Taylor at the off campus bar, The Library, Ashley feels his luck may be changing.
Taylor Davis is nearing the end of his college career and looking forward to moving out west, escaping the cold winters of the North and possibly the judgement of his parents, who don’t yet know his sexual orientation. After only a few brief “relationships,” Taylor’s not so sure love is in the cards for him, until he meets Ashley. Everything with Ashley feels so comfortable, so natural.
When Ashley and Taylor put together that Ashley is Taylor’s professor, how will they make it 245 Days to the end of the school year when Taylor graduates and is no longer off limits? And even if they can make it to the end of the year, will everything else in their lives still line up?
REVIEW:
When Ashley and Taylor first meet, it’s a classic romance moment – eyes meeting across the room, an instant attraction that can’t be denied, and after a passionate make out session they plan a date to explore said attraction further. But all of that potential goes to hell the moment Ashley locks eyes with Taylor for the second time – this time across the classroom as teacher and student. With just 245 days until Taylor graduates, and all attempts to put a hold on their relationship proving unsuccessful, Ashley and Taylor embark on a secret love affair with the help of Tay’s BFF and the daughter of Ashley’s boss.
I liked what the author did with the two main characters, actually with all of the characters. Most of the people in this story could easily have become boring stereotypes. Taylor was the closeted virgin jock, who was scared to tell his religious parents that he was gay. Ashley was the older teacher with the billionaire family who had a mentally unhinged stalker. Then there was Ashley’s homophobic boss who was intent on setting Ashley up with his closeted lesbian daughter and Taylor’s homophobic step-father who was fixed on getting Tay laid as much as possible. Any girl would do. Usually every single one of those characters would have had me rolling my eyes, but somehow the author managed to surprise me by having them act in ways I wasn’t expecting. Particularly Ashley. The word ”billionaire” tends to make me twitch but I actually really enjoyed the scenes that took place in one of the hotels that Ashley’s family owned.
I also liked the fact that here was no huge “getting caught” drama (I’m not saying whether they get caught or not, just that there wasn’t the huge fallout I was expecting). There were actually several “close call” moments and a maybe a few over the top situations but nothing that was so ridiculous that I wasn’t willing to go along with it.
I’ve seen another review that complained about the big gaps in time here. The story would often jump forward several weeks or even more as Ashley continues to count out the days until they can openly be together as a couple. Then the ending jumps forward almost a year, and the epilogue races forward another five years. But this was one of those stories that I think successfully pulled it off. The main characters spent large blocks of time separate out of necessity, and that time was filled with school and work. I really wasn’t interested in reading the details of those days, and as I wasn’t missing anything, I was happy to skip ahead to the next time they were together.
The sex between Ashley and newly deflowered Taylor could only be described as hot. If you’ve read any of my other reviews then you’re probably aware that the sex scenes in a book are probably my least favourite part of a story. Only because I’ve read so many that I tend to find them too repetitive. I mean there’re only so many ways to have sex. So for me to make note of the sex scenes, they are better than the norm, in my opinion at least.
As you can see, I liked this story, there’s no denying that, but unfortunately nothing about it got me excited. There was nothing that was “wrong” with the book. I liked the characters, I liked the plot and I liked the writing. But I didn’t love anything, and it wasn’t hard to put it down when I needed to stop reading for whatever reason. However, I would feel confident in recommending 245 Days. I’ve had a look at other reviews and simply liking this book apparently puts me firmly in the minority. The general consensus seems to be that this book is brilliant – so if I’ve left you feeling a little uncertain maybe check out some different reviews and then make your decision.
RATING:
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