Me And Mr J - Rachel McIntyre

Title: Me And Mr J - Rachel McIntyre
Publisher: Electric Monkey
Series: N/A
Service: NetGalley
Release Date: 05/02/2015
Pages: 309
Format: E book

Rating: ★★★

Buy || Twitter || Website || Goodreads

Fifteen year old Lara finds her soulmate. There's just one problem - he's her teacher.

Lara's life has changed radically since her father lost his job. As the eldest, Lara tries to keep upbeat, and the one outlet for all her problems is her diary where she can be open about how dire everything is at home, and worse, the fact that she's being horrifically bullied at school.

And then a shining light comes out of the darkness - the new young MALE teacher, Mr Jagger. The one person who takes Lara seriously and notices her potential. The one person who is kind to her. The one person who she falls madly and hopelessly in love with. The one person who cannot reciprocate her feelings… can he?

Give us a few words…

Why do you say that?

The diary of 15 year old Lara Titliss explains her world to us pretty clearly. Her father has lost his job and after her mother refused to move them, so Lara could continue at her school, they have hit on hard times. If that wasn't bad enough Lara gets bullied at school for various reasons including her red hair, her scholarship position and her surname. When her English teacher goes on maternity leave she, along with the rest of the school, can't believe their eyes when the replacement is the young and gorgeous Mr Jagger.

I wanted to pick up this book to see how the student/teacher relationship was approached and I think Rachel McIntyre did a superb job!

My heart goes out to Lara throughout the entire book. She works a paper round in order to lessen her family's financial burden and keeps her head down at school to get good grades and yet the bullying is relentless and at times causes her to despair. When Mr Jagger turns up and asks for her help on a talent show she is more than happy to oblige as a way to get away from the bullies at lunch and break time, plus he is gorgeous.

The progression of their relationship was perfect for me. The fact that he stepped away from Lara after the talent show due to a quiet word from the headmistress was realistic and this showed a teacher trying to be just that, a teacher.

I thoroughly enjoyed the end of this book, when Lara writes a letter to Ben, updating us all on her life a year or so after the aftermath of their relationship. My only issue with this book was how young Lara could seem at times, younger that 15, but the epilogue made her sound more mature and like she had grown from the events that had occurred in her life.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a contemporary novel that pulls at your heart before breaking it with a dramatic ending.