The Girl in a Cafe

I have to say, this is probably one of my favourite covers all year. That classically simple font and colours just do it for me. If I saw this on a shelf at the book store, it would definitely be one I'd reach for with my grabby book hands. It's just simply beautiful and pleasing to the eye. And I don't usually make comments about the cover unless it's tres amazing. Kind of reminds me of the cover for Tumble and Fall just a little, which is equally as beautiful.I really fell in love with this story line. Combined with the beautiful cover, it captivated me immediately and I knew that this was going to be a book that I liked. Unfortunately, it was just that. A book that I liked. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, it just simply was a book that I read and I got over it and started reading something else as soon as I was done. There was no great impact, like I felt there should have been.The Truth About You and Me deals with quite a difficult subject, and one that seems to be cropping up a fair bit recently (in books, there's Colleen Hoover's Slammed and recently in Home and Away there was a storyline about a teacher and a student....not that I watch Home and Away!), and I don't think it's going away any time soon. A relationship between student and teacher, whether it be in high school or college, is, of course, in our society frowned up. And what makes The Truth About You and Me seem a bit more interesting is that the student, Madelyn knows that this is her teacher, and any sort of relationship with him is forbidden. Bennet, in this case, is totally oblivious.Firstly, the novel is told in what was expected to be a sequence of letters, but is, however, really two letters broken up at a certain point without chapter breaks. Michelle Pickett pointed this out in her review, and it was something that I totally agreed on. The lack of chapter breaks, indicating that there was more than one or two letters, would have made this novel more interesting. It would have probably helped the reader see where Madelyn stood in the whole mess, and made her more sympathetic too. But because it wasn't, you don't really get to see any development of the characters. It's pretty much like a play by play of someone's day told in letter form. What I couldn't comprehend was that Madelyn was supposedly meant to be incredibly bright for her age, hence attending college at sixteen. All the stupid mistakes that Madelyn makes when she starts college, and her 'infatuation' with Bennet just made me wonder that if she was really as smart as the author made her out to be, then why did all these events happen in the first place? It's easy to see how you can be attracted to someone, especially if they are that one person that you cannot touch. But for someone who has been admitted into college - a place where you are supposed to be thinking for yourself and are treated as an adult - she is incredibly stupid. It made Madelyn instead seem incredibly vindictive and manipulative, and Bennet, instead of being a sweet guy that I could have totally crushed on myself, a complete and utter fool. This story had a lot going for it, but unfortunately it fell flat didn't capture my heart as I hoped it would. If you are looking for a quick read that maybe has a little bit more substance to it (but not a lot of resolve), than I would recommend checking it out.