Review: Dismissed by Kirsty McManus

Title: Dismissed
Author: Kirsty McManus
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult
Publication date: April 28th 215
Pages: 166 (kindle)
Source: received from author through Xpresso Reads







The second Lizzie White lays eyes on her new English teacher Brandon Thomas, she is hooked. Brandon is young, cool and sexy - and nothing like the other teachers at her school. But of course he is forbidden from fraternising with the students or forming any sort of outside hours relationship. And combined with the fact that Lizzie's best friend Taylor decides it's all too hard and focuses on a budding relationship with fellow student and class clown Gabe instead. But then Jason shows up. Jason is Brandon's trouble-making twin brother who seems to have no qualms about flirting with students or leaving a trail of broken hearts wherever he goes. Before she knows it, Lizzie is dragged into a confusing world of blurred lines and lustful thoughts, where loyalties are tested and true feelings are explored.

Goodreads

I have some very mixed feelings about this book; therefore I also had a hard time rating and reviewing it. I believe that the only reason why I finished reading the book with ease was because it was short. And there was something addictive about the book; I just kept reading even when I did not feel like it.

The plot was underdeveloped; this book could have been really good. It had all the right elements to be a good book filled with drama: forbidden romance, friendship and betrayal. But unfortunately the author did not use these elements to their full potential. The saving of this book were probably the characters. I did not like them but they were worked out okay. At times I was a bit annoyed by them; they were so young in so many ways. And I know that might be how teenagers act nowadays but still I could not help but be aggravated by it. Also I mainly read YA books and it normally does not bother me like this. A lot of the characters were so superficial; especially Lizzie’s friend Taylor. All she cared about was appearance. To be honest she was a horrible character. Lizzie was okay in most ways, I guess she represents well how a lot of teenagers are. She felt insecure and wanted to be loved by her friends. And she grew throughout the book; she became stronger and realized that she did not need those people that said were here friends but did not act like it.

When I read the blurb I thought that there would be an epic forbidden romance between Lizzie and her teacher, Brandon. But I was disappointed by it. I could not see why they liked each other in the first place. They might have had maybe four “normal” conversations in the whole book. I could not feel the attraction and the chemistry between them. So the romance part felt really unrealistic to me and well that is a bit of a bummer since it is supposed to be a romance novel.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with this book. I expected more of it; more action, more romance, just more of everything. But nothing like this happened in it. Luckily the writing was smooth and the dialogues flowed easily. This made it possible to finish the book fast. If you are looking for a book with forbidden romance in it than I can only say that there are better options out there. But if you are looking for a quick read than you can give this one a shot. 

El