Review: Consent by Nancy Ohlin

Consent by Nancy Ohlin

Published November 10th 2015

Bea has a secret.

Actually, she has more than one. There’s her dream for the future that she can’t tell anyone—not her father and not even her best friend, Plum.

And now there’s Dane Rossi. Dane is hot, he shares Bea’s love of piano, and he believes in her.

He’s also Bea’s teacher.

When their passion for music crosses into passion for each other, Bea finds herself falling completely for Dane. She’s never felt so wanted, so understood, so known to her core. But the risk of discovery carries unexpected surprises that could shake Bea entirely. Bea must piece together what is and isn’t true about Dane, herself, and the most intense relationship she’s ever experienced.

I read one of Nancy Ohlin’s other books, Thorn Abbey, years ago and I didn’t really like it that much but I really wanted to give Consent a chance. And honestly, I wish I hadn’t.
Consent started out kinda slow and the writing was weird and even though the writing did get better, it still wasn’t that great. I didn’t like the way the teacher-student “romance” was portrayed. It didn’t really discourage or warn the reader about what could happen when you get involved in a bad relationship. There was a very pedophilic nature about the relationship and I just didn’t feel right about this book. It was written in such a weird way. Like, the relationship was written in a normal way. Like it was a love story. Like everything was okay.
Every time the author compared the teacher to Kit Harrington, I died a little inside. Honestly, it was just awful. High school student/teacher relationships should never be romanticized in any way but Consent did just that.