You are my heat, you are my fire / You make me weep with strong desire (Sweet Thing – Chaka Khan).
I'm going to sound really dorky for a second here, but this book had some immaculate vibes. Sorry, there's no other way for me to articulate it. Starting this was a trip, because I always find myself asking why, despite constantly being burned in the past, I always dive head-first into these vaguely “forbidden romance” type books without a second thought, every single time. I’m partially lactose intolerant on my dad’s side, but that’s never stopped me from ordering a cheesy plate of mac and cheese or indulging in an ice-cream cone, so… it’s just my nature, I guess. Yeah well, I always knew my self-destructive tendencies would pay off eventually, because The Botanist's Apprentice was the answer! The jokes not on me anymore, yay! Man, what a fantastic book. I think what made this work over many others is that it bravely traverses the murky waters of a potentially taboo subject matter without ever patronizing the reader. A lot of the times when I’m reading stuff of this nature, they often feel the need to halt the narrative in order to wax poetic about the morality of character actions. “Remember guys, this is bad, don’t do it!” Yes, thank you book. WE KNOW! We know. Got that P.S.A. prose, for real. Don't get me wrong, I definitely think every story should try to mean something in the end, but there’s a way to weave it into the narrative without talking down to the audience. I’m always going on and on about how books can feel so manufactured that you start seeing the seams, so it was so refreshing to read something without ever noticing I was even reading a book. I wish I could lose myself in every story the way I did with this one! I’ve never really understood the whole “sexy teacher” thing myself, but after this, who knows? A light bulb moment if I’ve ever seen one. I mean, Indiana Jones was always hottest when he was in professor mode… huh, I hope this book didn’t awaken anything in me. Anyway, while this is a pretty simple story, I still think that it’s very smartly written. It's super short, so it has to be careful with its content, and it felt nicely compact in the sense that not one word was wasted. How very economical! And while there are no traditional causes of conflict within the narrative, because both characters are so clearly defined by a lifelong repression of their lust, when the story does finally reach its climax (ha ha), it manages to mean much more than just being a simple sex scene on the page. Lovely book. With a breezy grace and punchy writing style, this turned out to be an absolutely blissful reading experience. Perfect for Spring!
Though truthfully, he had always experienced love and lust as intertwined, like ivy vines or lovers’ bodies.