If I were required to use only one word to describe this book, it would be `disturbing'.
MY DAUGHTER'S BOYFRIEND is written in the voices of the three main characters caught up in an unsettling love triangle. Tracey Davenport, single mother to Lauren gets involved with Aaron, Lauren's 20-something boyfriend.
At 17, Lauren is a good kid and follows all rules, despite her mother's `do as I say, not as I do' attitude. She is contemplating taking the next step with Aaron, by giving herself completely to him. Even though they only have been going out for a little more than a few months, she truly loves him, and he is the first real boyfriend she's had. Her mother feels as though she should wait, as she doesn't want her only daughter to get pregnant at such a young age the way she did.
Tracey's relationship rap sheet isn't a good one. Every guy she's been involved with has dropped her like a hot potato. But with Steven, she felt that this time, she'd struck gold. No man has ever made her feel so loved before, and she thinks that he is definitely "the one". Unfortunately, that relationship suffers the same fate as the ones before, leaving Tracey feeling dejected, unwanted and unloved.
In Aaron she finds something different. Though he is young in age, his actions speak volumes, and his attentiveness soothes her broken heart. She finds this young man to be more understanding, sensitive and extremely mature. Before we know it, Aaron and Tracey are caught in a whirlwind of emotions, secretly meeting and being together behind Lauren's back.
I could not stand Tracey. She was selfish, needy and above all crazy What kind of mother would do the things she did to her child? She disgusted me, and even though she started to find herself in the end, I couldn't get past the resentment I had towards her as the reader.
Although I found this book to be very real and poetically written, there were parts of the story that were left to hang in the balance.