Wow. And my library had this shelved with the young adult. I need to tell someone…

First of all, how scandalous. From graphic sex to underage drinking, fighting, stripping- this book is wild.

I know erotica is incredibly popular. I don’t judge what people read. Really. But this one was just so… I don’t even know how to describe it. I’ll just let some of the lines speak for themselves.

“This house is an illusion. It’s polished and pretty, but the dream Callum is trying to sell is as flimsy as paper. Nothing stays shiny forever in this world.” pg 32 Hence, the title of this book.

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” he rasps out. Don’t I know it. Still, I can’t let Reed see he’s gotten to me. I pull my hand away, folding the fingers into a fist. “I don’t know any other way to play it.” pg 92. Eye roll.

“My skill, if I have one, isn’t dancing. It’s my ability to believe that tomorrow can be a better day.” pg 171. Like a formerly stripper version of Scarlet from Gone with the Wind.

And finally: “When we get home, I run upstairs to add ‘the drive’ to my mental catalog of wonderful things that have happened in my life. I place it right after ‘blow job’.” pg 320 I have nothing to say.

But what could one possibly say after a literary gem like that.

No spoilers here, but who among us didn’t see the ending coming from a mile away? With all of that ‘calf touching’ by the pool, hungry eye foreshadowing and whatnot?

I am appalled that this has a YA sticker on it, more like rated X. I wonder how many 12 and 13 year olds picked this up thinking it was another The Selection.

Borrow from the library responsibly and thanks for reading!