A Longtime (and At One Point Illegal) Crush (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
I was a little concerned about this one based on the title. I wasn't familiar with the author at all, and based on the title, I thought this might be one of the myriad of sloppy self-published works I've been getting my hands on lately, which try to be funny but the humor always ends up falling flat. Plus, it was free, and I have found that you usually get what you pay for when you get free books. Still, it was free, and I usually will stick these out for a few chapters to see if I'm interested.How happy I was to be proven wrong.This was a cute, light-hearted read, about the almost-lifelong crush that 21 year old college student Elsie Clark has had on her brother's best friend (and her former high school math teacher -- hence the "At One Point Illegal" part of the title), Kye. In Elsie's Senior year, she makes a play and he (understandably, since this is his job and reputation we're talking about, but also somewhat harshly) rejects her. At this point, Elsie starts playing the Avoid Kye Game any time she comes home from college. She succeeds until she is forced to come home for her brother's wedding and, of course, since this is a romance novel, runs into Kye again.The book isn't long and spends a small chunk in the past, chronicling Elsie's crush and the situations she got herself into as a result of it. I usually don't have much patience for flashbacks, especially not flashbacks that last for three chapters of a novella, but the story flowed well and I didn't find myself in a hurry to get back to the "present day" part of the story. I loved the fact that both Kye and Elsie were math nerds, as you don't see a lot of "nerdy" heroes in romance novels these days and it was nice to see a heroine who liked math as well (as someone who has never "gotten" math, I am insanely envious of people, especially women, who defy the stereotypes and not only are good at it, but like it). I understood why Elsie would have a lifelong crush on Kye, which is a rarity on a lot of stories these days, as a lot of the time the "love" is just based on sex, you're-so-hot, and more sex.Oh, that reminds me. If this is important to you, this is a "clean" novel. The characters make out at the end, but there aren't any raunchy sex scenes. Personally, I have no problem with raunchy, but the "clean" totally worked for this story. It would have felt shoehorned in if there had been some tear-each-other's-clothes-off sex scene. I would have liked to see maybe a little more of Kye and Elsie interacting in present-day before they got together, but the way it worked out was perfectly satisfactory for this length of novella. Very happy with this one, especially for the freebie price (I suspect this is a temporary price reduction). I'm looking forward to reading more by Janette Rallison. I read the author's note at the end about her husband's grandparents meeting when he was a teacher and she was a student. She explained that because they truly loved one another and because they didn't try to hide their relationship, it wasn't creepy. She said their story inspired her to write this story. Well, I don't think it helped. I think the only thing that saved Mr. McBride from being full on creepy was that he didn't act on his feelings until she was no longer his student. However, it was still super uncomfortable to read. Every time she gushed over him I cringed. And since most of the story seemed to focus on the gross, creepy, uncomfortable part of their relationship rather than when she was actually old enough (though barely), it wasn't exactly a romantic read.
What do You think about A Longtime (and At One Point Illegal) Crush (2000)?
It was good really enjoyed it :) makes me want to read more stories with farm boys books :)
—Danni
cute and young ,friend of the brother always make the best love stories
—Lina
Very cute! I read it in an hour, and it was a nice break in my day.
—lilmisstomlinson237
There is a very good kiss in this novella. Enough said.
—henryhound
My only complaint is that it was too short.
—MikeG
