A Season of Eden by J.M. Warwick

He’s my teacher. I shouldn’t be alone with him. But I can’t help that he’s irresistible. I let the door silently close at my back. He stared at me, and a taut quiet stretched between us. “I like hearing you play,” I said, moving toward him. He turned, in sync with my slow approach. He looked up at me but didn’t say anything. I rested my clammy hand on the cold, slick body of the baby grand. “May I?” The muscles in his throat shifted, then he swallowed. “Eden.” My knees weakened, like a soft tickling kiss had just been blown against the backs of them. “Is it okay?” I asked. His gaze held mine like two hands joined. He understood what I was really asking. “Let me stay,” I said. “Please.” “You’re going to get me in trouble,” he said.

J.M. Warwick is the author of An Open Vein, and she has produced another interesting YA read. Eden is portrayed as a very popular member of her school, with friends and boys flocking around her. Whilst at the same time, she is trying to deal with the loss of her mother, and her strained relationship with her father.

Mr Christian is her new, young, music teacher, to whom she feels a powerful attraction. As they build their  relationship, they have to stay aware of their boundaries. As Eden learns to deal with this new type of relationship, and her own changing feelings, she grows and matures – and it was this development that I found most intriguing.

How will the relationship end up? You’ll have to read to find out.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Blurb from the back of the book;

They spend their days – and too many of their nights – at work. Away from friends and family, they share a stretch of stained carpet with a group of strangers they call colleagues.

There’s Chris Yop, who is clinging to his ergonomic chair; Lynn Mason, the boss, whose breast cancer everyone pretends not to talk about; Carl Garbedian, secretly taking someone else’s medication; Marcia Dwyer, whose hair is stuck in the eighties; and Benny, who’s just – well just Benny. Amidst the boredom, redundancies, water-cooler moments, meetings, flirtations and pure rage, life is happening, to their great surprise, all around them.

Then We Came to the End is about sitting all morning next to someone you cross the road to avoid at lunch. It’s the story of your life, and mine.

Interesting and unusual book written as though you are part of an office crowd, except for a small part in the middle. I recognised the office politics and the range of characters who could be found in any work setting. The book is tinged with stress and sadness and the impact on the individals as lay offs underpin everything. My favourite character is Benny Shassburger who is the master of well told stories and likes an audience. A very well crafted book both humorous and poignantly sad which I thoroughly enjoyed.