Absinthe

De: Winter Renshaw

Narrado por: Douglas Berger, Brooke Hayden

The name on the screen was "Absinthe".

But I knew her as the sultry voice blowing up my phone for late-night chats about Proust and Hemingway interspersed between the filthiest little...mutually satisfying exchanges...I'd ever experienced in my life. We'd never met. Until the day she walked into my office, her cherry lips wrapped around a candy apple sucker and an all too familiar voice that said, "You wanted to see me, Principal Hawthorne?"

Author's note: This full-length romance is a complete standalone and contains subject matter that may trigger sensitive listeners. All characters are adults, and all interactions are consensual.

©2017 Winter Renshaw (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

great age gap romance

It was a good story overall. It was a tiny bit of insta love but if you like teacher/student or forbidden romance this is def a story for you.

Started Off Good, Then Just Fizzled

I was all in for Absinthe. It started off really good and really grabbed my attention. I'm all for a forbidden romance. But what started out something that was going to be really good, fizzled, crashed, and burned. Halston seemed like she was going to be this doesn't care, strong girl. At moments she was, but for the most part she let her uncle and cousin. The story just seemed to take a drastic turn and I lost everything that kind of had me rooting for Halston and Ford. Brooke Hayden's voice was interesting. Her voice didn't quite sound like that of a eighteen year old. What I did like about her was the fact that she gave off the personality of Halston. Her voice was assertive when she got tired of people the games they played, the anger in her tone, and softness of her voice when she was connecting with Ford late at night. Douglas Berger was really good as Ford. It was noted that Ford was really young for a man in his position at the school and I think they came off nicely. That's a voice I could get used to.

Love

This book had me with the audio sample. I was absolutely enthralled by this. I love how they spoke to each other through books. And the narrators were absolutely amazing.

Complicated review

I did like the story line but was hoping for less angst and more passion. I wanted more closure with Brie (not just a quick update of her present day karma) I really wish the uncle and aunt could have known in the end how awful Brie was to her and had given their apology to her. I also wish the first “physical encounter” would have been after they discussed what had really happened. I waited the whole book for their moment and it wasn’t what I had been waiting for (I wanted it beautiful and romantic) it seems totally unrealistic they would have not had a discussion before that moment to explain what happened. That being said, I thought it was worth reading but it just didn’t give me the “feels”.

awesome story and beautifully told

This is awesome story and beautifully told. Once I started, I couldn't stop listening. The story is well developed with a good pace to give the listener enough without giving too much tension. I'm glad that it's not too long so I can listen in one evening. If you are a sucker for romance, this story is for you!

Scandalous and a little sweet?

This book had a very naughty plot and it made me want to read it even more. I love him/her books but I felt I didn’t get to know they hero really well. The heroine must have nerves of steel because who could get through all of that childhood trauma and still be tough as nails. But it was good quick read or listen that I enjoyed. I could have dealt with a little more scandal.

Taboo romance. 1POV. HEA standalone.

⚠️Very slight trigger warning child abuse.

This is a Sexy romance with a large dose of taboo and opposites attract-and a smidge of troubled pasts. Taboo bc the lady is 18 and in high school and the man is 28 and will be her principal. She comes from a poor family that did drugs and abused her. Her rich uncle takes her in and now she is a former poor girl, out of place in a rich neighborhood. She “meets” the man online on a local dating app, however the two haven’t met each other yet, and don’t know each other’s real names. Their online romance grows over the summer and once school starts the couple realize who each other are once they Physically meet in school.

Although their relationship is taboo, the student/principal relationship isn’t quite the leading drama.

Misunderstandings part their paths for five years, where they don’t have any contact with each other. Fast forward five years and their story begins again.

It’s a pretty easy listen, with the level of angst settling around “tolerable”.

The narration is great! There is a part in the book where Douglas Berger does some extreme dirty talking and it’s...well...🤤. Yes. I used an emoji to describe it. Bc there are no words. Brooke is great as always too. The HEA is fulfilling, set two years in the future.

This was definitely a great listen.

Half great, half cliche

Spoilers:

It started out great, different from the hoards of others in the genre. The female character is strong but different, no simpering virgin thank goodness. It’s the student/school instructor dynamic. Then we fast forward five years and the female character has gone from unique and disadvantaged castaway of addict parents to clichedly perfect—a cookie cutter character that ‘can set a fancy table, my posture is perfect because my boarding school made us walk with books on our heads and then I started a PR firm (another cliche career for female romance characters) and started dating a billionaire. Then she and the male protagonist reconnect and forge a cliched perfect and completely idealized relationship, have twins and the story ends. It’s like the author wrote the first half with some effort then mailed the rest in on cut and pasted from every other romance book ending out there.

Just Good

Be aware that the audiobook excludes several chapters from the book but technically you don’t need to read them.

Good narrators bad story

I needed a happier ending.i can’t read a story where so many people cause so many problems and nothing ever comes of it. I wasn’t a big fan of the perv principal who fall for a student who is well read and so mature for her age but for some reason can’t find a more appropriate word than fuck.
The whole story felt superficial and weak. Normally I think of parts the edition should have cut but this story needed more meat