Book review: Absinthe by Winter Renshaw

The blurb:

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?”

My thoughts:

Okay, I admit it, I only gave this book a second glance because Mitchell Wick is on the cover. The blurb framed it as a student/teacher romance, and I quite like those as long as they're done well (JA Huss’s Eighteen is probably my favourite so far) so I thought I’d give it a go.

Halston Kessler and Ford Hawthorne are Absinthe and Kerouac, two literature-obsessed damaged souls who spend the summer talking to each other (and more) on a dating app called Karma. While not in love, they are, as they put it, in love with the idea of each other. 

The book is told through dual point of view, so we get to see what’s going on in each of their lives as they're busy not meeting (despite the fact that they live next door to each other). Ford is fending off Halston’s scheming cousin while Halston works at a restaurant called Big Boulders (yes, it’s that kind of place).

Of course, their secret attraction gets exposed, and their world gets torn apart (won't go I to spoilers here). The rest of the book is told in the future, with big time jumps as they get on with their lives, and it morphs into a “will they find each other again” story rather than a student/teacher thing.

I enjoyed the Absinthe, and I liked both main characters. Sure, they had their flaws, but that only made them more human. For the most part, the story was believable (the only “huh?” moment for me came when Halston’s PI failed to find out he even had a sister). And it did have the feels. I cried. I’m not ashamed to admit that. Weirdly, I like crying at books because it means I’m into the story.

The only thing that made me gnash my teeth was the propensity to start so many sentences with “ing” words. People just don't speak or think like that, and it pulled me out of the story a bit. Before I started writing my own stuff, I used to be far more tolerant of little editing issues like this, so this is probably a reflection on me are her than anything.

Overall, I’d recommend Absinthe as a nice, easy read. There are a few sex scenes and a little bad language, but nothing too graphic. Worth checking out, and I’d read more from this author.

Absinthe is available to buy on Amazon and also through Kindle Unlimited.

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