Eighteen (18): Based on a True Story

by J.A. Huss

• ISBN10: 1936413965
• ISBN13: 9781936413966
• Publish Date: 17 November 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Science Future Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 316
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

Student-teacher affairs are my jam, and Eighteen was a particularly fun one! Shannon is starting at a new school…again. She was ahead on credits, but her new school has some pretty stupid policies on when credits can be completed. So on her 18th birthday, she’s informed that she needs to make up PE and driver’s ed, then go to night school for math and science. When she gets to the night school, she’s faced with a sexy and infuriating math teacher named Mateo. Happy birthday, Shannon!

Eighteen had a few scenes that made me roll my eyes at the over-the-topness of it, but those same scenes also made me smile because I was having so much fun reading it. Shannon and Mateo’s first official class is just…woah! It comes out of nowhere and holy crap. It does set the tone of the rest of the book as Mateo simultaneously teaches Shannon trigonometry while doing very dirty things to her. Like I said, at times it felt a bit much and ridiculous, but I still really enjoyed it.

Eighteen also has fun, flirty, and sexy math! That probably sounds like an oxymoron, but it is true. Some of Mateo’s teaching methods are a bit unorthodox, but he does get Shannon to learn the material rather than just memorize and pass a test. I also loved the little puzzles that he left for her to solve! He’s my favorite kind of geek: a sexy math geek!

Eighteen was just a fun read. Of course, there has to be some crazy twist at the end. It wasn’t as out of nowhere as I was expecting from this author, but I was glad for that. It made a lot of sense, and I liked how Shannon handled it all. She’s not having an easy year, but thanks to Mateo it’s both easier and harder.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Linda]

At the beginning of Eighteen, I got to meet Shannon, and most of the time, I enjoyed her. I didn't really enjoy Mateo, though, because he was so alpha and controlling, when he knew that Shannon had been through hell and partly back already. He was also in a position of power, where Shannon could have felt as if she didn't have a choice at all. She did have a choice, though, and she made it, even if she wasn't sure about what to do, or how to deal with Mateo most of the time. I did get my emotions invested in a big time, though, I was sad, happy, angry and felt with Shannon in all the ways I enjoy feeling things along with a character when I'm reading a good story.

The storyline in Eighteen was really well done, and I really enjoyed how Shannon matured and managed to deal with so many different things at the same time. The death of her sister, living with her brother-in-law and her niece, Olivia, who was a baby, while finishing high-school and having to take extra trig and science classes. Much smarter than she gave herself credit for, she really did work very hard to try to get a better life for herself after graduating.

Mateo didn't exactly make that very easy for her, though. Being ten years older and working already, he had much more life experience than Shannon. He also was really into her, but he wasn't completely honest with her. And man, I have rarely followed a main character as confusing as him! Introducing Shannon to his own family one day, to completely disappear for several days afterwards. Warning her to stay away from the one friend she had, but without explaining anything about why, leaving her to think he was jealous. If I had been Shannon, I'd have left him and not looked back! The secondary characters are well done, especially Danny, and I would absolutely love to read a story about him! He definitely needs his own novel!

The whole story in Eighteen is told from Shannon's perspective, in first person point of view and present tense. This was a very smart choice, because the readers only got to know what Shannon knew, so the mystery and confusion Mateo left Shannon feeling was something I was left feeling as well. And of course, the writing is really good - this is a Huss novel after all! So while I didn't truly warm up to Mateo, Shannon and Danny were amazing, and the storyline as well as the main plot and the secondary plots were well executed.
This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews

[Eve1972]

I enjoyed this one for the most part. I think the book would have been a lot better if Mateo's background had been much more fleshed out, and we had gotten some of the story from his POV. The ending was also rushed, with very little explanation given for the plethora of revelations the author dumps on us.

I am starting to see a pattern with this author. The stories are fantastic up until the "twists" or "revelations" (which always come super late into the book), and then we get a rushed ending with plotholes and questions that are never answered. It is like she takes great pains to write a fantastic story up until the "whoa" moment, then half-asses the rest of the book. Oh well, It is what it is I guess (lol).