Book Review – Losing It by Cora Carmack

Losing It (NOTE: this review was written around 1am – that’s how much I loved this book.)
Hey!!! Hey everybody. I just finished this book… two minutes ago. And I’m hyped. It was good. Great. No. Brilliant. Just perfect for me. Exactly exactly what I was looking for, and not what I’m usually seeking in a read (you know my usual… super-angsty, tattooed bad boys, rock stars or alpha men). This one had none of those and yet ABSOLUTELY thrilled me and pulled me right out of a slight reading slump.

Recommended to me by a few fellow readers when I created the “teacher-student romance list” and after reading the synopsis, I just had to get it:

Christy: I just finished Losing It by Cora Carmack and it fits perfectly in this list! Loved it!!!

Celeste: I just read Losing It tonight! I loved it! Funny and emotional!

They were so right! And you guys? Did I mention this book was brilliant? It had it all. Sweet, lighthearted,  incredible romantic tension (steamy but in a different way). A kiss, or a longing stare… a touch… ohhh there was a couch scene that just *wow*. The attention to detail made it so that I was living every bit of it. And I want to thank the author for not rushing through it. Letting us experience every moment. Only a little over 200 pages, but I feel like this book isn’t lacking a thing. Of course… I would have loved it to be longer, but this was just an overall GREAT read for me.

Clever and sweet and well rounded. The entire cast of characters (*sigh*... Cade….) the setting, the dialogue, the situations, really allow the story to come together naturally. Nothing forced. None of it over the top. OK some of the funny moments were extra funny ’cause they were a little over the top at times, but in stressful situations, I’ve been known to do some realllly weird stuff, so you know… this worked for me.

“How’s your cat?”

“What cat? Oh! MY CAT. The cat… that is mine. Oh she’s…” I had said it was a she, right? “She’s fine. All meowing and purring and other cat things.”

That had me giggling and it was even funnier in context. You’ll see how this “cat” plays into this one…

I didn’t huff & puff or eyeroll once. I clutched my chest, and awwwwwwwww’d, and I whimpered when she did, sniffled, and moaned in agony a few times (out loud!!), but all of it was real to me. Some angst (just the right amount), a couple of definite tear-jerking moments, a realization, heartache, but lighthearted and fun and just… the whole shebang, ya know? I sooooo needed this. I didn’t put it down once and devoured it in four blissful hours.

Okay wait… my husband saw me with my big goofy grin as I was typing and he just asked me what was my favorite part and I smiled and said the end. THE VERY LAST LINE (the epilogue) had me grinning from ear to ear (even more than I was already grinning). Perfection. Absolutely sweet perfection. Just so clever, the author must have been beaming with pride at herself when she came up with that. So he said what was it? And I couldn’t just tell him the last part without him knowing what it meant in context to the story so I started from the beginning and went through it scene by scene… and whoops… he just left and told me he’d let me just go ahead and write my review. Yep. I’m too pumped over this one and I was “and then… and then… and then-ing” him too much for his attention span, it seems.

But I have you guys to share this with! So, wanna know what it’s about? Okay off the bat I’m going to say it is reminiscent of one of my favorite books (which everyone knows I am a die-hard fan of and it can never be replaced for me). I LOVE “that book” to death (I’m being cryptic just in case some of you haven’t read the book I’m referring to and I don’t want to spoil it’s surprise, so don’t click the link if you don’t already have an idea of which book I’m referring to). That particular book delighted me with it’s shocking reveal, and will forever be one of my all time absolutely perfect favorites.

And you know me, when I find that ultimate book, that perfect story that had me so emotionally connected, I’m always hoping to run across another that might give me that again. Can you blame me?

In fact, if I was to start a “What to Read After that book” list (hey…. I just may 😉 ) THIS would be my first choice listed.

“Losing It” just gave me that similar warm and fuzzy feeling again. Plus of course, the obvious… the college teacher-student shocker that is just SO fun to explore (and I will say this one is “clean on the steam” factor until much later, but still so well detailed, and so steamy in others ways that I was absolutely in tune with it).

I liked him. He didn’t like Shakespeare, and he rode a motorcycle, and he was my teacher… but I liked him.

I’m done. I won’t ignore.

I won’t pretend or resist.

I want more.

Luckily everyone is an adult in this book (too) so I didn’t have to cringe and I could just go with the flow. And another similarity is that this teacher (Garrick) is also an arts teacher (drama) that used to be an outstanding student himself, who accidentally meets “Bliss” at a bar one night. Before the last semester starts, so you know… they didn’t “know” yet. But once you get passed that, this story takes on a life of it’s own. Best friends, after-rehearsal parties, maybe even a love triangle? And anyway, what kind of triangle can it really be, when a part of that triangle isn’t even an option?

“I’d like to keep this job, and besides, your personal life is none of my business. What happened between us is over.”

His voice turned hard as he spoke. Over? Why did that feel like a punch to the stomach?

Okay, I know… even though how I describe it sounds similar, it still becomes and takes on a feel, that is it’s own.

So SO good. Please. You’ll see. This was an absolute treat.

4.5 stars. 5 stars? I’m leaning for 5 stars, considering how I leaped right out of bed and still just want to soak in the sweetness that was this book. Sorry about the gush-fest. It was one of those that had me feeling elated and I couldn’t help myself.

P.S. Okay the cover isn’t really my thing, ’cause my version of the drama teacher was more along the lines of Alex Pettyfer (British, blondish hair that hung over his forehead, kind of scruffy faced until he shaved… you get the picture 😉 ) and that guy down there looks well… not like my version of the teacher. But still, the inside of the book… Yep!!! Read it!