Blue by Jessica Grace is a novel I started reading because I found it on TikTok and it sounded interesting from the brief snipped overview I saw.  However, I did NOT finish this book.

But Alicia, why are you writing a review of a book you didn’t finish, you might ask.  Well because this book left a major impact on me.  Mainly because every time I picked it up to read, it left me feeling icky.  And that is truly the only word I can use to describe it.

Blue is centered around our main characters.  The female main characters name is, Blue, and she is 17 almost 18 years old.  The male main character of this story, Nate Walker, is 34 years old.  Yes, these two characters do have a romance between them. 

Now I am all for age gap romances.  My husband and I are seven years apart in age, and I have no issue with that. Honestly I don’t even really mine the 16 year age gap in the story in general.  What I mind is this book starts out with an underage girl in the US, going to the UK for college, and living with Nate as a caretaker while she is there.  Blue has literally been sheltered her entire life after a bad accident killed her mother, so she really does not have and “real world” experience.

In addition, MULTIPLE times in the book, we see through Nate’s perspective that he does see her as underage.  He comments on how wrong it is for him to pursue this relationship (and I do not disagree with that at all).  And yet he continues to pursue it.

Ultimately Blue does turn 18, and the relationship isn’t as icky anymore, but since the foundation of it was built with her being underage, and him clearly abusing her and gaslighting her a few times, there is nothing healthy about this relationship.  Especially since Nate is getting out of a decade long marriage at the time this happening, and he isn’t fully divorced.

I did read some comments for this book on Amazon, and I sincerely found them just as disturbing as I found the book. More than one person commented on how much they love the taboo of this, the underage girl, with the clearly adult guy.

What makes this worse, it the author is a really good writer.  I loved the writing style and that was probably the only reason I made it through 60% of this book.

Overall – I did NOT enjoy this book and I felt icky the entire time I read it.

Plot – 0/10

Characters – 2/10

Originality –  0/10

General Joy of Reading – 0/10

Overall Score – 2/40

Blue by Jessica Grace

Cost* –  $3.99 for Kindle edition, $14.99 for paperback edition.  This book is included on Kindle Unlimited.

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published