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The Recipe by Maisy Dee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Permit me to say from the outset that this review was extremely difficult for me to write. I am honestly doing my best to be fair in all that I say, and it looks like I am in a minority on my views concerning this book. I realize and appreciate the reasons the author wrote the book in the way she did. I am a substitute teacher at high schools, and I can see that much of what I am reading in this book is right in line with pop culture. For so many high school students, having sex is as normal and natural as any other experience. Many would say it is compulsory. If you are of this mindset, you may have absolutely no problem with this book. It is true that the author has captured both sides of the coin–she writes from both the male and female perspective, and she probably captures that well. I can say with a good deal of certainty she has a knack for writing. She adds in a homosexual couple, and in this and age, this is perfectly normal as well. Young adults are going to be coming into contact with homosexual couples more and more as well as other former aberrant lifestyles.

My complaints with this book center around the genre known as young adult. If this had been a new adult book or contemporary adult, I don’t think I would have been as critical. I wouldn’t have liked certain things about it, but I believe that this book would have worked better in college as opposed to high school. But again, that is my opinion only–take it or leave it.

Since this is a young adult, I was quite concerned about the profanity that was rampant throughout the book. I realize that is the way students talk nowadays–dropping “f-bombs’ and more–but that doesn’t mean a book has to include those words. If a high school students chose to read this book at any of the schools I frequent in my substitute teacher job, they would truly be in a quandary. The official position of each of these schools is “no profanity.” How can that be reconciled with reading a book like this? It probably would not make it into any high school library, and a student may be concerned about anyone seeing the book and all the foul words within it.

What bothered me more was the casual tone concerning the sexual encounter in the book. No doubt this couple is “in love,” and young adult hormones can be somewhat unstoppable. (I don’t speak from experience because I never truly had the desire to do that as a teen.) I felt that the author painted this in such a positive light that the negatives were completely downplayed. How can a teen determine is he/she is ready for sex when the hormones are racing? I realize I have read other books in this genre where sexual encounters occur, but this one made this encounter the central focus for the book. At least, that is how it came across to me. If I were a young adult reading this book, I would probably think that what is described within these pages is the normal thing for teens, and I might go seek it out. I can say honestly that I would not ever want my daughter reading this book as a teen, and I would hope that parents would take a cautionary view of this book.

On the flip side, as a mother of a “tween,” I was able to look at this book a bit differently. I was able to think through some issues my daughter will be facing in the not-too-distant future, and I think I have a better idea of what I would need to prepare her for and maybe even how to counsel her. I had not thought about some of the issues raised in the book, so maybe in the long run, I can say there were some positives for me. I only wish this were a different genre–I know things would be different if it were.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.

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