Blog Tour: Veiled Innocence by Ella Frank

Tick, tick, tock.

Time.

That’s all I have now.

A small room, a photograph, and time.

They want me to trust them and confess my sins.

They told me they wouldn't judge me—they lied.

I thought we could convince the world that this wasn't a crime.

We were wrong.

Time doesn't stand still.

The clock keeps ticking, the world is unconvinced, and now…

Now he is gone.

5 Forbidden Stars

 Review by Nicole Lorenzo

Addison Lancaster is the image of perfection. She’s beautiful, popular, the high schools star athlete and dating the schools golden boy. She’s confident, and when she sets her sights on something she wants she will do whatever it takes to get it. And that is exactly what happens when she lays her eyes on Mr. McKendrick for the first time.

He was the teacher every girl dreamed about. The one that we all had a crush on the second we saw him.

 Mr. McKendrick is not exactly thrilled to be teaching World History in a high school. He was happily traveling the world but relocated to be closer to his father. He was expecting a pretty uneventful year until Addison Lancaster waltzed into his senior World history class on the first day of school. She was sassy and gorgeous and he knew he was in trouble from the first time their eyes met.

I looked at her- she looked at me. My ending staring right at me from the very beginning.

Addison feels a strong attraction to the young and gorgeous Mr. McKendrick. She decides she wants him the second she meets him and so she begins to pursue her teacher. Addison knows how to flirt and she uses her powers of seduction and sexual prowess to the full extent to catch her new teacher’s eye. And catch his eye she does.

-Addison Lancaster was more woman than girl, and she was dangerous.

Mr. McKendrick knows he needs to stay far away from Addison, but it’s just impossible. She’s captivating, alluring and he can’t help the attraction he feels towards her even though he knows it’s wrong. He struggles to not look at her, not want her. It doesn’t help the fact that Addison is relentless, seducing him every chance she gets and its becoming harder and harder to resist her.

Addison was a dangerous distraction to a man whose life was in chaos. She was the promise of youth, of being fearless…of being alive. She was everything I couldn’t have and shouldn’t want, but the more she taunted, the more my resolve crumbled.

Temptation had come to visit, and her steely determination would likely destroy us both.

Addison doesn’t have any regard for the rules, or the consequences that will follow when she goes after Mr. McKendrick at first. But when lines are crossed and they both give in to what seems was inevitable but yet forbidden, it’s apparent that this situation can lead them nowhere but in trouble.

“I want to see you again,” I told him. “I want you to see me.”

“Trust me, I do see you.” He stressed.

“You’re all I fucking see, Addison. When I close my eyes. When I open them, when I’m teaching. You’re. There. All. The. Fucking. Time.” He rubbed his face.

“Sometimes I wish I’d never seen you.”

Underneath the perfect façade that Addison provides for the outside world to see, is a deeply troubled young woman. For the first time in forever Addison feels as if she can be herself with someone, let them see the real her. But that man is her teacher and the relationship they have is immoral. Addison now realizes what Mr. McKendrick has been telling her from the beginning, this won’t end well.  But that doesn’t stop them. The unavoidable draw they have towards one another sends them spiraling deeper into a forbidden relationship that could ruin them both.

“Yes there were moments of madness, but what is love without some madness?

It wasn’t wrong.

No- It was just misunderstood.

I devoured this book!! Ella Frank is one hell of a story teller. I was sucked in from the very first page and every nail biting one that followed it. Veiled Innocence is told from alternate point of views as well as both in the past and present. This book will have you guessing from page one. I left a lot of details out of my review, it’s best to read and experience the mystery and allure yourself! I will say that it is a forbidden student teacher romance so hot, so captivating once you start reading you will not be able to stop.

At first I didn’t get Addison. She was so relentless, so unwavering in her determination to get Mr. McKendrick despite the ramifications that might follow. But as more was revealed, I understood her character better. The struggle that Mr. McKendrick goes through to try and resist Addison is futile. It is obvious from their first meeting that he doesn’t stand a chance in hell at avoiding the seductress that is Addison. The connection these two share is primal, it’s smoldering, but there is more to it than that. Underneath the need they have for each other is a real understanding of one another. And despite the age difference and the fact that it is indeed wrong for them to be together, I found myself strongly in their corner. Love is flawed and so are they.  I enjoyed it immensely and I know you will too! Tick Tock…. What are you waiting for?

Veiled Innocence by Ella Frank

Excerpt One – Addison Lancaster’s POV

Copyright © 2014 by Ella Frank

I’d waited until he got out of the truck before approaching. I didn’t want his escape to be as easy as driving away. Standing in the small stone alcove of the gate, I knew it would be best to wait until he stepped away from the lit area. That way, any cars driving by wouldn’t be able to see us.

I wanted no excuses, no reason for him to worry, but I could see my silence had caused just as much concern as my presence would have. He turned to me, and I finally took a moment to really look at him the way I wanted to.

His hair was still pulled back but several pieces had now escaped and been pushed behind his ears. The darker stubble lining his square jaw made my fingers tingle with the need to touch.

“Oh, thank God,” he whispered, sounding relieved.

I thought he would move away from me once he knew I was safe. Instead, he reached out and squeezed my shoulder.

“I thought something had happened to you.”

I don’t think he realized that he was slowly massaging me.

“Jesus, don’t do that again. Okay?”

Taking another step closer, I agreed quietly. “Okay.”

He licked his lips and removed his hands, and I saw in his eyes the minute he decided it was time for some distance.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked. His casual black sports jacket shifted with the breeze, and all of a sudden I couldn’t remember why I was there. All I knew was that I wanted to touch him.

“Addison?”

His voice had the ability to make all of the noise inside my head cease.

Blinking up at him, I finally answered, “Yes?”

“What are you doing out here?”

Moving in so my jacket brushed the front of his, I finally reached to touch him, but he grabbed my wrist, holding it away.

“No,” he told me, and his voice was so stern I probably should have heeded the warning…but I didn’t.

“No?”

His head bent down, and when his face was a hairsbreadth from my own, he repeated, “No. Tell me why you’re here.”

His breath was warm as it ghosted over my lips, and I couldn’t help but part my own, hoping by some miracle I could taste him on my tongue.

“Why are you here? That’s a better question, don’t you think?”

“I know better than this.”

I reached up needing to touch him, but he took that hand too, holding them both prisoner. Being held in place with nowhere to go elicited a hunger in me that I didn’t yet understand. “Know better than what?”

“Than to be here.”

“Then go,” I offered.

That was all it took. He spun me around, backed me up against the truck, and had my arms pinned by my head so fast I lost my breath. Leaning in beside me until his mouth was by my ear, he rasped in an unsteady voice, “I can’t.”

I turned my head to face him and saw all of his turmoil, and finally, the full impact of his desire. “Then don’t.”

“You’re going to be the death of me.”

Life is full of ironies, because with him, I’d never felt more alive.

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