When you catch yourself talking to a character in a book, that indicates the writer(s) have drawn it well enough so that you feel invested, even moved by the character.
Well, in Choose Me, the new book by Gary Goshgarian (using the pen name Braver) and Tess Gerritsen, I found myself yelling quite often at English Professor Jack Dorian, who by inches and miles, falls headlong into a disastrous relationship with a student who is not exactly on an even keel. We all know it cannot possibly end well. And boy, does it not end well for anyone.
A pretty house in the suburbs, a Volvo in the driveway, a successful spouse and a prestigious job still can’t keep the main character, Jack, out of trouble.
Jack, feeling alone because his physician wife is working crazy hours, and worn down by their unsuccessful attempts to have a child, is vulnerable to the charms of the unstable and obsessive yet drop-dead gorgeous student who has no intention to take no for an answer.
The student, Taryn Moore, has a hard time accepting that her longtime boyfriend from her small town, now a fellow college student in Boston, has broken up with her for good. She can’t let go of his youthful promises to love her forever. In a haze of anger and dejection, amplified by her precarious emotional, financial and social situations, she decides to train her laser-like focus on another man, her English literature professor.
We think that the adult in the room should know better than to engage in this unhealthy relationship since after all, he holds the power, but in this case, our tweedy professor is too busy feeling sorry for himself. And that is where the “Me Too” issues come in.
