Review: Forbidden

Title: Forbidden
Author: Tabitha Suzuma
Release Date: June 28, 2011
Source: library

Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives–and the way they understand each other so completely–has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.

Nancy’s Review:

Forbidden left me completely shattered. I wasn’t expecting it to be as intense as it was. I expected some light, sappy, forbidden love story. It was nothing like that. This book was heavy. Lochan and Maya, the two eldest in a family of 5 are responsible for the care of their three younger siblings. Because they have to take on so many responsibilities, they sort of feel like the parents in the family. I guess it’s understandable why they end up falling in love. They have to lean on each other for every single thing. They were basically mother and father to their siblings. Forbidden really delved into their feelings and it allowed the reader to get inside the heads of Maya and Lochan in a way that seemed almost invasive to me. I felt like I was spying on their thoughts, because they were just so passionate about each other and so adamant about keeping it a secret.

I was very moved by Lochan and Maya’s situation. I felt for them and really understood them. One thing that really bothered me throughout the book was Lochan’s constant crying! He cried a lot and he was very, very emotional. Maya seemed to hold it together much better than he did. However, they were both very convincing and the way that their characters were written was very well done. I could really “feel” just how in love they were. The author did a great job on that. Overall, this was a good, heart-wrenching book. It was definitely not what I usually read, but I had been meaning to read it for a long time. I’m glad that I did!