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A review by arwy
My Best Friend's Dad by Bella Winters
4.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A solid four-star read for me.
I decided to explore taboo age-gap romance. It’s not something I was interested before and I didn’t know if I would like it because these kind of relationships seem very unconventional even in today’s society.
I’m glad that I read this book. I actually read a few of the books with the similar topic, and I think I liked this book the most. It wasn’t a short read which I liked, and the way this relationship was described felt very real to me.
The main characters are Boyce and Vivian. Boyce is a single father. His wife Nora passed away four years ago from breast-cancer. He loved his wife a lot, and even though he slept with a lot of women after he finished mourning, he felt nothing for them, and hardly ever slept with he same woman twice.
Boyce and Nora had a daughter together, Bella. A few years ago she met Vivian in the kindergarten, and the girls became inseparable. The story starts when Bella and Vivian are ten years old, and Vivian’s parents suddenly die. Vivian’s father was Boyce’s best friend, so Boyce didn’t even think twice before taking Vivian in and eventually adopting her so that she could stay with him and Bella forever.
Years go by. Bella and Vivian still stay the best friends but Vivian and Boyce’s relationship starts to change. When Vivian is in middle school, she finally notices Boyce as more than a father figure and realizes that he is hot. She start dating other boys but she still has a crush for him but knows it will never lead to anything. About the same time, Boyce realizes that Vivian is not a little girl anymore, that she is growing up and become beautiful. Both keep their feelings hidden for years, but as they soon learn you can only hide what you feel for so long.
During her senior year, the chemistry between Vivian and Boyce grows to unprecedented levels, and Boyce acknowledges it to Vivian but tells her nothing will ever happen between them. After this, things are a little bit awkward between them for a while but they go back to normal. That is until Bella leaves for Julliard in New York, and Boyce realizes that he can’t fight his feelings for Vivian anymore. And this is how their unconventional relationship begins.
I know that there are some parts in the beginning of the story that “grossed out” other reviewers. I refer to when the time Vivian was in middle school. Before I read this book, I would have thought that I would feel the same but when I was reading it, I didn’t feel that way at all. To me, it was more like a normal development, just the way the life is, up to the point that I would have been surprised if their chemistry didn’t start than if it actually did.
Some other reviewers say that this whole relationship between Vivian and Boyce is horrible, even if they started it when Vivian was of the age of consent (18), and she had previous sexual experience with guys her age, because Boyce brought her up since she was 10. What everybody forgets to mention (or maybe it’s just me who likes to calculate things) is that Boyce is 28 years older than Vivian. You heard me, 28 years older. Again, before I read this book, I thought that something like this would be a cause to raise my eyebrows and stare incredulously but when I was reading this book I realized that I absolute don’t care about this. All I care is that two people who are above age of consent, two adults are in a consensual relationship. Once they have a conversation about being exclusive, they stay exclusive, and they eventually realize that they love each other. Everything else is nobody else’s business.
I was happy that besides all the obstacles they started this relationship and stayed together. Though I cannot imagine how hard it was to keep it secret and not being able to tell anybody, not even their best friends what was happening, until they went public.
Great read if you don’t mind age-gap stories.
A solid four-star read for me.
I decided to explore taboo age-gap romance. It’s not something I was interested before and I didn’t know if I would like it because these kind of relationships seem very unconventional even in today’s society.
I’m glad that I read this book. I actually read a few of the books with the similar topic, and I think I liked this book the most. It wasn’t a short read which I liked, and the way this relationship was described felt very real to me.
The main characters are Boyce and Vivian. Boyce is a single father. His wife Nora passed away four years ago from breast-cancer. He loved his wife a lot, and even though he slept with a lot of women after he finished mourning, he felt nothing for them, and hardly ever slept with he same woman twice.
Boyce and Nora had a daughter together, Bella. A few years ago she met Vivian in the kindergarten, and the girls became inseparable. The story starts when Bella and Vivian are ten years old, and Vivian’s parents suddenly die. Vivian’s father was Boyce’s best friend, so Boyce didn’t even think twice before taking Vivian in and eventually adopting her so that she could stay with him and Bella forever.
Years go by. Bella and Vivian still stay the best friends but Vivian and Boyce’s relationship starts to change. When Vivian is in middle school, she finally notices Boyce as more than a father figure and realizes that he is hot. She start dating other boys but she still has a crush for him but knows it will never lead to anything. About the same time, Boyce realizes that Vivian is not a little girl anymore, that she is growing up and become beautiful. Both keep their feelings hidden for years, but as they soon learn you can only hide what you feel for so long.
During her senior year, the chemistry between Vivian and Boyce grows to unprecedented levels, and Boyce acknowledges it to Vivian but tells her nothing will ever happen between them. After this, things are a little bit awkward between them for a while but they go back to normal. That is until Bella leaves for Julliard in New York, and Boyce realizes that he can’t fight his feelings for Vivian anymore. And this is how their unconventional relationship begins.
I know that there are some parts in the beginning of the story that “grossed out” other reviewers. I refer to when the time Vivian was in middle school. Before I read this book, I would have thought that I would feel the same but when I was reading it, I didn’t feel that way at all. To me, it was more like a normal development, just the way the life is, up to the point that I would have been surprised if their chemistry didn’t start than if it actually did.
Some other reviewers say that this whole relationship between Vivian and Boyce is horrible, even if they started it when Vivian was of the age of consent (18), and she had previous sexual experience with guys her age, because Boyce brought her up since she was 10. What everybody forgets to mention (or maybe it’s just me who likes to calculate things) is that Boyce is 28 years older than Vivian. You heard me, 28 years older. Again, before I read this book, I thought that something like this would be a cause to raise my eyebrows and stare incredulously but when I was reading this book I realized that I absolute don’t care about this. All I care is that two people who are above age of consent, two adults are in a consensual relationship. Once they have a conversation about being exclusive, they stay exclusive, and they eventually realize that they love each other. Everything else is nobody else’s business.
I was happy that besides all the obstacles they started this relationship and stayed together. Though I cannot imagine how hard it was to keep it secret and not being able to tell anybody, not even their best friends what was happening, until they went public.
Great read if you don’t mind age-gap stories.