Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Title: Forbidden
Author: Tabitha Suzuma
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source: Purchased
Age Group: Young Adult (YA)
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥

Title: Kiss of Twilight
Author: Loribelle Hunt
Publisher: Carina Press
Source: NetGalley
Age Group: Adult 
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥ - See more at: http://yearningmermaid.blogspot.de/#sthash.X1r0KzaZ.dpuf

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.

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.

Title: Kiss of Twilight
Author: Loribelle Hunt
Publisher: Carina Press
Source: NetGalley
Age Group: Adult 
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥ - See more at: http://yearningmermaid.blogspot.de/#sthash.X1r0KzaZ.dpuf

I still don´t know if my review will be a review in the right sense. After reading this book I just have the strong feeling that I want to talk and write about it, because it deserves the attention. This book made me feel so strongly that even now, after almost two weeks after rereading this book, I cannot fully grasp the feelings that shook me so deeply. Tabitha Suzuma created a beautiful story that left me stunned by its cruelness.

Maya and Lochan have to take care of their three younger siblings, because their mother is mostly drunk or absent from home. After a while they fall in love, maybe they always have been in love, but never realiesed it. It is the story of a broken family, but the children will not let it fully break apart. They are desperate to appear normal to the outer world, because they are afraid that social services will take them away. I really despised their mother for her selfish behavior. Yes, she went through a lot and her ex husband left her, but is that truly reason enough to be such a lousy mother? Most time I wanted to slap her in hopes that she finally wakes up from her little fantasy world and starts behaving like an adult, taking responsibility for her five children. 

Maya is a sweet sixteen-years old girl that has to take too much responsibility too soon. She has the mind of an adult and that is probably why I liked her so much. She is not the typical girl you find in so many books that make mistake after stupid mistake. Maya knows that life isn´t always fair and that some people have it harder than others. She acts like the mother her younger siblings never knew, a mother full of kindness and worry, laughter and joy. Maya is willing herself to be strong for the kids and that is something that makes her truly beautiful to me. Most times I felt like she deserved a person that loves her for who she is...and who could actually know her better than her brother Lochan? Who shares the same burden like her?

Lochan is a seventeen-year old boy that suffers from extrem shyness. He is not able to speak to other people but his own family. Even the thought of speaking in front of a whole class makes him hyperventilate. Yet, Lochan is also very bright and is the best pupil in class. His grades promise him a bright future, but Lochan knows that he has to take responsibility for his little family and must support them when he is finished with school. His relationship with Maya heals him in some ways and I always had the feeling that without Maya, Lochan would fall apart. They steady each other and they need each other.

Of course I know that incest is illegal and before reading this book I always felt like incest was something disgusting and unthinkable. But I think that this book made me realise that people don´t choose such a love. Their circumstances may be the reason for it and who am I to judge two people in love, when I don´t know all the facts? 
This story made me feel helpless, because I realised that nobody can do anything to make this story have a happy ending. This love is against the law and thus forbidden. It felt so unfair, because I truly rooted for Maya and Lochan. I wanted them to be happy together forever.
I don´t think I ever cried as hard because of a book before. Shouldn´t true love be left alone? Even if it is against the law? I still don´t know...Maybe there is no answer.