For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
Belmont Academy is a prestigious, private New England high school that attracts the best and the brightest; both in students and teachers alike.
Teddy Crutcher is an English teacher there and proudly, the recent recipient of the Teacher of the Year award.
Admittedly, he’s not always a favorite of the students though. It could be because he does push them, it’s true. Sometimes they require a little tough love, something certain spoiled brats don’t seem to be getting at home.
Students that seem overly arrogant, like everything will be handed to them, may receive a little special treatment from Crutcher. He needs to show them that the world doesn’t work that way.
Zach Ward is one of those students. Just the sight of him gets Teddy’s blood boiling.
For Zach’s part, he can’t understand why Mr. Crutcher seems to dislike him so much. Everyone likes him, teachers, students, other adults, everyone. It’s truly puzzling.
When Zach needs to perform extra credit to up his grade in Crutcher’s class, Teddy makes sure it will be a challenge, not caring how much it interferes with Zach’s other commitments.
The tension rises when a fellow teacher asks Teddy to tweak when the assignment will be due. She has deadlines for Zach at the same time and certainly he can’t be expected to complete both.
The audacity! Teddy seems to be the only person at this school with any regard for propriety.
Then tragic events bring the once heralded school to its knees. Parents begin removing their kids, donations plummet; only Teddy can bring it around.
For Your Own Good was an absolute blast to read. My first Samantha Downing novel, but definitely not my last.
It was hella twisted, no one was safe. I didn’t know where it was going, or what the conclusion would be.
I absolutely love how Downing crafted this. I never felt like I had enough information to put everything together. I wanted to, I desperately wanted to know, but there were so many pieces to the puzzle and I couldn’t get any of them to fit.
There were a few twists towards the end that just made me giddy, they were so diabolical. The conclusion was perfection!!
Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I can’t wait to dive into Downing’s backlist now.