As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. He is seventeen gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma (review copy) - She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. And the stress of their lives-and the way they understand each other so completely-has also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. BUT, when I say that, I mean that Suzuma has created a story with such natural flow that nothing feels like a plot. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t say there is a plot because this is a snapshot. Forbidden is a snapshot into the lives of the Whitely children. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. It is a difficult read, but it is beautifully written. Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. A romantic historical novel from the 1 New York Times bestselling author of Seeing Red about an independent woman who runs a boarding house in Dust Bowl Texas. Ages 14%E2%80%93up.She is pretty and talented – sweet sixteen and never been kissed. Tabitha Suzuma is the author of A Note of Madness, A Voice in the Distance, From Where I Stand, Without Looking Back, among others. debut, does an admirable job of making the siblings' romance feel believable%E2%80%94both are repulsed, conflicted, and electrified as their relationship deepens%E2%80%94but as the book alternates between Lochan and Maya's perspectives, it bogs down in florid language and exhaustive, melodramatic contemplation of their dilemma. Only able to depend on each other, Lochan and Maya fall in love and are forced to hide their feelings, causing abundant emotional anguish. Despite the pressures of running a household (including her insufferable 13-year-old brother, Kit, and two younger siblings), Maya maintains a relatively normal social life, while Lochan has crippling social anxieties. Their father left to start a new family and their alcoholic mother is almost never around. 'How to explain that this situation, the love we feel for one another%E2%80%94everything that to others may seem sick and twisted and disgusting%E2%80%94to us feels completely natural and wonderful and oh%E2%80%94so, so right?' Seventeen-year-old Lochan and his sister, Maya, were born 13 months apart and share a close bond, playing the role of parents more than siblings. The searing highs and suicidal lows of his everyday life begin to threaten his future career as a concert pianist, as well as alienate his two best friends, Harry and Jennah, who just want to help but are progressively shocked and upset by Flynn's erratic behaviour.