A standalone teacher/student romance in the What He Doesn’t Know series. I never learn my lesson.And I always want what I can’t have.When Sarah Henderson walks into my life, I tell myself she’s off limits. She’s my student, sixteen years younger than me, and my boss’s niece. It doesn’t matter that I see the same pain reflected in her eyes that I have in my own, or that the dead organ better … or that the dead organ better known as my heart kicks to life when she’s around.
I’ve been here before, and I know how this ends.
It’s been two years since I fell for the last woman I knew I couldn’t have, the one with the ring on her finger that I chose to ignore.
Two years of trying to overcome that heartache when Sarah slides into my life.
Another woman I can’t have. Another woman I can’t stop myself from wanting.
I never learn my lesson, but with a constant reminder of how that last forbidden love burned, I think I’ve finally learned this one.
This time, I won’t chase what’s off limits.
This time, I’m staying away.
And I’ll keep telling myself that until I believe it.
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Put on your angst panties and get ready for one heck of a ride. This forbidden student-teacher romance will melt your heart and your panties while you’re reaching for your tissue box. An absolute must read!
Angst lovers — you NEED this book! It’s forbidden, emotional, and everything you love in a heart-racing romance.
ANGST!! Forbidden, emotional, and everything you love about heart-racing romance!
No one does angst like Kandi Steiner. It’s a teacher/student, age gap romance set in Pittsburgh. She’s his boss’s niece! Don’t miss it.
What He Never Knew by Kandi Steiner was an emotional, raw and gripping story about two broken souls brought together by the beauty and power of music.
Why the low rating you ask? Well, I wasn’t happy with Sarah. In the beginning I cried and my heart ached for her and Reese but as the story progressed Sarah began to annoy me. I needed her to be stronger and hold her head high, not allow herself to be influenced by others. I found her to be too immature for her age at moments. But above all esle, I simply wanted Reese’s happiness. Not to say that he wasn’t happy, but after all he’s been through he needed a redeeming path to show him love.
Ugh, I don’t know I’m degressing here! I feel disappointed. This story was going great until it got close to 70% and then everything just crumbled. In that moment, I was just about done with Sarah.
I did find myself loving Kandi’s writing. She knows how to make you feel everything all at once. When I heard Reese was getting his story, I knew I had to have it! I love a good taboo and forbidden love story but I needed so much more from the heroine.
Overall, this story had potential. It was filled with lots of angst. If you’re a lover of heart gripping pain, then this my lovelies is the story for you!
Hot new release coming from Kandi Steiner in Kindle Unlimited! Teacher/Student Romance…hellooo!!!
Simply stunning. A study in survival, hope, and rebuilding. I couldn’t tear myself away from Reese and Sarah’s story.Kandi Steiner
It’s Kandi Steiner!!! YESSS!!!
Angst. I crave it, and this book delivers! I love student-teacher romances. Great novel.
Kandi’s third installment to the What He Doesn’t Know Series is a teacher/student, age gap romance set in Pittsburgh. Angst lovers — you NEED this book! It’s forbidden, emotional, and everything you love in a heart-racing romance.
Continuing her heart-stopping series, Kandi Steiner brings us the third installment, a standalone that is a huge helping of angst with a healthy side of lyrical prose. Forbidden and emotional, it’s a teacher-student, age gap romance grounded in the world of music! All my fave things! Two piano players. I love stories featuring creatives, and Kandi brings us one we cannot help but love!
What He Never Knew by Kandi Steiner continues the story for one character from Kandi’s What He Doesn’t Know series and could be a spoiler if you have not read or want to read the series, which I do highly recommend! This story had all the feels! It was full of angst, heartbreaking, hopeful and about second chances.
Two years later and Reese is still heartbroken. Moving on has been hard, when the woman that broke his heart is everywhere. Lost and feeling like he could never move forward, his life suddenly changes when he is asked to take on a new student. Sarah is much younger than him, but there is an undeniable connection there neither can deny.
Sarah has been through her own hell. Lost and broken, she is full of hopelessness and has no idea how to move forward. Then her uncle and Reese’s boss has Reese become her tutor in hopes of giving her back her dreams. Reese and Sarah were just what the other needed, but it took them a bit to see that. I absolutely loved Reese and Sarah. They were great characters you just wanted to hug and cheer for.
I was completely and utterly captivated by What He Never Knew by Kandi Steiner. This was quite the emotional journey. I am so happy to see Reese get his HEA, but it was not an easy one. At times my heart felt like it could not take any more, but with Kandi, you know the journey will be worth in the end and this one truly was.
4.5-stars. Read and reviewed for Sultry Sirens Book Blog.
Happy reading.
An angsty ride with wonderful characters. A total page turner!
Excitement took over when I discovered Kandi was expanding on the What He Doesn’t Know Duet. I would suggest reading the previous books, What He Doesn’t Know and What He Always Knew prior to reading What He Never Knew. The background information will come in handy when reading this book.
Everything about this book moved me. The words, the story, the characters . . . every single thing. As I was reading I spent a great deal of time in tears. Not because the book was sad, but because Kandi gave an emotional, angst-filled book of pain, of failure, of fear, of forbidden, of growth, of love, and of healing. The passion in her words blew me away.
Reese has been a broken man for years. It seems no matter how he tries to pick of the pieces of his shattered life, and move beyond the weight that is holding him down, he can’t. It’s in his face everywhere he turns and he hasn’t the strength to move that boulder. So, he allows himself to wallow in self-pity.
Sarah is looking for an escape. An escape from tragedy, an escape from herself. The thing is you take you with you wherever you go. That at some point you will have to face your demons, and it may break you before it fixes you.
Sarah and Reese are not what dreams are made of. They are not the couple that people will immediately cheer for. They are forbidden for so many reasons. Age is a factor, race is an element and being broken is who they are. Yet, somehow, they start to heal each other. The healing is not immediate. It is not sunshine and roses. It is hard, sometimes ugly and even painful. But isn’t healing always that way?
I discovered Kandi with A Love Letter to Whiskey. The captivating way she told that story drew me in and I have been a diehard fan ever since. She just has that “it” factor. I am forever lost in her words. I am forever spellbound by her talent. Yet, Kandi puts more than words on paper, she creates more than a movie in your head. Every gut wrenching word, even bit of passion, every scene was birth from the soul of this woman. She lays herself out there and there is nothing the reader can do, but succumb to the genius of Kandi Steiner. I don’t normally put quotes from the story in my reviews, but this . . .
“There were people who lived, people who watched movies or listened to music or read books. But then, there were the people who created them, who wrote them, who brought them to life. Those were the poor unfortunate suckers who had so much going on in their minds that they had to find a way to release it, to breathe life into it, to touch it and feel that it’s real.”
I am not sure if Kandi was referring to herself in this quote, but the realism of it hit me and hit me hard.
This is my first OMG book of 2019. My first book hangover of 2019. The first masterpiece of 2019.
4.5 stars
What He Never Knew is set two years on from the events of the previous two books in this series and although it’s not necessary to read those first i highly recommend you do as I think it will help understand Reese and his past a little more.
Piano teacher Reese is finally in a place where he thinks he’s kind of doing ok. He’s got his job teaching and he plays piano in a bar but honestly this guy is such a loner. He’s lost everyone he loves and he deals with it as best as he can but there’s something missing in his life. He’s just going through the motions. That changes when he’s asked to tutor his boss’s niece. Sarah is nothing like he was expecting. She’s super talented for one thing but she’s broken. Possibly more than Reese is.
Sarah’s life was ruined one night, leaving her broken and damaged, with no choice but to walk away from everything she’s ever wanted. My heart broke for Sarah. She may be broken but she won’t be beaten and I loved her determination to achieve her goals no matter what has happened. When her uncle mentions he’s friends with Reese Walker, Sarah hopes he can help her overcome her injury so she has a chance of achieving her dream. She wasn’t expecting him to be just as broken as she is. Nor was she expecting him to see her, to see what she’s trying to hide from everyone else and she definitely wasn’t expecting the sparks that fly between them.
This book was exactly what I’ve come to expect from Kandi Steiner. It’s emotional, the characters aren’t perfect, they have strengths and weaknesses like everyone else, they have their flaws and their scars but they’re still standing. After reading the previous books in this series I was so conflicted and torn about how I felt about Reese but this book let me see a different side to him and I admit he definitely won me over. This is a beautifully written story and if you’ve read the previous books you’re going to want to read this.
Well hello there Reese, it’s so good to see you again! Now Kandi Steiner can definitely make you root for the underdog but in the last books; Reese was not the man I was rooting for. However, now… now I am on his side. After everything that happened in the What He Doesn’t Know duet, I still wanted Reese to find his happy place. Everyone deserves that. Of courses Reese’s future would still be temptation. Sarah walks right into his lessons and the attraction is instant even if there’s an age gape and he’s her teacher. Sarah and Reese were amazing and insanely hot together.
This devoured this book in one night. I started it at 8pm and stayed up the entire night devouring this story. Who needs sleep for work? Not this lady! Kandi Steiner wrote one of those books that you need to read from beginning to end. What He Never Knew has a feel like it’s all or nothing. I’m so happy that Kandi gave us Reese’s story. He needed closure, a happy ending. It just didn’t FEEL right leaving the duets as the ending. I was worried, I’d spend nearly a year thinking about what I wanted for Reese. Could Kandi pull off what my imagination conjured up? Well yes, yes she can… she is Kandi Steiner after all! Boo-ya!
So what I’m getting at is this book had everything I had hoped it would. The feelings were high, the lust level melted the roof. It was all written strong and intense. This is an incredibly high emotion book. Everything just feels more, feels elevated. Really, my heart aches throughout… I wouldn’t have minded a bit of humor to ease my soul a bit.
I received an ARC of this book with the hope that I would leave an Unbiased Opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… my opinions.
I have read my fair share of student/teacher romance and this one is so different than others I have read. I loved that the student wasn’t his student in the traditional sense, both helped each other over come past demons, they fell in love and no matter what got in their way they fought to overcome.
Beautiful story of how two broken people were able to find each other and heal.
Brand new angst-fest from Kandi Steiner! Live in Kindle Unlimited!
This is my sixth Kandi Steiner ARC and I’m over the moon stoked about it. I loved the first two books in this series… they were such unforgettable reads in 2018.
I had been wondering whether or not Reese would get his own story and now, here we are.
If you’ve read the first two books in the series, you’d know that Reese teaches along with Charlie Pierce… Although this can be read as a standalone, I recommend reading the first two books for ya’ll to fully understand the journey or the history why is Reese the way he is… why Charlie’s name comes up multiple times in this story… etc.
This is a student-professor romance… and the setting is two years after what happened between him and Charlie (and Cameron)… and then Sarah Henderson comes along and signs up to be his student… and so it begins…
The storyline isn’t something I haven’t before… professor and student spends time together… they develop feelings for each other… and long story short, they live happily ever after, yeah? NO.
I wish it were that simple but there is nothing simple when it comes to a Kandi Steiner love story. She made my heart go through all kinds of workouts…
I felt for Reese. I felt for Sarah… their individual heartaches… both of them were relatable. Page after page I thought, when will this achy feeling end?? I was almost afraid and apprehensive that they won’t get a happy ending… they’re brokenness is what attracted them to one another… and together, they healed each other.
This is a slow-burn… and angsty… and emotional… but if you’re looking for an easy read, this is not it. Depending on how emotional you are, you might need to have your Kleenex nearby.
When I first learned that Kandi Steiner was writing Reese’s story I knew I had to get my eyeballs on it. Then I remembered all the pain from before and knew that What He Never Knew would put me through the ringer. I wasn’t wrong. This book is angsty and my heart hurt most of the way through. But when I think about what I just read, the first word that comes to mind is journey. The second is warrior. This holds true for both Reese and Sarah.
More than anything I wanted to wrap Sarah up in my arms and help her learn her power. Her strength. It was all there, just lying dormant below layers and layers of pain. Thankfully, and with the help of Reese, she was able to pull from that pain, it gave her purpose that she fueled into her passion. Into chasing her dream. And there in the corner, her corner, seeing her grief and cheering her on was Reese.
Page after page, chapter after chapter, my chest just kept getting tighter and tighter waiting for Sarah and Reese to let all the pain and hurt go. The fact that they shared their pain with each other spoke to just how much trust there was between them. But when the damn finally broke it was heartbreaking all over again. When it really came down to it, Sarah knew what she wanted and that included a future with Reese. So she did what she had to do. She spoke to him in the language they could understand; music.
I don’t usually get overly emotional reading books but What He Never Knew got to me. I was misty eyed more than once and for sure needed a hug. Kandi Steiner left every drop of pain and regret and hope that Sara and Reese had ever felt and experienced out there. It came through soundly and loudly. And so did their love. It was deep and moving and healing and only theirs. They owned it, consequences, judgements, dreams and all. Do yourself a favor and listen to that playlist that’s at the end. You won’t regret it, and it will help you connect with the power that music had to change everything for Sarah and Reese.