For Your Own Good

Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the esteemed Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest.

He says his wife couldn't be more proud—though no one has seen her in a while.

Teddy really can’t be bothered with the death of a school parent that’s looking more and more like murder or the student digging a little too deep into Teddy’s personal life. His main focus is on pushing these kids to their full academic potential.

All he wants is for his colleagues—and the endlessly meddlesome parents—to stay out of his way.

It's really too bad that sometimes excellence can come at such a high cost.

I’m torn on Samantha Downing’s books, because the premise always grabs me, but in execution I haven’t loved the books as I’ve wanted to.

I think For Your Own Good is the book of hers I’ve enjoyed the most. It was really twisty and kept my interest, and I enjoyed not predicting it and just seeing where things went. But I had no real sense of who the characters were and couldn’t get emotionally invested, which meant there were no stakes for me – so I didn’t care when people kept dying.

But it was a fun page-turner, so if that’s your thing, this might be just what you’re looking for in your next read!