I can't remember the title of a pretty good book that I read recently. Description below:

The book takes place in a private boarding school. A young, pretty girl becomes a student there. She becomes friendly with a male student who is considers himself a little weird and gawky. He is actually intelligent and very nice. However, she considers him just a friend; when she is approached by the handsomest jock in the school, she accepts the athlete's advances.

In the meantime, a new attractive female teacher has come to the school. She gets noticed by the local cop, who finds various pretexts to come by the school to see her. They become friendly, but she becomes engaged to one of the male teachers.

The male student is approached by a group of guys to join their club, but who don't really want him. I forget why they invite him anyway. But they give him an impossible task to complete: to turn a red rose to white. This was apparently done once before on the campus by a teacher, who is married to a man that cheats on her. (She then committed suicide.)

Does this plot sound familiar to anyone? This was also made into a movie.

Thanks,

Nora K.

Hi there,
The best place to post a question like this is the Name That Book forum, which specializes in identifying forgotten books (http://www.librarything.com/groups/namethatbook). They're very knowledgable and helpful. They have a pretty helpful FAQ at the top for posting your query. It's worth checking back on this thread, though, just in case anyone comes up with the title of what you're looking for.

I hope you find your book!

Is it possible you're conflating two books? There are elements of this that sound really similar to The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, but that one didn't have any subplot about the teachers.

I don't think it is but worth a try. The River King?
http://www.amazon.com/River-King-Alice-Hoffman/dp/0425179672

This is a youtube movie intro with a red rose turning to white.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMP0NFl6ZBI

Yes! The River King. That's it! Applause, applause. I'm impressed and thrilled. I can now a) read other books by the same author (whose name I forgot as well); and b) order the movie from Netflix. (I like watching books I read come alive on the screen.) Thank you for your help!

Nora K.

Thank you for that info (http://www.librarything.com/groups/namethatbook). I have another book for which I need a title.

Nora K.

I am so happy that was it. It was a hard one to crack! Truth be told, I looked up the movie because I was getting nowhere searching books. Glad I could help.