Anne Corey is about to get schooled.
An English professor in California, she’s determined to score a position on the coveted tenure track at her college. All she’s got to do is get a book deal, snag a promotion, and boom! She’s in. But then Adam Martinez—her first love and ex-fiancé—shows up as the college’s new president.
Anne should be able to keep herself distracted. After all, she’s got a book to write, an aging father to take care of, and a new romance developing with the college’s insanely hot writer-in-residence. But no matter where she turns, there’s Adam, as smart and sexy as ever. As the school year advances and her long-buried feelings begin to resurface, Anne begins to wonder whether she just might get a second chance at love.
Funny, smart, and full of heart, this modern ode to Jane Austen’s classic explores what happens when we run into the demons of our past...and when they turn out not to be so bad, after all.
I enjoyed this debut title by Julia Sonneborn. I liked the world of literature, and writers in which it was set and I thought it was interesting to see that same world from the eyes of someone who was in it, but was also struggling to find her place in that same world.
Adam, another man she meets, and Anne are involved in a love triangle. Of sorts. Adam and Anne were together years ago, and there was a break up and now he is back, and the president of the small college where she teaches.
I was expecting a little more from this title. All of the elements were there: a love triangle, a heroine torn between the present and the past, a man in the present who maybe is just a little too perfect and maybe not as good as he seems. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me. The big declaration happens with what feels like a rushed toss in at the end. I wanted more, I wanted the passion, and to believe it.
I liked each of the characters separately, but I wanted more connection. The blurb gives the idea that this is a romance. While it has heart, it is not really a romance. More time is spent detailing the relationship with the man she meets who is not Adam. And, this would have worked, except I didn't like him, and I was not sure why she did. There were also a few points where Anne acknowledged that she was not totally fair to Adam in the past, but she was very willing to ignore the things he said and the warnings he gave her.
I think, based on the blurb, I wanted more of the connection with Anne and Adam than I got.
The secondary characters were also not quite balanced. The things with the dad were odd and seemed to jump from point to point. I wanted a little more with some of the interactions with her sister. And, I am not going to even get into the gay best friend, who was more a caricature than a person.
Overall, I mostly enjoyed this title, and it was good as a first novel, but I would not really call it a romance.
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