Jerry Cooke
4.5⭐️ - A sweet academic love story, with sexy pottery lessons, and a lot of yearning for a tweed clad professor!
Audrey has dedicated her life to academics and is thrilled to finally have an assistant professor position, albeit temporary, back at her alma mater. It brings back more than just nostalgia when she finds that her new office is directly opposite Dr. Michelle Thompson, the British professor who gave her the push into academics when she studied here.. and was her first burning crush.
The stand-offish woman she encounters now though is nothing like the passionate educator she knew as a student. In the decade since Audrey left, Michelle has experienced divorce and a stalling academic career, with nothing being published, unengaged students, and constant push backs against her proposed Women in Art class. Despite her initial anger at Audrey swooping in with all her enthusiasm and being handed that exact class that she was denied for so many years, she can't stop wanting to be around her.
As Audrey's enthusiasm reinvigorates something in Michelle, the two find themselves becoming closer and closer. Age gaps and workplace politics are a big concern though and with Andrey's place in the faculty a tenuous one, how much would the two risk for a relationship?
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I love an academic romance, not least because I work for a university, and this perfectly captured the academic politics, the need to keep things under-wraps, and the frustrations regarding advancement. Lacey has rendered with great detail this small college campus experience and the halls of academia and it felt really nice. The wintery environment in Vermont, trail walking and animals, it was all so wholesome. There was also really lovely descriptions the art and discussion of art history that fit with the theming perfectly.
Audrey and Michelle's yearning for each other was palpable at times and their healthy communication and talking things through properly was really affirming to see. One of the things that I regularly find with sapphic romances vs straight ones is that there's so much less of this frustrating misunderstanding and it makes it so much more lovely to read.
4.5⭐️ - A sweet academic love story, with sexy pottery lessons, and a lot of yearning for a tweed clad professor!
Audrey has dedicated her life to academics and is thrilled to finally have an assistant professor position, albeit temporary, back at her alma mater. It brings back more than just nostalgia when she finds that her new office is directly opposite Dr. Michelle Thompson, the British professor who gave her the push into academics when she studied here.. and was her first burning crush.
The stand-offish woman she encounters now though is nothing like the passionate educator she knew as a student. In the decade since Audrey left, Michelle has experienced divorce and a stalling academic career, with nothing being published, unengaged students, and constant push backs against her proposed Women in Art class. Despite her initial anger at Audrey swooping in with all her enthusiasm and being handed that exact class that she was denied for so many years, she can't stop wanting to be around her.
As Audrey's enthusiasm reinvigorates something in Michelle, the two find themselves becoming closer and closer. Age gaps and workplace politics are a big concern though and with Andrey's place in the faculty a tenuous one, how much would the two risk for a relationship?
-----------------
I love an academic romance, not least because I work for a university, and this perfectly captured the academic politics, the need to keep things under-wraps, and the frustrations regarding advancement. Lacey has rendered with great detail this small college campus experience and the halls of academia and it felt really nice. The wintery environment in Vermont, trail walking and animals, it was all so wholesome. There was also really lovely descriptions the art and discussion of art history that fit with the theming perfectly.
Audrey and Michelle's yearning for each other was palpable at times and their healthy communication and talking things through properly was really affirming to see. One of the things that I regularly find with sapphic romances vs straight ones is that there's so much less of this frustrating misunderstanding and it makes it so much more lovely to read.