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Life isn't easy for single mother Ally Hughes. Teaching at Brown, her class load is huge and her boss is a menace. At home, she contends with a critical mother, a falling-down house, and a daughter who never misses a beat. Between taking care of the people she loves, teaching full time, and making ends meet, Ally doesn't have time for a man. She doesn't date. She's not into flings. But then she meets Jake, an eager student, young in years but old in soul, who challenges his favorite professor to open up her life, and her heart, to love. It doesn't work. In fact, his urging backfires. Ten years later, Ally's still single. Jake reappears and surprises her in a brand-new role: He's dating Ally's now-grown daughter. In this hilarious, heartrending tale, Ally is finally forced to concede (not only to herself) that an independent, "liberated" woman can still make room in her life for love.
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Books like this make me mad. A former TV screenwriter pens a lackluster romance novel and it gets lots of praise primarily because it isn't packaged as a romance novel. Meanwhile there are so many romance novels that are much stronger that are labeled as “trashy” or “bodice-rippers.”
The titular Ally Hughes has a weekend of fabulous sex with her just-barely-former student Jake, and then ten years later he shows up in her life and announces he is still in love with her. That's pretty much the entire plot told through alternating current day and flashback chapters. There is also a big pointless subplot with Ally's 20 year old daughter, an aspiring actress who desperately needs money for a nose job, and a villain so obvious he might as well be twirling his mustache every time he speaks.
The characters are barely developed, especially Jake who is effectively perfect, and while the dialogue is moderately entertaining, it can't compensate for the rest of the book's weaknesses. The best thing I can say is that it is a quick read, so you can breeze through it and move on to something more substantial - like a well-written romance novel.