Title: Textbook Seduction
Author: Elizabella Gold
Length: 16,649 words
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Genre: m/m Contemporary Romance
Rating: C+
Blurb: Aidan Brown has nurtured a crush on Simon Lake, his nineteenth-century English literature professor, since the first day of class. Now the semester and Aidan’s time in college are drawing to a close.
With that deadline looming and nothing to lose, Aidan pulls out all the stops to convince Simon to give him a chance. But Simon is too principled—and too much of a workaholic—to give in and date a student, even if he is only a handful of years older. The gift of a rare textbook finally wins Aidan a date, and he’s determined not to mess up his shot. Unfortunately, nobody mentioned that to Aidan’s ex-boyfriend, who puts a crimp in Aidan’s plans. Can Aidan convince Simon that he only has eyes for his professor?
Review: This author is new to me and on top of the fact that I really enjoy a good college story, I really like the whole student/professor dynamic. I was excited to read this story, because it seemed like a short, sweet and uncomplicated read. I suppose you get what you ask for — I ended up feeling like this story was just a bit too generic.
Aidan has had a crush on his professor of 19th Century Literature all semester. Now that finals and graduation are near, he’s gearing himself up to ask the sexy young professor out. The only problem is working up his nerve. When he finally does go to see him, he realizes that he’s going to have to do all the work. Simon is overworked to exhaustion and seems quite reluctant to start any sort of relationship. Is the man even gay? Aidan isn’t sure when a fellow, female student seems to be doing the same thing as him.
The best part of this story, for me, was the first half when Aidan is forced to gather his courage and woo his professor. There was a dancing sort of banter that was fun to watch. Aidan was quite shy, awkwardly dropping blatant hints then clamoring back into his shell in mortification. It was cute knowing that somehow these two would end up together. Once they started dating, I found that they were much less interesting and seemed to be following a pretty bland and typical course.
On a personal level, I couldn’t connect with the story. I didn’t really ever see any chemistry between the two. The problem with writing a relationship with either an age difference or a question of authority is that at some point the dynamic has to change. For that to happen, we have to really get to know the characters. This was just to short to do that to my satisfaction, though we get to know Aidan (and his history) more than Simon. That left me reading the end feeling like they were still student and professor, and that was just awkward because they weren’t playing off of that dynamic. Simon seemed as if he needed to move very slowly, and then he seems to change without cause just for the story’s convenient ending.
In the end I was a little disappointed, though I still enjoyed the story as a sweet uncomplicated read. I only wish it could have gone past the typical story or surprised me in some way. This would be perfect as a stress free read with just a little bit of sexual tension and actual sex — for a day needing brain candy.
Maybe. Sounds like an okay read and I do enjoy college student stories. When I have time. HAHAHAHAHA Right.
LOL I know, right? You should read it when you want to wrap your brain in cotton 😉
I’m in two minds about this. I read one really great story by this author and one not so great story. But, sometimes you need a sweet and undemanding story and this might be a good one to pick, especially as I like the theme.
Well, then you should give it a try. It is sweet and cute, that’s for sure 🙂 I really like this theme too.
Eh. It’s not inspiring me.
Yes, that indeed was the problem! 🙂