There's Something About Marysburg series

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 3 stars
Spicy Meter: 4 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses divorce, discrimination, power imbalances, and inequalities in education and opportunities.

“Teach Me” follows Rose Owen and Martin Krause, two AP high school Social Studies teachers in the lovely town of Marysburg. Martin is the new guy, the one who inadvertently stole Rose’s favorite subject to teach, who Rose is set on being nice-ish to. They have an undeniable connection that they’re both denying, each because of their own reasons but they both agree on the same principle: it’d just be extremely complicated.

Well, these books definitely work like standalones. Take it for me, I’ve read this series out of orderbut I mean I did like it better than the second book in this series 40 love. I can’t say I didn’t like “Teach Me”, but in all honesty I’m writing this review and I’ve already forgotten half of the plot line. So, that’s basically it—it’s a good book but it’s somewhat on remarkable. But, I mean, I did like it better than the second installment in this series, the book titled “40-Love”. Which is sort of a letdown because Olivia Dade is one of my favorite authors and the last books I’ve read by her have been a bummer.

Anyways, I would recommend this book to readers who are looking for a read set in the high school/teaching setting. It’s not a bad book, and it’s definitely really good in the spicy sense, but it just wouldn’t really be my first choice when recommending Olivia Dade.

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“Love couldn’t solve everything, but without love, there was nothing to solve.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 3 stars
Spicy Meter: 4 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Considerable age difference couple, physic injuries, competitive sports injuries, and mentions of cheating and fat-shaming.

Where to begin. 40-Love follows Tess Dunn, a just-turned-40-year-old high school assistant principal on an all-inclusive island vacation, and Lucas Karlsson, a 26-year-old tennis instructor at the resort Tess is staying. Following a questionable meet-cute, Tess knows this summer flings will only crush her, but what if it went past that? Lucas wasn’t looking for another fling and was more than sure Tess was what he wanted right now. Will their chemistry overcome all odds or will the age difference pull them apart?

Oh God. I love Olivia Dade. Really. She’s one of my favorite authors for sure. But oh did I feel uncomfortable throughout this whole book. Call me a hypocrite, because I do enjoy some age-difference novels now and then, but 40-Love really wasn’t it. Because putting the age difference aside, there were some very clear power imbalances that I just didn’t feel comfortable with. The romance scenes were great, A+ in the spicy meter, but I just couldn’t get their differences out of my mind. I am sorry, but if a 26-year-old is willing to flip their life around for any person they just met, they should be going to therapy instead because there are some unresolved things there (and that’s ignoring the fact that that person they’re leaving everything for is 40 years old, which just unravels a whole other level of mommy or daddy issues to add upon that).

I think I’m being generous with the 3-star review. I don’t think I would personally recommend this book when recommending Olivia Dade, but if you like big age difference romances then grab 40-Love. This is supposed to be the second book in a series, but it works really well as a stand-alone.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.