Dear Fiona,
I hope this letter finds you well—and by well, I mean significantly less infuriated than you were yesterday. I’ve wanted to continue our conversation from the night we met, but there are so many things I can’t say or do, now that I’m your professor.
As an anonymous letter writer, I can give you some idea of what I have planned for us, once the year is over. As an author, I can share my work in progress with you. Not for you to critique but to show you how much you mean to me.
When you’re done reading this page, destroy it—and then write me back. Don’t sign the letter. Don’t put a return address on the envelope. Mail it from a random mailbox.
Yours in problem solving,
Me
P.S. I still think you’re wasting your talent on that historical romance novel.
P.P.S. I really wanted to push you up against the door and kiss your beautiful, angry face. I will. One day.
***
Dear Emmett,
Your handwriting is almost as terrible as your mood swings, and it would have been my instinct to destroy that letter even if you hadn’t ordered me to.
If you show me your work in progress, I will critique it.
I am currently still too infuriated to write about all the other feelings I have for you.
Expect another letter soon.
Your problem and your solution,
Me
P.S. I still think an overpaid, overrated, overly handsome bestselling author of thrillers has no business teaching creative writing at a prestigious New York university.
P.P.S. To my great horror, I really wanted you to push me up against that door and kiss my angry face too. I understand now that your appalling way of treating me in class has been overcompensation, but I don’t forgive you for it. I’ll kiss you again anyway.
One day.
| Title: | The Love Interest |
| Author: | Kayley Loring |
| Series: | / |
| Pages: | 326 |
| Category / Genre(s): | Contemporary |
| Trope(s): | Forbidden Romance Opposites Attract Student & Teacher Romance |
| Point of View: | First Person, Present Tense, Dual Viewpoint (H & h) |
| Location: | New York, USA |
| HEA: | ✔️ |
| Release Date: | 16th April, 2021 |
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Funny, smart, sweet and romantic
Well, it’s official – I’m in love with Kayley Loring. Or maybe just her writing. Maybe.
All I know is that every one of her books that I’ve read have been fantastically engrossing – and this one’s no different. This book isn’t part of any series and stands completely alone so there’s no worries about reading order or having read anything before or after.
Our story starts with Emmett and we learn pretty fast just why he’s in the slump that he’s in. Which is also the reason I welled up on about page 4 of this book – dammit Kayley! Despite that, the book never went deep enough to push me into an emotional despair, but I definitely felt for Emmett and despite his rude demeanour, I rooted for the guy. I mean, he was pretty much the poster man for a grumpy hero – and that’s my catnip right there. But he was also sweet, funny, smart, a bit of a dirty talker and every so slightly obsessed with Fiona. I loved that gorgeous-faced idiot!
Fiona was equally a character that you couldn’t help but love. She’s was so damn relatable, too. She was definitely the sunshiney one to Emmett’s grump, but never in an over the top way. She was bouncy, fun and optimistic – her energy and youthfulness the perfect partner for Emmett’s cynicism. Fiona also had a bit of a back story that explained her presence in New York – but thankfully there were no tears associated with that one.
I ADORED Emmett and Fiona as a couple. Hands down adored them. How they met, how they interacted, how they interacted once the kibosh was put on their romance and everything in between. They were everything the other needed and wanted and I was here for it from the very first page. As well as being super cute, this pair had chemistry for days. Which also helps as much of the actual action takes place towards the end of the book yet the build up was just as good. All that tension and neediness? Y.U.M.
“Well, it’s official – I’m in love with Kayley Loring.”
We also get snippets from the novels that Emmett and Fiona are reading which were a hoot. I think I fell in love with Jack and William almost as much as I did our main couple and where else do you get chapters of romantic suspense and historical novels in a contemporary romance? I was a bit confused as to why a supposed duke/viscount/earl would be a mockney but that’s neither here nor there.
I’m sometimes a bit hit-or-miss with a professor/student storyline but this one didn’t feel, or come across as the least bit sleazy. So anyone else in my position – don’t let that trope dissuade you from reading this truly excellent book.
As always with Ms Loring, the writing is just the icing on the cake of a fun and captivating story. I was so pulled into the story that even after the end (and three epilogues! faints), I was still thinking about the story and wanted to pick up my kindle and read some more. Then I would remember I was finished and feel a bit bereft.
It’s no surprise that I’m giving this 5 stars. Another winner from Kayley Loring and a book I would very highly recommend.
*I received this book in exchange for my honest review.*
Before writing steamy romantic comedy novels, Kayley Loring got her BFA in creative writing from a Canadian university and had a fifteen-year career as a screenwriter in Los Angeles (under a different name). She mostly wrote PG-13 family comedies that studios would pay her lots of money for and then never make into movies. In 2017 she decided to move to the Pacific Northwest and write about all the fun stuff that she wasn’t allowed to write about in those PG-13 scripts. Now she’s breathing cleaner air and writing dirtier words. It’s an adjustment that she’s happily getting used to.
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