Book Review

Grumpy Jake by Melissa Blue

Grumpy Jake by Melissa Blue is a delightful and tightly written novella (with a gorgeous cover!) about a kindergarten teacher developing a relationship with a student’s dad over a time period of about six months. There was actual guffawing coming from my direction and, granted I will acknowledge that I read it while drinking some spiked agua fresca which was more spike than agua fresca (my kingdom for a decent alcoholic agua de jamaica), I’m confident that my enjoyment came from the story itself.

Bailey Thorne is a Black woman and kindergarten teacher, with an “I-find-you-suspect smile” she seems to save especially for Jake Polaski, aka Jake the Rake. Jake is the White dad of a kindergartener assigned to her class in the new school year. Jake earned that smile by having developed quite the reputation for dating teachers at the school and ditching them right around the six-month mark. Jake is drama personified as far as the teacher population at Bailey’s school is concerned and she doesn’t have time for his nonsense.

While the story does lightly engage with the enemies to lovers trope, the central conflict is not so much centered around the adults, but is really about the son, Jayden. Jayden is actually the child of Jake’s brother and sister-in-law, adopted when his parents died in a car accident only six months following his birth. Jake hasn’t told his son that he’s adopted and has built up the reveal in mind to be one that will be earth shattering for Jayden. Ultimately, though, Jake’s inability to tell his son what happened is as much grounded in his own feelings of loss as it is in not wanting to disrupt his son’s world.

The human body is made up of about 60% water–Jake, on the other hand, seems like he’s made up of at least 60% unspoken and unrealized pain, telegraphed to the world as supreme grumpiness. Regardless of his emotional unavailability to the women he dates and his clearly unresolved issues around the death of his brother and sister-in-law, Jake is an attentive and caring father whose primary fault is in the way in which he has subsumed his own needs to Jayden’s.

Possessing all the qualities you would hope a kindergarten teacher would have, observant and empathetic Bailey can’t help but wonder how those two seemingly incompatible parts of Jake coexist. She’s quick to piece together the mystery of Jake as a quick google takes her to an article of the death of Jayden’s parents, and her frustration with Jake’s leading role in all the school gossip quickly dissolves to empathy. Where initially Bailey and Jake’s relationship was defined by her barely hidden reticence, once she awkwardly reveals that she has some sense of his secret, their rapport quickly upshifts to something much more emotionally (and physically) intimate.

My only issue with the story was the final conflict.

Show Spoiler

Jake ends his relationship with Bailey because she didn’t tell him that another kid in her class asked Jayden why he didn’t have a mom. Bailey managed that question like a pro (because she is a kindergarten teacher and impolite questions are a thing kids do) and checks in with Jayden after. Jake basically blames Bailey for making it such that he has to tell Jayden what happened to his biological parents, pulls Jayden out of school for a few days, and stops communicating with her entirely. Obviously they get back together, but as far as I’m concerned he did not grovel enough for the perfunctory way he decided to make his inability to communicate with his son Bailey’s fault.

Jake’s fatalistic thinking about what could come from a conversation with Jayden about his biological parents was not grounded in reality, but Jake was sure to blame Bailey for a situation she ultimately had no hand in creating. What saved me from wanting to launch Jake into the sun is the writing and pacing of the novella. No sooner was I thinking, “Oh this motherfucker over here…” was the sweet baby angel Jayden demanding Jake’s cellphone because he wanted to invite Bailey to his football game, like he always did. Jake can’t say no to Jayden and neither can Bailey.

There was no real aching in private solitude for Bailey and Jake to drag the story down (or to give me the time to start quietly plotting Jake’s demise). Bailey is hurt, but not damaged by Jake cutting off emotional ties and her focus on ensuring that Jayden is emotionally ready for the first grade never wanes. So even when Bailey and Jake first interact after he ends things, it is a non-confrontational confrontation with Bailey’s brothers crashing Bailey’s attendance of Jayden’s football game. Where it could have been heated, there are mostly jokes:

“Booker, I think, asked me what was wrong with me. Because something must be wrong with me if I broke up with you. He also asked me about my beard maintenance.”

That sounded like her brother. She was torn between a laugh and a scoff. “I am going to strangle Booker first.”

Jake’s headassery is fundamentally saved by the low-drama nature of the entire story and the way in which time zips along. Bailey and Jake take time away from each other that, while reflecting weeks within the story, only really encompasses a few paragraphs. Following the football game, the next time Jake is in front of Bailey, he’s internally reflecting on how hard he messed up and immediately telling her the same (with some limits because, well, he’s picking up Jayden from school and the kid’s got ears).

Despite the story being essentially about the aftermath of a traumatic event, Grumpy Jake is an extremely charming, upbeat, and fairly explicit story about two adults figuring out how to be in a relationship while always putting the needs and interests of an adorable child first. And, if you are looking for another story utilizing the hot White bae with a Black family trope as discussed by Carole B. in her review of Hearts on Hold by Charish Reid (and she also wrote a great piece about the importance of Black romance at Shondaland!), this is a good one to add to the list. Jake’s deceased sister-in-law was, to quote her, “Super Blackity Black” and it’s clear that Jake had a strong relationship with her when she was alive. Race and racism isn’t central to the narrative, but in a well-written love story about a Black woman, a White man, and a biracial child like this one, neither is it completely irrelevant to the story being told.

Ultimately, Jake’s got issues, but Bailey isn’t there to fix him. She’s simply not content to leave things unspoken and unaddressed, especially when they could harm Jayden’s wellbeing. Much of Jake’s healing happens off page and not in any way directed by Bailey. Jake has some faults, but one of them is not foisting emotional labor on the women in his life. He may have been an ass for initially blaming Bailey in a situation that she could not control, but he never lays the responsibility of his healing at her feet. She is not there to reform a heedless rake, but instead Jake’s emotional growth comes from knowing he could stop feeling alone if only he chooses to let her in.

Grumpy Jake is a bite-sized delight that was joy to tear through in a sitting. It was low-drama, while also being compelling, empathetic, and kind. It’s a fundamentally hopeful story about family–about loving the family you have, treasuring the family you lost, and making space for wonderful people who could be your family. It’s a great example of how well a novella can work as it expertly delivers you to a HEA just brimming with possibility and I look forward to seeing what Melissa Blue writes next!

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Grumpy Jake by Melissa Blue

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  1. Lisa F says:

    I have this one in my TBR pile! Looks like fun!

  2. How does Blue deal with the inherent conflict of interest? You know, teacher involved with the parent of their student? That’s the main reason I’ve avoided this book as it sounds good otherwise. I’d love to give it a try but that conflict of interest is holding me back.

  3. Maya says:

    @Bea, early on in the story Bailey asks Jake if he’s worried that any of the teachers he has dated at the school so far would take Jake dumping them out on his son. Jake states that he hopes the teacher will put their professionalism (and his son) first. Once Bailey and Jake are together, that expectation holds for their relationship as well. As best as I can tell (and I could totally be missing something) that is how the conflict of interest is acknowledged and addressed.

  4. Sara McG says:

    How is this a thing he does often enough to have a reputation, for 6 months at a time, if the child is only in kindergarten? Was he dating teachers at the school before the child was there? Does he have older kids? Did Jayden start there when he was 2?

  5. Maya says:

    @Sara, the school has two years of free preschool.

  6. Sara McG says:

    @maya Ah. Thanks.

  7. @Maya, okay thanks. For me, that doesn’t sufficiently address the conflict, but it might work for some readers.

  8. Sarah Drew says:

    Great review – one-clicked. Thanks.

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