This guest review is from Aarya Marsden.

Aarya Marsden is a pseudonym for an Indian-American college student and long-time romance reader. Her favorite authors include Ilona Andrews, Nalini Singh, Lucy Parker, Kresley Cole, Alisha Rai, Lisa Kleypas, Alyssa Cole, Tessa Dare, Meredith Duran, Mina V. Esguerra, Kate Clayborn, and many more.

You can follow @Aarya_Marsden on Twitter, where she gushes about romance novels and is a firm advocate for a happily-ever-after.

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Here’s my elevator pitch for Teach Me: divorced high school history teachers in their forties, fat Ice Queen heroine who has very good reasons to guard her emotions, single dad hero who is the poster child for the opposite of toxic masculinity, meddling ex-parents-in-law and high school-aged daughter who ship the couple, and Evil School Administrator who gets defeated in the end.

I picked up this book for several reasons:

1) I don’t often read about 40+ year old divorced protagonists and I wanted to expand my reading selection

2) all of my friends were raving about this book

3) I just graduated college, and I thought a school-related book would be a perfect choice for my first post-graduation book.

Rose Owens is pissed, and justifiably so. The new social studies teacher in her fictional Virginia college town of Marysburg (a cute renaming of Williamsburg) is unintentionally wrecking her life. The head of secondary social studies in the school system (AKA “Evil School Administrator”) and Rose loathe each other, and Evil School Administrator is using the arrival of Martin Krause to make Rose miserable.

Rose used to teach 10th grade Honors World History and 11th grade AP U.S. History (APUSH). Evil School Administrator is now giving away Rose’s Honors World History class to Martin because he wants to retain someone as qualified as Martin. Evil School Administrator thinks that teaching Regular World History will “scare off” Martin (we should all be booing now). Rose now teaches 11th grade APUSH and Regular U.S. History, while Martin teaches 10th grade AP World History and Honors World History.

Since there isn’t enough space for every teacher to have their own classroom, some teachers have to become “floaters.” Evil School Administrator wants to minimize the number of classrooms that Martin has to teach in, so he’s decreed that Martin will teach in Rose’s classroom during both her planning periods. In other words, she won’t get to have peace and quiet in her own space during her planning periods.

In response to the Evil School Administrator’s decisions, Rose (perhaps unfairly, but understandably) amps up her Ice Queen persona to a gentle and Cinnamon Roll-esque Martin. She’s determined to be professional and polite, but nothing in the rules requires her to be friendly and warm. I think we can all see where this is going. In Rose’s defense, she tries really hard for a good 20% of the book before admitting that she can’t hold a grudge and starts to catch feelings.

The highest praise I can give to Teach Me is that after reaching the end, I pulled out my phone and messaged my 11th grade AP English Language teacher. This is the teacher that recommended Tam Lin by Pamela Dean and countless other books to me. This is the teacher that had a classroom where my friends and I would religiously have lunch and spend free periods in, even when she wasn’t our teacher anymore in senior year. This is the teacher that when I finally confessed my love of romance novels, she laughed and shared some of her own recs. As Anne Shirley would say, Ms. R was my kindred spirit. Even four years after graduating high school, we message each other regularly with book recs and rants about our respective lives.

I didn’t recommend this book to Ms. R because I thought she had similar characteristics to either protagonist. She’s not an Ice Queen like Rose, she’s not a single parent like Martin, and she teaches English instead of U.S. History or World History. I recommended Teach Me because this book reminded me of how good teachers can completely change the course of a student’s life. As I was reading, I was struck again and again at what thoroughly good teachers Rose and Martin are. We’ve all had bad experiences— the teachers who do nothing but read off the powerpoint, the teachers who have so little enthusiasm for their subject that it’s impossible for the students to gain any, the teachers who seem to seek pleasure in pointing out that students came up with the wrong answer, etc. But we’ve also had the polar opposite experience — teachers who engage with the students’ questions and are willing to go off-script, teachers who are so visibly excited and passionate that even the most mundane topic becomes interesting, teachers who kindly engage with wrong answers and point out the merits in that guess, etc.

There are many teaching styles and ways to be a “good teacher.” The commonalities are compassion toward students and enthusiasm for the subject matter. For Rose and Martin (and Ms. R!), teaching isn’t just a job. It’s their identity and they care so much about helping students. Rose is upset at losing the Honors World History class because she wants those not-as-economically-secure students to trust her and take a risk by enrolling in her 11th grade APUSH class:

“For me, the best moment in the entire school year is always, always, when I see next year’s AP U.S. History roster. When I get to watch some of my honors kids reach for more, like I did. Some of them won’t succeed in such a high-intensity class, and I understand that. But others will, and that success can change their lives for the better. Forever.”

Rose loves her students. She puts on her Ice Queen persona around Martin initially, but the first time he sees her smile is with his senior-age daughter. The Ice Queen doesn’t exist with the students; she becomes a laughing mermaid who enters a dunk tank and dares goth softball girls with mock grudges to sink her (this isn’t a metaphor — Rose really does this!).

Despite the premise, Teach Me isn’t even a one-sided enemies-to-lovers. Rose tries so hard to maintain her indifference to Martin (while grudgingly admitting that it isn’t his fault that she lost her Honors World History class) but fails miserably. She’s still guarded with her heart, but falls in love with Martin because she realizes that Martin is good man when she sees him being a compassionate and thoughtful teacher.

One of my favorite things to do as I read a romance novel is to figure out when the protagonists start to fall in love with each other. There’s insta-lust and attraction, yes, but that isn’t necessarily the tipping point for love. The protagonist may not even realize what’s happening as it’s often subtle. My personal theory is that Rose falls in love with Martin because she witnesses him going above and beyond for students. Not because he’s gallant toward her or incredibly empathetic (he is, and she falls further in love with him later for non-teaching related reasons), but because he’s a good teacher.

What’s my evidence? First, the time Rose privately admits to herself that she wants to become more than friends with Martin. This realization happens after Martin is on the phone and trying to convince a student not to drop out because his mother is dying from an illness. He’s exhausted from the encounter; he’s just spent an indeterminate amount of time convincing the student to schedule a meeting with the guidance counselor. Martin then turns to Rose — who just entered the classroom — and suggests an idea to maintain the APUSH class enrollment for next year: he and Rose can switch certain class days so that the Honors World History students can become accustomed to Rose and thus enroll in a more challenging class next year.

The Ice Queen is no more. Inside, Rose is floundering. She’s torn between his adorableness, his determination to help her and their students, and his ability to always make her feel safe and not small. How could she not fall in love with Martin? I was already in love with him!

The second point of evidence is my favorite scene in the book. Rose is tasked with observing Martin’s class and submitting an evaluation to the department. Martin leads a discussion about the female pharaoh Hatshepsut. He asks the students why later representations of Hatshepsut are more masculine compared to earlier feminine representations. This exchange then occurs:

“Why show her like this later in her reign? And why aren’t there more images of her as a woman?”

A hand shot up in the back of the room, the student no longer slouched over the desk. “Maybe Hatshepsut was transgender.”

“That’s an interesting thought, Sam.” Martin contemplated the matter for a moment. “Transgender people have certainly existed throughout history, although I haven’t heard any evidence in support of Hatshepsut transitioning to become a man. That said, historians can overlook things they don’t expect to find. They’re products of their era, just like the people they’re studying.”

Sam nodded, looking…not happy, but something close. Affirmed, maybe?

Whatever it was, Rose wanted to kiss Martin for it.

Rose, get in line. I want to kiss Martin, too.

This exchange also has an extra layer because we find out later that Sam uses they/them pronouns, and both Rose and Martin always refer to them correctly. This is my favorite scene in the book because we can see Rose’s feelings transform radically during one class period. In the beginning, she is embarrassed and doesn’t want to be there because she and Martin had an awkward/terrible interaction a few weeks prior. But when she sees Martin encouraging the students’ (sometimes wrong, but enthusiastic) ideas… well, that’s it. She’s a goner. I could feel Rose’s walls crumbling in a mere ten pages.

There are other reasons as to why this observation scene is my favorite, but I don’t want to spoil it so you’ll just have to read and find out for yourself.

This book really, really worked for me in every possible way. Even though I’m in my early twenties and not a teacher, I was impressed at how the author got high school in Virginia so right. Charlottesville is my hometown, and I went to public school there from 3rd to 12th grade. I smiled at the references of Martin’s daughter visiting UVA and Charlottesville for her college tour. It’s been four years since high school, but reading Teach Me felt like going into a time capsule. Charlottesville or Marysburg, Virginia high schools do feel the same.

I loved the way I learned more about the characters from watching them navigate their jobs. I laughed at the classroom observation scene where Martin would take periodic breaks and let the students frantically scribble notes and copy down whatever he was saying (it’s really hard to take notes if the teacher doesn’t pause! Handwriting speed is not the same as speaking speed, even if you take shorthand). And at the staff meeting with a presentation by the superintendent’s consultant, I giggled when Martin and Rose started to play bingo for any words used in the presentation (“growth mindset,” “research-driven,” “grit,” or “digital literacy”). I’m not a teacher, but I have heard from some of my favorite high school teachers that they find these meetings to be unbearably boring and a waste of time.

At the beginning of the book, I was a little nervous at how the topic of ex-relationships would be handled. The Evil Ex is one of my most hated tropes ever, even if it’s handled well and the protagonists have understandable reasons to think unfavorably back on the relationship. While there is some discussion about why the ex-relationships didn’t work out and why both Rose and Martin have scars, I appreciated that there wasn’t much direct textual comparison between the ex-relationship and the current relationship (I think there was one scene where Martin directly compares his ex-wife’s characteristics to Rose’s opposite characteristics, but that didn’t bother me because it only really happened once. The infrequency of direct comparisons made it okay for me to love this book even though I almost always dislike the trope).

Two things helped with my lack of enthusiasm about the Evil Exes:

1) Bea, Martin’s daughter, still has a positive relationship with her mother and switches households week-to-week without fanfare. This isn’t an acrimonious divorce. I’m happy that Bea loves both her parents

2) Rose has a loving relationship with her meddling and adorable ex-parents-in-law. Even though her former husband was toxic to her, she still maintains ties with people who consider her to be a daughter. While the exes themselves are portrayed negatively, there are still positive sides to both ex-relationships.

I’m also happy re: how Rose’s fatness was portrayed. It wasn’t a plot point, and no one ever makes derogatory comments about her appearance or tells her she needs to lose weight. The people in Rose’s life adore her for just the way she is. Plus, I love how emotionally vulnerable and empathetic Martin is. Imagine the poster child for toxic masculinity. Martin is the exact opposite of that. He’s a good listener, cognizant of emotional cues, and knows when to back off. I love a growly alpha in PNR, but I don’t think I would like that hero so much in real life. Martin is the kind of person that I aspire to be – and find in my own life.

I could go on and on about this book, but I want you to stop reading the review and one-click it! It’s a warm, affectionate book about two thoroughly decent, compassionate, and imperfect people who deserve love and happiness. Isn’t that what the Romance genre is all about? I really loved Teach Me, and I hope you’ll pick it up and feel the same way.