Olivia Dade

Rose Owen makes it a point to never show emotion or form any bonds with her co-workers, in her role as a high school history teacher. But when Martin Krause is hired into her department and one of her favourite classes is given to him, it's hard to say completely detached. But it's also pretty hard to hate Martin as he's so consistently nice. As Rose and Martin work to engage students, they discover that there may be other ways they'd enjoy spending time together as well.

A cute romance and I was particularly delighted that the main characters are in their 40s (always nice to see wider age representation in romance). There's some excellent humour here and Dade does a solid job of developing the characters and their romance. However, I can tell that this novel was self-published as it lacks the polish and sparkle of her other traditionally published works that I assume was created in collaboration with her editor(s). Of course, it's also an earlier work so some of the rough patches might also be attributed to her writing skills not being as well-developed as they are now. A decent read but not where I'd recommend starting if you're trying Dade for the first time.… (mehr)

Olivia Dade is back to being my favourite author. I felt so seen in this story about a woman who switches jobs every few years because she gets bored. She feels like a failure now that she's in her 30s, which is something I felt like before I committed to theatre. I also felt for her counterpart who lost his childhood in raising his brother and doesn't know how to stop being in that position. (It took my sister saying to me outright "you're not responsible for us" for me to get there.) Add in the trademark Dade humour and I'm so there.

I also love how in both these characters we see traits that aren't common in romance (although thankfully more so now). There's so much I loved I can't categorize it all. I love this new world she has created and I guessed who'd be the focus of the next book. Cannot wait!… (mehr)