Annabelle “Annie” Coffey is writing her final thesis and with only a few weeks left of term, she propositions her adviser, the postdoctoral fellow at her lab, Dr. Charles Douglas, because she believes they have “A Thing”. In a truly embarrassing and painfully awkward scene, handsome British guy Charles gently turns her down, because he is her boss and it would be massively inappropriate for him to sleep with her. Annie is convinced she’s not wrong about the chemistry between them, and that she’s not misreading the signals between them. She’s hoping that were she no longer Charles’ student, the situation would be different. So she refuses to give up hope entirely. She will have a month after she graduates, before she goes off to New York to go to medical school and she’s determined to spend them with Charles.
Charles agrees, so long as Annie is well and truly no longer his student, they can explore their “Thing”. He’s initially a bit daunted by the prospect that Annie’s a virgin, and a very inexperienced one (in practise, not in theory) at that. With the understanding that their affair is only to last a month and with the goal that when they go their separate ways, they will remain friends, Charles and Annie begin to explore their attraction to one another. Because Annie has never had any sort of sexual encounter with another person before, Charles insists on them spending a whole day on each of the four “bases”, before they do the deed, so to speak. He takes his responsibilities as Annie’s first lover very seriously, making sure to teach her everything she wants to know about sex, while still being careful to respect her boundaries, even when she’s sometimes eager to push them further than before.
Their affair becomes more than a meeting of bodies, it also becomes a meeting of minds, with the two of them being entirely honest about their interests, hopes and fears. That is, Annie is completely truthful and open as a book. As the weeks pass, and Annie grows more attached with every hour spent in Charles’ company, it becomes clear that he has not revealed everything about himself and that there is darkness in his past that looks likely to create major hurdles for their joint future.
Before you read any further, it is important that I mention that this book ends on a cliffhanger! There is NO Happily Ever After at the closing of this book. There is a second part, How Not to Let Go coming out in December, and on her blog as Emily Foster, the author suggests that if waiting is a problem, you wait to read the duology until both parts are out. Full review here.
I’m not generally a fan of the student/teacher dynamic. Even when the student isn’t a student anymore, it still kind of bugs me. Still, this sounds interesting and I may give it a go.
I find the student/teacher dynamic a bit squicky, but it does work here, and I suspect Foster chose it very deliberately, because whether Annie has graduated or not, Charles is in a position of authority over her. She’s not made the age difference between the couple very big, but the power dynamic is absolutely such that Charles is the older, wiser, more powerful and experienced part.
As not a big erotica fan, is there enough non-smexy times to keep me entertained?
Your mileage may vary, but yes, I think so. When I read Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Lauren, I thought the biggest problem was that there was too much sex and not enough time for the characters to get to know each other or for me to get a feel as to who they were. I don’t think that’s the case here. There’s certainly more smexy than in a standard NA, but there is also a focus on Annie and Charles as people, interacting with one another and others.
Ordered.