Book: Textbook Romance

Author: Kristen Bailey

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Select for an advanced audio copy. 

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Textbook Romance follows friends Zoe and Jack on a friends-to-lovers journey. Zoe and Jack meet at a wedding when Zoe’s life falls apart. She finds out her husband is cheating on her and Jack helps her get home to her kids. 

A few months later Jack gets a job at a school and it’s the school where Zoe works. Their chemistry is immediately undeniable. There is a large age gap between the two and Zoe has two children making her very hesitant to pursue anything with Jack. 

This is a story about two good people who refuse to be selfish. Both Zoe and Jack continue to put the other first which makes their friends-to-lovers story such a slow burn. I liked watching their relationship grow and getting to know both characters. 

I just found myself getting frustrated by the age gap. She is in her early forties and Jack is in his late twenties. The double standard of it just kept bothering me. There was a scene where people out in public were rude to Zoe about it but no one would care if it was reversed. It was just something that agitated me but not the fault of the book. 

I listened to the audiobook for this one and while normally I do not have issues with the narration I did have some problems with Abigail Hardiman here. This is a dual POV book which can be challenging for a single narrator but it seemed like she didn’t even try to distinguish who was who. Many times I found myself forgetting which POV was currently narrating.

This is definitely a book to check out if you are looking for a romance that is far from being textbook. 

Final score: 4/5