The perfect rivals-to-lovers academic debut romance (and meta love letter to the romance genre itself), perfect for fans of Ali Hazelwood's LOVE, THEORETICALLY, and Emily Henry's BOOK PEOPLE.
Everton University's newest English postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Isabella Di Lorenzo, is on a mission to prove that romance novels belong on college curriculums. With funding from the Hannah Crawford Foundation, Bella plans to carve out a place in academia for the genre that has taken the literary world by storm, and she refuses to allow any sceptics to stand in her way . . . especially the traditionalist, pretentious, inconveniently handsome Professor Rhys Crawford.
Rhys has a litany of reasons to dislike Bella before they even meet - namely, that his late mother's foundation is funding research that will tarnish the legacy he has spent his entire adult life trying to uphold. Between a not-so-meet-cute during a late night elevator ride and a contentious debate at a faculty mixer, sparks fly and a rivalry is born.
But when a permanent teaching position at Everton is on the line, Bella requests a ceasefire. A ceasefire that goes out the window during a heated round of bar trivia when she places a bet with Rhys - a bet that ends with a carefully curated syllabus for one-on-one lessons in romance. What Bella doesn't expect, however, is that she may be the one who learns what it means to fall in love . . .
Tropes
rivals to lovers
academia setting
workplace romance
slow burn
grumpy x sunshine
forced proximity
opposites attract
he falls first