This was... okay. Nothing amazing, but nothing bad either. The characters were likeable but the plot lacked depth. I enjoyed the read but it was not memorable at all.

Intimate, passionate, and sweet!

Just Like That is a seductive, May-December romance that features the nervous, impulsive Summer Hemlock, a former student who returns after seven years to work for his teenage crush, and the stern widower, Fox Iseya, a psychology professor who begrudgingly agrees to reward his new assistant with a kiss a day for conquering his fears.

The prose is smooth and fluid. The characters are multilayered, genuine, and honest. And the plot is a fervent tale filled with life, love, family, intimacy, grief, chemistry, heat, desire, romance, light drama, and relationship dynamics.

Overall, Just Like That is a tender, heartwarming, engaging tale by McCade that’s a promising start for this new Albin Academy series.

This was way too emotional and flowery for me. I dunno if it was Summer's age or just the writing but I felt OLD and TIRED reading this book. Also the names Summer and Fox were just a little too ridiculous for me. The whole premise to get the formerly straight teacher interested in the gay former student is real thin and felt more like fan fiction than a published novel. I've read reviews of this author's other work and it seems to be his MO so I just think this author is going to be a pass for me from now on.

Purple prose thy name is Cole McCade.

I have a few books by this author lurking in my TBR, and I thought a new release & a new series might be a good starting point. If i liked it, I could backtrack to one of my older titles.

Friends, this author is not for me. Rambling, repetitive woe-is-me monologuing; flowery, bordering on ridiculous descriptions of things, people, feelings, and sounds (how do you hear the slide of grass?!) had me rolling my eyes; and a boring story, do not a 5-star romance make.

Aside from those general criticisms, I didn't find the set-up - wherein an established professor uses kisses as a reward for a qualified candidate to do the job he's been hired (and is being paid) to do - realistic in any whatsoever. Also unrealistic? That prior to the first kiss (ambush) the professor was once happily married to a woman and never considered or expressed any interest in a same sex relationship prior to this point. Or that his much younger former student somehow intuits he probably likes men, too, BASED ON ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER. Or that kisses quickly turn into indiscreet displays of affection during work time. Or that these two have sex for the first time on a lounge chair at the VERY PUBLIC school pool. Folks, COME ON.

This was a whole lot of ridiculous scenes linked together in a boring love story featuring two principal characters I couldn't connect with. It didn't work for me. At all.

I've been crossing days off of my calendar in anticipation for the next book in the Criminal Intentions series, so when I saw a new book by Cole McCade I jumped at the chance to read it.

It took me a second to place the fact that I had briefly met Summer Hemlock in a Baltimore coffee shop with Malcolm Khalaji during Season 1, Episode 10, and that little connection sent a trail of warmth through me, not gonna lie.

Summer's story only starts when he returns to his home town on Omen, Massachusetts to be around for his mom as she gets older, and that means getting a job at his old school, Albin Academy - an all boys boarding school for the rich and (more often than not) unwanted kids of the rich and powerful.

Summer was a legacy student, his late father had worked at the school, which earned him a full scholarship. While Summer never fit in amongst the wealthy kids at Albin, with his anxious disposition and almost pathological inability to look other people in the eye, there wasn't another school he rather be at than Albin, because of one particular Psych elective class, taught by one Fox Iseya.

(This is where I point out that it's a little weird to call him "Professor" Fox Iseya, because this is an American boarding school and he is just a teacher - at least that's how it worked at the American boarding school I attended ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Fox Iseya dominated Summer's every waking thought when he was a senior, and from the moment Summer walks back into (a burning) Albin Academy - thanks to resident (non-intentional) pyro teacher Dr. Liu - Iseya is once again the focus of Summer's world.

Cold, stand-offish Iseya, who keeps everyone at arm's length, who can shut every other faculty member up with one well timed glare, Iseya who can keep even the unruly and entitled students of Albin Academy in line without a word uttered. Iseya with his long (Summer would really like to know just how long) hair always tied up, squeezed into his tailored suits and glasses and the new found ability to turn Summer's anxiety into reckless, and often inappropriate, bravery. If you call kissing your old teacher and new mentor before your first day of work, which yes, yes! Definitely inappropriate. But also kind of delicious?

Summer seems to startle Iseya out his cold and petrified existence and maybe just maybe, they'll keep challenging each other until they have nothing left to give.

4.5 stars

Cole McCade has a way of writing that makes you *feel* what the characters feel. The good, the bad, the ugly, the intense physical moments as well as the emotional ones, from the POV of both MCs. Like the rest of this author's series, I will be watching and waiting for the next book and hope a couple of the sub-plots get resolved there.

Pay attention to the content warnings at the front if any of the listed items trigger you.

I think I saw only one missing comma in the ARC. (yay!)

When Summer Hemlock was a young man, he had. Crush on Professor Fox Iseya. When he returns to the school as an adult to TA in the professor’s classes, he’s surprised to discover that the feelings are still there.

Summer may be ready to be a TA… but he lives with a panic/anxiety disorder that has really had an effect on his life. What he has done though, is learn to try and just be himself. He finds strengths at strange times… like when he with the professor.

These two men end up in an oddly bizarre, yet endearing push and pull with one another. Fox agrees to a kiss a day… each time that Summer does something brave, like lead the class. But there’s a fine line between bravery and strength and pushing yourself too hard or too fast. As Summer struggles to push through his anxiety to work with students in a real and rewarding way, Fox begins to question the wisdom of opening himself up to someone like Summer.

I can’t describe this book in a way that will do it justice. The writing is graceful, fluid – almost poetic at times. There are moments of pure sensuality in the midst of tumultuous emotions. It was definitely the writing that first engaged me with this book. The flow of this story is flawless. The two main characters are drawn together quickly and you might think it would be too quick to be believable but it’s not. The way the characters are written, I felt as though I knew them in a few short pages and I was willing to suspend my disbelief as I watched them come together quickly.

There is a lot of depth in this book. The emotions are real and raw and I felt some of them along with the characters. There are a lot of very heavy emotions and events int his book and the author handles them with great care and finesse. I would encourage you to read the warnings that are included in this book as there are some events that may be triggering for some people. I do believe that issues in this story are relevant to many people and there’s so much value in reading about darkness through the filter of a tender relationship.

I wouldn’t hesitate to read anything by this author in the future. In spite of the great challenges faced by these characters, I found this to be a very hopeful story.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book!

Rep: mlm mc with anxiety, Japanese-American bi/pan mc with PTSD.
Trigger warnings: grief, death of loved one (past), panic attacks, suicidal ideation, bullying.
(extensive TWs at the beginning of the book, which I very much appreciated!)


This is the second book I've read by Cole McCade and it won't be my last! I adore his writing style and I was fully emersed and hooked in this storyline and the main characters' relationship and their development as individuals.

I loved that this book was dual POV and I know for a fact if I wasn't able to read from the perspective of both characters, I probably wouldn't have liked this book as much as I did. I think it was vital to read both Summer and Fox's thoughts and feelings.

This is more than your standard contemporary romance, this is a story about grief, being brave, fighting invisible demons and finding yourself. I thought the author handled Fox's grief and Summer's anxiety really really well. This novel is very heavy, intense and in-depth, it's definitely an emotional rollercoaster but once I started I couldn't stop until I finished it all in one sitting!

One thing I also loved was the lack of conflict around the characters queer identities. It just is! There is no homophobia at all. As I mainly only read queer books, this was refreshing to read.

A few notes/things that didn't really work for me:
-There is a big age gap here, I know a lot of readers don't like that and while it doesn't bother me, I thought I'd mention it, there is also a slight power dynamic, but I thought the author handled it well.
-This was a little OTT and dramatic at times, especially towards the end.
-One of my book pet peeves is when characters engage in unprotected sex without even a discussion beforehand, it's just not safe...


Overall, I'll definitely be reading more by this author in the future and I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes queer contemporary romance with loveable, messy characters you can't help rooting for.

The new Carina Adores line from Carina Press promises highly romantic, feel-good stories with a strong central trope featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists getting their Happily Ever Afters.  Carina has a pretty strong track record when it comes to queer romance and I’m really looking forward to trying the new-to-me authors in the line as well as to reading new books from ‘old’ favourites.  Cole McCade has been on my radar for a while (I even have some of the books in his Criminal Intentions series on my Kindle – I just haven’t got around to reading them yet!) and I eagerly jumped into Just Like That, an exquisitely written May/December romance between a professor and former student that, while somewhat melancholy in tone, delivers a deeply felt, sensual love story.

Seven years earlier, Summer Hemlock left Albin Academy, a prestigious boys’ boarding school, and fled to Baltimore, intending to shake off the hopeless, invisible boy he’d been, find himself and learn not to be afraid. He’d intended never to return to his home town, but he knows his mother isn’t getting any younger, so he takes up a TA position at the academy – in the psychology department - in order to be closer to her.

He arrives to find the school on fire.  Well, not all of it, just the chemistry lab. Summer well remembers Dr. Liu’s propensity to set things on fire from his own time at the school, and makes his way inside to see what he can do to help.  The first voice he hears is one that stirs up many memories of hours spent listening to it in a class full of boys who were more than a little afraid of the man it belonged to - the same voice Summer now follows through the smoke, to find the tall, severely elegant form of Professor Fox Iseya - upon whom Summer had a massive teenage crush.

Fox had forgotten about the imminent arrival of his new TA and certainly doesn’t give much thought to his former students, so he’s surprised, when Summer introduces himself, to find himself actually able to recall the gangly, shy boy Summer had been, and then contrasting that memory with the attractive, athletic young man standing in front of him.  Once the fire is out and he and Summer are finally able to talk, Fox wastes no time in making clear his reservations about Summer’s ability to do the job:

“They will push those boundaries at every turn, and considering you haven’t changed a bit from when you were a student… I don’t think you’re capable of dealing with that.”

Summer angrily refutes that suggestion, which leads Fox to issue a challenge. Summer is to do one thing that takes him out of his comfort zone every day to show that he’s prepared to take the necessary steps “to face down a classroom of unruly, disrespectful children” on his own.  Goaded past irritation at Iseya’s dismissiveness, Summer accepts the challenge and makes an immediate start on doing things that scare him – and fulfils a long-buried secret longing.  He kisses Fox – then panics and leaves, feeling like a complete idiot.

Summer returns the next morning, intent on doing his scary thing for the day – to find Fox and apologise.  The conversation they have here is wonderfully open and honest; Summer is upfront about his attraction to Fox – who is upfront about not understanding exactly what Summer finds to like about him – and I loved the way Summer talks openly about his anxiety and explains how every so often, he hits “fuck-it mode”, a breaking point where he just has to say or do what he has to regardless of how scary it may be.  This talk engenders a kind of… if not exactly trust or friendship, then the makings of it, and leads Summer to issue a challenge of his own.  He has learned that Fox suffered a terrible loss when he was around Summer’s age, and that he has built incredibly thick emotional walls to protect himself from ever again experiencing such pain.  Summer suggests that perhaps Fox is ready to start living again only to find himself caught in a cage of his own making, and offers him a deal. Refusing to listen to Fox’s insistence that he’s old and used-up and has nothing to offer,  Summer tells him that when he (Summer) does something out of his comfort zone each day, he will ask Fox for a kiss as a reward – which Fox will give only if he really wants to.

Okay, yes, the kiss-a-day premise is a bit creaky, but Mr. McCade makes it work, allowing both characters to learn about each other, reassess their preconceptions and become closer as the days and weeks – and kisses - pass.  But even as Fox is starting to see the truth of Summer – a young man who is willing to challenge himself at every turn, to face down fears he couldn’t control every day, wired into his brain by chemical tractions and triggers – and to realise that for the first time in years, he might actually learn to be happy again, he’s also terrified.  He’s falling for Summer – young, optimistic, bright and oh, so sweet – and what will he do when, as is bound to happen, Summer tires of being with someone so broken who doesn’t know how to love him back?

The writing in this book is insightful and utterly captivating, and the characters are both complex and compelling. The growing intensity of the emotional connection between them is described in prose that is both lyrical and beautiful, and made those emotions leap off the page and get under my skin in a way that doesn’t happen very often.  I loved seeing Summer finally finding himself and his purpose; he’s a wonderful mix of strength and vulnerability and I was as charmed by him as Fox was.  Fox’s self-imposed aloofness and detachment make him a bit harder to like, but the author does such a good job of showing why he is the way he is that I began to warm to him quickly, especially when he starts to let down his guard a little and let Summer in.

But on the downside, some things, such as Fox’s insistence on having nothing to offer someone as vibrant and present as Summer and that Summer will soon get tired of being with him got a bit repetitive, and there was just a little bit too much introspection at times.  The grand romantic gesture at the end is a bit TSTL (which the author admits in his notes!) and made me roll my eyes a bit, and as I said earlier, the kiss-a-day thing, while rather charming, was also a bit of a stretch.

Even so, I really enjoyed Just Like That and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an emotionally satisfying, slow-burn romance.  I’m looking forward to the next in the series.

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3.5* Lots of triggers and not the easiest of reads, but there are sweet bits, too.

So, yeah, there's a l...o...n...g list of triggers with this book and I suggest that you read them because some might cause some readers to walk away. I found the mentions commensurate with the tale and not triggering because of that.

It's a story of a student of about 25yo returning to his school to work as a TA to a professor he'd had a crush on, so there's a 21-year age difference, which I hadn't clocked about, but which I didn't have any issues with. Both have issues, and both have secrets and this is a journey where both of them open up and learn to trust and to overcome difficulties.

It is not a light read - I've not read anything yet by this author, but I recognised his name, which made me request the ARC. He also writes as Xan, I believe, and he's also unafraid to push boundaries there.

It is a tale that will tax your emotions and I found that I couldn't read it in one go. It mirrors some of my life right now, only vaguely, and I was warmed by the fact that Summer came home to his mum's care and they picked up as if he had never left, though of course, he was no longer a child-child. It does end in a HEA that I would not have expected because of how the leads initially clashed, how there were struggles and because of the tragedy in one's past. But, it just seemed to work and at the end, I did believe in their future lives together.

ARC courtesy of Harlequin - Carina Press and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

My thoughts :
Would I recommend it? Yes ( but only to those who like or even love these types of romance)
Would I read more of the series? Yes
Would I read more of this author? Yes

Trigger Warnings:this might not be for you because of this, and I always try to post this type of wrong when it comes to these types of books since I know their not everyone's cup of tea.
same sex relationship
different age ( one is 25 and the other is 46)
PTSD flashbacks
MC with chronic anxiety, panic attacks, anxiety responses
comment on weight, told “too thin
bullying, harassment
Now on to what I thought
First off I want to thank the publisher for inviting me to read and review this, especially since this is a new to me author and this is one type of romance I love to read which is male/male.Another thing I liked about this is besides it been a romance and a male with male at ,is how the author talks about have the different types of anxiety as well as attacks, and how the characters Summer and Fox talks about them , and even though Summer has trouble with them he still want to help the students even if its only by talking to them one on one , another thing I liked about this story was how much Summer comes into himself and how Fox comes to understand that its ok for him to love someone and be loved back, and while its a slow building romance , it works well for this story because it makes the characters seem more real, and the author brings the story to life as well by mentioning what I listed above. With that said I would also like to thank NetGalley for letting me read and review it as well.

My first read of this author outside his CI series and I gotta say that I loved it.

This is about <b>Summer Hemlock</b> who we met briefly in season 1 of CI when Malcolm met him at like a coffee house for a talk.

Summer grew up in a small town called Omen (interesting name :p) and his father worked at probably the town's biggest attraction - Albin Academy, an all boys private high school. Summer grew up with his mother, and they grew up poor, and Summer had gotten in by a scholarship.

And when he was there, <b>Fox Iseya</b> was his psychology teacher, and Summer had a huge crush on him.

7 years later, a 25 year old Summer has come back to Omen to work as Iseya's TA, and Summer is just as attracted as when he was a teenager when he meets Fox again.

Fox wasn't attracted when Summer was his student, but Summer has changed those 7 years, and is an adult now, and Fox does feel a spark of interest he tries desperately to ignore.

Fox is 46, so he's 21 years older than Summer, so we get that may-december romance aspect. But also, when Fox was around Summer's age, he lost his wife, and Fox has been closed off ever since, and is afraid to love again.

But Summer is persistent and he doesn't give up, and Fox never tells him "no" despite Summer giving him every opportunity to.

I loved these two and their chemistry, they were on fire together. (And with how much they went at it all over the school, I'm surprised they only really got caught once ;)).

They have a few weeks together, but Fox is still having a hard time, the more he falls for Summer, because he doesn't want to be falling for him and he's falling for him anyway and that terrifies him. And Summer is consistently sweet and kind and optimistic.

Summer has some somewhat severe anxiety, and you can't help but feel for him, and Fox treats him kindly when he has panic attacks, no matter how. many times Fox says he's not good for Summer, that he's not nice or feeling or anything like that.

And despite Summer's anxiety, he takes to talking to the high school boys one-on-one, and being there for them. When there's some bullying going on, Summer desperately wants to help (he was bullied as well when he was at the school), and Summer finds more and more love in a guidance counselor role than a teacher role.

I gave .5 off because I felt we could have got a little more at the end and I felt it ended a little too soon, I just wanted a little more of seeing them settling into their HEA, but I still loved this book overall.

Seeing these two go from the beginning of their relationship to where they end up was wonderful and I loved it. And seeing as this is the first book in this series, I wonder if the next book will be about these two or a new couple. I will be happy either way :D.

(Also this made me miss Seong-Jae and Malcolm, and I'm hopeful we'll get the next CI installment soon *fingers crossed*)

Two massive thumbs up from me, definitely recommend, especially if you're a fan of Cole McCade's writing and/or his CI series.

This complicated M/M romance features a somewhat taboo relationship of a young man returning to his former private boarding school as a teaching assistant to the professor he crushed on as a teenager. Both characters have plenty of anxiety and obstacles they need to overcome, but perhaps they can learn to trust each other in order to build a new and lasting relationship. Although not for everyone, this is a satisfying and thought-provoking read.

Cole McCade writes really good angsty slow burn romances, and this one does not disappoint! Summer Hawthorn used to go to school at Albin Academy And comes back as TA to Fox Iseya, psychology instructor who is dealing with grief over the death of his wife 20 years ago. Summer had a crush on Fox as a teen but getting to know him as a flawed adult gives them a chance to fall in love.

Summer has chronic anxiety and has difficulty in new situations, especially standing in front of a classroom of teen boys, but Fox and him come to an arrangement of sorts where for one brave thing a day, Fox will give Summer a kiss.

This is a May/December romance with some power imbalances inherent in fact Iseya is Summer’s mentor, but I think those power disparities are handled well with them communicating and keeping work roles separate from personal relationship.

This didn’t wow me as much as some of McCade’s other romances, but it was still an enjoyable story and I’m looking forward to more in this series. I also got really excited over seeing a Criminal Intentions Easter egg! I’m kinda hopeful that the next book in Albin Academy series will be Mr Liu’s story…

Cole Mccade writes some of the sexiest MM romances out there and this book is no different. I love the taboo relationships he’ll often center his romances around and in this one it’s teacher of a boarding school and his former student. There is also an age different but the chemistry is absolutely sizzling between the two. Mccade also writes amazing tension and wonderful slow burn that make me scream at my kindle “KISS ALREADY”.

Highly recommend especially if you’re already a fan.

I received this ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for giving me a copy. I liked the story of Summer returning home as a teaching assistant to his old mentor and teacher. He loved his former teacher Fox. Summer and Fox have this intense relationship of love and letting go of the past. It was a good story, but I wished some of the sub plots were answered for me.

when summer hemlock returns to albin academy in just like that he's not quite sure what he means to do with his life. his plans for finding himself away from the place he's always called home didn't quite pan out. and so he's found a job acting as the teaching assistant to the one man who has always intrigued him.

it's been 7 years since he last saw professor fox iseya, and the man can still bring him to his knees. but beyond the anxiety of being in his presence, for summer there's also the glorious freedom of finally asking for what he wants.

and he wants iseya. but the professor has experienced soul-crushing loss before. since then he's kept himself, his emotions locked away. why would a vibrant young, so unbearably young, soul want anything to do with him.

when they are together, who they are together is a perfect balance. and they just work. what they come to mean to each other is beautiful and emotional.

**just like that will publish on june 30, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press (carina adores) in exchange for my honest review.