Flirting with Fifty delivers something I think is seriously lacking in romance: an older woman finding love. As the title implies, Paige is about to turn 50. She is divorced with 3 grown kids. She loves her job as a professor. Honestly, she is living her best life! So often in romances it is about 20 or 30 something character meeting, falling in love, having kids, etc. It is refreshing to get a heroine who is past that stage. She isn't looking to fall in love and start a family. Love in your late 40's and on is about something different than love in your 20's!

Jack is a great hero! There is a bit of a second chance twist here that I appreciated as well. I also found his job fascinating-he is kind of like an Indiana Jones type guy who travels all over the world. Now he is co-teaching a class on Biology with Paige (office romance, anyone?) and they end up going to Tanzania!

Flirting with fifty is a slow burn; this feels appropriate for the story. However, I am really impatient with slow burns. This is also just straight romance-there is no conflict or suspense and I think I really need that in my stories as well. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this and think it will appeal to readers looking for mature characters.

This is a well written book. The pace is a little slow for me, but I'm sure others will want to savor it. It's nice to see a romance with a mature heroine, and to see how Paige's older self compares to the woman she was when she and Jack first met.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

“She didn’t need a man telling her what to do, or where to be, or what time to be home. She didn’t want to ask for permission to meet friends, see a movie, or take a barre class. She was turning fifty at the end of September, and she was done asking. Done getting permission for anything. Done compromising. And relationships were just one compromise after another. “I don’t hate men. I just don’t need to spend a lot of one-on-one time with any of them.”

Paige is content with her life. She loves her job as a math professor and her three grown daughters have their own satisfying lives. She has been out of her terrible marriage for eight years and has no desire to get back into the relationship game. (Being divorced in my fifties, I can so relate!)

When Paige gets recruited to co-teach a class with a visiting professor, she is not happy about the added work. Then she realizes that the professor is the same sexy Aussie she hooked up with thirty years ago, and not knowing what to do, she pretends to not know him. Of course he remembers her….

Jack is an Indiana Jones type of guy who travels the world doing field study. He is a widower with a grown son. The biology course they are co-teaching also includes a 3-week field study, so I enjoyed the different settings the book takes us to. But it was a little slow for me.

It was a slow-burn romance, which works for the age of the characters, as well as the workplace situation, but it just made the book itself a little slow as well. There wasn’t really any important conflict or anything overly exciting that made me want to rush to read and find out what happens.

Likes:
•Older, smart characters.
•Parents of grown kids.
•I liked getting to go to Tanzania.
•It was different than most books I read.
•I loved Jack.
•There was none of the stereotypical middle aged characterizations.
•They mentioned the Pandemic instead of pretending it didn’t happen.

Dislikes:
•It moved a little slow for me.
•Needed some more of a conflict.
•Not a fan of the cover.
•She had a kind of strange relationship with her grown daughters.
•I felt very ambivalent towards Paige. I didn’t love her or hate her.

The Down & Dirty:
I love reading about mature couples! Flirting with Fifty had so much potential but there was just something missing. It was a relaxing, easy read, but it was a little slow and needed some more conflict. I had mixed feelings about Paige. For me, I almost always need to LOVE the heroine to love the book, and we were in her head too much. Still, I enjoyed the read, I loved the hero, and really enjoyed the different settings and realistic older characters. I recommend it for someone who is specifically looking for older romance.

Rating: 3.5 Stars, 2.5 Heat

Add this to your Beach Read TBR! Hot Aussie professor, check. Slow-burn romance, check. Set in Southern California with travels to Montana and Africa, check. This second chance romance throws professors Paige and Jack together, unexpectedly, thirty years after a brief romantic encounter. A seasoned romance with all the feels. This first book in the series delivers. Can't wait for book two.

Received an ARC from Netgalley

Flirting with Fifty is a really good book. I identified with Paige in so many aspects: her age, her profession, and her attitude toward men. A blast from her past changed everything for her. Jack King had one night with Paige three decades earlier and each never pursued it. I was very comfortable with all the academic talk and setting. I loved the travel descriptions included in the narrative.
Learning to trust in a relationship is one of the most difficult components. This book gives a person hope..

Four and a Half Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭑
Flirting with Fifty by Jane Porter is a delightful later-in-life contemporary romance, that touched my heart.

Paige Newsom is in a good spot in her life. Divorced for years, she’s living her life on her terms. Her three daughters are spread out across the country and living their own lives now, and her job as a professor at Orange University in Southern California is what she’s always wanted to do and she has friends and enjoys the students. But, when she’s asked to take on a new course just before the semester starts, she’s not happy but agrees to the take on co-teaching the course. But, could the visiting professor be the same Jack King she had a one-night stand with back when she was a grad student in Paris?

I loved that these characters are older. Paige is just about to turn 50 and Jack is 55, and it shows that love can happen at any time in your life. They have instant chemistry, but, both have good reasons for avoiding a relationship. Although the chemistry is instant, it still takes some time for them to trust each other enough to start a relationship.

I loved the setting of this story. It’s set in South Orange County, California and that’s where my family lives, so I enjoyed all the references to places I know and enjoy. The author knows this area well, and her reference to the real places is spot on. Orange University is not a real place, but almost everything else is. When Paige complained about going to LAX to pick up her daughter, I felt her pain.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Is it a second chance romance if you only had a one night stand- years and years ago? Paige, now a college professor, is thrilled to be chosen for a team teaching class that includes a three week stint in Tanzania, until her partner shows up. Jack, the hot Australian biologist, is the man she spent a night with in Paris. Since then, she's divorced, his wife has died, but they've never forgotten one another. Yep- you know what's going to happen but this has the added benefit of the great setting and mature characters. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This would make a good Lifetime movie :).

I am loving that we are embracing different age groups in the romance community. Who cares if we are in our older fifty and still dating? That’s life, everyone changes as they get older. And that’s something Paige relates to.

Paige is finally living her life as she wants. It may be different than she expected. But at least it’s to her liking, no one else. And she will need it when she gets assigned to a special project at her job.

Paige didn’t expect to run into a former flame years ago. But the universe has a funny way of reminding you that life does not go accordingly. There is still chemistry between each other, but they will need to be careful since they both work with each other. Workplace romance is a bit tricky to handle, but as long as they both communicate with each other then it should not have any problems.

I would say that I did have one problem with this book. It was Paige's daughters that I had a problem. I felt that one of the daughters was too needy for her age. I understand hard times are difficult to deal with, but that does not mean raining on your mother. She can have a life, you are literally in your 30s. Try to figure out your problems and deal with them.

First - please publishers, please give us more mature romances. As in characters who are above the age of 40 and older. There is an untapped market out there of women who love reading romance, but are ready for characters whose life didn't turn out the way they necessarily wanted, but STILL want to experience romantic love.

Second - so I enjoyed FLIRTING WITH FIFTY. I think it was a fresh twist on romance with the characters being 49 and 55. Anyone nearing the age of 50 will relate to a lot of Paige's thoughts about growing older, emotional love AS WELL as physical love.

Third - while I liked Paige and Jack, I felt they both could have used deeper character growth. Paige was extremely focused on her three daughters - understandable - but she didn't really seem to grow above that except for falling (again) for Jack. Meanwhile, he was still determined to be an Aussie Indiana Jones and save the world (literally - he was extremely concerned about climate change).

It was so refreshing to see two older characters fall in love again. I also liked how they didn't just jump into a physical romance quickly. This was a slow burn.

The plot, though, was too slow. It needed more conflict maybe with his past loves or her ex-husband making an appearance.

Nonetheless, I felt a "oh, that was so different and nice" relaxed feeling after reading it. The excerpt for Jane's next book was VERY interesting and I certainly will read that book as well.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for providing me an e-copy of FLIRTING WITH FIFTY to review.

I rate FLIRTING WITH FIFTY four out of five stars.

I am so glad someone is writing for women in my age bracket. We certainly need more age diversity in the romance world. However, this story just didn’t hook me in. A female professor meets her one night stand after 30 years when they are forced to teach a class together.

This was the first book I’ve ever read by Jane Porter and I really liked it! As a 50-year-old woman I enjoyed reading about someone my age going through some of the same things as I do. I am happily married but I do have three daughters who live around the country and I miss them terribly! I could empathize with Paige and I was rooting for her and Jack the whole time.. Paige was one smart lady and Jack was swoon-worthy and the perfect guy for her. I will definitely be reading more of Jane Porter in the future!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review. All opinions are my own.

This is a second-chance love story. Paige and Jack had a brief encounter thirty years ago. Now they have been thrown together to teach a course at Paige's University. She believes that he doesn't recognize her so she pretends not to recognize him. As a reader we know that this is going to implode somewhere along the line. I enjoyed this book. I liked seeing Paige come away from her control issues and risk a relationship. I liked that Jack was a man who was willing to let Paige come around to the relationship without forcing any issues. I did think the story slowed a bit in the middle but it certainly picked up toward the end.

Flirting with Fifty is a fun midlife romance between a divorced college prof and a sexy Australian biologist, with a dazzling Tanzanian setting and loads of charm. Perfect for les femmes d'un certain âge who adore well-written romances with characters they can relate to and Indiana-Jones-like male leads. Swoon ...

Thanks to the author, Berkley Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

#FlirtingwithFifty #JanePorter
#berkleypublishinggroup #NetGalley
#romancenovels #midliferomancenovels
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I really wanted to love this book. I love a later-in-life romance (gives me hope!) and when you have a sexy silver-haired Indian-Jones-type professor? Sign me up! Sadly this book was nowhere near as exciting as Indian Jones, and was downright boring. I ended up DNFing at 50% in. I kept trying to continue, kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever did. It was just inconsequential conversation after inconsequential conversation--many of which were downright awkward, all of which were devoid of humor or sex appeal. Even the big "reveal" where the two characters finally admitted they did remember each other from a one night stand thirty years ago was anticlimactic and uninteresting, failing to serve the plot in any meaningful way.

You may be thinking, Stephanie, if you didn't finish this book why did you give it three stars? Well, I'm a big believer in crediting author's work and giving them the benefit of the doubt. I didn't finish this book, so I can't say whether or not it improved--maybe it did. There was nothing inherently bad, error-ridden, or offensive with this book. It just was not my cup of tea.

Thanks to Berkley for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3 stars - 5/10

This synopsis and title got me!  I am 50+ and happily married and I swear if I ever find myself single again - I am done.  Not dating, I will live the life of a nun.  I will spend my time with my friends and watch my children grow up!  Not unlike our main character Paige.  She's perfectly content being on the sidelines of her children's lives.  Well, she wants to be more involved I think but her kids are happy having her in the peripheral of their everyday lives. 

But from her past comes her one indiscretion, her one man who she would love a do-over with and he's now working with her, every day. 

Jack is a dream come true for any woman, especially a woman over fifty.  He's so sweet and loving and patient with Paige, who like I said, wasn't ready for any romance in her life but here comes Jack and he's not taking NO for an answer.  This is a bit of a slow burn and there is surely some push and pull.  I enjoyed seeing this side of menopause and not the - getting fat, hot flashing, bitchy side we often see in women over fifty!

Where do I sign up for my very own Professor Jack King? I want to go traveling with him and teach with him!
WOW!! HUBBA HUBBA!
Thank you so much! I hope I find him!

I really wanted to like this. I am on the cusp of turning 50 and it is so nice to read about romance and attraction rather than night sweats and flushes. The settings were spectacular and described so well. Jack was your typical dashing main character but Paige just annoyed me so much! She was frustratingly small minded even though she professed to be open minded. Her main achievement in life was raising 3 independent girls, whose lives she probably micromanaged and used as a excuse to do nothing with hers. And talk about overthink absolutely everything! I am not sure what Jack really saw in her.
I wish there had been more action and dialogue and less introspection and inner thoughts. I did skim over Paige’s towards the end. I read the excerpt of her new novel and that sounded much better. Porter does write male characters very well. I just want her female characters to have more spunk and less traditional ways. But this is just my opinion.
Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.