Fun romping story of boarding school girls, and their relationships with each other and the boys at the next school over. I was absolutely entertained by the dialogue and narration. And I loved that Colgan threw in some teacher drama too!

I recently started the School by the Sea series as I thoroughly enjoy Jenny Colgan's writing. I was utterly surprised to find out this isn't a new series, but republished under the author's name instead of the alias she originally used. Lessons at the School by the Sea is recently published, and it is the third act in this series.

I enjoyed Maggie, the young teacher and main character of the storyline. Her love interests are intriguing as well. The series starts out with a thorough introduction to Maggie and her students. So thorough in fact, that I felt a bit lost as to where the plot might head. Once the introductions are done and the girls are deposited at boarding school, the story line begins moving forward. It is a charming and sweet story of a young woman from urban Glasgow who moves to Cornwall to teach at a posh, private boarding school. The series covers several years of Maggie's life at the school, and how she deals with the ups and downs of her teenaged charges.

The student's drama was less interesting to me, but it is essential to Maggie's story. Maggie's roommate, Claire, is hilarious as the stereotypical French teacher from France. I enjoyed David, the handsome teacher from the nearby boys' school. He and Maggie are obviously good for each other, but various people and things keep them from exploring a relationship together. This is the main angst, and it fills all three books. The angst is a bit overplayed and stretched out for my taste.

By the end of this third book, there is some closure with a happy-for-now ending that is really a beginning of a new chapter in Maggie's life. The series in enjoyable--even more so in the audiobook version. While it didn't hold the same magic for me that other series from the author have, I would still recommend the series to anyone interested in a sweet romance.

3.5 stars

Sweet, lovely, funny, and engaging! This 3rd book in the School by the Sea series will surely delight Jenny Colgan fans. The storytelling is clever and personal, the characters are terrific, and the plot moves through the school year at a fast pace, full of student shenanigans and adult relationship woes. It's all incredibly fun, and I definitely hope there will be more in the series!

Life at Downey House continues with the teachers and students returning for another year. Lots of drama and emotions for sure.
We are left wondering will Maggie and David get together in the end?????
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Oooooh I love this series!!!!!!!! I can't wait to find out what happens with the girls and Maggie & David in the next one!!!!!!!!!

This is my first in the 3 book series so I missed much of the back story. But having written that I think the book stands on its own and I could easily figure out who did what to whom. It’s a very cute book and as someone who DID go to boarding school I was able to relate to the story. Like the author I too was a fan of boarding school books as a child. And that’s probably how I ended up at one. Mine was more rigorous and a bit less innocent but it was the 1970s! This boarding school is the one I wish I had attended. I often read mysteries so this was a complete change of pace, and a welcome one at that. The story had its drama but nothing over the top and I think most readers will be as charmed by the book as I was. By the way, I was one of the scholarship students.

This was a charming read. It was well written and included lots of issues teachers and students face today. I loved David’s determination to make a difference in the lives of his students even though he faced a few new challenges. I also loved that the book ended on a cliffhanger to entice the reader to read the next book to find out what happens next! I read this book without reading the previous books in the series and felt it worked fine as a stand-alone book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books, and Harper Voyager US for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Once again, a magical trip to our teenage fantasies, courtesy of an excellent writer. I love this series. I am not normally into harry potter or boarding school type books, but this changed my mind. Its the girly version. I found myself imagining my youth, yet relating entirely with maggie and the other adults in the book. Jenny does an amazing job of interlacing the different story lines, and i find myself enamored with each character. I only hope there are more in the series!! A perfe ct escape, a perfect read, a perfect experience. Highly recommend!!!

Lessons at the School by the Sea is the third title in Jenny Colgan’s School by the Sea series. It is imperative that you read the stories in sequential order.

In the first book, Welcome to the School by the Sea, readers were introduced to Maggie Adair, a teacher who left her position at an inner-city Glasgow school to go to a girls’ posh boarding school in Cornwall. Maggie is thrilled to be at Downey House but she left her boring boyfriend of six years, Stan, behind. Scholarship student Simone and troublemaker Fliss are also introduced.

The second book, Rules at the School by the Sea, covers Maggie’s second year at Downey House. She is engaged to sweet and steady Stan but can’t stop thinking about David McDonald, her colleague at the boys' school down the road. There’s a subplot involving the headmistress, Veronica Deveral, and a new teacher, Daniel Stapleton.

In Lessons at the School by the Sea, Maggie and David’s relationship heats up over the summer, Maggie breaks her engagement with Stan, and Maggie and David get in trouble for violating their schools’ non-fraternization policies. There’s a lot drama including bullying and body-shaming going on with the students: Fliss, Simone, non-binary Isme, and the glamorous Alice.

Normally I really enjoy Jenny Colgan’s books. Her writing style is unique: descriptive run-on-sentences, but it works for her. With that said, I haven’t been able to get into this series. I don’t really care about the sub-plots involving the students’ and it seems like there’s too much drama. Of the three books in this series, I liked Welcome to the School by the Sea best and my enjoyment has diminished with each successive story. I miss the excellent storytelling from The Island series and 500 Miles from You.

I received an advance review copy (ARC) from NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Jenny Colgan has done it again! This was a wonderful book. The characters were charming and sweet. I highly recommend this fun and quick read! Thank you to the Jenny Colgan, Avon Publishing, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this delightful book.

3 1/2

I have to say that I was hopeful for Lessons at the School by the Sea but the introduction of Ismé as another prickly character to replace the former prickly Zelda doused those hopes. I sincerely wish that in one of the future three novels that Colgan would introduce a well-grounded, funny girl who is bright and optimistic. Too much to ask?

Because Colgan wants to maintain cardboard current, Ismé, is a non-binary feminist who's favorite word is "woke." She is gorgeous, talented, and Black and raises the ire of someone who makes offensive remarks about her online.

Meanwhile, David lost his position at the boy's school while Maggie has been put on probation of sorts and is told that she cannot see, call, or engage in social media with David. (Really? Is this a school or a dictatorship? Sounds a little too far-reaching to me.) Maggie has broken off her engagement to Stan and is now a lonely spinster teacher filled with angst.

David, however, is teaching at a comprehensive school, what we in the States would call a public school, and is facing situations unlike any he's dealt with previously. He draws on past conversations with Maggie as a guide because she taught at such a school in Scotland.

While Lessons at the School by the Sea is better than Rules at the School by the Sea, it is not quite as good as Welcome to the School by the Sea. I would suggest that this is because, while Maggie and Veronica's stories are growing, the stories of the girls seem stagnant. We should be discovering the dreams and the goals of Simone, Fliss, and Alice because these years are their big time. And by that I mean, their growth period as they move to becoming young adults and finding their passions, sometimes, beyond boys. (Hopefully it's not their big time the same way that some say high school was the best time of their lives!) It doesn't feel as if Colgan has given these girls dreams. What teenager doesn't have them?

There are supposed to be three more books in the series and I sincerely hope that the characters enjoy growth and happiness with a cap on angst.

I received an ARC of Lessons at the School by the Sea in exchange for an honest review.

Jenny Colgan returns a third time to the School by the Sea and Maggie’s story continues. However, if you’ve not read the first or the second in this series, you might be confused about the characters Maggie, David, and the teenage girls Simone, Alice, and Fliss, and their back stories that play such a prominent part in their decisions going forward. Maggie continues to be infatuated with David to the point that she calls off her wedding to longtime boyfriend Stan, and vice versa but neither Maggie nor David can bring themselves to admit it let alone call each other. And they are adults! Both behave as if they were the young school kids that they teach. Rather David chooses to go quietly when he is fired from the boys’ school when he acts rashly to contact Maggie. Maggie returns to the girls’ school but with the promise to never contact David or she would lose her job as well. Meanwhile, they pine for each other in silence but to the notice of everyone around them. Simone, Alice, and Fliss now have a new roommate who seems streetwise as they all explore growing pains of the teenage years. While Colgan deals with some heavy topics such as identity, race, body image, class, forbidden love, and suicide, to name a few I didn’t find this as interesting as the first one, and I really like Jenny Colgan books. But this story wasn’t for me, and I found both Maggie and David pathetic in their adulting. There is a cliff hanger at the end that will lead you into the next installment of this series although I’m not sure that I will be reding it. Again, I usually love Jenny Colgan, so I was disappointed by this particular story.

Many thanks to #netgalley #jennycolgan #lessonsfromtheschoolbythesea #harpercollins for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The third book in the School by the Series returns with the usual characters plus a few new ones. There's a lot of back and forth in this one, just when you think a character has finally made a decision, they seem to overthink it or allow miscommunication to complicate everything. A lot of heavier topics, ranging from body image to class differences, are mentioned but in a confusing manner where they seem like an afterthought, or at the very least, not expanded on in a meaningful way. Overall, this isn't one of Colgan's better series and it is haphazard in its themes which makes the books feel disjointed.

You know how life doesn't always go like you imagine it will? That's how I felt about this book. It didn't go like I imagined but it was still good. There were new characters introduced and new paths for the old characters. I look forward to learning more about them!

Oh I sure hope this isn’t the end of the series! What a cliffhanger!! But what a treat to revisit some old (what feel like) friends at this point. Jenny Colgan is always a go-to for a book to get lost in for a few hours and this was no exception.
Maggie Adair is back for Year 3 in the all girls school she teaches at called Downey House. The girls are always up to something and provide their own set of challenges but Maggie has her own. She’s called off her engagement to Stan because she’s fallen for David, a teacher at the local boys boarding school, which is strictly forbidden.
While they each struggle with their respective classes and the issues that the children face, they also struggle with the feelings they have for each other and what they want to do about it. Are they willing to sacrifice everything to be together?
This book tackles some heavier topics than usual in Jenny’s books, but it is done with tact and in a manner in which it can be appreciated but doesn’t bring the story to a screeching halt. I hope it’s not too long of a wait til the next installment!
Thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review

Jenny Colgan writes the most charming atmospheric cozy stories. She usually peppers in heavier themes in her novels while still maintaining the charm and ease of a light hearted read. This one landed a bit heavy and tackled a laundry list of tough topics including body image, fat shaming, and disordered eating. Colgan is a talented writer but this one may not appeal to a broad audience

I normally love any Jenny Colgan book I pick up, but this one didn't fall into that category, and I was so disappointed! This book never captured my interest or attention, and it wasn't something I looked forward in picking up and finishing. Ill still grab Jenny Colgan book off the shelf to read, but sadly can't recommend this one.

This book was just as great as all your books have been. I love the depth of emotion. Great characters.

I did not enjoy this book. The topics like body image and fat shaming were handled very poorly. These issues made it difficult for me to focus on anything else in the.story.

I didn’t realize this book was third in a series until I read the foreword, at which point I dutifully checked the first two out of the library, and by the time I’d finished reading them I was regretting requesting this one. I just cannot understand what has possessed Jenny Colgan to think she’s the right person to be tackling heavy topics like body image, eating disorders, poverty and classism, wealth and privilege, teen pregnancy, teen suicide, sexually abusive teachers, race, gender, and sexuality. Literally every one of those topics comes up in this book and they’re all so badly handled! There’s no depth or nuance or complexity, nor are they woven into the tapestry of a broader world. Instead they are ham handedly put front and center where the reader is beaten over the head with them and yet somehow they are also cheapened, reduced, made light of, resolved in a few pages or turned into a silly joke. It’s also farcical how many of these major, serious topics got crammed into one short book. I assume the next installment will involve shooting heroin and, I don’t know, human trafficking? Because those are the only tragedies I think haven’t already been covered in the series. I just cannot understand what Colgan thinks she’s doing and I’d like to know where the sensitivity readers are! Seriously wtf.