I love a good second chance romance but I couldn't get into this book. It wasn't bad by a long shot but it didn't suck me in or captivate me. I found myself getting distracted fairly often while reading. Like I said it was not a bad book by any means but it just wasn't for me.

A very atmospheric romance. I loved the setting that the author created. The romance itself felt pretty familiar and predictable, but I still ultimately had a good time with this one.

Given Our History was a highly anticipated read for me, and it didn't let me down. Clara was a relatable heroine and Teddy a soft, sensitive hero. I enjoyed getting the perspective of college adjuncts and professors, which is not something I've encounter often in fiction.

Second chance romance can be hit or miss for me, but Miller's approach of sprinkling in the past 17 years and explanation for why Clara and Teddy didn't work out when they were in school worked.

The side characters were wonderful - I would read more about Bel and Izzy!

Given Our History
Kristyn J. Miller
Pub: 8/27/24
4☆

This was a cute, second chance romance. I enjoyed the past and present timelines, the banter, and the academia setting. Teddy and Clara have the sweetest friendship and it was fun watching it slowly develop into more. They were a tad too wishy washy for my liking but overall I enjoyed it and look forward to more from Miller.

What I enjoyed;
🍁 Second Chance Romance
🍁 Friends To Lovers
🍁 Women in STEM
🍁 Alternating Timeline
🍁 Millenial References

If you’re in the mood for a cozy fall romance, this will hit the spot. And that cover… so dang cute.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Readers who love second chance x dual timeline x friends to lovers are going to eat this book up. While that is not my favorite combo, I did also overall enjoy the read.

Clara and Teddy’s friendship has spanned over 17 years, though after a falling out over if or how to move their relationship forward, they haven’t seen each other for years before Teddy shows up as a guest professor at the same university Clara works at. Their story unfolds in alternating past and present timelines from their meeting at camp to their reunion and hopeful happily ever after.

I mentioned the trope combo of this book is not my favorite, but most specifically I just don’t love dual timelines. It does work well here to establish Clara and Teddy’s history, but my own personal preference is that I’d rather spend most time in the present. Readers who love having that past time are going to be fed by this one. There is a lot of meat to the story that is found in Clara and Teddy’s past, which makes it make sense why it was told this way.

While I did want a bit more conversation between Clara and Teddy upon their reunion and more time spent on overcoming their past issues, I really loved the way things ultimately play out in the end. The book really ended on a high note for me and left me with a good feeling.

I also really enjoyed the academic setting and the secondary characters. Reagan was a great addition to Clara’s life and her little sister role provided some of my favorite comedic moments.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Griffin for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

“The hardest part about loving someone is, in my experience, stopping.”

🍂🍸✨☕️📖

A cute and cozy romance that has major fall vibes. I really enjoyed this one, it was a super quick and easy read. It was well written and entertaining. I loved the dual timelines and settings from when they were 14 years old at camp to being history professors.

Clara seemed kind of immature when it came to her reasoning for her and Teddy’s relationship but in the end I’m glad she allowed herself to be happy. I really love the friends to lovers trope. I loved seeing them meet for the first time at 14 years old and becoming friends to slowly becoming more years down the line. Teddy was so supportive of Clara’s dreams and independence. I thought they were adorable and sweet together, I just wish that there was more tension between them throughout the story. There was also a bit of the miscommunication trope thrown in there but it wasn’t a huge focal point. The side characters were funny, quirky, and super supportive, and it added lots of character to the story.

I also wish there was an epilogue so we could get more of a glance of them being together in a couple months or a year down the line. But it was overall, a good read. I would definitely recommend to anyone who loves dual timeline, second chance romances.

Nerdy and sweet with a little bit of spice and just enough backstory to fill in the gaps. Clara may have been frustrating at times, but certainly realistic.

Really enjoyable academic romance, I looove second chance romances its my favorite trope and I LOVE ME A DUAL TIMELINE THANK YOU AUTHOR! this was funny and well written. The early 2000's setting was executed perfectly, all the deets were there. Would have loved a bit more depth in their adult romance but it was a thoroughly entertaining story to read anyway. 4/5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins for the ARC in exchange of my honest opinion

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Clara was seeing her hard work pay off. She attained her goal of teaching history and was on a tenure track at the university. When her former best friend and first love comes back into her life, Clara begins to realize her goals may have changed.

There is nothing better than reading a romance that combines my two favorite tropes - friends-to-lovers and second chance romance. This story reunites this couple after many years apart, and I really enjoyed rooting for Teddy and Clara to get that HEA.

This was really a story of the right person at the wrong time. Clara and Teddy met when they were 14 at a sleep-away camp for homeschooled kids. Miller showed me via flashbacks how it all began and took me through the ups and downs as their relationship grew and changed over the years. These peeks into the past were spread out, so I was made to wait for a full explanation as to what drove them apart and ended their friendship. It broke my heart because I could not fathom giving up what they did, but the great part was that they were getting a second chance.

It did seem that Clara was going to make the same mistake twice. *cue the frustration and fury* In the present timeline, she was driven by her career goals, and her decisions were very much informed by her past. Clara's family had fallen on hard times, so she sought stability and financial security and vowed not to give up her dreams for someone else.

Then there was Teddy. His love of history was inspired by Clara, but his career path had not been in quite the same straight line as hers. He also experienced some setbacks that derailed his plans, but there was always something he was sure about -- Clara.

I am pretty sure most readers will be frustrated by Clara. The push and pull made me a bit batty even if I understood the reasons. But my heart knew they belonged together. The fact that their paths kept crossing and that they still harbored strong feelings for each other after so many years was proof enough for me. I am trash for characters with history, and there was so much between these two.

With great characters, a quaint setting, and a touch of nostalgia, Given Our History won me over. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to see Teddy and Clara find each other again and finally begin their life together.

I think this is a book that just wasn't the right timing for me. I adore everything about this cover, and the premise is really fun. There wasn't anything I disliked about the story or the characters, but I just couldn't get sucked into the story. I found myself distracted and uninterested in continuing to read it. I look forward to picking this one up and trying it at another time.

I always enjoy a second chance romance book and this one was okay. Not a favorite but would definitely recommend for romance readers.

As a history teacher, I liked the idea of history professors being the romantic leads in a story. However, beyond a few mentions of topics, there was actually no real history in the story. The plot goes back and forth from the present and their past history (get the play on words?) In the present, the heroine, Clara, has mixed feelings about seeing her one-time best friend, perhaps romantic interest, Teddy, after nine years when everything ended very badly for them. We don’t know what went happened to these two home-schooled kids who met at a camp for home-schooled kids. They’re both socially awkward, but they bond and become long-distance best friends.

It takes most of the book for us to find out what went wrong. Meanwhile, they seem to be recapturing their friendship while Clara works feverishly to try to qualify for early tenure which the chair of the department suggested she might qualify for. That was the part of the plot I totally didn’t buy. It is almost impossible these days for history PhDs to find tenure-track jobs. And universities don’t need to give them early tenure unless they have a better offer elsewhere. She doesn’t. And professors aren’t going to blithely give up a tenure-track job with the hope that they’ll find something elsewhere. That’s not the way the academic world works these days. So that whole subplot annoyed me.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

Book review NetGalley

4⭐️ What a sweet romance just in time for fall! This story is the perfect second chance romance about two professors who grew up together and put their careers first, and then find themselves working at the same college and sharing an office. I loved so many things about this book, especially the MMC and his determination to go after the things he wants! I loved the dual time lines and watching this relationship from start to end.

Minor spoiler but not really: only thing I didn’t love was the FMC was so determined not to fall in love. I LOVE that she’s career driven but I felt like she was a love hater at time.

This was an advanced read copy I received through Netgalley so it’s not going to be officially published until August 27, 2024! But this is my honest review!

Add this book to your to read list, I promise you won’t regret it! & then let me know what you thought!

#books #bookstagram #booktok #bookrating #library #bookreview #bookrecommendations #bookrecs#bookcommunity #booklovers #booksofinstagram #bookish #fivestarbooks #romancebook #kindlebooks
#kindleunlimited

Given Our History by Kristyn J. Miller is both a romance and a little love story to academia: the good, the bad, the complicated. Miller's book captures the specialness of a college town and the quirkiness of professors perfectly. I'm an assistant professor who goes up for tenure next year, and I really felt for Clara and her experience.

Clara is an Assistant Professor of History whose world is turned over when an old friend/flame comes back into her life (and her office!). Theodore (Teddy) comes to the University of Irving as a Visiting Scholar, as crashes back into Clara's life.

Clara and Teddy's story is told as a past/present POV that begins with their initial meeting at camp seventeen years prior. Their friendship is so well formed, and I truly enjoyed getting to know the two during the flashback chapters.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS: Overall, I really enjoyed this book (even if it got the tenure process mostly wrong--no tenure committee would ever ask about a candidate's high school experience, nor would they care what one did before the period of review at the current institution). But those small errors didn't take anything away from the book; I imagine it's like an MD watching Grey's Anatomy.

First I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this novel.

I loved this sweet fall romance so much. It wasn’t just a fall vibes romance but it was so much more. It took place at the beginning of the school year/university and went until Christmas so right through the fall time and had lots of great fall moments but it also did such a good job of giving us great characters and a great story.

I also loved that it was a single PoV. So many romances are duel PoV but this one just followed Clara and I really enjoyed that.

Clara and Teddy are two university professors with a history and it jumps back and forth between today and their back story.

It was beautifully written and I would highly recommend to all the romance readers out there.

It was a very solid 4.5/5 stars rounded up to 5 stars for this review.

I devoured this in one sitting on an airplane and absolutely adored it. A second chance, friends-to-lovers about two college professors set on a campus in the fall: it was the perfect summer to fall transition novel. Clara was a delightful lead - she was supportive of her sister and co-workers and yet had real struggles with professional and personal issues in a way that made her so relatable. And Teddy. Oh, Teddy. You were the cutest little shy nerdy cinnamon bun and I wanted to wrap you up in a fall scarf and force feed you caramel apples by a fire.

I'm not sure why this hit so right for me, but honestly a nerdy friendship that finally finds its happily ever after was just exactly what I wanted right now and I will be suggesting this to all my nerdy romance loving friends.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and netgalley for the chance to read and review!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. It was wonderful from start to finish!

Just finished this book and I'm obsessed! Clara Fernsby has always been laser-focused on her career in history, and she's finally up for tenure. But things get complicated when her old flame, Teddy Harrison, shows up as a visiting scholar. Their past romance from summer camp resurfaces as they work together, and Clara finds herself falling for him all over again. If you’re into angsty slow burns set in academia, this one’s a must-read!

Friends to lovers and second chance are my favorite tropes and this book combines them both well. We get a dual timeline, seeing Clara and Teddy as teens who become best friends, and then as adults who have a lot of baggage. It's a funny and sweet romance with a little bit of steam.

Highly recommend.

I really enjoyed Given Our History! The story flowed well and I liked switching back and forth between present and past tense (past tense took place over the span of several years). Both main characters are very likable and have a backstory for each. An epilogue would have been nice to get a taste of Clara and Teddy's future. I plan to recommend Given Our History as a book club pick this fall! I'm interested in reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Kristyn J. Miller for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Given Our History hits shelves on August 27, 2024.