I'm so excited to be a part of the TEACHING ROMAN blog tour, organized by Inkslinger PR! Read on for my review, and don't forget to check out the other tour stops for more fun stuff!
Published June 26, 2014
Publisher: self-published
Format: e-book, provided by the author and Inkslinger PR
Genre: new adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble
Rating: 3.5 STARS
(From Goodreads) Jessica Stone has her life in perfect order until her perfectly boring boyfriend Brett puts things in perspective. So when she receives a call to action from her heartbroken best friend Cassie, she ditches her plans for Winter Break in gloomy Olympic Falls and sets off to Mexico for some fun in the sun.
Determined to use her oceanview to prep for her MCATS, she doesn't plan to run into anyone from Olympic State, least of all the cute communications prof she's been crushing on for a year. When he unexpectedly saves the day, the two are thrown together in a distinctly extracurricular activity.
Roman Markson doesn’t expect to run into anyone he knows from Olympic Falls while visiting his family in Puerto Vallarta, especially not a former student. Although Jess Stone has a way of catching men’s attention, a relationship with her is strictly off-limits. However, the rules feel less strict in Mexico, so they agree to a plan: one week in paradise and nothing more.
But avoiding each other back on campus is harder than they anticipated, especially when they can’t stay away from one another. Neither is sure what they have to learn—and lose—before life teaches them a lesson they’ll never forget.
Teaching Roman is all about that forbidden quasi-teacher/student romance that seems to work in some instances and not-so-much in others - for me, at least. The romance between instructor, Roman, and former student Jess actually worked well for me. There was tons of delicious sexual tension and the big secret of their forbidden relationship to ensure that stress and drama is always there.
Jess is always planning her next move. She has big plans to go to med school, and when her lukewarm boyfriend proposes, she turns him down and runs away on vacation to Mexico while on break. It's there that she coincidentally runs into Roman Markham, an instructor and PhD candidate from her school. They start up a whirlwind romance that is easy in the tropics and near impossible when they return to reality.
Roman's and Jess' relationship is pretty wonderful. Roman is attentive and sweet and a little mysterious. He seems to breathe life into Jess, which she really needed. Jess was so uptight and straightlaced. Roman convinced her to be crazy and let go. If he hadn't, she wouldn't have entertained the idea of starting something up with him. Kind of ironic, right? Jess was reluctant to hook up with Roman because she was afraid she'd lose herself in him. Then, in the end, it was Roman who had second thoughts.
Honestly, I had a bit of a problem with the beginning of Teaching Roman. It was obvious in the previous book, Catching Liam, that there was an instant attraction between Jess and Roman. When they see each other in the airport on the way to Mexico, you can tell that attraction is still there. Twenty-four hours later, they're falling into bed together and a week after that professing their love for one another. It seemed to happen so fast. It wasn't quite believable.
We saw a lot of Liam and Jillian from the previous book, which made me happy. They are dealing with Liam having to return to Scotland and leave Jillian behind. I enjoyed the friendship between Jess and Jillian as much in Teaching Roman as I did in Catching Liam. They are the best of friends who do things that might initially piss off the other, but only because it's in her best interest. That is a real friend.
The ending of Teaching Roman was left wide open in some aspects. The drama between Roman and Jess (and yes - of course there's drama. Happily ever afters never come easy, do they?) comes to a satisfying resolution (albeit a bit out of character for Jess), there are other aspects of the story that weren't really wrapped up as well as I would've liked. Presumably, we'll see the conclusion of those story lines come to an end in Cassie's book, which is next.
Although the romance developed too quickly and the ending didn't wrap up as tightly as I would've liked, the story was sweet, the sex was hot and the characters were interesting. I can't wait to see how all three girls' stories come to an end.
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