Hot for Teacher by Aunt Georgia Lee

Publisher/Date: Onyx Lee Publications; July 2019
Genre(s):  Contemporary Romance
Pages:  308
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Rating: ★★★★☆ 

SYNOPSIS:  The teacher’s pet is a role we have all played at one time, even if it were only in our dreams. The infatuation one has for a mature, authority figure in the form of a classroom teacher makes for the most seductive, forbidden fantasy.

What if the opportunity to experience a romance with your teacher could be more than legal, but perfectly acceptable?

Although Evelyn Hargrove is not Danielle Rivers’ teacher, she does have a lesson for this eager pupil to learn. Their relationship begins with a mutual desire to protect an innocent child, but soon it is their hearts they must guard.

Evelyn, a former classroom teacher turned child psychologist, finds herself thrown into the mysterious drama of a young boy’s disturbing behavior. This leads to an emotional battle between her desire for her young student’s adopted parent and her own struggles with family trauma from the past.

Danielle, a former exotic dancer turned manager of a gentleman’s club, finds herself playing mother to her nephew and longing to play doctor with his guidance counselor. Through their rocky start, these two women tread lightly towards uncovering the truth behind the young boy’s issues and their own secret fears.

Will juggling Evelyn’s role as guidance counselor with a performance as lover, be too hot for teacher?

Hurry up! The bell for first period is about to ring. Don’t be late to get schooled.

Parent-teacher conferences will never look the same after reading HOT FOR TEACHER by Aunt Georgia Lee. This novel explores the attraction between teacher-turned-guidance counselor Evelyn Hargrove and guardian Danielle Rivers as they attempt to maintain a professional relationship. While their priority is Danielle’s 14-year-old nephew Colin, there is no denying that the ladies appreciate what they see at their initial meeting to address issues with the child she co-parents with best friend, Rod.

Once a high-achieving student, Colin now appears to be having performance and disciplinarian issues; his adoption by Danielle two years ago at the request of her sister is a sensitive issue and comes into play when Danielle and Rod step into Ms. Hargrove’s office. They come up with a plan to help Colin that involves additional counseling sessions and enrollment in a summer program to provide direction and support for this vulnerable young boy harboring a secret.

At first, it’s all business, by the book and last names only. From there, each meeting and phone call finds Evelyn and Danielle simultaneously acknowledging and dismissing their feelings, and the slow-burn dance begins.

That slow burn is what I enjoyed most about this novel. Because the romance doesn’t take off right away, it allowed me to get to know Danielle and Evelyn, who are fully-fleshed characters with painful pasts of abandonment and parental drug use. Their motivations are also evident, especially in Danielle’s career as manager of a gentleman’s club and Evelyn’s investment in her work and to her students. The research Aunt Georgia Lee offers to legitimize Evelyn’s work as a counselor is appreciated.

Hot for Teacher has an element I love, the found-family aspect, which speaks to my lesbian heart. I was moved by the origins of Danielle’s relationship with Rod – both ostracized for being queer – and how their joint efforts in providing Colin a stable home has also saved and restored them all in many ways. Evelyn’s own friendgroup allows her to have the family she was robbed of, especially her best friend Tori, who is a pure fool but always has Evelyn’s back.

While it might seem questionable that the pair should be together, when Evelyn and Danielle do get together…. 🔥 🔥 🔥

Though I will say there are some loose ends left unresolved, Hot for Teacher certainly rang my school bells. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 😀)

Reviewed August 2020

 

Want to know more about Aunt Georgia Lee? Read the Meet This Sistah Interview

 

 

 

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It’s Complicated: Misconceptions by Erika Renee Land

Publisher/Date:  Ezarie Publishing, Jan. 2013
Genre(s):  Romance, Drama
Pages:  254
Website:  http://twitter.com/elandthewriter

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Why does it seem as if in some lesbian breakups that we never really break up, at least not completely? There’s that unfinished business that gets pushed aside, not resolved, as we move to the next woman.

Enter IT’S COMPLICATED: MISCONCEPTIONS, the debut novel from Erika Renee Land. It’s a whole mess of things going on this book, mostly surrounding Laila Morriston and her 8-year relationship with Victoria. Good as all are relationships are, their romance dwindles due to Victoria’s infidelity. Laila can’t trust Tori, and in my eyes, should have left her a long time ago, but Laila is still holding on to that connection they still have when times are good.

Just when she thinks things are getting back on track, Tori pulls the disappearing acts again. Acting secretive. Leaving the house at all hours of the night. Laila has had it up to here, and decides that Tori needs a taste of her own medicine. Enter Camille, the stripper she meets on a night Tori got missing. What transpires between them was nice, but Tori is still the love of Laila’s life and she wants to put things back right between them.

As always, though, things are good, and then Tori acts shady again. This back and forth causes them to separate, and Laila believes it’s truly over this time. Enter Nadia, another woman Laila meets at a vulnerable time, an assistant to a client of hers, and a dynamite woman. They could talk about anything, and bonded over loved cultural events and books. Nadia was someone she could see herself with – if she weren’t still wondering about and pining for Tori. Dating Camille and Nadia at the same time, both women are smart, beautiful and open up Laila’s eyes to new possibilities. The problem is Laila isn’t truly honest about her unresolved feelings for Tori; neither woman knows just how deep Laila’s feelings still run for her ex.

When Tori returns, what’s a woman to do with the new relationships she’s entered into in the meantime? Is she willing to drop everything for the woman who left her, or take a chance on someone new?

A fast-paced read, there is more to this story than I should put in this review, but trust me, you’ll read all about the deception, heartbreak and betrayal (plus crazed stalkers) in It’s Complicated: Misconceptions. One thing I should say is that everything is not what it appears. What is transparent is that Laila and Tori’s back-and-forth relationship was something that could have been resolved if they were more mature about how they handled each other. But after 8 years of cheating, why was Laila still even with Tori? As 32-year-old landscape architect at a respectable firm (one that is unbelievably tolerant of her messy personal life), she’s smart, but naïve and too into her head. We’ll see if she learns the game in the sequel. Hopefully.

Reviewed June 2013