xuwriter's review
5.0
Hard-nosed educational consultant Phin Patterson is used to breezing into town, analyzing troubled schools and taking off before his superiors bring the hatchet down, disrupting the status quo. When he takes a job in small town New York, though, he figures he'll do what he's always done and be finished in no time. No harm, no foul. This town is different, though. For one thing, it doesn't take administrative assistant Dani long to figure out that Phin's hiding something. And then there's deliciously attractive school psychologist Alex, who's someone he has a significant past with. It seems, though, that Phin's past is now wrapped up with his present and it's proving harder than he thought to keep the two separate.
Lower Education is a slow build kind of story, one which relies on multi-faceted characterization and strong dialogue to guide the reader through the tale. What it lacks in narrative tension it makes up for in a real world premise, a well-rounded setting, and characters who juggle work and home. I particularly liked how refreshingly open they were about their sexuality. The heart of the story lies in the relationships, like it does for any satisfying romance. Most satisfying is the front row seat to savor the fissures that appear in bad boy Phin's carefully constructed emotional walls when he slowly lets love in
Lower Education is a slow build kind of story, one which relies on multi-faceted characterization and strong dialogue to guide the reader through the tale. What it lacks in narrative tension it makes up for in a real world premise, a well-rounded setting, and characters who juggle work and home. I particularly liked how refreshingly open they were about their sexuality. The heart of the story lies in the relationships, like it does for any satisfying romance. Most satisfying is the front row seat to savor the fissures that appear in bad boy Phin's carefully constructed emotional walls when he slowly lets love in
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