Given Our History by Kristyn J. Miller

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin

Date of publication: August 27th, 2024

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Adult, Academia

Purchase Links: Kindle | B&N | WorldCat

Goodreads Synopsis:

Assistant professor Clara Fernsby is nothing if not driven. She’s wanted to teach history since she was fourteen, and she hasn’t let anything stand in her way—not even the love of her life. And it all paid off in the end, because she landed a well-paid position at a private liberal arts college fresh out of grad school, and this year, she’s finally up for tenure.

When Theodore Harrison is brought on for the fall semester as a visiting scholar, it’s an unwelcome blast from Clara’s past. She hasn’t spoken to Teddy since a falling out ten years ago. Now that he’s here, she’s reminded of their shared history at every autumns spent at a sleepaway camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where she traded battered books and burned CDs with a quiet, dark-haired boy—and fell in love with him.

That boy might’ve been her best friend, but the man teaching HIST-322 is a total stranger. But as they spend evenings working on a shared project and brainstorming over drinks at a college bar, Clara realizes she’s at risk of falling all over again. Given their history, she knows there’s every chance he’s not interested. But history’s all down to interpretation, and this time around, she’s got no intentions of repeating it.

First Line:

I might’ve been on time, were it not for the parking meters.

Important details about Given Our History

Pace: Medium

POV: 1st person (Clara)

Content/Trigger Guidance: Given Our History contains themes that include injury, injury detail, death of a parent, sexism, misogyny, alcohol consumption, and grief.

Language: Given Our History contains mild swearing and language that might offend some people.

Sexual Content: There is mild sexual content in Given Our History.

Setting: Given Our History is set in Baltimore, Maryland.

My Review

Given Our History is a second chance, dual storyline book that I had no strong feelings for. It is infrequent for me not to get strong emotions about any book genre, and it is even rarer for that book to be a romance. I love romance in all shapes and forms. So, when I got the widget for this book, it was going to be something that I enjoyed. Instead, I was “meh” about it.

Don’t get me wrong; I thought the storyline for Given Our History was interesting. It tracks Teddy and Clara’s friendship from their early teens attending a camp catered towards homeschooled kids in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the event that caused them to stop talking to each other and eventually work at the same college. The author covered everything perfectly, with the main storyline split between the past and present.

I did like Clara. She was a quirky person trying her hardest to be considered for a tenured position at the college. Clara also had a lot of baggage; some centered around Teddy, but the rest centered on her home life. I loved that she was a history nerd, and the random facts that the author integrated into Teddy and Clara’s conversations (when they were teens) had me googling them. But, at the same time, I felt that Clara was too stuck on Teddy and didn’t allow anyone else in her life. The beginning scene in the prologue is where she bumps into Teddy and his girlfriend at a deli (where she is meeting a professor) and acts like a child. That theme repeated throughout the book and wasn’t a good look for a character that I otherwise liked.

I also liked Teddy. The author wasn’t as forthcoming with his life and issues as she was with Clara’s. In some spots, getting any information about Teddy other than what she shared was almost painful. Like Clara, he was a huge history nerd and had a home life that wasn’t the best.

The romance angle of the book was very slow-moving. There was a point in the book where I was mentally urging them to go faster because it was starting to bore me. I also raised an eyebrow at how old-fashioned Clara was around her younger sister (who was super spoiled). But the romance did eventually heat up, but even then, it was lukewarm.

The secondary storyline about Clara trying to get tenure made me see red when it was wrapped up. I did agree with Clara and her immediate actions after that meeting, but still, it made me so angry.

The end of Given Our History was your typical HEA. I liked that Clara and Teddy finally got together.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, NetGalley, and Kristyn J. Miller for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Given Our History. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

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