December 1, 2024
Vice principal Brianna Rogers has purposely kept herself apart from the teachers at her school. Now that she's an administrator, she can't play favorites. Setting boundaries with most of the staff is easy, but Roman Major, the exceptionally fine teacher and son of the principal, is harder to resist. It takes all of Brianna's willpower to reign in her attraction to him. When she impulsively volunteers to participate in a team competition that would fully fund a school library renovation, the only thing standing in her way is the team's last-minute addition: Roman. Has Roman been sent by his father to sabotage their chances? Suspicious mechanical errors seem to validate her wariness. As the weeks go by, the barriers Brianna has put up between herself and Roman begin to crumble, and it seems the attraction is mutual. Brianna will have to decide if she can trust Roman with her heart. Brianna is a better-developed character than Roman, but this works in the plot's favor, as it makes readers share Brianna's distrust of Roman's motives, a conundrum that will have them staying up late into the night as they race to the novel's end for the answer. VERDICT Easton (The Kiss Countdown) writes a slow-burn page-turner.--Heather Miller Cover
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
February 1, 2025
A middle school vice principal joins a six-week Mars simulation for a chance to win $500,000 for her school. Brianna Rogers has been a chronic underachiever compared to her high-powered siblings. She loves kids but drifted through several jobs as a teacher and counselor before finally landing a position as a vice principal at a Houston middle school. She clashes with her principal, a difficult and condescending man. What's worse is that the most attractive teacher at the school, Roman Major, is the principal's son. Roman also applied for the vice principal job, and she suspects that's why their interactions are chilly and adversarial. Then, in the final weeks of the school year, she discovers that the principal redirected the money meant to renovate the library into a football field upgrade. Brianna is outraged but helpless to do anything about it, until she decides to join four of her colleagues, including Roman, on a six-week-long NASA Mars simulation they've been recruited for. There are cash rewards for individual teachers, but Brianna is more interested in the $500,000 grant the school will win if the team successfully completes the simulation. The award could fund the library upgrade without the principal's interference. Once Brianna and Roman enter the simulation, she begins to suspect that Roman was planted on the team by his father to sabotage their progress and prevent them from saving the library. Brianna's journey is both professional and personal. She struggles with the expectation that she will keep herself separate from her colleagues since she's a supervisor. She must learn to trust her own instincts, and eventually decides Roman is not there to ruin their chances of winning the grant. In comparison, Roman is underdeveloped to the point of feeling like an afterthought. There is little tension or conflict outside of the simulation itself, and the resolution is simple and uncomplicated. One strong main character can't save the contrived plot or underwhelming love interest.
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