Teach Me by Olivia Dade

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Title: Teach Me
Author: Olivia Dade
Series: There's Something About Marysburg #1
Published by: Tantor Audio
Release Date: April 6, 2021
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kelsey Navarro
Length: 7 hours and 53 minutes
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Source: Chirp
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes ✩ Libro.FM ✩ Chirp
My rating:

Blurb:

Their lesson plans didn't include love. But that's about to change...

When Martin Krause arrives at Rose Owens's high school, she's determined to remain chilly with her new colleague. Unfriendly? Maybe. Understandable? Yes, since a loathsome administrator gave Rose's beloved world history classes to Martin, knowing it would hurt her.

But keeping her distance from a man as warm and kind as Martin will prove challenging, even for a stubborn, guarded ice queen. Especially when she begins to see him for what he truly is: a man who's never been taught his own value. Martin could use a good teacher--and luckily, Rose is the best.

Rose has her own lessons--about trust, about vulnerability, about her past--to learn. And over the course of a single school year, the two of them will find out just how hot it can get when an ice queen melts.

My Review:

4 stars — Honestly, this was just good and cute, with enough depth and growth to keep me interested.

Rose was a bit harder for me to connect with at times.  It’s not that I didn’t feel for all she went through in her childhood and marriage, but I think sometimes it’s still hard to understand the levels of protection people wrap around themselves…or at least it’s hard for *me* to understand.  Because not everyone reacts that way.  I admired her passion for her teaching, and especially her love for her students.  I loved how much it gave to her.  I may not have always gotten the whole black all the time thing, but I’m sure Rose wouldn’t understand my obsession with rainbows either…different strokes.  She definitely held onto her walls for as long as she could, and it was almost too long for me, but she made up for it when she finally let go and accepted some hard truths.

Martin was pretty adorable.  Obviously not without his own flaws, and he was his own shade of damaged from his childhood and marriage.  I love that we get to see two such different humans who emerged with fairly opposite coping strategies from said damage.  I connected with Martin more, probably because that’s where I would have fallen in his circumstances.  I loved the way he adored his daughter, and was equally passionate about his teaching.  Probably partially because of what he went through, he was a sensitive, thoughtful, and caring partner.

I really loved seeing their relationship develop, from tentative friendship to more.  It was definitely rewarding.

There were some fantastic secondary characters in this one too, from Martin’s daughter Bea, to Rose’s over the top in laws, to the odd goth softball team.  Quirky and fun.

This just reaffirms that there’s something about Ms. Dade’s writing and characters that just hits for me, and I can’t wait to read more.