Grading Curves

TEST

Professor Nikki Barber is starting over with a new job after drawing a firm boundary with her mother, and a tattoo feels like the right way to mark this new chapter in her life. Dean Shaw, six years her junior, offers to stay late at the tattoo parlor to work on her. But the tattooing process takes Nikki to a hot pleasure/pain boundary, and she and Dean have a steamy encounter prematurely ended by an untimely knock at the shop door. When Nikki dashes out, she never expects to see Dean again – certainly not sitting in the auditorium of her intro to Western Civ lecture, as her student.

This is a short, hot novella that manages to establish a relationship that’s both sexy and tender in its limited page count. Dean is a supportive, emotionally open man but a dominant one in relationships and sex, and Nikki is a self-made survivor learning to listen to herself. The resolution to the student/teacher problem could probably have been easier (Dean surely hadn’t passed the course-drop deadline), and since that’s a major source of conflict, I have to ding it. But the sex scenes are extremely spicy, and the epilogue is charming, validating your hunch that this whirlwind couple is the real deal.

It’s rare when a novella makes you wish it had been longer not because it was missing something, but because you just wanted to spend more time with it. Grading Curves is that novella. Spice up your lunch break and give it a go.

Buy it at: Amazon

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Grade: A-

Sensuality: Hot

Review Date: 04/09/19

Publication Date: 07/2019

Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

I'm a history geek and educator, and I've lived in five different countries in North America, Asia, and Europe. In addition to the usual subgenres, I'm partial to YA, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and graphic novels. I love to cook.

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Lieselotte
Lieselotte
Guest
09/08/2019 2:14 pm

thank you for the Rec. A good way to check a – to me – new author.
Really liked this, very genuine real hero and heroine, complete story, not rushed, great for a novella.

CarolineAAR
CarolineAAR
Guest
Reply to  Lieselotte
09/08/2019 6:35 pm

So glad you liked it!

Lisa Fernandes
Lisa Fernandes
Guest
09/04/2019 12:24 pm

Oh, this sounds like fun! (though professor/student romances aren’t isn’t quite my bag. Not quite my cup of tea with the power imbalance, but I’ll still try it!).

CarolineAAR
CarolineAAR
Guest
Reply to  Lisa Fernandes
09/04/2019 6:10 pm

It’s really not a professor/student romance. Everything starts when neither of them knows about the other, and after that, it’s Dean who pushes things to keep going. I also think the vibe is different because Dean is a non traditional older student with a full time job and his own place. They’re equal adults, not an adult and a fledgling.

DiscoDollyDeb
DiscoDollyDeb
Guest
09/04/2019 6:45 am

The novella is such a difficult length to get right—and I thought Simone did an amazing job of pacing, character development, and plot in the limited space a novella provides. One thing I don’t think you mentioned is that both Nikki and Drew have suffered from the different ways family can hurt us. Drew’s mother died, but Nikki’s mother…well let’s just say she won’t win Mother of the Year anytime soon. This was the first Naima Simone book I’ve read, but it won’t be the last.

CarolineAAR
CarolineAAR
Guest
Reply to  DiscoDollyDeb
09/04/2019 9:13 am

Yes, that’s true. I was having trouble trying to work it in there without getting spoilery, but you phrased it very well. That’s the great thing about comments!