This was a refreshing friends-to-lovers, second chance romance. I loved the Fall vibes that it gave and felt really cozy whole reading.

Clara & Theodore had a lot of history; along with some miscommunications, some missed connections / right person, wrong time situations were involved too.

Although I could sense the 3rd act conflict from afar, I still enjoyed the plot!

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A “right person, wrong time” second chance romance. One of those books that I’m glad it was told in single POV cause it had me wondering what exactly happened between the two of them in the past. Chapters alternate between present and the past leading up to the moment their friendship / almost relationship comes to an end… or should I say pause. Most of the time with second chance romances there’s this big moment that causes them to not speak to each other again, but in this one there wasn’t anything big. It was truly just not the right moment for them. I found the fmc pretty relatable and loved the academia setting. In another life I imagine myself to be a professor, though not in history. One thing I would have liked more of is dialogue between Clara and Teddy. I needed more moments between them where they were talking things out.

🫶🏻 second chance
🏫 academia setting (both professors)
🥰 childhood best friends to lovers
💭 flashbacks

single POV
4/5 stars ⭐️
1/5 spice level 🌶️

"But it occurs to me that I am very much in danger of the thing I've been most afraid of: loving a man who knows better than to open his heart to me again."

This one really hit the mark for a history nerd and romcom lover like myself. A lighthearted second chance romance set in the world of academia.

Thanks to St. Martin's and Netgalley for the eARC.

Thank you SMP for the review copy of Given Our History.

As a professor with years of experience in academia, I found much of this book missing the mark in terms of plausibility. For instance, professors aren't typically tasked with planning galas—that's the job of professional staff in alumni and fundraising departments. And no online teaching job would realistically require references from three different institutions. However, there were moments when the academic minutiae landed well, and I did find myself laughing a few times.

From a broader perspective, outside my insider lens, this book felt like a slow burn with a sluggish plot that lacked the necessary chemistry, banter, and payoff to keep me hooked. The sweet backstory and YA elements were more engaging and felt more fleshed out, while the present-day storyline felt choppy, underdeveloped, and poorly paced. Secondary characters—like the adolescent friend who was barely present and one-dimensional, the intriguing but unnecessary sister, and the work colleagues who failed to add depth or drive the story—never fully came to life.

And honestly, the whole vibrator scene? I just couldn’t buy into it. It’s hard to imagine a pre-tenure female professor casually carrying something like that around. It just didn’t ring true.

Given Our History was a nice light academia read. I didn't love how so much of the story was in the past timeline without bringing much of it into the present. I felt like it took me out of the story more than added to it, but that might just be a personal preference. A nice read for the fall season!

A perfect second chance romance, the dual timeline tied the whole story together. I was rooting for the MCs to become more than friends from the beginning, they had great chemistry.

I love to see nerds in love - add in second chance with a dual timeline, I’m totally sold.

📖 Given Our History by Kristyn J. Miller
📅 08/27/2024

⭐️ rating: 4.75/5
🌶️: open door, a few scenes, some description

💭 overall thoughts:
I had a bit of a slow start with this one, but then I fell so hard for Clara & Teddy and their love story.

I especially loved the past timeline, YA vibes & summer camp 🏕️
Super cute first love moments 🥰

In the present we get to see them find their way back to each other 🥹
I really loved the way Teddy never truly gave up, and the support he had for Clara & her dreams 🥰

read if you love:
🥈 second chance with dual timeline
🏫 workplace as history professors
🌳 homeschoolers at camp (past timeline)
⏰ right person, wrong time
🐢 slow burn
💖 single 1st person pov

Thank you to St Martin’s Press & NetGalley for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

In Given Our History, a history professor is reunited with her first love many years later when he becomes a visiting professor at the university where she teaches. Full blown second chance romance here. The story unfolds with alternating chapters between past and present to give the full detail of their teenage courtship (both homeschooled and met at a camp for homeschool kids) and the various events in their young lives that kept them apart. The present time is of course the obviousness that they will get back together but I enjoyed their back and forth and seeing them reconnect. It was a sweet book and gave me all the fall vibes.

Given Our History is author Kristyn J. Miller’s second novel. College history professor Clara Fernsby was homeschooled throughout her formative years making her college years her first in a standard class setting. To ensure Clara was properly socialized during her teen years her parents sent her to a special sleep away camp for homeschooled kids where she met other homeschooled kids and established lifelong friendships with Izzy Santos and Teddy Harrison. Now in her early thirties and being advised to seek tenure at the University of Irving in Maryland, she is still very much in touch with Izzy although their communication is somewhat hit or miss, but it has been years since she has seen or heard from Teddy.

As teenagers and up through college they had a very strong connection until feelings began to upset the balance of Clara’s carefully compartmentalized plans. Feeling strongly that if they started changing their own plans to suit the other one they would eventually implode, Clara halted moving forward altering their relationship in the process. In fact, it had been years now since she had even spoken to Teddy.

With tenure on the line, Clara agrees to several tasks like getting a guest speaker for the college and raising money for scholarships. The hardest task she agrees to, however, is to share her small office with a visiting professor for the coming semester. When that professor turns out to be Teddy, the story takes off to be a heartfelt tale of loss, rediscovery, and finding one’s way out of the self imposed boxes and toward a future that they never dared imagine.

This was such a well plotted and original story with three dimensional characters that will capture the reader’s imagination. I very much enjoyed this book and I do recommend it!

Thank you Netgalley and st martins Griffin. My opinions are being left voluntarily.what an absolute perfection of s book.i loved this top to bottom could have done without the 2nd breakup but that's only because my heart is soft. I wish I seen early reviews with how amazing it is I will absolutely be adding a copy to my forever shelf.

5/5☆

I loooove a second chance estranged romance. The besties to lovers in this story was the icing on the cake. When Teddy comes to Clara's university as a guest lecturer for the semester puts them in close proximity for the first time since their falling out 9 years prior. I enjoyed watching Clara and Teddy fall in love all over again, and watching their friendship grow through the flashbacks of them at camp as children. While there were a few things I wished for in this story (dual POV, more resolution in the 3rd act conflict - their love story felt resolved but the outside factors of what's next were missing), I wish their had been an epilogue because I just wanted more of their story!

Overall this was such a cozy read, perfect for all the fall feels. 🥰


Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review!

3.75 stars

- second chance
- dual timeline
- single pov
- academia
- close proximity
- workplace romance
- friends to lovers

I really liked Given Our History. It was a right person, wrong time type of second chance romance with a dual timeline. It gave academia in the fall vibes that I was living for (even though I am very much a summer girlie).

It was single POV, and while I typically prefer dual POV, I find in dual timeline it is easier to keep track of what's going on and when if its from only one POV. So, single POV worked well for me here.

I loved getting to see the relationship develop over the years from friends to lovers to it just not working out. There was no major blow out that caused them to hate each other. However, there were some hurt feelings because of the love they had and the timing being wrong in the past.

I adored the shared interests and the way they kept in touch with one another while they were apart in their youth.

I adored Teddy, but I felt like I would have loved him even more if we could have got to know him better. (I suppose that comes from not getting his POV.) I also would have liked a little more showing rather than telling, buy giving us more communication between Clara and Teddy - particularly, more dialogue in the present tense.

Clara was relatable in some senses, however I did find her chronic need to be the martyr grating at times.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press & Kristyn J. Miller for the advanced copy.

I know I loved a book when I start considering a change in location or vocation, and Given Our History had me thinking I should switch from STEM to History for the tweed of it all! Clara's and Teddy's story unfolds so naturally and so realistically that I think nearly every reader will be able to find a bit of themselves in these pages. Beyond the wonderfully charming romance, Kristyn J. Miller was also able to draw us into Clara's journey of personal growth, learning how to be her own person in all relationships including with family and friends. With Fall just around the corner, Given Our History is the perfect read for any Romance reader!

“I want to be all the things that I am to you.”

Okay I think I just really love academic romance.

This was a super sweet dual timeline, second chance romance. Admittedly it took me a little while to get truly invested into the story but toward the end I did not want to put it down.

An added bonus for this as a millennial is all the recall to things that were popular 15+ years ago. Referencing Photobucket was a deep cut and creating emo burned CD's used to be my love language so I related deeply. 😂

Excited to see more from Kristyn Miller (and she's a fellow Mainer!)

DNF @ 5%. This book is very intriguing to me, but I think I personally will have a better time with it in audiobook format. I look forward to trying it again at a later date.

I really liked the concept of this book. It follows Clara and Teddy who meet as teenagers in a camp for homeschoolers and end up building a friendship. We follow them through the years when something happens that ends their friendship. Clara is a professor going for early tenure when Teddy comes back into her life. I really liked getting the behind the scenes of working at a university. I also enjoyed seeing flashbacks to their friendship over the years and seeing how they handle each other in the present. This was a good romance with characters that I felt had real depth. Overall a great book.

First person single POV.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (0-5)
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 (0-5) Open door, a few scenes.

What I’m Starry-Eyed Over:
🤩 Second-chance at friends-to-lovers.
🤩 Then and now chapters with youth camp and college campus settings.
🤩 Beautifully written details in descriptions and dialogue, helpful in a double timeline slow burn.
🤩 Beautiful emotional kisses that bring tears to your eyes and tingles throughout your body.
🤩 We get a couple delicious open-door scenes that are perfectly timed, placed, and executed. I’m a sucker for a gala and a childhood home.
🤩 Clara’s dad’s “love is the hard road” talk—such gorgeous truth.
🤩 CD burning and emailing xD.

What I’m Wishing/Dizzy About:
💫 The end was cute and fun, but the overwhelming feeling of melancholy was too much of a downer for me. I prefer my books to lift my mood, make me happy.
💫 I’m just not sure I felt their love connection as strong as I would have liked.

this book was fine. It wasn’t memorable. It had its cute moments but nothing over the top that I’ll remember forever. I was first drawn to the story because of the cover because it’s just so cute but the story felt lacking…a little boring, a bit slow for my liking. I didn’t overly love the MCs because they just seemed low key if that makes sense. Anyway, that’s it. 😅

OMG this is soo cute. I read this in less than 24 hours because I just fell in love with Clara and Teddy. Clara is a professor at a university and Teddy was her best friend from camp when she was homeschooled. She’s surprised to learn that he was joining her at the school as a visiting professor because they hadn’t talked in ten years. Their thoughts always went back to each other, but the last time she saw him, he was dating her roommate from freshman year of college. She’s been told to apply for tenure, but she needs to bring in more money for the school. He helps her out, and as they work to put on this event, they share memories from the past.

I’m such a sucker for a second chance romance, and this one was amazing. The past and present chapters were perfect in this book. We get to see young Clara and Teddy meet, become friends, and secretly fall for each other. Then we get to see them as adults trying to navigate their history together and potentially their future together. The whole book just made me smile, and this was a HEA for which I was excited.

While everything is written from Clara’s point of view, Teddy is a little more vocal about his feelings so we get to see how he’s feeling that way instead of having chapters from his perspective. I really enjoyed the way that was handled.

The writing is light, and easy to read. There is not one unnecessary word in this book (unlike a LOT of other books that I’ve read). It jumps right in to set up the novel, and it just continues.

I’m excited for you all to read this book!

Childhood friends turned sexy PhD historians are reunited after a decade-old argument on a university campus in this charming forced proximity, second chance romance with all the coziest fall vibes. I couldn't help but warm to the mutual pining of 31-year old Clara Fernsby and 33-year old Teddy Harrison who slowly progress from star-crossed lovers to the fated mates they've always been meant to be over the course of the book.

The absolutely delightful tall, dark, and handsome Teddy endeared himself to me immediately as a socially awkward young teenager who meets Clare at a sleepaway camp for homeschoolers in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The narrative is split between present day and flashbacks that tell the story of how Teddy and Clara first fell in love largely long distance through their shared passion for learning, trivia, playlists burned onto CDs, and a deepening physical attraction that neither had the opportunity to act upon before their academic careers took off in completely opposite directions.

Clara is lovably neurotic, a perfectionist who can't stand the idea of falling short of anyone's expectations, especially her own. She is loyal to a fault, and doesn't realize until it's almost too late that she has never gotten over Teddy, and made sacrifices that never needed to be made to achieve happiness in her life. I did come away from the book thinking that Clara is a bit too immature than Teddy, but I was so happy for Teddy that they were able to work things out it didn't matter.

This is only the author's second novel, and there some execution issues. The primary problem for me was the pacing, as the book falters and felt like it slowed almost to a standstill in the second act. The straightforward, single-layer plot doesn't help. The author's real talent here lies in her characterizations, setting, and atmosphere. While there isn't anything mind-blowing about this book, it is a solid 3.5-4 contemporary romance that is perfect for a relaxing fall read.

Overall, I enjoyed this one very much, and I will definitely be picking up this author's next book.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this novel. All opinions are my own.