Clara and Teddy, two homeschooling prodigies, form a deep bond at camp which evolves into a childhood friendship. However, their connection is tested when Teddy pursues early college admission.

This engaging dual timeline story of childhood friends reclaiming lost time captivated me from the start. The homeschooling aspect added depth to their relationship, and the rekindling of their chemistry after nine years apart felt palpable. A solid 4-star read!

I want to express my gratitude to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin's Griffin for providing this ARC. My review reflects my honest opinions.

Clara is a driven lady who wants to share her passion for History with those around her. She has been so focused on her passions and work that she hasn't dedicated anytime her love life.

This second chance romance is a perfect fall read with its setting in academia and seasonal imagery. Reading this book is like being wrapped in a soft blanket on a cool autumn day – warm and cozy, and feeling perfectly content to stay right there enjoying the story. It is well-written, with genuinely likeable characters and a believable plot.

The novel is a conventional telling of the “right person, wrong timing” of Clara and Teddy, who become friends as awkward teenagers, and have the ups and downs of their relationship rolled out through flashback chapters skillfully mixed with present day narrative. This is a story that savors the journey as much as the destination and each step of their relationship feels real. And I loved Clara and Teddy, individually and as a couple. [I wish this story had been a dual POV because Teddy is so quiet and thoughtful that I would have loved to have more of a peek inside his head].

I really enjoyed reading this feel-good romance and I thank NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Kristyn J. Miller for the advanced copy of this book.

The fall setting in this book is PERFECT. I really enjoyed Clara and Teddy's story as this is my first book form Kristyn. I would definitely pick up another title by her.

Not my typical read... but it was an ARC that sounded like I'd like it. This story had SO much potential, but my goodness it was bogged down with too much wordiness. If there was a way to streamline the story a bit, it would at least 4 stars. The author wrote a wonderful story, it just spent too much time in the details that didn't add to the story.

It's the classic tale of right person, wrong timing.

Clara and Teddy are childhood friends. Theirs was a friendship that kept teetering on going beyond friends BUT the timing was never right. They were always physically worlds apart and bogged down with so many responsibilities that they couldn't be together. Their friendship eventually goes its separate ways with words left unsaid... UNTIL they are both working at the same university and sharing the same office and they FINALLY have to hash out those feelings once more. But what happens when Teddy's temporary status is up, and if Clara get tenure?! It seems timing is always against them...

***disclaimer this is an open door romance but its not the central point of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for approving this early read of this book, the opinions are my own.

This book is written very well! I marveled at the descriptions and admired the way they're put together. That said, the romance didn't quite ignite for me. I felt like the two leads lacked chemistry or maybe I just didn't connect to either one. The whole thing felt a little bland. My rating is 3.5, but I rounded up because, again, I found the writing strong, which is what kept me turning the pages. If this wasn't alerted for me via a Net Galley email, I probably wouldn't have read it.

I'm a sucker for a second chance romance and this one was a sweet slow burn with two very likeable characters. It would be a perfect cozy book for fall or winter!

I couldn't finish this. I hate to be that person, but the writing and pace was just not for me. I might revisit it another time.

- The main characters have A LOT of the miscommunication/stubbornness trope that they have to get through.
- Alternating timeline between our main couple's past and present.
- Love a romance centered in academia.

3 stars

This was a very cute second chance romance and friends to lovers story. This story is told in two different timelines. It jumps between present day where our two main characters are history professors to when they were two kids being homeschooled and meeting at camp every summer.
I ate this book up. It was a very light and cozy read. I highly recommend!

This romance is a mix of tropes: second chances, miscommunication, friends to lovers set in academia. Clara and Teddy met as kids at camp and became friends. At one point they had the timing wrong and went their separate ways. Now, fate has brought them back together again.

Can they learn from their mistakes and make it second time around? This was a quick read. I

Thank you St Martins Press and Netgalley for the arc.

A sweet friends to lovers with a second chance trope. I liked this one enough to give it 3 stars but there wasn't anything that grabbed me and made me feel something earth shattering or memorable necessarily about their story. Our main characters were both homeschooled and meet at a sleep away camp for kids that were homeschooled. They see their unique gravitation to learning and history as a common thread and grow over the years through email and phone calls and exchanges of gifts. There is a lot of pop-culture from the 90's (some of which I recognized but some is very specific to a particular type of crowd and so it got lost on me a bit). There is a lot of college professor language that provided some education on how tenure is achieved but also how tedious the requirements seem. The actual love story doesn't have a lot of push/pull because there is a 10 year gap in their communication. The fall-out seems like a good conversation could have resolved it which says a lot about young love and how we don't actually mature into ourselves until late 20's-30's. There are a couple of spicy scenes that helped with the romantic chemistry but by the time we got there I was a little ....bored. Thank you for the ARC and the chance to leave my honest review.

I can’t express how much I needed a romance with 2 professors. This book was amazing! With a complicated romance between two characters that you can’t stop wanting to read about. I needed Clara and Theodore in my life

A short, cozy read. I enjoyed the academia setting. The bouncing from past to present was a bit much at time, but overall an enjoyable read. Perfect for a quick read on trip or a beach day.

I found this to be a subtle, poignant, and grounded romance, one that does the second-chance, friends-to-lovers, right-person-wrong-time thing so well without resorting to cheap tricks to ratchet up the drama. These kinds of contemporary romances - the quieter, less flashy, more realistic ones - are underappreciated, in my opinion.

All romantic relationships require three things: chemistry, compatibility, and timing. And goodness, do I love a book where the characters have the first two but take a while to get the timing right. Maybe it’s the angst and the pining, both very well handled here - just the right amount without feeling forced or muted.

Clara and Teddy are clearly meant for each other, it just takes them a while to get their priorities in order. So thankful I got to read their journey towards getting their timing right.

4.5 stars, rounding up to 5. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy of this book, provided in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

I didn’t expect to relate to the main character Clara as much as I did. I received my Master’s Degree right after my Bachelor’s and taught during it. This book transported me back to being on campus teaching again. The back and forth of faculty, advisors, and tenured professors on campus, mixed with the college life was nostalgic for me. I enjoyed the setting very much.

I appreciated the small nods to growing up in the early 2000s and enjoyed the character details of Clara and Teddy. I resonated with a budding friendship that you always secretly want to be more, but life often gets in the way and things don’t always workout.

Overall, I’d give this book 3.5 stars! Although I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and it noted it was the unedited version, I did catch a few typos.

The book doesn’t get a full 4 or 5 stars from me because I felt it was a constant back and forth between Teddy and Clara but there wasn’t always an explanation why they weren’t going to be a couple or wouldn’t.

I got lost in the details of both of their journeys with Teddy being a year ahead and then not knowing at what point Clara was in her education in the flashbacks. I feel the book would have read better if it was told chronologically as opposed to the back and forth from present to past throughout the book.

I’d rather have seen the ups and downs as time progresses. Instead it read like the spark was kind of reigniting from the 2 of them in the present, only for it blow up again in the past and give you a sour feeling when you get to the next chapter in the present. Other than that I thought it was a light and easy read and liked it!

This is a delightfully fun second chance romance. I really enjoyed this story and our two main characters Clara and Teddy. I think the pacing was great and I liked the flashback chapters as well as I think they give great perspective to the current happenings in both MC's lives and what they were going through at the time. I am a sucker for a childhood friends to lovers rom-com and this one hits the spot.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ratings:
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5
Writing: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5
Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Romance: 🌹🌹🌹🌹 4/5
Spice Quantity: 🚒 🚒 2/5
Spice Quality: 🔥🔥🔥 3/5

What to Expect:
✓ Childhood friends to lovers
✓ Second chance romance
✓ Single POV, two timelines
✓ Academia college setting
✓ Romance between two history-loving professors

Thoughts:
From a girl who loves second chance romance...You know that scene in Gilmore Girls right after Luke and Lorelai break up, and she goes to find Luke and tell him that she doesn’t want to miss out on their middle? Sometimes if a second chance spans too long of time, it can feel like that. And it lowkey breaks my heart! Like you missed your middle! That’s exactly what this felt like. It spans 17 years and just missing out on all that middle makes me kind of sad.

That being said, I did still really enjoy this book. The academia setting, fall vibes, second chance romance makes for a very cozy read. It felt pretty slow to start, especially the flashbacks establishing their past. So that’s kind of why I brought it down to 3.5 stars.

Overall though, I really loved Clara and Teddy. I thought it was a really sweet story and enjoyed it all the way through.

Rating: ★★★½ (3.5 stars)

Just finished my first Kristyn J. Miller book, "Given Our History"—a sweet academia, second-chance love story that will make you wish for a hottie history professor in college.

Clara has always been career-focused and driven. Home-schooled as a child, the eldest daughter of a middle-class family, and a history nerd, she never had many friends—until she met Teddy at summer camp. Even quieter than Clara, Teddy kept to himself, his books, and his CDs. They developed an unlikely long-distance friendship that blossomed into their first love.

Now, Clara is teaching history at a liberal arts college and applying for tenure, all part of her meticulously planned career path. What wasn't part of her plan was having Teddy—affectionately dubbed "Professor Hottison" by his students—come to her university as a visiting professor and share an office with her. Especially since they had a falling out ten years ago. Now, they must navigate sharing space, working together, and in the process, rediscovering their love for each other.

I really enjoyed seeing their story unfold in dual timelines, from their time at camp to their present-day adult lives and witnessing how their relationship evolved. Both main characters are stubborn and have communication issues, which led to their past problems. I loved seeing them rekindle their friendship and start doing small things for each other, leading up to finding love again. (No spoilers—this is a romance, after all, and we expect a happy ending!)

Finally, I really loved the nostalgia in this book—from the music and communicating via MySpace and home phone lines to the college town setting and spending days on campus. It was a truly joyful read and I am sure it will be a sweet, cozy book perfect for the fall season.

I am a self-admitted book worm, and I have been the majority of my life. Here lately, I gravitate towards suspenseful books. Ultimately, at my core, I am still a fan of romance. Because of this, I was very excited to read this book.

I tend to be hesitant to read books from a new author, because it sometimes takes me a while to get used to their particular writing style. This was not the case with this book. I liked that it was told in first person and that you got to see both their present and the history of their friendship/relationship.

For some reason, I didn’t expect to get as caught up in this book as I did. I truly could not put it down, and I’m a bit sad that I’m done reading it. I definitely recommend this book.

**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**