I enjoyed the story line and the real emotions the two characters have during the pregnancy journey. Wished there was more emotions shown from the FMC.

My new fav from Sidney Halston!! This was a super fun enemies to lovers surprise pregnancy romance between two rival kindergarten teachers. I loved the grumpy x sunshine, opposites attract vibes of this book. The two MCs were great together. Accidental pregnancies can be a hard trope to pull off but I really, really enjoyed this one. It was also good on audio! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Steam level: a couple open door scenes

Review:
Abbott Elementary meets Ali Hazelwood??? Ummmm YES PLEASE!

What I liked about the book:
1. I thought their bickering was funny and adorable. You have two complete opposites: the fun-loving, artsy FMC who doesn’t even cuss outside of work and the structured, surly MMC who has the test results to back it up. It was also equally enjoyable to see them come together and make their individual strengths work for their little family unit, changing each other’s minds on some of the things they once thought were annoying or useless about the other.

2. I loved how the author made it known that their initial meeting that set them on the enemies path was really because of how he reacted to something outside their control. I have read other books where one MC is mad at the other MC because they got a job promotion they didn’t think they deserved, funds reserved for something were redirected to that person for some bureaucratic reason, etc. However, what sets this book apart is the fact that Andrew knew day two after meeting her that he had messed up and needed to apologize, but instead was taken by something else that pissed him off in the moment and that apology was never made. He was reasonable in understanding that her getting a job with the funds that were supposed to go to a special project for him was in no way her fault, but he just couldn’t get that apology out before something else irked him. Hence, they became enemies. I actually liked this a lot and felt it could totally happen and I wouldn’t necessarily blame anyone. It just made sense.

3. I rather enjoyed how they were not “together” for most of the book. It was fun to see him know that he couldn’t push her into a relationship, but also he just knew that they would end up together if he waited it out. I also appreciated that she didn’t want him to just be in a relationship with her because he felt responsible given the pregnancy. Her fighting their relationship because she thought his sense of right was the only thing drawing him to her was enjoyable.

4. I loved the take on pregnancy. From the always being tired and nauseous, to the constant horniness once you hit a certain point (get that D, honey!), to heavier topics like having to watch your salt intake because of preeclampsia scares, the book did a great job highlighting the good and the bad of pregnancy.

What I wasn’t a fan of:
1. I assumed there would be a bit more spice given the blurb. It definitely wasn’t non-existent, but I believe there were only two scenes and they weren’t overly descript.

2. I felt the MCs' chemistry was OK. There were definitely times it really shined and I was laughing as well as feeling the sparks, but there were other times I got the feel that this was definitely more of a forced partnership.

3. I felt like the ending wrapped up a little too quickly for my taste. With them stringing along defining their relationship, I was a little sad to see it summed up in 2 lines in the last 2% of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books, and Sidney Halston for the opportunity to read a copy of this book. The thoughts and opinions expressed above are honest and my own

3.5 stars!

This is an enemies to lovers story about 2 kindergarten teachers with neighboring classrooms who have very different teaching styles. Due to a tree falling on their building, they are forced to work together to co-teach their classes. I will say that this book had a bit of a slower start and it took me a minute to really get into it. I think it was due to the bickering between the 2 teachers in the beginning. I think it could have been written better to be a little bit more believable and less juvenile. As the book progressed, I started growing to like the characters more and found their story together to be cute. I'm not the biggest fan of the accidental pregnancy trope, but this story was an exception. In the end, this was a lighthearted love story with a happily ever after ending.

I had to DNF this book, sadly. I gave this a 3-star rating, because I didn’t finish the book, so I wanted the rating to be neutral. I felt the beginning of this book wasn’t realistic. I’m a teacher, and there is no way you can have paint wars or call another teacher a “fart” in front of the kids, without being fired immediately. I liked the idea of the book, but the details in the beginning were just nonsense to me.

It’s not quite back to school time yet, but with her latest novel, Love Lessons, Sidney Halston brings us back to the classroom for a rivals-to-lovers romance between two kindergarten teachers.

Valerie and Andrew both teach kindergarten at the same Miami prep school. The fact that their classrooms share a wall is a source of contention, especially as Valerie has a hands-on, exuberant teaching style, and Andrew is far more by the book - think Janine and Gregory from Abbott Elementary.

At the end of the school year, following a staff party, Valerie and Andrew have a one night stand, one that despite their best efforts, ends in pregnancy. One Val decides to keep, and one Andrew wants to take an active role in. Seems easy enough, but given that they previously hated - or at least strongly disliked - each other, that tension doesn’t dissolve right away, instead remaining throughout and really upping the stakes.

While, granted, I haven’t read every book in existence, I’m struggling to think of any romance novel I’ve read previously that dealt with pregnancy throughout, rather than just in the epilogue. Having a baby so thoroughly changes the nature of any relationship, and I’ve been craving a novel that touches on these things throughout, while never losing the fluffy rom-com touch, and on that front Halston delivers beautifully.

Love Lessons is out now. Special thank you to Avon for the advance copy for review purposes.

As a teacher, this story caught my eye the moment I saw the cover art and read the synopsis, it's a pretty fun story and the characters are witty and charming, would definitely recommend it !

👩🏽‍🏫 Love Lessons - Sidney Halston

3 ⭐️ - Where are all my teachers at?! This one’s for you! Alright, it’s for anyone who loves romance and needs a quick lovey dovey story, but I loved being able to identify with the school side of this book!

This was a cute enemies to lovers, pregnancy, growth story. The characters were a bit annoying in their fights and miscommunication BUT I enjoyed watching them grow and come together. I wish there was more depth to the story and characters as this timeline moved quickly and brief! Overall it was cute and a quick romance to squeeze in to get ready to go back to school (eek! i don’t wanna!).

This class is in session now! Thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager for the early ARC copy!

I wanted to love this so badly—teacher x teacher??? come onnnn—but in the first few pages, he’s pounding on the wall for her students to stop singing? That gave me the ick immediately.

The basic premise of Love Lessons is a fun one - two rival kindergarten teachers hook up and end up falling in love as they're forced to co-teach in the new school year. Oh and they're having a baby!

This book features a number of tropes I like (enemies to lovers, workplace romance, unplanned pregnancy), but unfortunately it didn't totally work for me. A lot of the arguments/conversations that the characters had felt redundant or circular and the dialogue felt unnatural at times.

That being said, I've been struggling to read lately and this was super breezy! It definitely kept me coming back to find out how their relationship progressed throughout the pregnancy and the school year, so the format really worked for me.

Thanks to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you netgalley for the chance to read this! 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
Valerie and Andrew, polarizing and incredibly different kindergarten teachers, are thrust together in more ways than one. Forced to work with each other and forced to find common ground after a one-night tryst leads to a baby, the story follows her pregnancy with dual POV as these characters slowly fall for each other.
This book is cute and fluffy, but lacking a bit on the spice (its pitched as a spicy story so I was really expecting more) and on the real tension in an enemies-to-lovers story. Valerie and Andrew really aren't enemies, they're just two teachers that don't see eye to eye in the classroom, and I don't know that its enough to sell the tension. I also felt like the timing felt a bit off: one minute they hate each other, then they're sleeping together, then they hate each other, then they think they love each other. The yo-yo would happen sometimes within the same chapter. That's just a bit much for me.
But its cute. Its easy. There's nothing fussy about it. There's no ridiculous 3rd act breakup. I just wanted a lot more

I enjoyed reading Love Lessons by Sidney Halston. You will fall in love with all the characters. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely. Happy Reading!

This book just isn't for me. The writing felt rough and the plot/content isn't my style/comfort. This book is definitely for someone who prioritize spice over sweetness and doesn't mine the pregnancy trope. Though there have been a couple pregancy tropes i've really enjoyed (which is why I decided to give this book a try), this story just felt too icky for me. Thank you for the opportunity to give it a chance.

I enjoyed Valerie and Andrew from the first page. I’m pretty sure I immediately said “I’m going to like this” and I was right. I loved that they were not in a rush and were able to take things at their own pace.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of Love Lessons exchange for an honest review.

I felt excited and hopeful for this one as someone who works in education. I love romance novels and enemies to lovers is by far my favorite trope.. despite my excitement, I felt like this book really missed its mark for me.

The story felt rushed and there wasn’t much backstory. I didn’t feel like I had time to truly know who the characters were before the story started or who they developed into. I wasn’t able to fall in love with either character before the unexpected pregnancy was announced.

Despite being advertised as enemies to lovers, I didn’t sense the tension being built up between the two characters. They felt like two people who simply didn’t get along and just bickered back and forth. Overall their relationship felt very confusing and lacked chemistry even as they progressed through the story. Their communication felt boring and bland. This book was also said to be steamy, but there really wasn’t any steam and just two short (less than a few pages), spicy scenes and not enough tension built between the characters to consider it a steamy read.

Also, the communication and language that was used in front of their students - kindergarten students!! - was so inappropriate and completely unlikely to ever happen.

Overall, this one completely missed the mark for me.

“Valerie Marquez, the woman who drove him crazy in every sense of the word, was going to have his child.”
4/5⭐️

This book made me take back everything I have ever said about hating the accidental pregnancy trope. I was deeply wrong. I don’t hate it; I hate it not done well, and I hate it when it’s a surprise as a reader. This? This is that trope done correctly. This book had me giggling and blushing and kicking my feet over how incredibly cute and sweet these two were. Everything about this book was just sweet, adorable, pure rom-com. Andrew is not just a book boyfriend, he’s a book husband. While Valerie had never wanted to have kids, Andrew had always wanted to have a family. He certainly never pressured her one way or the other (the bare minimum really), but he made sure she knew that she would be an incredible mom if she wanted to be and that he would feel lucky to raise a child with her, even if they weren’t together. Their feelings for each other develop so naturally as the two get to know each other and get closer and it’s so sweet to watch them become a little family. If you like an accidental pregnancy romance, or are even just willing to give one a try, I’d definitely recommend this one!

Premise: Love Lessons follows Valerie Marquez and Andrew Wexler, two kindergarten teachers at the same private school with vastly different teaching styles. The two have driven each other crazy for the last four years, but after all that built-up frustration finally boils over for one passionate night right before summer, they suddenly find themselves dealing with one major unintended consequence. When the next school year starts and they go from just sharing a classroom wall to co-teaching, they’re continuously confronted by all the ways they’re too different for co-teaching or co-parenting to ever work, but it’s only getting harder to resist wanting to try anyway.

Tropes: Accidental Pregnancy, One-Night-Stand to More, Enemies to Lovers, Opposites Attract, Workplace Romance, Forced Proximity, Grumpy/Sunshine, Kindergarten Teachers

Rating: 4/5⭐️
Spice: 2/5🔥

I felt like I was the teacher and wanted to straighten these two out. How can two adults bicker and taunt each other for four years, while teaching kindergarteners? Well, they did and it was very tense but they were covering up their emotions. Their story was funny, irritating with the tension, and loving how Andrew treated her. If you are looking for an easy read, a romcom, this would satisfy you. I enjoyed an early copy and wrote my review voluntarily.

3.75⭐️

This book is good! I think I actually kinda like the surprise pregnancy trope and having the main characters realize not only do they love their future child but also each other, but if you don’t like surprise pregnancy then this may not be for you. Overall this was a good rom com type book and just very like mid range good, definitely not bad and I enjoyed it for the most part.

The characters go through their own changes and the MMC clearly realizes that they’re in love while the FMC takes a bit of time and that wasn’t my favorite. It definitely was a thing of like oh no we hate each other it would never work, even though they end up together.

Overall I would say this is a nice quick beach read type book or back to school type rom com that is light and a quick ready!

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley, and Sidney Halston for the advanced copy of "Love Lessons" in exchange for an honest review.

I greatly enjoyed reading this book. As a teacher myself, I enjoy reading about fellow teachers, and the plot mixed with the banter really pulled me in from the beginning. The FMC and the MMC were embroiled in dislike to lovers trope, which was amusing. The FMC made me think of Jessica Day from New Girl, and the MMC was the complete opposite of that, which put them at odds quite a bit. I enjoyed how the author pulled the two together outside of their intimate relationship as well through work - but I'm not going to spoil how!

This was an engaging romp from beginning to end. The author did a great job of making the characters relatable and interesting both as educators and people in general with well fleshed out backgrounds and stories that made a lot of their actions and words make more sense.

This was such a cute and realistic accidental pregnancy story with two kindergarten teachers who hated each other while teaching at the same school. But you know what they say... there's a thin line between hate and love, and you can totally see it while reading. I personally needed more swoon and giddiness to get into the book since the premise was a bit mundane for my taste, but if you like to see each step of the pregnancy journey from two people, heck, you will adore this!

I love how realistic this book felt in terms of emotions. It is scary to have an unplanned pregnancy, and it's even scarier when the father is someone you've been "hating" for 4 years. Valerie is a quirky, artsy, and eccentric woman who loves to be independent. She never expected to be a mom, so her entire life does a 180, especially when she finds out that Andrew wants to be involved as much as possible; who knew Andrew had a heart? lol jk he does and is TOO SWEET.

That forced proximity with the pregnancy is what makes the characters get to know each other, be there for one another, and eventually fall in love. It was like a reverse process of a happy couple, but such a good one!