Prosecco with My Professor

I loved the dynamic and angst in this! It was a little predictable but was an easy read. It reminded me of the author who wrote beach read. I would recommend!

I've enjoyed all of the books in this series about 4 women, all in their 40's, who decide to temporarily uproot themselves by moving to Europe for a year, but this one has been my favorite so far. It follows the adventures of Emma, a divorced mom with three college age kids, who is finally pursuing her own career goals by enrolling in an international MBA program in Rome. Although Emma is excited to move on professionally, in her personal life she's in a bit of rut, lacking the self-confidence to put herself out there. In a rut, that is, until she meets Santo, an attractive silver fox while spending a girls weekend in Rome with her friends just before her school starts. However, imagine her surprise when she discovers that the silver fox is one of the primary professors in her MBA program and he's her neighbor!

While I enjoyed the previous two FMCs falling for sexy younger men, give me a silver fox anytime, especially one as sweet and caring as Santo. At 57, he's reached the pinnacle of the business world, but he's pretty much all alone, with not much family and two failed marriages. However, he does have an imperious devil's spawn black cat named Zola, and a lovely ex-stepdaughter whom he is still very close to. When he meets Emma, he's immediately drawn to and enchanted by her, even though she keeps running out on him, but he knows it would be wrong to pursue a relationship given their school connection. Still, they are both having a hard time thinking of anything but each other.

This series has so much going for it. In addition to the fun romances, hot guys (both younger and older) and wish-fulfillment European locations, I absolutely love the strong and realistic friendship bond between the 4 women. They all gain so much strength from leaning on each other and I'd be thrilled to be a part of their group. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

This book was exactly what I needed - a low stress fun read that gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. I really quickly got into it, possibly because I’m taking Italian lessons at my local library, but also I found the writing really easy to read and open in how the characters speak to each other and themselves. I don’t usually like age gap romances, but I liked that the FMC was an older divorced mom - it made the fact she was younger than the MMC way less icky because there were fully developed prefrontal cortexes and consent from all parties with minimal power imbalance.

We have some classic tropes: student/teacher, forced proximity, age gap, and he takes care of her when she’s sick. We also get some fun representation of nonbinary, bisexual, and lesbian characters as well as ADHD representation.

Now getting into *spoiler* territory. I was very happy to read a romance with older characters, as that’s not something I see in many books. I found the ending a bit rushed - we never confirm who reported Santo and Emma to the school, and I don’t know why Vincente had such an issue with it. Even if his own marriage was falling apart, what did Santo do to him to make it worth destroying their friendship? I thought Bruce may be the one to report them out of jealousy, but he doesn’t reappear after the holidays. Also, why didn’t Santo and Emma just report their relationship when he wasn’t her professor anymore, especially if there wasn’t a rule against it?

Overall, this was probably the fastest I’ve read an ARC in a while and I had a really good time in this universe. It made me interested in reading the first two books of the series, and sets up the fourth book nicely. Would recommend if you, like me, are on a wine romance book binge.

Another great book in this delightful series, exploring what it looks like to try something new in middle age. Its a refreshing change of pace from so many romance books where the young woman bemoans her life is over because she hasn't reached peak work and life goals by 29.

Here, Emma is divorced with grown children, looking to start over with her career by finally pursuing an MBA - and also ready to get back into the dating world. Too bad the guy she flirts with at a bar and then has a disastrous one night stand with (running out due to understandably anxiety at being sexual for the first time since the divorce) the next day turns out to be her professor!

They spend ages dancing around each other, the tension stretched to the breaking point as they grapple with what is the right thing to do. And, to be fair, you could argue they make some bad decisions, but always in an understandable way, and when the tension snaps - wow - does it get steamy!

Emma doesn't usually hook up with strangers she meets in bars, and her one and only attempt is so overwhelming she leaves pretty much as soon as things get started. She tries not to think about it too much--until she discovers that the man she went home with is one of her professors. And to make matters worse, he now lives in the same building as her, only two doors down. She knows she shouldn't sleep with her professor, but Santo is attractive and attentive, and she can't stop thinking about it. Meanwhile, Santo knows it's wrong to sleep with a student (even if she is roughly his age), but that doesn't stop him from wanting to.

Prosecco with My Professor is every bit as good as I expected. I adore this series, and really loved how this book played out. I thought the power imbalance was handled very well, and I loved seeing the two of them fight their own feelings and then eventually give in. This book also made me realize I'm not sure I've ever read a book where the woman performs anal play on the man, and I hadn't realized I had such a big gap in my reading until this. Overall I really loved the book and am definitely looking forward to the next one.

This book has the cutest cat ever, with some very realistic cat shenanigans.

It is also an interesting twist on student/teacher romances. Namely, the student is in her 40s, divorced, with three kids who are old enough to be university students themselves. Emma is also attracted to women, although this only gets a few mentions, and her youngest child is nonbinary.

I liked reading a romance about two "older" protagonists (compared to what is common in romance novels, anyway), and it was pretty sex-positive. Emma is worried that she might not be as attractive after three children, but Santo doesn't agree, and they have some creative scenes in the bedroom which I appreciated.

My only negative remark is that the drama in the last third felt a bit forced... even though it was kind of obvious that it would come, and yet. Like, I get that he's her professor, but also she's an adult, it is emphasized that their university doesn't even HAVE a rule against them dating. Thankfully, it wasn't really dragged out into something huge.