Just fantastic. I'll read whatever romance novels Jodi McAlister writes and I'm very excited for future installments in this series.

6 stars, AGAIN!
I got an ARC and started it right away but I loved this book so much that I will be ordering both paperbacks ( I mean Academic Affair and Study in Sparkling) and rereading them a lot.

The amount of times I teared up was crazy. I do get emotional sometimes when reading but rarely to such extent and really almost never actually cry.

Single mom of three dealing not only with divorce but her (ex)husband living double life for years? AND reverse age gap trope? This is like a catnip for me.
It’s very easy for a book to not live up to the hype when your expectations are high. Mine were off the charts high, but I am happy to report that Jodi McAlister delivered. (Not that I doubted even for a second!)
Exceptional writing, capturing different difficulties of Fiona’s and Sato’s situations - their respective ones and common one. My heart broke oh so many times. For Fiona, her girls, the complexity of relationship with her parents and brothers.

The story focuses A LOT on wine and while I don’t really drink any alcohol and wine is the second last type of alcohol I like, I enjoyed all the wine bits a lot.

I just love this book. I loved the plot itself, the story telling, pacing, execution, writing, how the characters are built, basically I loved every little thing about this book.
There are some very unlikable characters and you will get angry at times but the way they are written - flawless.

Go read An Academic Affair now and put this title on your TBR.
I am already so giddy for Jodi’s next book!

*might edit my review later and add some quotes. Check out my reading updates, I added a few ;)

The biggest thank you to Atria for the eARC 🩷🩷🩷


Updating as of 2 June 2026 cause I got NetGalley widget with such good marketing email that I want to rate this email 6 stars too.
Copied from Atria Marketing mailing:
“
🍷 he falls first, she falls harder
🍷 slow-burn emotional intimacy
🍷 second-love stories
🍷 yearning so good it should probably be illegal
Funny, romantic, sexy, and deeply relatable, A STUDY IN SPARKLING is a story about rebuilding, discovering who you are outside of everyone else's expectations, and finding the courage to believe you deserve to be fully chosen.
For every reader who's ever watched Ginny & Georgia and thought, What if Georgia actually ended up with Joe?”
🩷 After reading this book I can tell you the above is not only good marketing but truly describes what A Study in Sparkling is about 🩷