The Romantic Comedy Book Club
The primary challenge I find with the accidental pregnancy trope is the lingering question that plagues the HEA: “If it weren't for the baby, would they be together?” This concern is one of the reasons I am not the biggest fan of the trope; however, I thoroughly appreciate how Sidney did not shy away from addressing the elephant in the room. In fact, in "Love Lessons," that seed of doubt was brought front and center. There was no instant love connection or drive by both characters to do the "honorable thing". Sidney flipped the script and presented not only the obstacle of an unexpected pregnancy but one between mortal enemies. The twists and turns they had to navigate not only added wit, charm, and cheesy grin-worthy humor, it also made you fall in love with the characters and the ending even more than intended.
Valerie Martinez and Andrew Wexler, both kindergarten teachers at Gables Preparatory Academy, share a wall, a passion for molding young minds, and a hatred for one another that rivals feuds between great nations. From singing loudly and beating on drums to turning up the air conditioner as retribution, the petty squabbles and an unexpected paint fight land the adversaries in the principal's office. Having reached his limits, Principal Carmichael makes it clear that they must get along for the final two weeks of the year or one of them will be fired. Both loving what they do, they call a ceasefire. Claws retracted, Valerie and Andrew make nice, a little too nice in fact, as a going-away party turns into one of the hottest nights either of them has ever had. An awkward morning after and a summer in Haiti later, Valerie returns to find out that while neither of them is fired, they must share a classroom due to storm damage to their part of the school. Knowing what is at stake if either of them refuses, they work out a plan to co-teach. All of it becomes too much for Valerie as suddenly she doesn't want to eat, is overly emotional, generally feels unwell, finds the smell of playdough repulsive, and does the unthinkable in front of a classroom of children. Believing it is a bug going around, she suddenly realizes that a very important visitor hasn't come in almost 10 weeks. Rushing home, she discovers she is pregnant, and even worse - it is Wexler’s! Knowing motherhood was never in her cards, Valerie has to decide what she wants for the future while trying to survive the school year with her mortal enemy and now the father of her child.
Sidney did a wonderful job of mixing forced proximity with opposites attract and enemies to lovers. Having gone head-to-head for four years as the only two kindergarten teachers in the school, you get a pretty detailed glimpse of the war zone they created. The twist of sticking them in the same classroom is one I did not see coming! So now you have two enemies stuck in the same room together and if they even breathe the word "conflict", Carmichael has already threatened to fire one of them! At this point, they don’t even know there is a baby! The introduction to yet another obstacle between them just adds to the delicious chaos. What wins you over is the very slow evolution of the characters. The more time they spend together, granted the more they want to kill each other, but the more you do have to agree with what everyone keeps saying—there really is a thin line between love and hate.
Looking at the spicy level of modern-day contemporary romances, I definitely would not categorize this as spicy. Steamy, definitely, and two particular scenes were fairly hot, but again, not to the extent that most books labeled as “spicy” are reaching now. With that being said, overly spicy scenes wouldn’t have been necessary, to be honest. The challenge to hide their desires and want for one another after succumbing to them at the beginning of the story is what added to it. Martinez was so determined to forget what happened between them that you, as the reader, almost forget they had been intimate, if it wasn’t for the shared bundle of joy they were expecting! What I appreciated is that during their first intimate moment, Sidney made sure the animosity between them was still present in the bedroom. They weren’t going to stop being enemies because, for a brief moment, they became lovers, and Sidney made sure that was articulated.
The question that lingered through the entire book was simple: Can two people with nothing in common, when forced into an unimaginable situation, come out in one piece on the other side? There were so many times I was convinced it wasn’t going to happen and couldn’t imagine how they were going to have an HEA. With that being said, what I enjoyed is that without my knowledge, Sidney was challenging my definition of an HEA by making their situation such an obstacle. When we arrived at the end, any assumptions of what we thought their HEA should have been were satisfied by the only HEA it could have been with these two people, and it was perfect.
This is my second book by Sidney Halston, and I loved it just as much as "The Valentine’s Hate." The realness and relatability of her characters and stories are what make them treasured favorites. I would love to see what else Sidney has up her sleeves as she has a true talent for challenging the truth in fiction.