[ARC REVIEW] “My Professor” by: R.S. Grey

What is “My Professor” by R.S. Grey about?

Young and naïve—those are his exact words.

Professor Barclay views me as a nuisance, a disruption of his otherwise obedient class and perfectly regimented life. His bad impression of me stems from a simple misunderstanding, and when that impression sours from bad to worse, he decides to make an example out of me in front of the entire class. Every other female student in that auditorium looks on, longing to trade places with me, wishing they were the object of his attention. It’s humiliating. I want nothing to do with him or the tension growing between us, but he feels inescapable.

Deep down, I know I have a crush on him. It’s a shameful feeling I refuse to give life to.

Not that it matters—nothing can come from it. Besides our mutual dislike for one another and the fact that he’s my professor, there’s an age gap that should be warning enough.

While we might cross the line once—the dark glance across a dimly lit bar…the metallic sound of the bathroom door locking behind us…his hand slowly sliding up my skirt—I know it’s a boundary I can’t break again.

Now, more than ever, he’s off-limits.

After four years apart, I’m a brand-new hire at his firm. I’ve convinced myself he won’t remember me. I’m safe here in the wolf’s den.

It’s funny, isn’t it? How easily we can delude ourselves if only we want something bad enough.

Nothing has changed.

That same friction roils between us. My gaze still flees from the chill of his glacier blue eyes. I try to stay out of his way, to keep my distance, but like always we feel inevitable. Fate seems to think I belong in the arms of my old professor, and raging against fate…well, that’s a battle we’re all bound to lose.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Review:

R.S. Grey’s first 2022 release, “Enemies Abroad,” was one of my favorites of hers, so I was excited to read this one. Considering what Rachel has mentioned before about how steamy this book is, I kind of expected more in that department, but it’s definitely a lot steamier than her previous release.

I didn’t have that big of an issue with the power dynamic, because that was kind of overshadowed by the lack of clear consent for their first encounter. It was very murky, especially considering what transpired before it. Sure, the power dynamic definitely matters in the situation, but the consent was the main issue I had. We know Emelia’s inner thoughts because this is dual POV, but Professor Barclay doesn’t know them, which is what makes him feel really predatory and creepy for a lot of the book for me. For some reason, the voice in my head while reading his chapters (especially the earlier ones) sounded like the main character in Netflix’s “You,” because that’s the vibe he was giving off. That made it hard for me to get into the story in terms of liking him…he was a total jerk to Emelia for no reason (other than that he was attracted to her) and as someone who’s only a year out of college, I didn’t really like how awful he was to her when she was a student in his class.

I wish we would’ve gotten to see more of Emelia’s best friend, Sonya – she was a really interesting character, and the two of them are total opposites, which was fun to read. Alexander and Emmett, two of the other supporting characters, are intriguing. Without giving too much away in terms of how they’re connected to the main characters, I hope we get to see them in their own books in the future. It seems like Emmett’s book was being set up, so fingers crossed!

The title of the book is a bit misleading, since he’s not her professor for very long. So it’s technically accurate, but to understand what I mean, you’ll have to read the book!Part two of the book is pretty slow burn, and I didn’t hate the power dynamic imbalance as much here, mostly because Emelia was older at this point. Rachel writes a lot of age-gap romances, so I’m pretty used to reading that from her. I can even get behind teacher-student romance as a trope, just not the abuse of power, which I kind of got the vibe of (because I thought Jonathan was creepy in the first part of the book. Definitely giving Lifetime movie vibes.)

That being said, I thought the career field that both characters were in was really interesting. It’s definitely something unique that I haven’t ever seen centralized in a book before, which was really cool. I liked Emelia a lot, and Rachel has such an easy writing style to read, that I typically enjoy all of her books. If you’re a fan of hers, I’d say to definitely read this one when you have a chance, but I wouldn’t recommend starting with it.

As with all new adult/adult books, I recommend this for 18+ due to some of the mature sexual content. Huge thanks to Rachel for allowing me to read an early copy — the book is out now, so make sure to go get yourself a copy!

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