Reviewed by Lily
TITLE: Lower Education
AUTHOR: A.M. Leibowitz
PUBLISHER: Acquitted Books
LENGTH: 276 Pages
BLURB:
Phin Patterson is an educational consultant dissatisfied with his job and his life. On a mission to complete one last assignment before escaping his unfulfilling career and figure out what he wants, he accepts a commission from Donald Murdock at the New York State Education Department. Suddenly, he finds himself on his way to evaluate a tiny school in New York’s Southern Tier, not far from the town where he grew up. Now his only goal is to get in, do his job, and get out before anyone from his past remembers him.
That turns out to be easier said than done. Dani Sloane, the sharp-witted administrative assistant to the principal, learns the truth about why Phin is really there. With the help of her friends, she sets out to unmask him and force the local board of education to stop the plans that could ruin their school. Discovering that her sometime-lover is an old business associate of Phin’s only complicates both the situation and their relationship.
Meanwhile, Phin, who has committed himself to keeping his emotional distance, can’t resist the charm of the town and its residents—especially the school psychologist, who turns out to be an old friend he hasn’t seen in over twenty years. While Dani works to take him down and save her school, Phin wrestles with learning how to do the right thing, including telling the truth to the man with whom he’s already falling in love.
REVIEW:
Educational consultant Phin Patterson has been assigned to evaluate a small school’s program and find out why it’s failing. Phin’s other task is to make his work look like he is recommending downsizing because of poor performance.
His trouble does not end there because he has to work through a list that is given to him by Mr Murdock from the State Education Department. Phin hasn’t been happy with his job, he’s been dissatisfied with his life in general and when he accepts this assignment he finds himself back at a small town not far from where he lived as a child. Which complicates matters for him even more. This is partly because he is attracted to the school psychologist, Alex, whom Phin knew from his childhood days.
Phin also gets to know other staff members better, like Dani who’s an administrative assistant. This makes it very hard for him to remain professional in this assignment.
I found this story to be slow paced. There are changes in the narrative that confused me at times. The dialogue and the story are too ‘talkative’ for my liking. I also found it very hard to like Phin who seems more burnt out and arrogant than a professional person should be. As the story progressed he irritated me more and more. I honestly couldn’t understand how people in the story were putting up with his unnecessarily rude detective like behavior. Then there were times I was confused by school psychologist Alex’s behavior. He also behaved rather juvenile at times. I felt that these two were lacking in finesse, considering their educational and professional background.
I also think that the plot was not very realistic and it focused too much on the technical parts of the jobs to the point where I found myself losing interest. It was not gritty enough, and portrayed a very mundane life, which unfortunately bored me a little. The romance was not strong enough to make up for it, so it was more drama than romance. And there was hardly any sensuality either. Too many names and characters distracted me. This all made it so that I couldn’t connect with the characters.
RATING: 
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