Theme Week Review
Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: Lessons in Love
SERIES: Cambridge Fellows #1
AUTHOR: Charlie Cochrane
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: 186 pages
BLURB:
He didn’t think he had a heart. Until he lost it.
St. Bride’s College, Cambridge, England, 1905.
Jonty Stewart is handsome and outgoing, with blood as blue as his eyes. When he takes up a teaching post at the college where he studied, his dynamic style acts as an agent for change within the archaic institution. He also has a catalytic effect on Orlando Coppersmith.
Orlando is a brilliant, introverted mathematician with very little experience of life outside the university walls. He strikes up an alliance with Jonty and soon finds himself heart-deep in feelings he’s never experienced. Before long their friendship blossoms into more than either man had hoped.
Then a student is murdered within St. Bride’s. Then another…and another. All the victims have one thing in common: a penchant for men. Asked by the police to serve as their eyes and ears within the college, Jonty and Orlando risk exposing a love affair that could make them the killer’s next target.
REVIEW:
The Cambridge Fellows series is one that I’ve enjoyed for quite some time. Though I must admit that the series got away from me a good five or so books ago, and I am dreadfully behind. That is mainly why I decided to use this book for our Teachers theme week. I’d love to finally catch up on all that has been happening with Jonty and Orlando. This reread will give me a perfect chance to start in on that.
Luckily for me, it has been long enough that my brain seems to have misplaced a lot of my memories about this book, so I got to enjoy the murder mystery all over again. But while I thoroughly enjoy the somewhat part-time P.I. work done by our Cambridge fellows, it is the romance that really does it for me.
The sweet, almost naive tone that this book seems to take is very much a reflection of Orlando. He is hardly childlike, but he has cut himself off in such a way that the world beyond his wonderful numbers never seems to penetrate. Before Jonty comes along and plops his bottom in Orlando’s chair (oh the horror) Orlando is very much lost in his own world. But quickly it becomes evident that Jonty will very soon become nearly the whole world to him. Jonty won’t let that stand, though. That dependence. Jonty loves Orlando, and I love that part of that love is the desire to see that Orlando sees the world outside of their little school.
I love the simple, sweet love that grows between these two. Contrasted with the horrible murders going on at the school, it is a comfort. This is, I think, the very essence of a comfort read. At least for me. A little mystery, a sweet romance, and a great setting–this is perfect for a rainy fall day, curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee.
Not that California is going to be giving me one of those for at least month or more.
RATING: 
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