Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  Luke

SERIES:  Learning to Love

AUTHOR:  Con Riley

PUBLISHER:  Figment Ink

LENGTH:  330 pages

RELEASE DATE:  February 24, 2022

BLURB:

Can Luke learn to love the man who left him?

Headmaster Luke Lawson is committed to saving his boarding school before a cash crisis sinks it. He’ll do anything to keep it afloat, even if that means accepting help from the man who broke his heart at uni.

Nathan’s offer to teach for free could be a blessing as long as Luke can harden his bruised heart. That’s tough when they’ll need to share living quarters and have a history of hook-ups. But Luke knows being compatible in bed isn’t enough to build trust. It can’t be when Nathan has always left him before morning.

This time around, it feels different. Nathan’s work overseas has changed him. Touched him. Opened a locked chamber in his heart that Luke is beginning to think must have been bruised in the past too.

As pressure mounts, can Luke trust that Nathan’s committed this time—not only to his school but to a shared future with him long term?

♥ Featuring a second chance at first love in close proximity, Luke is the third standalone novel in the Learning to Love series. Set in England’s glorious county of Cornwall, each book has a fulfilling happily ever after. ♥

CW: Non-explicit mentions of childhood anxieties.

REVIEW:

I didn’t run back to a place.” Nathan covered Luke’s hand over his key. “I ran back to my person.”

Luke is another special book in the Learning to Love series. This richly complex romance, entrenched in the world of the Glynn Harber school, is about Luke and Nathan’s second chance at love. They are deeply compelling characters with well-explored backstories that are used to inspire the students. But more than that, the men inspire each other and come to realize their love is inevitable. Con Riley grabbed my heart: inevitability is my favorite component of romance and it’s difficult to achieve. She pulled it off beautifully with her writing.

They fell fast and hard for each other at university where they were both roommates with Hugo, but ultimately, Nathan didn’t appear to reciprocate Luke’s feelings and froze him out. In the years since, they’ve had sporadic short visits where they fell into bed as friends-with-benefits, but with Nathan now coming to Glynn Harber to speak to the students about careers, Luke knows he has to put an end to their dalliance. It’s now ten years after Nathan’s rejection and it’s become too painful for Luke to hold onto his unrequited feelings. “We had our chance for something serious. He didn’t want to take it.” This time around, though, Nathan says he’s staying as long as Luke needs him. They begin to learn new sides of each other and understand their motivations for past actions.

I didn’t realize at first how all-encompassing the second chance theme is. It’s brilliantly interwoven throughout the story. In addition to Luke and Nathan’s renewed relationship, Luke’s backstory is all about him being given a second chance. Nathan’s career history exhibits multiple chances before he arrived at his life’s calling. Life altering circumstances resulted in him second thinking missteps he made and then taking the opportunity to correct them.

Glynn Harber is facing closure. Hopefully, Luke will find a way to give the school a second chance at survival. We learn much more about its struggles. Luke’s devotion to the school is staggering, be it through teaching lessons, counseling students, acting as librarian, or dealing with the Supernus Group – the company that is taking over the school – and Austin, their accountant, and his sweeping budget cut demands. The pressure is almost too much.

In one of several moving scenes in the epilogue, Luke teaches the students the power of letting go and moving on from their worries. It serves as an important reminder for himself and Nathan.

Even the intimacy in the story represents a second chance. Sex is different this time around. It doesn’t replay the past, it marks a new beginning. It’s no longer only to satiate their physical needs; it’s now reverential and loving, quenching their emotional needs, too. Ms. Riley knows how to put all the feels into a kiss. Their first in this book is possessive, consuming, and frantic. Their second is tentative, gentler and sweeter. *swoon*

Fear not, Tor and Maisie are their enchanting selves. I was tickled that they appear in the touching first scene. I can’t be the only one in love with these adorable maggots. Hugo, Charles, Sol, Jace, and Cameron all have roles in the book, too.

The epilogue is perfect. But it’s the bonus scene (available to newsletter subscribers, link at end of book) that knocked my socks off. It is everything! Simply perfect. I can’t say anymore without tearing up. It fully completes Luke and Nathan’s story. Go.get.this.book!

(I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the stunning and HOT pictures of Luke that Ms. Riley has been teasing us with in her Facebook group. Gah! I’ve never seen a headmaster as sexy as him! I went to the wrong schools, apparently. I always had craggy, ancient women. Would it be wrong to make his picture my home screen??)

RATING: 

BUY LINK: 

Amazon