Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: The Professor’s Date
SERIES: The Script Club, Book 5
AUTHOR: Lane Hayes
NARRATOR: Alexander Cendese
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 5 hours and 58 minutes
RELEASE DATE: August 12, 2022
BLURB:
The professor, the hair stylist, and a wedding date….
Tommy
Help! My sister is getting married, and according to her, I need a date. And a makeover. I’m a busy man, though. I don’t have time to meet eligible bachelors, and the tape holding my glasses together works just fine. Until my hair stylist steps on them.
Yes, Noah, my dazzling dreamboat of a hair guru created a mini disaster, but I don’t mind at all. He’s a sweet, funny, kind jock who—
Screech! No jocks. I have nothing in common with sporty people.
Except…Noah is different.
Noah
I don’t date. However, I’m not opposed to offering fashion advice to a sexy professor in need. A haircut, a quick shopping expedition….
Boom! Mission accomplished.
Not so fast. I’ve misjudged the situation and my attraction to the geek with the tragic sense of style. Sure, Thomas is too smart for me by a long shot, but there’s something about him that makes it easy to forget my past. It might be his quietly commanding nature or his movie-star good looks. Or maybe it’s just him.
All I know is that I’m very tempted to be the professor’s date.
The Professor’s Date is an MM geek/jock romance featuring a nerdy professor, a soccer-playing hair stylist, and a quest for the perfect date!
REVIEW:
Lane Hayes hit upon a highly effective way of forging an immediate affinity between a main character and the readers – start the book with him being so maligned and harangued by his family that the reader will feel compelled to reach into the book and throttle someone in his defense. This is how Hayes’ latest The Script Club book, The Professor’s Date, begins. As intended, I found myself immediately rising to Tommy’s defense, furious about how his twin sister, of all people, tells him he needs to “fix himself”. 😡 But while my righteous indignation did forge that emotional connection, Hayes doesn’t rest on her laurels. Thomas proves to be the most intriguing and endearing character in this whole series, and it’s not just because Tabitha pissed me off.
Thomas is a brilliant scientist who doesn’t have the time or see the importance of social niceties, sports, hairstyles, fashion, or gossip. Additionally, he doesn’t like sports or understand them, and jocks are not his thing. He’s a college professor of biochemistry and astrophysics while simultaneously pursuing his own Ph.D. in biomolecular astrophysics. Science is his jam, and the world just makes sense to him if he can view it analytically – if he frames it as an equation just waiting for him to solve.
The paramount irony in this story is that Thomas falls in love with a jock-turned-hairdresser, who seems to embody everything Thomas dislikes. Noah is scrumptiously sexy and sweet, all rolled into one irresistible powerhouse package of sports physicality, social butterfly, fashionista sense, and killer sewing and crocheting skills. Yet, Noah calls to Thomas in a way no one has before. It’s inexplicable, but Thomas is determined to figure it out and win Noah over.
The Professor’s Date is my favorite entry in Hayes’ The Script Club series. Thomas, in particular, really resonated with me. Thomas’ social skill challenges and geeky/nerdy quirkiness belie his overt confidence in his professorial element. And despite Thomas’ insecurity about his ability to “people” appropriately, he has a rock-solid, unshakeable sense of himself. He doesn’t apologize for who he is or what he likes, and he also doesn’t doubt his own prowess, even of the sexual variety. I particularly liked that turn of events – not having the “nerd” act like a bumbling fool who’s insecure about himself and his ability to please another man. Thomas is intuitive, kind, refreshingly honest and forthright, and dedicated and fierce in his love and protection of Noah.
Despite their differences, Thomas and Noah have one very strong similarity – their inability to stand up for themselves. Noah brutally experienced this, and it forced him into hiding his true self. Thomas doesn’t like conflict and is “agreeable to a fault”. I don’t think it’s an accident that, until this point, Thomas has been called “Tommy” throughout the previous books and even in the chapter headings here. It’s how his friends and family refer to him as well. However, it’s clear that Tommy prefers to be called Thomas but never communicates it to his friends and family. Noah, however, is the standout because he listens to Thomas and understands what Thomas doesn’t say but really wants – hence, to Noah, Tommy is Thomas, Professor, and sir 😉.
Both Thomas and Noah are impressive people in so many ways, yet they both struggle to tout how great they are, just as they are, to other people. Thomas belatedly realizes that he’s never fought back on issues large and small. He doesn’t know how to fight, but the reality is that he’s never been motivated to do so.
“[I] would’ve slayed a dragon for Noah. I just didn’t know how.”
Noah’s horrible history has conditioned him to stay in the shadows and hide away from harm like a shrinking violet. But Thomas shows him he’s serious, and that even the most inept fighters can win when what’s important is on the line. And Noah is that for Thomas.
Alexander Cendese narrates The Professor’s Date, just as he has the previous The Script Club series books. Here, he subdues his often OTT geek/nerd, nasal-toned voicing. We hear it a bit in the secondary characters, which keeps them consistent with how he’s delivered them in the other books, but not really in his portrayals of Thomas and Noah. However, Cendese leans heavily into his portrayals of the female characters, particularly Thomas’ mother and twin sister Tabby, who sounds rather caricaturish. It, strangely enough, works, though. Tabby is a complete b!tch bridezilla, so her extreme, whiny, entitled demeanor is perfectly captured in Cendese’s portrayal. The same is true for Thomas’ Mom, who comes across as a loving woman who titters about when caught in the cross-hairs of the conflicts between Tabby and Thomas.
Cendese does what he does best on this audio – he’s lively, invested, and wholly immersed in the story. Even as unbelievable as some of the voices are at times, I found them to be funny, and that humor is appropriate for the lines. But what never wavers are his undeniable vocal chops and intuitive understanding of the emotions of a scene, which he translates to the listener through thoughtfully and effectively executed pacing, dynamics and intonations. Thomas and Noah are more complex than they may appear at first blush, and the same can be said for Hayes’ story. But the more I read and listened, the more I understood and became captivated by these two men and their unique relationship. Cendese gets Thomas and Noah right without being too extreme, but he still brings his usual energy and expressive narration to bear here, and it brings this story to life.
Like the other Script Club books, The Professor’s Date is sweet, funny, low-angst, and emotionally fulfilling. You don’t need to listen to the rest of the series to listen to this one, and I highly recommend you grab The Professor’s Date regardless.
RATING: 
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