Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Teacher of the Year
SERIES: Teachers in Love (Book 1)
AUTHOR: M. A. Wardell
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 347 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2023
BLURB:
Love: Not as easy as ABC.
They were supposed to keep things casual. Who’d expect they’d be schooled in love?
Those who can, teach. Marvin Block is one of the best kindergarten teachers out there. And despite his anxiety, Marvin’s life is sweet. He knows what he wants. And what he wants is the Teacher of the Year Award. Not just for himself – his school needs him to win.
Returning from break, the New Year finds Marvin all set to welcome a new pupil to his class. But when Illona walks in with her cute-as-hell single dad beside her, Marvin’s focus starts to slide.
Sure, his students always come first, but he deserves to have a life outside the classroom, too, right?
As their friendship starts to deepen, Marvin realizes Olan has the potential to teach him things about love he never thought possible. But with the Teacher of the Year award and his school’s future on the line, now’s not the time for anything complicated.
Education has always been Marvin’s world. And he needs to keep a cool head if he wants to win the award and save his school. But will it be worth it if he loses Olan in the process?
With Olan’s past and Marvin’s present colliding, their experiment in love hangs in the balance. Marvin knows what he wants out of life. But now he’s forced to consider what he wants out of love.
Will Marvin chalk the relationship up to experience? Or can they revise their story into a textbook romance?
Teacher of the Year is a steamy open door friends-to-lovers gay romance novel that explores the balance between friends, family, career, and relationships while overcoming trauma and dealing with anxiety.
REVIEW:
I so look forward to brand new authors and their books.
Marvin Block is the real deal. The teacher every parent hopes their child gets. And kindergarten is a touch transition year for a lot of children…and their parents. But being the consummate teacher he is it’s no wonder that his students thrive under him or the fact that a parent nominated him for Teacher of the Year. But behind all that positive façade lies a man riddled with anxiety and suffers from ADHD. Now Pelletier School is putting all their hopes of getting more funding for the struggling school with a win by Marvin. Add in that they are just returning from winter break and he’s getting another student that just transferred here to Portland, Maine from California and his anxiety ramps up another notch. When the little girl Illona arrive with her gorgeous and appears to be single father his mind goes into overload. While typical to give his number to parents to keep in touch, his newest parent Olan seems to be texting a lot and what is with the emoji’s and him winking at him?
I like Marvin. He’s a bit over the top at times and his anxieties definitely get the best of him. But it was really hard to connect with Olan and him as a couple because we only heard Marvin’s side. His early years were definitely traumatic and I could see that someone with an alcoholic past could easily trigger his anxieties. But his constant running away got a bit old.
I really had a hard time with a teacher striking up a sexual relationship while having the parent’s child in their classroom. And having sex in the closet of the classroom during a parent/teacher conference was a definite no-no for me! But what I had more of a problem with was flaunting of their blooming relationship right in front of Illona like it was no big deal that her teacher and her dad shared a bed while going on vacation with them. And 5 year-olds are not known for being discreet so I would have thought this a horrible idea. I know it wasn’t against school policy but it just seemed inappropriate.
I will say that the writing was quite good. I was confused, and brought out of the story, when I thought Illona was off visiting her mother in California and then her dad was coming down stairs after tucking her in. I don’t know if we jumped from being overnight at Marvin’s to it being a week later at Olan’s or not but it just didn’t flow.
I was happy to hear that Marvin had decided to reach out to a therapist to help him with his lingering issues with his mother. I would say that was a very long time in the making and I’m surprised his bestie Jill hadn’t shoved him into it long ago. Speaking of Jill, I really like her and her hunky husband. She was the perfect best friend and work mate for Marvin.
One of the things that would have been a huge help in this book would have been an Yiddish dictionary. I had no idea half the time what Marvin was saying. I tried several times to look up the phrases but couldn’t find a translator that worked.
All in all I liked this debut book. It took quite awhile to really get into the book and I think hearing both main character’s would have added a level needed to believe their romance.
RATING: 
BUY LINK: