Given Our History by Kristyn J. Miller: Book Review
| Pub Date | August 27, 2024 |
| Publisher | Griffin |
| Page Count | 320 pages |
| Genre | Romance, Contemporary, Adult |
| Goodreads Star Rating | 3.64 |
| My star rating | 2.5 |
Given Our History Book Summary
Given Our History by Kristyn J. Miller is a romance novel about Clara and Teddy, two history professors who have been friends for years — until nine years ago, that is, when they had a big fall out. Now they’re forced to share an office and confront their past and lingering feelings for each other.
Given Our History Book Review
I’m a sucker for second-chance romance. Add the fall vibes and the academic setting to that, and you basically have me sold. And after my horribly bad luck with books recently, I really wanted to love Given Our History. It seemed like the perfect book for me.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
And again, just like with Savor It by Tarah DeWitt, I have to preface this by saying that this is not a badly written book. In fact, the prose is quite good, and the dialogue enjoyable. Sure, the heroine says stuff like “biscuits” or “fiddlesticks” when she wants to swear, but that’s easy to overlook. Nothing about it is especially bad.
However, nothing about it is particularly good either.
My first and biggest complaint is that the premise is thrown out almost immediately. The main draw of this novel — for me, at least — was that these two people with all their lingering feelings would have to share the same space. Everyone loves a bit of forced proximity, and the potential is huge — the stolen glances, the yearning, the awkward conversations, the secret moments behind locked doors.
It would have been great.
Unfortunately, the office plot device was unnecessary. Clara and Teddy spend no time in it — I don’t think they meet there even once. Instead, they either meet randomly around campus or not at all.
It’s such a wasted opportunity. If you put something in your book (a plot device, a character — anything) you have to use it or erase it entirely. If you want to write romance, you have to understand the craft, the art of it.
Perhaps it makes more sense for two busy professors to never be in their office — I’m not the expert so it could be more realistic. But romance is not equal to real life. When people start reading this genre, they’re ready to suspend their disbelief. They’re ready for wacky premises, quirky heroines, extra hot heroes, love confessions that would be extremely cringe-inducing if someone said them in real life.
So I think we could handle the little inaccuracy of the main characters spending more time in this office than necessary.
This brings me to my next point, which is that the romance between the main couple is not believable and not… very romantic. For example, they have their first date as a couple and instead of it being swoony and lovely, they negotiate their relationship like it’s a business deal. We don’t even get to see this first date — instead, we’re told that they agreed that a relationship between them would be all right because they have history, they know each other well, etc.
And don’t get me wrong, this could be super cute in the right context. Or even as a set up.
But not as a first date at 70% of the book when we’re supposed to get some fluff and see how the couple works when together.
Nothing about them is romantic or passionate. They feel like robots made to say and do things without any conviction behind it. They have a fight one night, and then move on the next day as if nothing happened (no, literally, they have sex and decide to be together with almost no preamble).
It just felt so dry and unsatisfactory. Second chance romance brings with it so many juicy feelings — anger, longing, love. Yet none of it translated to the page here.
The past chapters were fun at first, but then descended into long, tiring recounts of everything that happened to the heroine while she wasn’t seeing Teddy. And then important things (like first dates, drinks together for the first time, etc.) are summarized in a paragraph or two. There are pointless conversations that add nothing to the story, pointless characters even — and the whole plot with Clara’s tenure is overdrawn and over-explained while romance takes a backseat.
Overall, Given Our History lacks tension and passion — two tenets of the romance genre. Would I recommend it? Perhaps if you’re very new to romance or you enjoy romance that’s more pragmatic and realistic than it is swoony. For me, it was a big flop and a disappointment.
