An Academic Affair, while it is full of tropes, is at its heart a lovely rom-com. I enjoyed how it all unfolded and found myself looking forward to picking it up in the evenings. Not my most favourite in this genre but a nice read all the same! Definitely one for romance lovers.

I read it in one day! I loved the format with footnotes and the very natural way the relationship developed. I laughed out loud so many times and have recommended to so so many people already!

Wow this was perfect!

The dial POV with her book recs (defo Easter eggs for what’s to come) and his with all the footnotes to share his feelings?!

I didn’t know how much I wanted them to be different until this!

It was just the right amount of plot and romance. The slow burn hit! The way my chest hurt hearing that love confession!!!

Where has this author been all my life!?

If you like academic rival to lovers or even just romcom style books I have a feeling this is for you.

I can only hope you love it like it did!

Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review

This was the perfect enemies to lovers romance set in the e academic world. Think Anyone But You but set in academia. I highly enjoyed it and recommend it if you like that type of book genre;

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book. A gorgeous 4 star read book from me. What an exciting plot, vivid storytelling and relatable, rich characters. I couldn't put this book down – absolutely loved it

Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher have been bitter rivals since practically the first day of college. For fifteen years they have competed for everything, top of the class, teaching positions, grants, you name it. What both of them want, but neither has, is a permanent teaching position. Meanwhile, the two of them have somehow ended in a house-share *and* co-teach some literature classes. Sadie's speciality is modern romance (ie populist) whereas Jonah's is more traditional Shakespearian drama and the like. Also, at their graduation, Sadie's sister got into a screaming argument with Jonah's father.

Sadie didn't have the greatest start in life, her father left them when she was very young and their mother checked out of parental responsibilities so she was practically raised by her older sister Francesca ('Chess'). As a consequence, money is tight and the two sisters are very close.

Jonah on the other hand comes from a family of academics, his father is famous and his mother was a student/researcher in his father's classes. However, he is not close to any of his family, his father forced them to participate in debates at meal times and pitted sibling against sibling.

Fast forward, Jonah is trying to be a better brother and all round person. He hates the privilege he receives as a middle class white male with connections and tries to be an ally to Sadie (and other females) wherever possible.

When Jonah's father lets slip that his older sister's husband has left her and their two small children for his other secret family, Jonah wants to do whatever he can to help, but being in Sydney while she lives in Tasmania is difficult. Then a teaching job comes up in Hobart which seems perfect. The only trouble is the successful candidate will have expertise in one of four areas, including Shakespearian drama and modern romance. Could this be their fiercest contest?

The employment contract has a clause agreeing to spousal hire (if they are in a similar field) so Sadie concocts a plot to get married, that way Jonah can move to Hobart to be near his sister - after all they have been living together (platonically) for years. But working together every day and spending evenings at home may change things forever.

Told from both POVs, this was a fun romance, with plenty of references to romantic tropes and plot devices (eg forced to share a bed, marriage of convenience etc). As always, great to get some recommendations of other romances to read and/or validation of your reading choices.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

An Academic Affair is perfect for fans of The Hating Game and Ali Hazelwood and for lovers of romances set in the world of academia with plenty of bookish references and two English lit academics finally realising they are in love with each other after marrying for convenience.

Both Sadie and Jonah are great characters and I loved seeing how their relationship developed. There was plenty of yearning, attitude adjustments, communication and team work as they progressed. The side characters were also well developed and I really hope there will be books for Fiona (I won’t spoil who I’m hoping will be the MMC but it will be obvious if you read this one), Chess (who is the man behind the voice Sadie recognises on the phone? I know who I’m hoping it will be!) and Elias (we need to resolve the Julia issue).

I loved the literary references, especially the Tolkien word that Sadie based her research on.

One that has joined my favourites list! Give me the next books please (or at least a sign that there will be more!)

4.5 stars

I was looking forward to reading An Academic Affair but unfortunately, although I liked Sadie and Jonah separately as characters, I just didn't connect with the romance between them.

It's self explanatory from the title that it's set in academia so the footnotes tie in with the theme but I found them very confusing, going back and forth from the main body to try and find the relevant footnote and then back again and it took me out of the story.

There's a lot of talk about the politics of academia and maybe I'm not the right target audience because I just wasn't as engaged with that aspect of it.

I did like Sadie's relationship with her sister, Chessie though.

Wow, wow wow!! This is my absolute favourite romcom of the year! An Academic Affair is such cute, funny, heartstring-tugger of a book. It’s a story about love, not just romantic love but sibling love too.

Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher are academic/work place rivals and have been since they first met at university. They’ve battled each other for honour medals, PHDs and jobs with the scores being pretty evenly settled as neither have landed a full time lecturer role. When their dream role finally opens up the day after a heart to heart in their shared house kitchen they decide to try and put their differences aside and trick the university into a partner hire.

I absolutely adored Sadie and Jonah, I loved how feisty Sadie is and Jonah is such a sweet, charming, cinnamon roll character (wife not actively crying, Jonah doesn’t feel like he’s dying). I loved how even though they fought, they never made out that each other were anything less than smart and more than capable at their jobs.

The tropes used in the book were well done (one bed in the hotel room!! he falls first!!! inject it into my veins), marriage of convenience usually doesn’t do it for me but this was so well written and made sense to the story that I really enjoyed it. Also!! No third act break up!! Just a steady relationship. Love. Love. Love. I thought the writing was so smart, it sucked me in immediately and I finished it in one day! In particular I loved the literary themes throughout and Jonah’s footnotes.

The side characters were also very well developed, keeping my fingers crossed for spin offs with all of them (and future peaks into Sadie and Jonah’s life!).

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC, this book was an absolute delight to read!

"An Academic Affair" did such an excellent job of taking well worn romance tropes and subverting them just enough to produce this warm embrace of a novel. Sadie and Jonah have been professional rivals throughout their career, from first meeting at university to where the novel starts with them competing for the same job. I loved the insights about academic life, based on the author's own experience. The narrative is split between Sadie and Jonah's point of view and Jodie McAlister gave them their own distinct cadence. Jonah's chapters even included citations like an academic paper and lots of lovely quotations from literature. I really hope that there will be more novels from this burgeoning community as a few other couples were teased.

I'm very torn in writing this review. On the one hand, I enjoyed the fighting between Sadie and Jonah, and I loved Jonah's relationship with his sister. I also enjoyed the very real depiction of nepotism and privilege in academic research and how frustrating it can be.
I did find myself initially rooting for Jonah and Sadie, but the novel just seemed to drag a little and I had to stop myself from skimming pages to get through chapters that felt like filler. It also felt slightly repetitive about the baggage that they both carried.