Title: Flirting with Fifty
Author: Jane Porter
Publication: May 24, 2022
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Pages: 334
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
Paige Newsom is finally at a place in her life where she’s comfortable. She loves her job as a college professor in Southern California, lives close enough to her mother to visit her regularly, and has three daughters who are flourishing in their own careers. Paige has no plans to upend her life again after her divorce eight years ago, but she’s about to embark on a new adventure: co-teaching a course that includes a three-week international field study.
Paige can think of a dozen reasons why she shouldn’t go, one being a dazzling Australian biologist who will be teaching alongside her. Professor Jack King is charismatic, a world traveler, and more like Indiana Jones than Indiana Jones, all of which unsettles Paige, who prides herself on being immune to any man’s charms. As the two co-professors lead the rigorous program together, first on campus, then in beautiful Tanzania, Paige’s biggest challenge will be working closely with Jack while resisting the undeniable chemistry she feels when she’s with him.
REVIEW:
When this book came past my email asking for a review, I jumped at the chance to read it. I will admit that I didn’t read the first book she wrote, Flirting with Forty. However, after reading the description of the book, it has nothing to do with this one, just a carry-on of a tile. I hoped that it was good as much to my dismay I am rapidly approaching 50.
Paige lives a cookie-cutter life. She likes the routine and organization of her life. She also no longer dates after the horrific marriage and divorce she suffered. Enters Jack. Someone she hadn’t thought of him in 30 years, not since they had a night in Paris. Now they are back together to co-teach a university class joining biology and math together. I loved this book. I could relate to Paige on so many levels. I mean I don’t have a terrible marriage or suffered through a divorce. However, I lack self-esteem and struggle with letting go. I don’t exactly like spontaneity. I like things to be organized or at least as much as I can organize. I love the relationship between Jack and Paige. They truly are each other’s soul mates if there is such a thing.
I was really not a fan of the daughters. They seem to be using their mother. They say that they want to be there for her but they never have the time for her. She would drop what she was doing in a heartbeat to go to them. They didn’t want her to date at all. I just felt like they were being selfish. I love the way the world opened up to up to her. She threw caution to the wind and took the trip of a lifetime that was the most important trip of her life. This book was an excellent read, I fell in love with the characters. It makes me want to read the first book to see if it is just as good as this one was. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for more books by the author.
