Given Our History by Kristyn J. MillerStar Rating:
Spice Level:
Published by St. Martin’s Griffin on 08/27/2024
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary Romance
Format: DRC (336 pages)
Source: NetGalley
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In this sparkling romance, two professors with a complicated past get a second chance to prove history won't repeat itself.
Assistant professor Clara Fernsby is nothing if not driven. She’s wanted to teach history since she was fourteen, and she hasn’t let anything stand in her way—not even the love of her life. And it all paid off in the end, because she landed a well-paid position at a private liberal arts college fresh out of grad school, and this year, she’s finally up for tenure.
When Theodore Harrison is brought on for the fall semester as a visiting scholar, it’s an unexpected blast from Clara’s past. She hasn’t spoken to Teddy since rejecting him over a phone call ten years ago. Now that he’s here, she’s reminded of their time together at every autumns spent at a sleepaway camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains, trading battered history books and burned CDs with the quiet, dark-haired boy she once fell in love with.
That boy might’ve been her best friend, but the man teaching HIST-322 is a total stranger—or so she thinks. As they spend evenings working on a shared project and brainstorming over drinks at a college bar, Clara realizes she’s at risk of falling all over again. Given their history, she knows there’s every chance he’s not interested. But history’s all down to interpretation, and this time around, she’s got no intentions of repeating it.
Seventeen years of friendship. Thirteen years of loving each other. Six years of heartache. And one year to finally get it right.
Teddy and Clara meet one rainy afternoon at a summer camp for homeschooled kids. Their friendship is forged over a game of Trivial Pursuit, a 3-legged race, a sprained ankle, and a can of Pepsi. Phone numbers are exchanged, many phone calls are made, mixed CDs are burned, and The Long-Distance History Club is formed — two adorably nerdy kids who quickly become best friends.
I was not expecting this to be such an angsty, wonderful, heart-wrenching story. The dual timelines worked wonders for this book and were, in my opinion, the best part. The flashbacks to the beginning of Clara and Teddy’s friendship were vital to understanding their upbringings and complicated relationship. At first, they only saw each other once a year at camp, mapping the stars, screaming curse words into the void on the top of a mountain, and becoming each other’s rock. Even though they lived in different states, they shared their secrets, goals, dreams, and fears through Myspace messages, texts, and phone calls. When they got older, they’d pick a spot to meet between Pennsylvania and Maryland to support and comfort each other in person. Teddy and Clara fell deeply in love but were too young, ambitious, scared, and stubborn to surrender to their feelings and be together. They inadvertently hurt each other multiple times through miscommunication and rejection because they couldn’t figure out how to love without fear. Fear of losing their friendship. Fear of never achieving all the academic goals they worked so hard for. Fear that they would eventually resent each other for giving up on their dreams, like their parents did, just to be together.
Present Day: Clara is living her dream as a history professor at the University of Irving in Maryland. At the beginning of the semester, Clara is asked by her department chair to submit her application for tenure (yay) and share her office with a visiting scholar (sure, no problem). He specializes in maritime history at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh (huh, that sounds familiar, but no, it couldn’t be). He’s young and accomplished, and his last name is Harrison (oh no). Of course, the handsome, new, visiting scholar is none other than her childhood best friend-turned-stranger, Teddy, whom she last saw six years ago and hasn’t spoken to since.
On top of sharing an office, Teddy volunteers to help Clara with the scholarship fundraising gala she’s organizing to beef up her tenure dossier. Pushed together at every turn, Clara and Teddy can’t help but revisit old feelings and stoke the embers of their love — that never actually burned out.
My only complaint is that there needed to be an epilogue. I read the last chapter, fully expecting to turn the page and get a look into Teddy and Clara’s future. But alas, there was nothing. I will have to take their last toast as proof of their happily ever after.
“‘How about. . . to looking ahead,’ I say with a glance at Teddy, because this is far from the beginning of our story.
But it’s also far from the end.”