Joanne Rock is a USA Today bestselling author of over one hundred works of popular fiction, including domestic suspense and romantic suspense. A frequent speaker at regional and national writing conferences she enjoys giving back to the writing community that nurtured and inspired her early career. She has a Masters degree in Literature from the University of Louisville and has taught fiction, film, and writing at the college level. When she's not writing, Joanne enjoys travel to gather new ideas.
Madeline Watson è un'assistente universitaria di sociologia all'Università di Louisville. Lì ha conosciuto, quattro anni prima, Cal Turner, professore universitario, meccanico, ex-dongiovanni e con un divorzio alle spalle che gli ha fatto perdere la sua fiducia nell'amore. Madeline e Cal nel corso del tempo sono divenuti buoni amici. Ma quando nel mezzo c'è una dissertazione sociologica rifiutata perchè riguarda i metodi di corteggiamento e Madeline è decisa a fare degli esperimenti in prima persona, magari proprio con l'aiuto di Cal...
Learning Curves is a romantic novel about friendship, lust, and love.
Madeline Watson, a shy bookworm and graduate student, is looking to expand her horizons in order to have more experience for her next research project - a project on human mating. This is where her friend, and the man of her fantasies, comes in.
Cal Turner has been Madeline's friend since she met him a few years prior. Cal, a mild mannered college professor and successful businessman with a naughty streak, has also felt an attraction to Madeline - even with the frumpy clothes she wears and the lack of make-up.
When Madeline approaches Cal looking for no-strings attached fun in order to garner learning experience for her research, can Cal turn down Miss Bookworm turned seductress? And will their friendship ever be the same?
Joanne Rock brings together two total opposites and shows that opposites do attract in Learning Curves. The characters are well thought out and defined from Madeline's frumpiness to her always thinking brain and Cal's handsome good looks and success story of building something from nothing. The plot is fantastic and touches on a bit of the forbidden - College professor and grad student and the book keeps you hanging on from page one.
Learning Curves definitely deserves a recommendation from Bottles & Books Reviews!
The the set-up for this pre-blaze or "heat" could have been perfect. It just lacked the chemistry and creativity to pull it off. The characters go back and forth thinking the same ridiculous assumptions like "I'm just a lowly mechanic. She could never love me," or "I'm always going to be a book-worm scholar. I could never make him happy". I'm paraphrasing there but their internal development wasn't too different. It was redundant and irrelevant to begin with but it got really bad when their internal monologues distracted from the dialogue between the two. There were literally paragraphs of internal processing between two simple lines of dialogue. It made every conversation feel disjointed and lost any emotional impact.
Private lessons so she can study mating rituals. What could go wrong? The lessons must stay private. Reputations are at stake! Can a good girl handle a bad boy? You are about to find out!!
Learning Curves is a fun, light romance between a sheltered academic and a mechanic/businessman. It is fun to see these friends turn into lovers and Maddy find her way out of academia. I am a huge fan of quiet girl gets the hot guy romances and this certainly fit the bill. I highly recommend this quick, easy read.