Review: Getting Schooled by Emma Chase

Reviewer: Rowena
Getting Schooled (Getting Some, #1) by Emma Chase
Narrator: Andi Arndt, Zachary Webber
Series: Getting Some #1
Also in this series: Getting Schooled (Getting Some, #1), Getting Played , Getting Played, Getting Schooled , Getting Real
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: June 26, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
Point-of-View: Alternating First
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 310
Length: 7 hours and 15 minutes
Add It: Goodreads
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Series Rating:

The newest novel from New York Times bestselling author Emma Chase.

Head of the class...

Garrett Daniels has this whole life thing figured out.

The cocky, charismatic former high school star quarterback is an idolized football coach and "cool" teacher in the hometown where he's not just a golden boy — he's platinum. He has good friends, a great house on the lake, and the best damn sidekick a man could ask for: Snoopy, the albino beagle.

Then...Callie Carpenter comes home.

And knocks him right on his tight end zone.

Back to school...

Callie has a pretty sweet life herself...on the other side of the country. But circumstances — that she'd prefer to never speak of again — have brought her back home, helping out her parents and substitute teaching at her old high school.

Now she's facing bickering, raging hormones, constant gossip, awkward weirdness, and drama galore...and that's just the teachers.

Just like old times...

When Garrett offers to show his former high school sweetheart the secrets of his winning teacher ways, Callie jumps at the chance - and then has to stop herself from jumping him.

Good friends are all they can ever be.

Or...these teachers just might end up getting schooled — by love.

Getting Schooled is the first book in Emma Chase’s Getting Some series and it was good. It features a second chance romance that wasn’t bogged down with a whole lot of drama and I had a good time listening to it. I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed both Zachary Webber and Andi Arndt’s narration so really, I have no complaints on that end. They were easy to listen to but I haven’t listened to very many audiobooks so I don’t know if they’re my favorites yet. Richard Armitage holds that trophy for the moment. 😉

Anyway, on to the story…Callie Carpenter and Garrett Daniels are high school sweethearts who grew apart after they graduated and went their separate ways. Callie went to the West Coast and Garrett stayed on the East. They loved each other but love wasn’t enough to keep them together because it’s hard to keep a relationship going when they’re so far apart. Callie built a life for herself in San Diego while Garrett went on to be a teacher at their old high school in their hometown in Lakeland, New Jersey. They remember each other with fondness but they haven’t seen each other in years.

When Callie’s parents are injured in a car accident, Callie’s sister calls on her to come back home and help her care for them. She’s got her own life with her own family and she can’t take care of her parents on her own so Callie takes a leave of absence from her job (where she was just promoted) and heads home. Callie has bills to pay so she decides to apply for the theater teacher’s job at the high school while she’s home and she gets it. Getting that job brings Garrett back into her life and that makes her happy.

Garrett is just as happy to see Callie as she is to see him. They were important to each other and that hasn’t changed with distance and time. They jump right back into catching up with each other and are you surprised that they almost immediately start hooking up again? I wasn’t.

The conflict comes in when they realize that they still love each other and want to be together but how can you stay with someone who lives across the country? Who will uproot their life and move to be with the other person? They’ve both built lives for themselves where they are so it’s not an easy decision to make.

For me, this book was one of those straight up romances where we have two adults who love each other and are trying to figure out how to be together. I really like these kinds of romances because they’re normal and I can see these romances actually happen because I have seen them happen in real life. These are two characters dealing with real life problems and trying to figure out how to make things work. Garrett was a great hero and I really liked the kind of coach and teacher her was. He had high standards and didn’t let his students get away with not being the best people they can be. He didn’t tolerate meanness, he didn’t tolerate attitude and if he said something, he stuck to it. He gave his word and he kept it and I just loved seeing him with Callie, with his family and even his students at school. He was a stand up guy and could have been read as boring but no worries, Emma Chase works her magic and makes Garrett shine.

I also really liked getting to know Callie. She was smart, she was caring and she was really genuine. She was the kind of woman you wanted as a friend and she was a good partner for Garrett. I loved seeing her build a life for herself back at her hometown without even knowing it. I loved that she came into those kids lives and she took her time with them seriously. She wanted to help those kids grow and made a place for herself in town again and what she tells Garrett in the end, about coming home? I loved it.

Overall, this book was a little slow in the beginning but when it picks up, it really takes off and I enjoyed reading everything. Emma Chase does a great job of making the reader connect with not just the main characters but with the secondary characters as well so I’m very much looking forward to Dean’s book when it comes out.

Grade: 4 out of 5

Getting Some

Untitled (Dean’s Book)

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