Review: Flirting with Fifty by Jane Porter

 

A sexy and sparkling later-in-life contemporary romance about a woman who leaps out of her comfort zone and takes a chance on love by New York Times bestselling author Jane Porter.

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.

 

My Review:

I was hooked on this book from the start.

Paige Newsome was happy with her life.  She is a college professor, her girls were off living their own lives and she had good friends to spend time with.  Paige didn’t need or want a man in her life.  But when learned she would soon be co-teaching a class with Jack King, a man she had a one-night fling with thirty years ago, while studying abroad, she began to get nervous.  She just hoped he wouldn’t remember her.

When Jack meets the professor he will be teaching with, he can’t believe it is Paige and doesn’t understand why she acts like she doesn’t know him.  Jack decides to play along with Paige.  But when he finally has enough, he had to speak up.  After all the years that passed, Jack never forgot Paige.  He didn’t understand why she left Paris the next day without saying goodbye.  Now that Jack has found Paige again, he doesn’t plan to let her get away.

I loved everything about this story.  I couldn’t wait to see how Paige and Jack would find their way back together.  The characters’ backgrounds were well thought out.  Paige had the challenges and insecurities many of us face as we get older.  I liked seeing how she was able to move past them.  I really enjoyed the parts where Paige and Jack travel to Africa.  The scenes were written so well, that I could easily visualize them in my mind.  I would definitely recommend this book to any of my friends and family.  This book will appeal to fans of both, women’s fiction and romance.