Schooling by Sommer Marsden

We all change as we mature. The hope is that we will grow together with our loved ones in a relationship. But what do you do when life has pulled you apart as much as together? David comes up with a plan… While staying for parent’ weekend when taking their daughter to college, he and his wife will get some Schooling of their own to revitalize their marriage!

David and Ellie have been together for a long time. A very long time. Their marriage has started to fray a bit around the edges and the stress is really beginning to show. When they take their daughter to college—planning to stay for parents’ weekend—something unexpected happens…
Passion. Molten, unexpected, off-the-wall heat. In layman’s terms, awesome sex.
David proposes a plan to the wife he still truly loves. A little bit of sexual schooling and a refresher course in seduction. The goal is to put the oomph and sizzle back in their marriage. Turns out it’s really not just about the hot, amazing and abundant sex, it’s also about twenty years of love. And remembering who they are, individually and as a couple.

David and Ellie Gray have fallen into the one thing that all long term relationships fear: not just complacency, but a stress-filled life rounded out with anger and fear. Twenty years of making sure life is good for their daughter, Celia, and that everything is going well means their marriage has taken a backseat along the way. It’s natural for David to worry about doing well enough to provide for his family and thus working too much and too hard when he was the main “breadwinner”. Ellie started getting into her art more as Celia got older and then set up her own business to sell it. Now she focuses as much time selling as making her art and is too focused on being successful to enjoy her art or what she has. While they still were a great family for Celia, they have drifted apart. But they still love one another and have no desire to loose what they once had.

Now that they are dropping off Celia at college, they have to face changes in their lives. But they also discover they really want to stay together, they just have to find a way back. David comes up with the perfect plan: their own “freshmen fifteen” during this parents’ weekend. That they have fifteen intimate encounters over the next three days while at the inn and seeing Celia settled at school. Hopefully this will help them with both overcome the distance in their marriage and to reconnect again.

The idea behind Schooling caught me before I even read it. Being married for almost fifteen years, I have worried about this (complacency, even boring hubby after all these years). The whole idea that THE GUY here still loves his wife enough to work to save the marriage and put the heat back in the bedroom is really appealing to me and probably most women. Maybe even a good hit to guys out there…

Now, I assume most romance and erotic(a) readers are women. So Schooling somewhat surprised me by having Ellie being so snippy in the beginning. But I have to admit that I am the more emotional one in my marriage as well. (Do I have to admit that I get upset and angry more as well? Lol.) Ellie is too young in the story to be going through hormonal changes, but her strong mood swings did remind me of my mother’s when that time hit, and made me wonder. I liked that Ellie, the woman here, was at least as much at fault here- for a change it wasn’t all the man’s fault or some other woman’s fault. And yet there wasn’t any real, major (or unforgivable) problems, just life working to wear them both down. This was one of those everyday kind of problems we all might face. And there are solutions to these problems if we are willing to work at them.

Schooling is very enjoyable. There is quit a bit of sex, of course. But this is really a story about two people who still love each other but have gotten lost in life’s issues. And how sometimes you need to take a step back and find your way ‘home.’ And as David points out, intimate isn’t only about sex. Actually sleeping with someone can be more personal than sex at times. Schooling is a great reminder to all of us in long-term relationships to not take what we have for granted. And maybe a give us a few ideas on how to keep things spicy with that special person in our lives!