My (Not So) Grumpy Professor by D.K. Sutton

Narrated by Kevin Earlywine

My (Not So) Grumpy Professor is a light-hearted grumpy/sunshine age-gap romance set on a fictional college campus in southern Missouri in which the titular professor and his likeable and upbeat TA butt heads (and then other body parts!) while trying not to fall in love. Both author and narrator are new-to-me, and while there’s nothing especially original in the story or outstanding about the narration, the audiobook was a pleasant enough way to spend a few hours while I was doing chores or otherwise pottering around. My (Not So) Grumpy Professor is book two in the My (not so) University series, but although characters from the first book do appear, there’s enough information given here for this one to work as a standalone.

Environmental Science professor Dr. Gabriel Morgan has taken up a position at Southern Missouri State University in order to try to repair his fractured relationship with his brother, Dr. Reid Emmerson (who was one of the leads in book one, My (Not So) Slutty Professor). Reid and Gabriel have different fathers, and Reid is over a decade Gabriel’s junior; after Reid’s father left and their mother died, Gabriel, who had been away at college, returned home and took over the parental role, doing everything he possibly could to keep Reid happy and make sure he was well taken care of. But their relationship has been strained of late, and Gabriel wants – no, needs – to find a way to fix it.

In the short time he’s been at the university Gabriel has already acquired a reputation for being a grumpy arsehole with little patience and has scared away a number of TAs, so now the Dean has appointed him a new one in the form of student, Benjamin Carter. But instead of being cowed by Gabriel’s thunderous scowl, Benji tells him outright what he thinks or flirts outrageously, which isn’t like anything Gabriel has encountered from his employees before.

[Note: I had to quibble with Gabriel’s continually describing Benji as his employee; even Benji pulls him up on it and points out that technically, they’re both employed by the university.]

Benji is bright, bubbly, charming and well-liked, and has no intention of being another of Professor Morgan’s failed TAs, resisting every attempt to rile him or force him to quit. But resisting the seriously hot grump is another matter; Benji has always had a weakness for older guys, and something about Gabriel’s grouchiness really does it for him. It’s quickly clear that the attraction is mutual, but a relationship between them would be inappropriate – at best – so they try to ignore the pull they feel towards one another and concentrate on their working together.

That actually goes well, and soon they start getting to know a bit more about one another and figure out ways they can help each other – but eventually the attraction zinging between them wins out and they start a sexual relationship. But not without setting some ground rules first; no sex in the office, nobody else can know – and absolutely NO strings.

I have to admit that after the first few chapters, I started to worry that the book was basically going to consist of two guys lusting after each other, thinking about all the reasons why getting it on was a bad idea, and then doing it anyway. Fortunately however, the author drops hints that there is more going on with both Gabriel and Benji than is apparent at first and that they’re both keeping secrets, and that helped to deepen their characterisation and keep me engaged and wanting to find out more.

Gabriel figures out quite early on that Benji has undiagnosed dyslexia, but Benji is adamant that he doesn’t want any special treatment or the ‘accommodation’ he’s entitled to within the college. His dad is an arsehole who not only hates that his son is gay, but has called him stupid all his life, and Benji has low self-esteem as a result. It tugs at the heartstrings to hear him believing he’s not good enough when he’s so kind and sweet and funny, and when he feels that he has to be ‘on’ all the time, to be the vivacious Benji people expect him to be even when he feels down or out of sorts.

Gabriel’s dad isn’t a barrel of laughs either, but he has other reasons for being cagey that relate to the reason Reid left his previous position (which I don’t recall being fully explained), and he’s a serious, private person who doesn’t like other people knowing his business – which leads him to keep secrets which will ultimately come back to bite him in the arse. The romance is nicely done as Gabriel and Benji soon begin spending time together for more than just sex – but of course, catching feelings was never part of the deal, and Gabriel is going to have to decide if he’s prepared to give Benji up in favour of returning to a life without attachments.

The writing is decent, but the pacing is uneven and the Big Resolution feels rushed – I really didn’t like that it takes place in public among a gathering of friends and associates; it felt awkward and contrived. The principals have strong chemistry, but the insta-lust at the beginning (Gabriel and Benji are full-on with the mental lusting after their first meeting!) didn’t work for me and while the sex scenes are generally well-written, there are a few too many of them. Also, the troublemakers (smarmy Professor Oliver, Benji’s dad and Rain, the guy who caused trouble for Reid) seem to just disappear without getting any real form of comeuppance.

I was on the fence about Kevin Earlywine’s performance until somewhere after the half-way mark, mostly because his vocal range (in terms of pitch) is limited and there were quite a few times I was reliant on the dialogue tags to distinguish between characters. But as the story went on, I realised that Mr. Earlywine does differentiate the main secondary cast fairly clearly, but the differences are usually quite subtle, and it took me a while to be able to recognise the characters aurally. The main problem I experienced was when two people were in conversation and a third joined in – I often couldn’t tell another person was speaking until their name was announced.

When it comes to the two leads, I liked the portrayal of Benji very much; he’s given a light southern drawl – which is used consistently throughout – and Mr. Earlywine captures his vibrancy, his spirit and his general good humour really well. His interpretation of Gabriel is less successful however; I’d have expected a grumpy character to have a deeper voice and darker timbre, but that isn’t the case, and the two principals are differentiated by accent and not much else. A definite plus is that Mr. Earlywine adds those little touches – laughs, sniffs, sobs – that always enhance a performance, and he does a great job when it comes to realising the characters’ emotions and injecting just the right degree of expression into the dialogue. It’s one of those performances that grows on you and needs time to properly embed ‘in the ears’; for some, the differentiation may be too subtle, but in the end, it’s a more than decent performance and I’d probably be open to listening to this narrator again.

My (Not So) Grumpy Professor is an undemanding and somewhat predictable listen, but if you’re in the market for something low-angst with likeable characters who help each other to change for the better, then it might fit the bill.

Caz

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