CARPOOL (Milford College #1) by Noelle Adams-review tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date July 17, 2019
The last thing I want is to share a forty-five minute commute with the most obnoxious (and attractive) man I know. But I can’t afford a new transmission right now, so I’m stuck with Marcus for at least a month.
He promises to be good, but Marcus Greene is never good. And I’m not sure how long I can resist him.
Carpool is the first book in the Milford College series about the faculty and staff of a small liberal arts college
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REVIEW: CARPOOL is the first instalment in Noelle Adams’ contemporary, adult MILFORD COLLEGE erotic, romance series of novellas focusing on the men and women who work at Milford College, a small liberal arts college in Virginia. This is thirty-two year old, Director of Facilities Marcus Greene, and twenty-eight year old, financial assistant personnel Jennifer Raleigh’s story line.
NOTE: CARPOOL was originally released as a newsletter serial in the author’s email newsletter.
Told from first person point of view (Jennifer) CARPOOL follows the building relationship between thirty-two year old, former bad boy and current Director of Facilities Marcus Greene, and twenty-eight year old, financial assistant personnel Jennifer Raleigh. Growing up in Sterling, Virginia Marcus Greene’s reputation as a trouble maker preceded his introduction to our story line heroine. With her car in for repairs, and with no other option for commuting the forty-five minute drive to Milford College, Jennifer Raleigh reluctantly approaches the only person she knows who may be able to help her out with transportation between work and home. Enter Marcus Greene, a man Jennifer believes despises the ground upon which she walks, but the man with whom she will fall in love. What ensues is the back and forth, acrimonious relationship and building romance between Jennifer and Marcus, and the potential fall-out as miscommunication and misunderstanding, and a pattern of failed relationships threatens to destroy Jennifer and Marcus’ fragile hold of one another.
Throughout the story our couple struggle with their one on one time enclosed in a car together for forty-five minutes. Marcus and Jennifer make ‘small talk’ about everything and nothing getting to ‘know’ one another yet revealing very little about their lives and themselves.
The relationship between Jennifer and Marcus is one of immediate attraction but Marcus’ teenaged reputation as a troublemaker has followed our hero into adulthood, affecting friendships, and the possible relationship with the woman with whom he will fall in love. Hoping one day Jennifer will ‘see’ the real Marcus Greene, Marcus offers up a friends-with-benefits relationship as they get to know one another over the upcoming weeks. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text but I struggled to feel any real palpable, sexual attraction or energy. Perhaps if we had Marcus’ perspective we would be more aware of his emotions and mind set as it pertains to relationships and his struggle to ‘close the deal’.
The secondary and supporting characters are few. We are introduced to Jennifer’s grandmother; assistant professor of history at Milford College and Jennifer’s best friend Beck, as well as her best friend from high school Giselle.
CARPOOL is a story of preconceived notions and discrimination based upon youthful exuberance and childhood mistakes. The premise is engaging; the romance is flirty; the characters are energetic but struggle with the little things that shouldn’t matter.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
I blink when he gets out too.
“What are you doing?” I ask, my voice sharp because I’m confused.
“I’m walking you to the door. Do you have a problem with that?”
“But why?”
“Why not?”
I don’t have an answer to the question. And since he didn’t give me an answer, I feel like I don’t have to give one to him either.
But I’m shuddering with something like excitement as we reach the front stoop of my grandmother’s house. I stop and stare up at him.
He’s gazing down at me with that same deep, warm expression I saw in him earlier.
Right before he kissed me.
“Why are you doing this, Marcus?” My voice breaks slightly because I’m pulsing with everything I’m feeling.
“I’m just standing at your door.”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
He nods, his mouth relaxing slightly. “I’m doing it because I want to kiss you again, and I think you want that too.”
I lick my lips. He sees it. His expression heats up.
It thrills me so much I quickly get my tongue back into my mouth and swallow hard. “I don’t know, Marcus. I don’t usually do things… just for fun.”
“I know you don’t. But I keep telling you that you’re allowed. Kissing me would be fun for you. And for me. It doesn’t have to mean anything more. It doesn’t have to change anything important about your world. So why shouldn’t we do it again?”
“Because… because I think it would… If we do it again, we’re going to do more than kiss.”
He chuckles softly and reaches up to brush some hair back from my face. “Yes. We probably will.”
“And you think that can be just for fun? No… no… pressure or complications?” I can’t believe I’m even considering no-strings-attached sex, but that’s exactly what I’m doing.
That’s what Marcus is offering.
And I want it so much.
“Yes. I think so. If that’s what you want.”
“That’s all it could be between us. For obvious reasons.”
He gives a slight nod. “Yes.”
This confirms a tiny, lingering question I’d never even acknowledged. And it makes things so much safer.
Safe enough for me to let myself be tempted for real.
After all, sex with Marcus is going to be good. I know it for sure. And if I can enjoy it—have some fun—in a way that both of us agree will lead to nothing disruptive to my life, why the hell shouldn’t I?
Why can’t I be like everyone else and just let go now and then?
It doesn’t have to threaten the security of my world.
I really think I could let go with Marcus and still be safe.
He confirms this by saying in a more serious tone, “I’m here for anything you want, Jennifer. Anything. Just name it. But if it’s not what you want, all you have to do is tell me, and I’ll never make a move on you again.”
I gulp. “I… do want it.”
“Yeah?” He tilts his head down.
“Yeah.”
“So you want to try to have a little fun and see what happens?”
Somehow I’ve made up my mind. I’ve decided. Everything inside me wants to do this, so I’m going to do it after all. “Yeah. That’s what I want.”
His eyes smolder in a way that makes my heart clench.
And other parts of me clench as well.
“So I can kiss you again?”
I nod. “Please do.”
Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances.
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