Given Our History: A Novel

Kristyn J. Miller

Aug 2024 · Sold by St. Martin's Griffin

About this ebook

In this sparkling romance, two professors with a complicated past get a second chance to prove history won't repeat itself.

Assistant professor Clara Fernsby is nothing if not driven. She’s wanted to teach history since she was fourteen, and she hasn’t let anything stand in her way—not even the love of her life. And it all paid off in the end, because she landed a well-paid position at a private liberal arts college fresh out of grad school, and this year, she’s finally up for tenure.

When Theodore Harrison is brought on for the fall semester as a visiting scholar, it’s an unexpected blast from Clara’s past. She hasn’t spoken to Teddy since rejecting him over a phone call ten years ago. Now that he’s here, she’s reminded of their time together at every turn: autumns spent at a sleepaway camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains, trading battered history books and burned CDs with the quiet, dark-haired boy she once fell in love with.

That boy might’ve been her best friend, but the man teaching HIST-322 is a total stranger—or so she thinks. As they spend evenings working on a shared project and brainstorming over drinks at a college bar, Clara realizes she’s at risk of falling all over again. Given their history, she knows there’s every chance he’s not interested. But history’s all down to interpretation, and this time around, she’s got no intentions of repeating it.

Ratings and reviews

A fantastic example of friends to lovers trope, Given Our History has the perfect mix of underlying feelings simmering under the surface with declarations and the complexities that come with it within a friendship; and Miller’s writing captured this in a superbly. The dual timelines added a beautiful blend of past and present that validated the occurrences and feelings of when the MCs were reunited. The chemistry between Theodre and Clara was flawless and the secondary characters were unmatched.

Good, slow read. This is one of those storylines that jumps timelines, not a favorite of mine. Teddy and Clara, are slow and steady,but have their moments. A good beach read.

About the author

KRISTYN J. MILLER is the author of Seven Rules for Breaking Hearts and other novels. A lifelong history nerd with a background in museum work, she finally earned her M.A. in history and museum studies at University of New Hampshire in 2023. In between novels, she spends her free time wandering peat bogs, sampling craft beers, and restoring her old colonial house in rural Maine with her husband.