An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister

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⭐⭐⭐⭐ An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister — A Fake Marriage, Real Feelings, and Academia at Its Most Cutthroat

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5 stars)

Let me say this up front: this book is dangerously charming. The kind of soft, slow-burn romance that sneaks past your defenses and suddenly has you rooting for two emotionally repressed academics like it’s your full-time job. 📚💔➡️❤️
Somehow, An Academic Affair managed to soften even my cold, jaded heart — and that is saying something.

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS

  • Workplace harassment

  • Academic precarity / job insecurity

  • Toxic parents

  • Emotional neglect

  • Sibling conflict

  • Institutional sexism

🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨

This review contains FULL SPOILERS, including the ending. If you want to go in blind, bookmark this and come back later. Everyone else? Welcome to Hobart. ☕📖

💘 Enemies-to-Lovers + Fake Marriage = Academic Perfection

At its core, An Academic Affair is an enemies-to-lovers, fake marriage romance — and yes, we all know where that’s headed. But the joy is in the journey.

Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher have spent fifteen years locked in intellectual combat: undergrad rivals, PhD housemates, accidental co-teachers whose bickering somehow improved student satisfaction. The chemistry is blindingly obvious to everyone except… them. Because of course it is. These are academics. They overthink everything. 🧠

What really sells this book is that their love feels earned. You believe they adore each other long before they do — and watching them slowly, painfully catch up is delicious.

🏛️ The Academic Setting (Aka: The Real Villain)

As someone from an academic-heavy family myself, I loved how accurately McAlister captures the cutthroat, gladiatorial nature of academia. The precariat. The politics. The quiet cruelty. It’s all here.

Sadie lands a rare permanent job at Lyons University in Hobart — beating out Jonah — and immediately feels survivor’s guilt. When she discovers a partner hire clause in her contract, she does the only rational thing: proposes a purely legal, strictly business marriage to her lifelong nemesis so he can move to Hobart and help his newly abandoned sister.

Totally normal behavior. No notes. 💍😌

📖 FULL PLOT SUMMARY (With Spoilers, Obviously)

Sadie and Jonah marry via statutory declaration, buy cheap rings, and successfully convince skeptical HR that they are a loving couple. They endure Jonah’s toxic parents (where Jonah fiercely defends Sadie’s brilliance), fracture Sadie’s relationship with her sister Chess, and relocate to Hobart.

Once there, they’re forced into close quarters:

  • one bed (platonically… at first 👀)

  • a literal cupboard office

  • 52 combined lectures

  • and a hostile boss, Lachlan Petrovski, who targets Sadie while ignoring Jonah’s identical workload

Jonah realizes — finally — that he has been in love with Sadie for fifteen years. Sadie, meanwhile, spirals: Chess goes off-the-grid, her course is cancelled, her mentor is pushed out, and she internalizes the idea that she is a burden.

When Sadie tries to end the marriage “for Jonah’s sake,” Jonah absolutely refuses. He dismantles her self-loathing piece by piece and confesses:

He has loved her every second.

They consummate the marriage (🔥), commit for real, and choose Hobart together.

Then academia strikes again. A restructuring plan forces them to compete for one remaining job. Jonah refuses to apply. Sadie fights back — with Chess’s legal expertise. Chess returns, reconciles with Sadie, and helps launch a public and legal campaign that saves Jonah’s job and protects casual staff.

The book ends with Sadie and Jonah planning a second, real wedding, this time surrounded by family, joy, and zero lies. 🥂💒

✨ Final Thoughts

This book is smart, warm, and quietly devastating in all the right ways. It understands love between people who think too much, feel too deeply, and assume they are unlovable. The romance is tender, the stakes feel real, and the academic commentary hits hard.

I smiled. I sighed. I absolutely believed in them.

📚 RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKED THIS

  • Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

  • The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

  • Office Hours by Katrina Jackson

  • You, with a View by Jessica Joyce

  • Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

💬 Bottom line:
If you like fake marriages, academic rivals, and romances where the feelings have been marinating for years, this one is for you.

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