Given Our History is an okay if not particularly spectacular second-chance romance that shows what happens when sleepaway camp sweethearts collide on a college campus decades after their break-up.

Clara Fernsby has worked hard to attain professorhood, and even harder to finally make inroads toward tenure. This year it might finally be within her grasp, as she continues to teach history and live with her sister.

Teddy Harrison may throw a wrench into that plan. He and Clara were friends who were always on the cusp of more, meeting annually at sleepaway camp, but Clara’s refusal to commit and inability to do anything but keep her eyes on the educational prize tore them apart. Teddy and Clara haven’t spoken for ten years, but now they’re going to have to, since Teddy is arriving at Clara’s university to teach as a visiting professor. They even have to share office space.

They spend enough time together that giving their love another try seems possible. But are they truly destined for each other?

All of this is charmingly laid out, but none of it is very thrilling or compelling. The biggest flaw in Given Our History is its dull stretches. I liked the characters, but for much of the book, I didn’t want them to be together, mostly due to Clara’s self-centered attitude. It takes a lot of work to get to the HEA, and it seems take forever as we go back and forth to and from the past. The end result is a novel that’s just all right, and a couple I just couldn’t get behind.