There is a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from being adored by millions and known by almost no one. That ache sits at the center of Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon, a warm, spiky, and frequently very steamy romance about a woman who walks away from stadium lights to sit in the back row of a psychology lecture. It is a book about fame, sure, but mostly it is a book about the strange work of figuring out who you are when nobody is telling you who to be.
Class Is in Session: The Premise
Ramona Wilder quit music at twenty-six after a lifetime in the spotlight, first as a child sitcom star, then as a three-time Grammy winner whose fans wept in the aisles. Craving something that resembles a regular life, she enrolls as a college freshman at UCLA. Nick Navarro, a recently divorced psychology professor with a strict ten-minute daily limit on feeling sorry for himself, walks into fall quarter promising to treat his celebrity student like anyone else. That plan lasts roughly one class period. What begins with a fumbled first day (and a very unfortunate incident involving his beloved ancient Prius) turns into a careful friendship, then into something neither of them can talk themselves out of.
The setup carries obvious tension, and to the author’s credit, she never pretends it doesn’t. His tenure, her studies, the ten years between them, the imbalance of a professor and a student: all of it stays on the page rather than getting waved away.
Two People Learning to Be Ordinary
The real pleasure here is watching two guarded people figure out how to want something honest. Ramona is prickly, funny, and bone-tired, a heroine whose defensiveness never tips into unlikability because you understand exactly where it came from. Nick is the rarer creation: a genuinely kind man written without turning kindness into a personality-free snooze. His dad jokes are terrible in the best way, his bond with his teenage niece Audrey is a highlight, and his optimism reads as hard-won instead of naive.
What makes them click:
- Banter with teeth. Their back-and-forth is fast and specific, the kind that reveals character rather than just filling air.
- Friendship first. Their arrangement, where she coaches him back into dating and he coaches her toward normal, is a little convenient as a device, but it earns the slow burn.
- Mutual seeing. Each is starved for someone who looks past the obvious version of them, and the book makes that hunger feel real.
About the Heat
This is a properly explicit read, closer to open-door than fade-to-black. The intimate scenes are frank, consent-forward, and tied to what these two actually need from each other, so they read as character development rather than filler. Readers who prefer their romance chaste should know that going in.
Under the Glitter: Fame and the Cost of Being Watched
Solomon has clearly thought hard about the machinery that turns young girls into products. Ramona’s history, the leering countdown-to-eighteen websites, the panic attacks before shows, the mother-manager who ran her daughter like a family business, lands with real anger and precision. Anyone who has followed the public unraveling and reclamation of a certain generation of pop stars will recognize the emotional truth in these pages. The novel also carries a heavier thread about past harm, and it handles that material with care, giving Ramona agency instead of treating her pain as set dressing.
This is where Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon reaches for more than a cute meet-cute, and mostly gets there.
What Works Beautifully
- Ramona’s voice. Sharp, self-aware, and quietly wrecking when she finally drops the armor.
- Nick as a green flag done right. Warm without being dull, steady without being passive.
- The supporting cast. Betty, the trainer turned best friend, and Audrey, the deadpan niece, both threaten to steal every scene they enter.
- The epistolary breaks. Texts, emails, Post-it notes, and a wickedly funny fake tabloid article add texture and keep the pace moving.
- Emotional intelligence. The story takes its heroine’s recovery seriously without curdling into grimness.
Where It Stumbles
No book earns unanimous love, and this one has a few soft spots worth naming honestly:
- The ethics stay comfortable. The professor-student risk is acknowledged but rarely allowed to generate real dread; the plot tends to shield the couple from consequences.
- A crowded final stretch. The fame plot and the heavier justice storyline both arrive fairly late, stacking a lot of weight onto the back third and swinging the tone from playful to heavy in a hurry.
- A one-note antagonist. Ramona’s mother functions well as a villain but rarely gets more dimension than “controlling.”
- A tidy convenience or two. The friends-to-forever machinery occasionally smooths its own path a bit too neatly.
None of it sinks the book. It does explain why a reader might close the last page charmed rather than floored.
Where It Sits in Solomon’s Catalog
Fans of the author’s adult contemporaries will feel right at home. If you loved the sharp media satire of The Ex Talk, the tender grumpiness of Weather Girl, the road-trip chaos of Business or Pleasure, or her most recent What Happens in Amsterdam, this belongs on the same shelf while leaning harder into the celebrity angle. Solomon, also known for teen romcoms like Today Tonight Tomorrow, writes flawed people with unusual generosity, and that trademark warmth carries through Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon from the first page.
If You Loved This, Read These Next
For readers who want more of this flavor of famous heart, ordinary longing, banter, and heat:
- The Idea of You by Robinne Lee: fame colliding with real life, from the other side of the age gap.
- Funny Story by Emily Henry: witty, aching contemporary with a slow-building payoff.
- The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood: a campus setting and a hero who adores out loud.
- It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey: spicy, big-feelings small-town romance.
- Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan: for the deeper, trauma-tender end of the genre.
A Note on Content
In her author’s note, Solomon flags emotional abuse by a parent, panic attacks, and references to past sexual assault (discussed rather than shown on the page). Worth knowing before you start, depending on your reading headspace.
The Final Word
Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon is a smart, sexy, and tender story that occasionally plays its riskiest cards a little safe. It works best as a portrait of a woman rebuilding a self, wrapped around a love story that gives her the room to do it. If you want a romance that is funny on the surface and thoughtful underneath, this one earns its spot on your list, even as it stops just short of the very top of Solomon’s shelf.
