Breakaway Books

Authored by Zoe Wallbrook; Published July 2025; Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️

If you love books, if you’ve ever played around with the idea of getting a PhD, or if you are really a nerd of any kind, you will like History Lessons. Its protagonist Daphne is certainly the type of hero you can get behind.

In History Lessons, junior professor Daphne is shocked when rising academic star and media magnet Sam Taylor is discovered murdered. But it would have nothing to do with her if not for a cryptic text message he sent to her seemingly in the very last hours of his life. Daphne wants nothing more than to be left alone to pursue her research on black families in France in the 1800s, but she just can’t let this go, and soon, her curiosity makes her a target. Working with Detective Ahmad and her dreamy ex-cop partner Rowan, Daphne is determined to see justice done.

I fervently wish that I could confidently say that this novel is overdoing just how abusive male professors at elite academic institutions can be. I can’t, and Sam Taylor is about as bad as a villain can get. Creepy, manipulative, racist, and somehow still able to hide behind his media success, he made me so angry, despite the fact that he is fictional. I can only hope that in real life, other men are willing to confront guys like Sam. His villainy, and the comeuppance he receives postmortem, makes for an interesting, if depressing, second act in this novel. I was not expecting this book to pack so much in, but we don’t even get to addressing Sam’s horrific treatment of the women around him—and how that plays into his murder—until the second half of the book. 

In spite of (maybe because of?) the awfulness of the villain, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Daphne is a nerd, and there is a part of me that will always enjoy an unabashedly nerdy heroine. She and her two best girlfriends support each other in ways that are heartening and hilarious, and every single scene with the trio made me cheer or burst out in laughter. Daphne’s romance is the stuff of fantasies too, with a gentle giant of a bookstore owner playing the romantic lead. Rowan is sweet and smart and not at all intimidated by Daphne’s intellect. And of course, the mystery itself is also well-constructed, with tons to unpack, an abundance of red herrings, and an alluring scavenger hunt, all of which kept my attention until the very end.

Embrace your romantic nerd side and pick up History Lessons!