Flirting with Fifty

By: Jane Porter

Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

A sexy and sparkling later-in-life contemporary romance about a woman who leaps out of her comfort zone and takes a chance on love by New York Times best-selling author Jane Porter.

Paige Newsom is finally at a place in her life where she’s comfortable. She loves her job as a college professor in Southern California, lives close enough to her mother to visit her regularly, and has three daughters who are flourishing in their own careers. Paige has no plans to upend her life again after her divorce eight years ago, but she’s about to embark on a new adventure: co-teaching a course that includes a three-week international field study.

Paige can think of a dozen reasons why she shouldn’t go, one being a dazzling Australian biologist who will be teaching alongside her. Professor Jack King is charismatic, a world traveler, and more like Indiana Jones than Indiana Jones, all of which unsettles Paige, who prides herself on being immune to any man’s charms. She isn’t looking for love, and it turns out, neither is he. But as the two co-professors lead the rigorous program together, first on campus, then in beautiful Tanzania, their biggest challenge will be working closely together while resisting the undeniable chemistry they feel when they’re with each other.

©2022 Jane Porter (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Two college professors get a second chance at love when they’re recruited to co-teach in this satisfying contemporary romance from Porter...Readers will appreciate Porter’s refreshing focus on middle-aged protagonists.”—Publishers Weekly

“Porter has few rivals when it comes to writing with grace and compassion about the emotional messiness of everyday living, not to mention her ability to effectively delineate the challenges, both personal and professional, that women face at every stage of life. With its brilliantly rendered characters (including two refreshingly older romantic protagonists) and quietly empowering storyline that celebrates the rewards of stepping outside your comfort zone, this romance is both timely and timeless."—Booklist

Flirting with Fifty

I enjoyed the story and loved the adventure to Tanzania. I thought the love story portion was alittle too drawn out.

Good story ...

I was so excited to find a romance about a couple my age. Single and 52, I live the books about young couples but wish there were more titles like this one as examples that you can still find your person over 50. I rated a 4 for a couple of reasons. The narrator did a great job, but they should have had a male narrator for Jack. The second ...the woman was such a scared, non confident, extremely anxious character that it's hard to believe Jack would fall for a woman like that. But overall a sweet love story. Maybe the point is that when you find your person they will love you even with your crazy.

Good Story.....

The story was good, the narration was painful. The female character made every single sentence end in a whine.

Like the male character.

The female character was whiny and emotionally unstable from my perspective. Just hard to get thru with female character personality.

Romance for the Empty Nesters

I loved that the characters were flawed. I don't know why we spent so much time on her daughter. It didn't seem relevant in the end. The book could have been longer with Ashley getting the help she needed

Great book!

I loved this book! I couldn’t stop listening I had to binge this as much as I could.

Paige is too whiney and insecure for my taste.

I listened to "Flirting with the Beast" first. I loved it. I wanted to love "Flirting with Fifty" so much because I use to live in Orange, I was a college professor just so many reasons I wanted to love it that I finished the book. But WOW, Paige was just way too whiney and insecure and inflexible for me. By the end of the book I was rooting for Jack to walk away. I couldn't understand what he saw in her. I've never write reviews but this was so frustrating for me to want to love it and just couldn't related to Paige at all. If it wasn't for the performance I'm not sure I would have been able to finish. Again, so bummed because I wanted to love it, just couldn't.

Weak

I hate reading about insecure women and having it repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

Anxiety is a downer

Yes, we all experience anxiety and fear, but I have developed a fear of books that discuss it so much that I must force myself to finish the book Narration was excellent but the best narration cannot make up for stretching the story by over sharing all Paige’s worries.

Amazingly parallels to my life

I want to ask Ms. Porter where she came up with this storyline as there's so much of her background, current emotions due to it, beginning mental state that correlate to my life.
What a tremendous gift to read something other than young 20-30s stories. Characters were real, well developed, with well-rounded personalities. The relationships between characters was realistic, dynamic and relatable - parent/child, best friends, co-workers, perennial conference attendees, etc.
The research was thorough, obvious, and added to the story. The places visited within the borders of the United States, and more importantly - outside of it, were described in beautiful detail. The cultures and customs visited were explained respectfully.
Overall is a beautiful story. My only complaint is the ending before the epilogue. It Either I was really tired or something is off a little bit on it. I really liked the epilogue.
This is a definite recommendation for those who enjoy relatively clean adult reading. The adults are responsible and think things through before acting. They're also intelligent which is a pleasure.