Book Summary: 

Ramona Wilder has spent her whole life in the spotlight. After a hit kids’ TV show, she transitioned into music, singing in arenas around the world and becoming an icon for millions of teenage girls. Now at age twenty-six, exhausted by the inhumane lack of privacy, she’s done—with all of it. She wants a chance at normal, whatever that might mean for her. And she’s starting with college.

Professor Nick Navarro is recently divorced but determinedly optimistic, allowing himself a very reasonable ten minutes per day to wallow. When his department calls a meeting about a celebrity enrollment, he plans to treat whoever it is like any other student. Except when Ramona blazes into class and causes an uproar, the typically easygoing professor is rattled, maybe for the first time in his career.

Ramona loves the way she flusters him, taking every opportunity to push Nick’s buttons, though what she really wants is to unbutton them completely. When a crisis brings them closer outside of class, they begin a tentative friendship amid an undeniable attraction. But Ramona can’t be so easily finished with her old life, and they’ll both have to confront their pasts if they want a chance at something real.

My Review:

There are few things I can expect when I pick up a book, but when it comes to Rachel Lynn Solomon, I know without a doubt I’m in for a good story. Low drama, low angst, relatable characters – either because I see myself in them or because they remind me of people I’ve known – and thoughtful truths that, even if we haven’t lived them ourselves, leave us with something to reflect on once we close the final chapter. Every one of her books has left me with a moment I’ll never forget, and Extracurricular is no exception. If there is one takeaway from this story, it’s that no matter what life throws at you, it’s never too late to start over and build a life that makes you happy instead of living the one others expect of you.

All Ramona Wilder wants is a normal life. Since she was a child, she has been a product of the entertainment industry – a vessel for her mother to live the life she never had. At the height of her career, Ramona finally reaches her breaking point and, against everyone’s advice, does the one thing no one expected: she announces her retirement.

Fast-forward to the present day, and Ramona is finally taking control of her future as a freshman at UCLA. Having no idea how to be remotely normal, armed with her cat and her best friend Betty, she does her best to navigate the unfamiliar world of academia. What she doesn’t expect is to come face-to-face with the most attractive yet infuriating man she’s ever met.

Nick may be easy on the eyes, but unlike everyone else, he refuses to treat Ramona like a celebrity. Instead of putting her on a pedestal, he sees right through the carefully crafted image she’s spent her entire life maintaining.

After an unexpected encounter leaves Ramona in an impossible situation, she reluctantly turns to the last person she ever expected to call for help. As one rescue turns into lunch, text messages, and time spent together, Ramona begins to realize that getting everything you’ve ever wanted isn’t always as glamorous as it seems, especially when your previous life refuses to stay in the past.

Nick never imagined he’d be divorced and temporarily living with his sister while trying to rebuild his life. Stuck in a cycle of what-ifs, he decides his only priority is earning tenure – until the university informs him that a certain recently retired celebrity will be joining his class.

Determined to treat Ramona like any other student, he doesn’t expect her larger-than-life personality to be so impossible to ignore. One heated office argument leads to an unexpected voicemail, which eventually grows into an unusual arrangement: he’ll teach Ramona how to live like a normal person, and she’ll help him find the confidence to start dating again. The problem is, while the sea may be full of fish, there’s only one he’s interested in catching, and pursuing her could cost him everything he’s worked so hard to achieve.

Normally, when I review a book, I like to take an objective deep dive into the characters and the overall story, analyzing how readers might connect with both. With Extracurricular, though, the experience felt more observational. Unless you’ve found yourself trying to adjust to life after fame or navigating a relationship complicated by the inherent power imbalance between a professor and his student, you’re mostly left to follow these two characters as they figure things out.

What I found most interesting was the perspective the story offered on former child celebrities who seemed to spiral publicly. It shifts the media-driven narrative surrounding people like Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Miley Cyrus and encourages you to see them as human beings who may have spent years being controlled, manipulated, sexualized at far too young an age, and used as vehicles for someone else’s fame and success by the very people they trusted most.

Reading Ramona’s story doesn’t excuse every public mistake those celebrities made, but it does make you pause and consider how much of what we witnessed may have been the result of years of exploitation rather than simply poor choices. It also makes you understand why some young stars eventually walked away from the industry in favor of protecting their own sanity.

That same compassion carries into the way Rachel addresses sexual assault and how survivors can be treated when they try to tell their stories. So often, when something comes to light, the media turns its attention toward the survivor – questioning why they waited so long, digging through their past, and looking for reasons to discredit their claim until others are brave enough to come forward.

We have seen this happen far too many times, and hearing it through Ramona made it even more heartbreaking. She not only struggled to understand what was happening to her at the time, but also had to live with the lasting scars, the impact on her mental health, and the fear of the fallout she would face if she spoke up.

Even with those heavier themes, this was very much a pick-up-and-put-down read. I was never so invested that I couldn’t step away for a while, but I was always interested enough to come back. Sometimes that’s exactly the kind of reading experience you’re looking for.

As for the characters, I have no idea what kind of man Nick’s ex-wife thought she was leaving behind, but the way Rachel writes him – sweet, intelligent, undeniably attractive, adorably nerdy, and an absolute force of nature behind closed doors – had me wondering throughout the entire book, What was wrong with that woman?!

What I appreciated most about Nick, however, was the emotional honesty Rachel gave him. Anyone who has gone through a divorce or is navigating a separation will probably recognize pieces of themselves in his journey: getting rid of everything tied to a shared memory, grieving the future you thought you were going to have, and slowly trying to figure out who you are after the life you planned falls apart. It was a quiet reminder that you’re not alone, and I think Rachel handled that aspect of his character beautifully.

While Ramona’s best friend Betty was a welcome presence, the secondary characters never left much of a lasting impression. This story belongs almost entirely to Nick and Ramona – two people mourning versions of themselves that no longer exist while trying to discover who they are without the identities they’ve relied on for so long. For Ramona, that identity was being a celebrity. For Nick, it was being a husband. Watching them slowly let go of those versions of themselves and begin figuring out who they are now became one of the strongest parts of the novel.

In the end, Extracurricular is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Rachel Lynn Solomon: low angst, low drama, emotionally grounded, and incredibly easy to read. The plot isn’t complicated, the characters are easy to connect with, and while it may not leave you emotionally devastated, it offers a thoughtful reminder that it’s never too late to rewrite the life you thought you were supposed to live.