Recently I read and enjoyed Welcome to the School by the Sea, the first installment of Jenny Colgan’s “The School by the Sea/Maggie Addair series. I was looking for a nice breather between some books I somewhat strugled with, so I decided to read Rules at the School by the Sea shortly after. This is the second book in this series, so this review contains spoilers for the previous book.

About the book

Rules at the School by the Sea by Jenny Colgan
Series: The School by the Sea #2
Published by Avon on August 23, 2022
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9780063141766
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, General fiction, Romance

It’s summer, but school is in session in the delightful second book of New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan’s utterly charming School by the Sea series, set at a girls’ boarding school in Cornwall.

For the second year at Downey House, it’s getting harder and harder to stick to the rules . . .

Maggie Adair’s first year as a teacher at Downey House was a surprising success. After making the leap from an inner-city school in Glasgow, she’s learned to appreciate the mellower pace of the girls’ boarding school by the sea.

Now engaged to her longtime boyfriend, sweet and steady Stan, Maggie’s just got to stop thinking about David McDonald, her colleague at the boys’ school down the road. Well, hasn’t she? Can Maggie take a leaf out of the Well Behaved Teacher’s exercise book and stick to her plan for a small but elegant wedding and settled life of matrimony?

Even as Maggie tries to stay within the lines, rules are being broken all around her. Maggie’s boss, headmistress Veronica Deveral, has more to lose than anyone. When Daniel Stapleton joins the faculty, Veronica finds herself forced to confront a scandalous secret she thought she’d carefully buried forever. How long will she be able to keep her past under wraps?

What does a new year of classes, rules, and camaraderie hold for the students and faculty at Downey House?

My review

Expectations

As I enjoyed the first novel, I expected the same for this second one. I know this series is just meant to be light reads without any complications or heavy topics. This makes the books a good pick for occasions when or where you have to take your mind off of things. So I went into this book with mild expectations, I just expected it to be an enjoyable light read as breather after some heavy books. My expectations are met fortunately, even though I had some issues with the plot.

Characters

In this book, all characters from the previous novel return to Downey House for the new school year. Fliss, Alice and Simone are still friends after last year’s events. Maggie is still engaged to Stan, but still hopelessly attracted to David from the school on the other side of the cliff as well. Meanwhile, Veronica doesn’t know how to handle the presence of her son Daniel at Downey Boys, as he is the new history teacher overthere. In between all this chaos, new arrival student Zelda has to find her way to blend in at school. It’s clear she dislikes England, she thinks school life is dull compared to school life in the US, her home country. She’s kind of a rebel, which provides an extra edge to the storyline, but also annoyed me at some point. In the end, all characters grow a lot throughout the school year. However, I still can’t stand Stan, I still don’t understand what Maggie sees in him. He comes off as very selfish, blunt and rude. The other characters are fine, not really outstanding.

Writing

As I’ve read other books by this author, I know the writing is easy, accessible and straight forward. This fits the book’s genre and makes it feel very uncomplicated. The chapters are again quite short and this way it’s easy to get through this book quickly.

Plot

Unfortunately, I have some issues with the plot, but that has to do with my personal preferences. Throughout the school year, some serious stuff is happening to one of the characters. Trigger warnings for eating disorders here. This is such a major plot point, but it gets rushed. Like it’s there, but not really if this makes sense. It seems to be dealt with very quickly. All signs and red flags were present, but this just wasn’t handled with the care it should have been handled with. When everyone found out that someone was dealing with an E.D., it was there for a few chapters only to vanish afterwards. It’s suitable for this type of book, but personally I would have wished for more depth into this especially since the particular character has an own POV. Besides this, the plot is fine.

Final thoughts

Despite this major negative regarding the plot, I enjoyed Rules at the School by the Sea by Jenny Colgan. It’s a fine book and it delivers in its aim to be the breather I was looking for at that moment. The characters are okay, the writing is straight forward. The final chapter leaves me curious for what’s next though, so I will definitely continue reading.