Simone is the star of Edwards University’s creative writing renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. But when Ethan and the department administrative assistant Abigail have sex, Simone and Ethan’s faith in their flawless marriage is rattled.

Simone has secrets of her own. While Ethan’s away for the summer, she becomes inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta “Robbie” Green. In Robbie, Simone finds a new running partner, confidante, and disciple—or so she believes. Behind Simone’s back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentor’s marriage in a breathtakingly invasive MFA thesis. Determined to tell her version of the story, Robbie paints a revealing portrait of Simone, Ethan, Abigail, and even herself, scratching at the very surface of what may—or may not—be the truth.

Though August brings summer to a close, it also ushers in back-to-school season. I always loved the jittery excitement of the beginning of the first semester. The thrill of new classes and friends, dorm rooms and books, never got old for me. Reading Seduction Theory plunged me right back into the tension-filled atmosphere of academia, making it a perfect read for this month.

Robbie takes an unconventional approach to her creative writing MFA thesis. Rather than building a fantasy world or writing a cute romcom, she decides to dissect her academic advisor’s marriage in her final project. Naturally, Robbie’s novel-turned-exposé has massive, shocking consequences for the love quadrangle involved, and an already fragile situation snowballs into a mess of campus drama.

There’s nothing I love more than a book that’s bursting at the seams with intense, alluring relationships between characters. Seduction Theory is just that. Full of lust, flirtation, and disloyalty, this novel is both propulsive and provocative. It asks big questions about modern marriage and grapples with how we relate to one another. Emily Adrian’s writing has the standout addictive quality I’m always searching for when I read.