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Higher Education #2
Learned Reactions: A Single Dad Romance
Carlton Monroe is finally getting his groove back. After a year playing dad to his nephew and sending him safely off to college, it's back to his bachelor ways. But when his teenaged niece shows up on his doorstep looking for a permanent home, his plan comes to a screeching halt. Family is everything, and in the eyes of social services, a couple makes a better adoptive family than an overworked bachelor father. A fake relationship with his closest friend is the best way to keep his family together.
If things between him and Deion are complicated, well, it only needs to last until the end of the semester.
Living with Carlton is a heartbreak waiting to happen, and once the adoption goes through, Deion's out. He's waited two decades for Carlton to realize they're meant for each other, and he's done. It's time to make a clean break. But it's hard to think of moving away when keeping up the act includes some very real perks like kissing, cuddling and sharing a bed.
Even the best charades must come to an end, though. As the holidays and Deion's departure date loom, the two men must decide whether playing house is enough for them--or if there's any chance they could be a family for real.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published March 9, 2021
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March 17, 2021
A Gorgeous Besties-to-Lovers, Fake Relationship (Turned real!), Single Dad Romance❤. I felt such a Myriad of emotions..! & The depiction of Black family dynamics is Great.
I come to love Deion, Carlton; the kids- Trey, Olivia; & the whole Cast of Characters so much! DEVOURED this in 6hrs!
#My 1st by Jayce, So going for more! Stalking her books from now on😉. I'll soon read the 1st book too! Loved Carlton's newer Friends❤, they give great advice too.
[Note: Timeline of This book Runs Concurrently with The 1st book, Learned Behaviors (Jaq+Matt's book)]
Sometimes I just wanted to shake the MCs into having a FULL Adult Feelings conversation already...But that's the Angst here.
Deion; Calm & Patient; is a Philosophy Professor & had always wanted His own family. His parents live in London & I love the glimpses we do get of them!
Carlton; Complex & Caring; works in a School's Financial Department. His parents are Very Old-School. That's why, After Carl's Sis & her husband's death, even though Carl's parents were appointed guardians of the kids: Trey (Now 18+) & Olivia (14), Trey'd come to live with Carl a year ago & Now Olivia comes here too. He WAS a bachelor, but family is everything.
Deion & Carlton are 38 & met in College. They're both Out Gay & had one night together 19yrs ago but Carl wasn't ready for what being together with Deion will mean: A Serious Relationship.
In their 20 years of Friendship, Everyone knows about D's feelings to Carl. The one thing stopping Carl from making the move is His fears & the feeling of not being enough (unh, I hate his parents!).
One thing is clear, C+D are great at parenting!
Whenever Carl wanted/Needed Deion, D came. Even when He'd started dating to move on from Carl & that was Very much NOT working; Even if they're states apart; EVEN when D KNOWS Living With Carl will make him fall more in love.
~Crush, Reasons, Family, Homecoming, Talk it out (feelings steer clear), D's Love, Week passed, Olivia & Adoption, D stays...
And When Olivia comes, Deion stays for Carl. Comfort. Adopting Olivia is the right thing to do...But when the chances of that happening is more for a Couple, Carl & Deion start a fake relationship...Which Becomes more real by every day. Love (& Lust ;-) practically Shone from their every Action.
~Attorney Friend, Ol's Wrestling tryouts, Uncle D, Domesticity, Social Worker thoughts, Be real, Celibate, Almost Sex, No complex, All sides of parenting, Club alone time, Need you, Sexy times, Shopping (I HATE Homophobes!), Counselling, Retreats & Therapist, Can't say I love you..
Deion got what he'd always Wanted: a family..with Carlton. But it's not Forever, Is it? This is what Carl wants too, but Insecurities stop him From giving Deion the reason to stay forever, The one thing D wants from Carl: I love you. So D leaves, it's beyond time (I was kinda glad D did that, I liked seeing him finally take a stand. Plus, Carl needed the push!!).
But Very Soon Carl realises he'd fucked up, that he CAN give Deion everything he deserves..& C starts Planning to win Deion back!
~Broken & Truths, Realisations & Fighting for Love, The talks, D back in Town, The Proposal, Loving on him, marry & Adopt!
Yup, Carl's Swoony Surprise Worked!! The later scenes & The ending were so sweet😍. I loved seeing'em happy!
P.s. I hope we get Lawrence & Vance's book soon, the Age-Gap will be Yum!
**Lovely to 've found the book on Netgalley, ARC Received for a Honest Review.**
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I come to love Deion, Carlton; the kids- Trey, Olivia; & the whole Cast of Characters so much! DEVOURED this in 6hrs!
#My 1st by Jayce, So going for more! Stalking her books from now on😉. I'll soon read the 1st book too! Loved Carlton's newer Friends❤, they give great advice too.
[Note: Timeline of This book Runs Concurrently with The 1st book, Learned Behaviors (Jaq+Matt's book)]
Sometimes I just wanted to shake the MCs into having a FULL Adult Feelings conversation already...But that's the Angst here.
Deion; Calm & Patient; is a Philosophy Professor & had always wanted His own family. His parents live in London & I love the glimpses we do get of them!
Carlton; Complex & Caring; works in a School's Financial Department. His parents are Very Old-School. That's why, After Carl's Sis & her husband's death, even though Carl's parents were appointed guardians of the kids: Trey (Now 18+) & Olivia (14), Trey'd come to live with Carl a year ago & Now Olivia comes here too. He WAS a bachelor, but family is everything.
Deion & Carlton are 38 & met in College. They're both Out Gay & had one night together 19yrs ago but Carl wasn't ready for what being together with Deion will mean: A Serious Relationship.
In their 20 years of Friendship, Everyone knows about D's feelings to Carl. The one thing stopping Carl from making the move is His fears & the feeling of not being enough (unh, I hate his parents!).
One thing is clear, C+D are great at parenting!
Whenever Carl wanted/Needed Deion, D came. Even when He'd started dating to move on from Carl & that was Very much NOT working; Even if they're states apart; EVEN when D KNOWS Living With Carl will make him fall more in love.
~Crush, Reasons, Family, Homecoming, Talk it out (feelings steer clear), D's Love, Week passed, Olivia & Adoption, D stays...
And When Olivia comes, Deion stays for Carl. Comfort. Adopting Olivia is the right thing to do...But when the chances of that happening is more for a Couple, Carl & Deion start a fake relationship...Which Becomes more real by every day. Love (& Lust ;-) practically Shone from their every Action.
~Attorney Friend, Ol's Wrestling tryouts, Uncle D, Domesticity, Social Worker thoughts, Be real, Celibate, Almost Sex, No complex, All sides of parenting, Club alone time, Need you, Sexy times, Shopping (I HATE Homophobes!), Counselling, Retreats & Therapist, Can't say I love you..
Deion got what he'd always Wanted: a family..with Carlton. But it's not Forever, Is it? This is what Carl wants too, but Insecurities stop him From giving Deion the reason to stay forever, The one thing D wants from Carl: I love you. So D leaves, it's beyond time (I was kinda glad D did that, I liked seeing him finally take a stand. Plus, Carl needed the push!!).
But Very Soon Carl realises he'd fucked up, that he CAN give Deion everything he deserves..& C starts Planning to win Deion back!
~Broken & Truths, Realisations & Fighting for Love, The talks, D back in Town, The Proposal, Loving on him, marry & Adopt!
Yup, Carl's Swoony Surprise Worked!! The later scenes & The ending were so sweet😍. I loved seeing'em happy!
P.s. I hope we get Lawrence & Vance's book soon, the Age-Gap will be Yum!
**Lovely to 've found the book on Netgalley, ARC Received for a Honest Review.**
FB Page | Instagram | Bookbub | FB group
February 2, 2021
Jayce Ellis is rapidly becoming an auto read author for me with her superb glimpses into the lives and loves of queer men of colour.
I hadn't realised when I started this ons that it would have an element of overlapping on the timeframe of book one but now it makes perfect sense.
Carlton and Deion were already in their strange, mixed up non relationship when they were introduced in Jaq and Matt's story and here we get the full tale.
And there were times I wanted to shake them both so hard and make them just get over themselves.
But, at the same time, Carlton's fears that the only solid and permanent rock in his adult life would somehow find him lacking if he admitted he'd been in love with him for as long as Deion had felt the same, were heartbreakingly real.
The narrative never drags though, even while the two are not so much miscommunicating as utterly failing to deal with the serious consequences that pretending to be a family to help Carlton's adoption of his niece caused.
It's usually one of my most hated tropes, but Jayce gives it such weight and meaning that it would have felt completely wrong if they had just sat down and talked.
When it eventually happens, the blast point sets off a chain of events which ultimately leads to one of the sweetest chapters in the book and a fabulous ending that actually made me tear up - something I rarely do!
Wait til you read those words that pass between them and see if you can hold out better than I did!
Now, I am soooo hoping Lawrence will be next and we'll get to find out what happened with Vance.
Given the age gap, I'm betting it'll be a riot 😁
#ARC kindly received from the publisher Carina Press via NetGalley in return for an honest and unbiased review.
I hadn't realised when I started this ons that it would have an element of overlapping on the timeframe of book one but now it makes perfect sense.
Carlton and Deion were already in their strange, mixed up non relationship when they were introduced in Jaq and Matt's story and here we get the full tale.
And there were times I wanted to shake them both so hard and make them just get over themselves.
But, at the same time, Carlton's fears that the only solid and permanent rock in his adult life would somehow find him lacking if he admitted he'd been in love with him for as long as Deion had felt the same, were heartbreakingly real.
The narrative never drags though, even while the two are not so much miscommunicating as utterly failing to deal with the serious consequences that pretending to be a family to help Carlton's adoption of his niece caused.
It's usually one of my most hated tropes, but Jayce gives it such weight and meaning that it would have felt completely wrong if they had just sat down and talked.
When it eventually happens, the blast point sets off a chain of events which ultimately leads to one of the sweetest chapters in the book and a fabulous ending that actually made me tear up - something I rarely do!
Wait til you read those words that pass between them and see if you can hold out better than I did!
Now, I am soooo hoping Lawrence will be next and we'll get to find out what happened with Vance.
Given the age gap, I'm betting it'll be a riot 😁
#ARC kindly received from the publisher Carina Press via NetGalley in return for an honest and unbiased review.
March 8, 2021
3.5 Stars!
If you are my GR friend or even just follow my reviews, you'll know how much I enjoy Jayce Ellis' writing because of how unapologetically authentic to the African American queer culture it is. I have enjoyed every single thing she has written and really enjoyed this book even when one of the protagonists wore on my very last nerve.
When he was introduced to us in the Book #1, Carlton seemed like a happy-go-lucky guy and I liked him. In this book, I could NOT stand his wishy washy ways towards Deion.
Yes, he certainly had reasons for that due to some past trauma but when you have people like Deion showing you how selflessness looks like and are willing to literally bend over backwards for you, I didn't think there was a reason valid enough for such behaviour.
To make things even more annoying, Deion, in his efforts at being what Carlton needed, allowed Carlton to immerse himself in his selfishness for too long and kept making excuses for him. I kept yelling at my Kindle app and at Deion "what are you doing?! Let that man be clear and concise in what he wants from you!". But Alas, he didn't listen to me and did his own thing ... Lol!
Sooo...even though I enjoyed the writing and the overall story about found families, Carlton's antics nearly took away from that enjoyment which is why this book is getting a 3.5 star rating rather than a 4-star rating.
Moving on, Lawrence and Vance's book is out next and ba-bay, the tension between them was so delicious I'm going to be pouncing on it immediately it becomes available!
*eARC Graciously Provided by Publisher in Exchange for an Honest, Unbiased Review*
If you are my GR friend or even just follow my reviews, you'll know how much I enjoy Jayce Ellis' writing because of how unapologetically authentic to the African American queer culture it is. I have enjoyed every single thing she has written and really enjoyed this book even when one of the protagonists wore on my very last nerve.
When he was introduced to us in the Book #1, Carlton seemed like a happy-go-lucky guy and I liked him. In this book, I could NOT stand his wishy washy ways towards Deion.
Yes, he certainly had reasons for that due to some past trauma but when you have people like Deion showing you how selflessness looks like and are willing to literally bend over backwards for you, I didn't think there was a reason valid enough for such behaviour.
To make things even more annoying, Deion, in his efforts at being what Carlton needed, allowed Carlton to immerse himself in his selfishness for too long and kept making excuses for him. I kept yelling at my Kindle app and at Deion "what are you doing?! Let that man be clear and concise in what he wants from you!". But Alas, he didn't listen to me and did his own thing ... Lol!
Sooo...even though I enjoyed the writing and the overall story about found families, Carlton's antics nearly took away from that enjoyment which is why this book is getting a 3.5 star rating rather than a 4-star rating.
Moving on, Lawrence and Vance's book is out next and ba-bay, the tension between them was so delicious I'm going to be pouncing on it immediately it becomes available!
*eARC Graciously Provided by Publisher in Exchange for an Honest, Unbiased Review*
January 22, 2021
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this book. I am providing a voluntary review. All thoughts and views are my own.
Oh gosh. This story had me feeling some kinda way, y’all. Imagine my surprise when I finished it, began to format the blog post so I could write this review, and realized… Learned Reactions is book two in the Higher Education series. You best believe I was all over the author requesting an ARC for book one—which I’ll be posting a review for, ah, last week 🤣—because I absolutely had to read Jaq’s story. In fact, I also got down on my readerly knees and begged Jayce Ellis to pretty, pretty please write a book three with Carlton and JaQuan’s other friend, Lawrence, and the man who oh-so-clearly will be his love interest. 😍
Anyway, back to the story at hand. Thankfully, this series definitely operates as standalones, as I hadn’t even realized there was a book one until after reading this one. However, now that I know there is, I’m dying to see how the timelines work out… because we may or may not catch a glimpse of Jaq’s boy in this book, and things didn’t seem quite resolved. I’m kind of guessing there’s some overlap, and that makes me super excited to see how that plays out.
Okay… we’re going to try this again. Sorry, y’all, I’m having trouble focusing as these characters have me all over the place—in a very good way! Carlton and Deion were absolutely precious together, and Olivia—aka Ollie—was such a delightful supporting character. She was a fourteen-year-old through and through, but was such a sweet burst of toil and trouble wrapped into an angelic package you can’t help but love. But if I had to pick a favorite character, it would hands down be Deion. My god, my poor little heart. This boy dang near shredded it to pieces with his kindness and yearning and all-around goodness and… yeah. Carlton, on the other hand, had my hackles up through quite a bit of the story. You’ll understand why when you read, but… I’ll admit, once I understood a little better, his struggle became super relateable and I suddenly couldn’t wait for him and Deion to arrive at their well earned HEA. Which, when they finally do, you will get all the feels. I promise.
I would absolutely recommend this to all MM romance readers, but especially those who love real characters facing real, down-to-earth situations. And Ellis has such a solid, strong, and unique voice. You will lose yourself in her words and forget all else. Which… is there anything better? Isn’t that what we all look for in a good book—something to give us a reprieve from the day-to-day grind? Trust me. You’ll find that here. 💞
Oh gosh. This story had me feeling some kinda way, y’all. Imagine my surprise when I finished it, began to format the blog post so I could write this review, and realized… Learned Reactions is book two in the Higher Education series. You best believe I was all over the author requesting an ARC for book one—which I’ll be posting a review for, ah, last week 🤣—because I absolutely had to read Jaq’s story. In fact, I also got down on my readerly knees and begged Jayce Ellis to pretty, pretty please write a book three with Carlton and JaQuan’s other friend, Lawrence, and the man who oh-so-clearly will be his love interest. 😍
Anyway, back to the story at hand. Thankfully, this series definitely operates as standalones, as I hadn’t even realized there was a book one until after reading this one. However, now that I know there is, I’m dying to see how the timelines work out… because we may or may not catch a glimpse of Jaq’s boy in this book, and things didn’t seem quite resolved. I’m kind of guessing there’s some overlap, and that makes me super excited to see how that plays out.
Okay… we’re going to try this again. Sorry, y’all, I’m having trouble focusing as these characters have me all over the place—in a very good way! Carlton and Deion were absolutely precious together, and Olivia—aka Ollie—was such a delightful supporting character. She was a fourteen-year-old through and through, but was such a sweet burst of toil and trouble wrapped into an angelic package you can’t help but love. But if I had to pick a favorite character, it would hands down be Deion. My god, my poor little heart. This boy dang near shredded it to pieces with his kindness and yearning and all-around goodness and… yeah. Carlton, on the other hand, had my hackles up through quite a bit of the story. You’ll understand why when you read, but… I’ll admit, once I understood a little better, his struggle became super relateable and I suddenly couldn’t wait for him and Deion to arrive at their well earned HEA. Which, when they finally do, you will get all the feels. I promise.
I would absolutely recommend this to all MM romance readers, but especially those who love real characters facing real, down-to-earth situations. And Ellis has such a solid, strong, and unique voice. You will lose yourself in her words and forget all else. Which… is there anything better? Isn’t that what we all look for in a good book—something to give us a reprieve from the day-to-day grind? Trust me. You’ll find that here. 💞
May 5, 2021
2.5 stars. I'm so sad that the first book I've finished in almost a month has left me so underwhelmed. Especially as I quite liked the first book in this series. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for this? Whatever it was, I wasn't particularly struck by this in a negative or positive way.
It's got a premise that I'll never get tired of: best friends to lovers. Deion has been in love with his best friend Carlton for almost 20 years, and as far as he knows, it's unrequited. What's supposed to be a short term visit turns into a longer stay after Carlton's young niece shows up, wanting to live with him. There's some fake dating and found family; two things I'll never get tired of. Truly, there's nothing about the plot that I wasn't completely sold on. It's just that it moved so quickly and not convincingly enough. The romance wasn't insta-love, because the characters have quite a lot of history, and have loved each other for a long time, even if Carlton might not have used those words. But everything that happened with his niece and the adoption process was lightning quick, just a few weeks in the world of the book, and it took me completely out of the story. I wanted to buy into it but the pacing just wasn't very well done.
The romance was cute, and I'll never not love friends to lovers? It's almost always very healing to read black love that's so sweetly and so plainly written about. But I didn't fall in love with these characters or their relationship, and I'm sad to say I'm likely going to forget about them very soon.
Not a bad read by any stretch! Just underwhelming.
☆ Review copy provided via NetGalley.
It's got a premise that I'll never get tired of: best friends to lovers. Deion has been in love with his best friend Carlton for almost 20 years, and as far as he knows, it's unrequited. What's supposed to be a short term visit turns into a longer stay after Carlton's young niece shows up, wanting to live with him. There's some fake dating and found family; two things I'll never get tired of. Truly, there's nothing about the plot that I wasn't completely sold on. It's just that it moved so quickly and not convincingly enough. The romance wasn't insta-love, because the characters have quite a lot of history, and have loved each other for a long time, even if Carlton might not have used those words. But everything that happened with his niece and the adoption process was lightning quick, just a few weeks in the world of the book, and it took me completely out of the story. I wanted to buy into it but the pacing just wasn't very well done.
The romance was cute, and I'll never not love friends to lovers? It's almost always very healing to read black love that's so sweetly and so plainly written about. But I didn't fall in love with these characters or their relationship, and I'm sad to say I'm likely going to forget about them very soon.
Not a bad read by any stretch! Just underwhelming.
☆ Review copy provided via NetGalley.
May 10, 2021
This was an absolutely adorable novel. While it had its flaws (i.e. some pacing issues, realism etc.), the love that Jayce Ellis puts into these characters and their stories is apparent. Romances like Learned Reactions are pure pleasure reads for me, and I honestly feel it best to critique them as such. It had the drama, the sensuality, and family all wrapped into one. You will hands down enjoy this.
March 9, 2021
3.5 stars. Carlton and Deion are best friends for over twenty years. Deion has a sabbatical year and will stay at Carlton for ten days. Deion will tell Carlton he will immigrate to London. He can’t stay around, he has to go somewhere else to find a relationship and start a family of his own.
His love for Carlton is unanswered!
Carlton acts jealous when Deion flirts with one of Carlton’s friends. It’s a bit vague.
Then, Carlton’s fourteen-year-old niece Olivia knocks on the door and asks if she can stay.
An adoption procedure starts and the lady who will evaluate thinks Carlton and Deion are a couple and is delighted, it will certainly help their case. Carlton doesn’t deny it. It brings them into a precarious situation. Deion will stay a bit longer to help them out to make it look convincing. Only, Deion’s heart isn’t resistant.
This was a lovely narrative, with an attractive storyline. There were, for me, some ugh moments.
While the author made a lovely story, with a strong family dynamic, a good choice with words and well fluid sentences that made it comfortable to read, I also had a constant irritation while reading. Because some matters didn’t click in my mind. It almost made me stop reading.
First: the twenty years friendship with unanswered love wasn’t convincing, jeez twenty years. We didn’t get a blink what happened at that time, except that they were best friends and lived quite far away from each other. We know they had one affair, one! twenty years ago!
Second: the story was dragging, I got impatient. When Carlton and Deion talked about their connection it got all vague, extremely vague to interpret. So there was always space for doubts, not knowing what the other meant, etc. Even when one said “I love you, always have”, I mean how clear can you be? They didn’t talk, they promise they would but they didn’t. Ugh.
Third: I didn’t feel Carlton always, I really tried, but his reflections were vague. I did feel Deion though, he was mellow, kind and dedicated.
Halfway I needed to, figuratively, smack some people in the face, sorry.
So, there were several ‘ugh’ moments I had about this story. But there were more plus moments! I did like the whole concept and kept on reading because it was intriguing and entertaining. I loved the way Carlton took care of his nephew and niece, his unconditional love for them. Olivia and Trey are sweet and lovable. The adoption process was well done.
I prefer a bubble with mc’s and not too much distraction, I found it here, thank you very much!
I did get the fact they were best friends in the first place.
The author wrote this story widely and with a slow pace. Thank goodness the last part of this story was also widely developed. We can witness some beautiful moments.
Overall an entertainingly written narrative with ugh and ahh moments and a fulfilling end.
Reviewed for LoveBytesReviews
His love for Carlton is unanswered!
Carlton acts jealous when Deion flirts with one of Carlton’s friends. It’s a bit vague.
Then, Carlton’s fourteen-year-old niece Olivia knocks on the door and asks if she can stay.
An adoption procedure starts and the lady who will evaluate thinks Carlton and Deion are a couple and is delighted, it will certainly help their case. Carlton doesn’t deny it. It brings them into a precarious situation. Deion will stay a bit longer to help them out to make it look convincing. Only, Deion’s heart isn’t resistant.
This was a lovely narrative, with an attractive storyline. There were, for me, some ugh moments.
While the author made a lovely story, with a strong family dynamic, a good choice with words and well fluid sentences that made it comfortable to read, I also had a constant irritation while reading. Because some matters didn’t click in my mind. It almost made me stop reading.
First: the twenty years friendship with unanswered love wasn’t convincing, jeez twenty years. We didn’t get a blink what happened at that time, except that they were best friends and lived quite far away from each other. We know they had one affair, one! twenty years ago!
Second: the story was dragging, I got impatient. When Carlton and Deion talked about their connection it got all vague, extremely vague to interpret. So there was always space for doubts, not knowing what the other meant, etc. Even when one said “I love you, always have”, I mean how clear can you be? They didn’t talk, they promise they would but they didn’t. Ugh.
Third: I didn’t feel Carlton always, I really tried, but his reflections were vague. I did feel Deion though, he was mellow, kind and dedicated.
Halfway I needed to, figuratively, smack some people in the face, sorry.
So, there were several ‘ugh’ moments I had about this story. But there were more plus moments! I did like the whole concept and kept on reading because it was intriguing and entertaining. I loved the way Carlton took care of his nephew and niece, his unconditional love for them. Olivia and Trey are sweet and lovable. The adoption process was well done.
I prefer a bubble with mc’s and not too much distraction, I found it here, thank you very much!
I did get the fact they were best friends in the first place.
The author wrote this story widely and with a slow pace. Thank goodness the last part of this story was also widely developed. We can witness some beautiful moments.
Overall an entertainingly written narrative with ugh and ahh moments and a fulfilling end.
Reviewed for LoveBytesReviews
March 9, 2021
A Joyfully Jay review.
3.75 stars
Unrequited love that’s not really unrequited between friends to lovers? Yes please. This definitely intrigued me from the start, and since I’ve been a fan of Ellis’, I was looking forward to this book. And while the characterizations were spot on and the narrative tight, it wasn’t without it’s problems for me.
I love both Deion and Carlton and their relationship with each other. Both MCs are well fleshed out and fully formed. It was easy to understand exactly where both characters were coming from. And their chemistry was off the charts. It was absolutely clear that not only were these guys right for each other, but that they’ve been right for each other and were letting their own issues hold them back.
Read Kris’ review in its entirety here.
3.75 stars
Unrequited love that’s not really unrequited between friends to lovers? Yes please. This definitely intrigued me from the start, and since I’ve been a fan of Ellis’, I was looking forward to this book. And while the characterizations were spot on and the narrative tight, it wasn’t without it’s problems for me.
I love both Deion and Carlton and their relationship with each other. Both MCs are well fleshed out and fully formed. It was easy to understand exactly where both characters were coming from. And their chemistry was off the charts. It was absolutely clear that not only were these guys right for each other, but that they’ve been right for each other and were letting their own issues hold them back.
Read Kris’ review in its entirety here.
April 24, 2021
NEW FAVE NEW FAVE NEW FAVEEEE
October 27, 2022
3.5 stars / B-
March 15, 2021
Learned Reactions, the second book in Ellis' Higher Education series, is a sweet best friends-to-lovers story that hits all the feels. There is no doubt Carlton and Deion belong together from the instant the reader is introduced to them.
Family is a major theme in Learned Reactions--the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are judgmental but eventually accepting parents, disapproving parents, welcoming surrogate parents...the whole gamut of parenting is covered.
The only thing I was missing was more in-depth flashbacks of their time together as college roommates. I would have liked to see more of their developing friendship as nineteen/twenty year olds.
Family is a major theme in Learned Reactions--the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are judgmental but eventually accepting parents, disapproving parents, welcoming surrogate parents...the whole gamut of parenting is covered.
The only thing I was missing was more in-depth flashbacks of their time together as college roommates. I would have liked to see more of their developing friendship as nineteen/twenty year olds.
March 20, 2021
I love a friends to lovers book. This one had perceived unrequited love, pining, a long term friendship, a strong friendship bond, a little forced proximity, some amazing sexual tension all while they navigate new familial bonds and structure.
They lack communication skills...but they also know it. There is so much emotion and love in this book and it was not full of angst. Plus, Olivia just pulls at your heartstrings.
The head in the sand thing goes on a long time and the ending felt a tad rushed (or maybe I just wanted to prolong their happiness), but overall an enjoyable read.
I cannot wait for Lawrence's book and to hopefully catch up with Carlton, Deion, Jaq and Matt.
They lack communication skills...but they also know it. There is so much emotion and love in this book and it was not full of angst. Plus, Olivia just pulls at your heartstrings.
The head in the sand thing goes on a long time and the ending felt a tad rushed (or maybe I just wanted to prolong their happiness), but overall an enjoyable read.
I cannot wait for Lawrence's book and to hopefully catch up with Carlton, Deion, Jaq and Matt.
March 21, 2021
Great follow up to Learned Behaviors. I’m loving this series of slightly older guys who have families/kids. I was very curious about Carlton and Deion in that book, and I really liked Carlton. I continued to like him here, but I definitely found myself wanting to smack him upside the head. My heart hurt for Deion. He was such a wonderful character. I loved the family they made. Olivia and Trey were great, and Lawrence was a great friend. I’m really glad that Carlton finally got over his fears, because they were meant to be together.
February 5, 2021
4 stars (coming out March 9, 2021!!!)
**ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review.**
#NetGalley #LearnedReactions
Pros: Black m/m romance, 2 gay Black MCs (professor on sabbatical & financial aid administrator), mutual pining for OVER 20 YEARS (I love some good mutual yearning and the length of it here just made my heartache), long-term friendship, respect, and affection (love a relationship grounded in positivity), the adoption process by a gay couple, acceptance (of children not your own, of representation outside of the "norm," of feelings you've repressed)
Cons: lightbulb a-ha moment is a bit rushed, the ending was a bit too saccharine for my tastes (definitely HEA though)
TW: talk of not being accepted by family members for gender expression, homophobic bullying, therapy sessions (solo and family), parent death (off page), parental abandonment (off page)
Link: [when filmed]
**ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review.**
#NetGalley #LearnedReactions
Pros: Black m/m romance, 2 gay Black MCs (professor on sabbatical & financial aid administrator), mutual pining for OVER 20 YEARS (I love some good mutual yearning and the length of it here just made my heartache), long-term friendship, respect, and affection (love a relationship grounded in positivity), the adoption process by a gay couple, acceptance (of children not your own, of representation outside of the "norm," of feelings you've repressed)
Cons: lightbulb a-ha moment is a bit rushed, the ending was a bit too saccharine for my tastes (definitely HEA though)
TW: talk of not being accepted by family members for gender expression, homophobic bullying, therapy sessions (solo and family), parent death (off page), parental abandonment (off page)
Link: [when filmed]
April 15, 2021
Part two of the friend-group series that started with Learned Behaviors. The premise: Deion and Carlton fake a relationship because Carlton wants to adopt his 14 year old niece so that she doesn’t have to live with her jerk grandparents. Stable couple counteracting homophobia etc.
.
Deion has been in love with Carlton for almost 20 years, and Carlton also has feelings he’s trying to hide, so the fake relationship has got some risk built into it.
.
I’m having trouble separating my feelings about the relationship between Deion and Carlton, and the quality of the story on its own. So right off: it’s a really well done story!
.
I enjoyed how D, C, and niece fall into a family dynamic quickly, and the gooey found-family vibes. All seems smooth sailing until the social worker is like, “Wait, niece isn’t in therapy?!?! All this trauma happened to her!” (Normalize therapy, everyone.) The characters feel real.
.
In the end, I think whether you’ll like this book depends on whether you’d identify more with Deion or Carlton.
.
I’m team Deion, so I spent a lot of the book mentally yelling, “Just open your damn mouth, Carlton!” (These two are terrible communicators.) Especially because it wasn’t until near the end that it becomes clear just how deep Carlton’s fear goes. (Note, it did eventually become clear; see above ‘really well done story.’) My heart ached for Deion who kept giving and giving and putting himself out there because he loved Carlton so much, and C couldn’t give D what he needed.
.
If you can identify more with someone like Carlton, then you may love this story. C has lost so much and faced so much rejection, that he is petrified of taking any step that could risk what he has (even though the risk may seem low to others. Others like Deion. Or me.) In this case, Carlton eventually learning to speak up and getting his happy ending may be just the story you’re looking for.
.
Content warnings: death of family members in car crash in past, parental rejection due to homophobia, adoption
.
Deion has been in love with Carlton for almost 20 years, and Carlton also has feelings he’s trying to hide, so the fake relationship has got some risk built into it.
.
I’m having trouble separating my feelings about the relationship between Deion and Carlton, and the quality of the story on its own. So right off: it’s a really well done story!
.
I enjoyed how D, C, and niece fall into a family dynamic quickly, and the gooey found-family vibes. All seems smooth sailing until the social worker is like, “Wait, niece isn’t in therapy?!?! All this trauma happened to her!” (Normalize therapy, everyone.) The characters feel real.
.
In the end, I think whether you’ll like this book depends on whether you’d identify more with Deion or Carlton.
.
I’m team Deion, so I spent a lot of the book mentally yelling, “Just open your damn mouth, Carlton!” (These two are terrible communicators.) Especially because it wasn’t until near the end that it becomes clear just how deep Carlton’s fear goes. (Note, it did eventually become clear; see above ‘really well done story.’) My heart ached for Deion who kept giving and giving and putting himself out there because he loved Carlton so much, and C couldn’t give D what he needed.
.
If you can identify more with someone like Carlton, then you may love this story. C has lost so much and faced so much rejection, that he is petrified of taking any step that could risk what he has (even though the risk may seem low to others. Others like Deion. Or me.) In this case, Carlton eventually learning to speak up and getting his happy ending may be just the story you’re looking for.
.
Content warnings: death of family members in car crash in past, parental rejection due to homophobia, adoption
Read
February 1, 2021Categories
Contemporary Romance, Male/Male, Male/Male Romance, African American Romance
Miniseries
Higher Education (Book #2)
Contemporary Romance, Male/Male, Male/Male Romance, African American Romance
Miniseries
Higher Education (Book #2)
December 21, 2021
When are we getting more in this series! It's fab.
July 22, 2023
This book takes place simultaneously with Learned Behaviors, and it really should have been my jam. Carlton, JaQuan’s extroverted friend from the first book, has been in not-really-unrequited-but-he-has-commitment-issues with his friend Deion, a philosophy professor, since college. But wait, Carlton’s niece Olivia shows up at his doorstep, and they have to fake being in a relationship so Carlton can adopt her! I always like a heartwarming family formation plot, and throw in a shenanigans-y fake relationship and I was totally on-board.
There are some real problems with this one, though, and they start with the two main characters. They hooked up in college for one hot weekend before Carlton broke it off, and they’ve both been pining about it ever since. They loop around and around the same issue over and over again: Deion wants to be with Carlton but doesn’t think Carlton wants to settle down and especially not with him, and Carlton wants to be with Deion but has commitment issues stemming from his own parents’ all but abandonment of him in favor of his sister, the golden child. They have the same conversation repeatedly without ever getting to the point or being honest about how they feel, and it’s hard to get invested in this loop they’re stuck in sometimes because it doesn’t seem like they have lives outside each other. It’s like they’ve been stuck in the same place for twenty years, not just with respect to each other but with respect to the rest of their lives. It seems that neither of them has any substance to the careers and relationships they should theoretically have built since college.
I’ll start with Deion, because I have some specific bones to pick with his depiction coming out of an academic background. His whole deal is that he’s an assistant professor of philosophy on sabbatical visiting Carlton before going up for tenure at a university in Chicago. He’s not sure whether he wants to stay at his current university, though, especially since his parents are encouraging him to relocate to the UK.
So. Okay. He’s a philosophy professor. What kind of philosophy? We never know. There’s never any mention of what philosophers he’s interested in, or what topics he works on, or what draws him to philosophy. Is he an ethicist? Does he work on logic? Does he research historical philosophers, or is he more into modern stuff like theory of mind or cognitive science? Who knows? One might think it would come up—perhaps when Carlton is introducing Deion to his friends, or when they’re coming up with stories for the social worker?—but nope! At no point during his sabbatical is there any mention of specific classes he’s taught, or conferences he’s presented at, or papers he’s written, or dare I say it, the monograph book that might be required if he’s actually going up for tenure. His job is just…there, in the sense that it exists in the background as a marker of his intelligence, but there’s zero sense that he's interested in anything about philosophy or academia or research or even teaching, which is ostensibly his reason for going into academia in the first place.
And speaking of jobs! Okay, so one dilemma Deion faces is whether he will a) stay in Chicago and seek tenure, though he has no real roots there, b) go to London where his parents live, or c) go to D. C. where Carlton lives. There are some vague mentions like, “Oh, I’ll look for a job at a university there,” and I’m like, will he? Will he indeed? I went on the academic job Wiki for 2021, when this book was written, and there were two, count them, two tenure-track jobs in philosophy, one in Rochester, NY and one a Dean job in Finland. One does not simply go to a city and say, “Oh, I’ll just get a job as a professor at a university here.” The job market for tenure-track humanities scholars is famously horrific, and getting more so all the time.
It’s not that Deion couldn’t conceivably get a job at a university in London or DC—if the academics in the UK aren’t on strike at the particular time he’s looking—but the chances that it would be a tenure-track philosophy professor job are slim to none. Which is fine, if there was any exploration of what Deion might want to do instead! There’s a brief mention at the beginning that maybe working as a tenure-track academic isn’t for him in general, and that could be something really interesting to get into. Like, does he want to go into administration, or admissions, or maybe take a NTT lecturer position? Does he want to teach high school? Maybe he could get out of academia altogether—there’s a whole bunch of ex-academics who do stuff like consulting or educational technology or grant-writing. But there’s no discussion of that—as I’ll get into with Carlton below, there’s no real sense of what Deion wants outside of the relationship with Carlton. What are his hobbies, his professional interests, his ambitions? Does he have any friends outside of Carlton, maybe even other academics in philosophy? The first chapter mentions some colleagues and a mentor in Chicago, but after that, nothing. He’s there to pine after Carlton, and to make friends with Carlton’s friends, and to be wronged by him, and to randomly leave without letting Carlton or Olivia know where he’s going.
Apologies for the rant—part of this comes from my own experiences working in academia and therefore noticing issues in a way I probably didn’t notice any issues with developing product lines in Learned Behaviors. But I do think it ties into larger plotting and characterization problems in the book.
So, now we get to Carlton. I was really optimistic at the beginning of the novel when we start with Carlton staying late at his job as a financial aid counselor at Howard because his coworker LeeAnn screwed something up, as she often does. Yes, I thought! Here we get to see the professional side of extroverted, apparent party guy Carlton, what he cares about in his job, conflicts with coworkers, maybe even a plot where lousy LeeAnn is dealt with in the background of the family drama with Olivia and the romantic drama with Deion.
No dice. We meet a kid that Carlton helps again, in a dramatic moment with Olivia and some bullies, but other than that he might as well work as a teller in a bank for all his profession actually matters.
Carlton baffles me. He’s supposed to be the one sleeping around, the frivolous partier, but he doesn’t sleep around, nor does he have any kind of social life. Deion is literally his only friend—he met Lawrence and JaQuan moving his nephew into college, as detailed at the beginning of Learned Behaviors, and apparently before then he had nobody. Why? It made sense that Jaq had no friends outside of work in that book—it’s clearly set up that he was a single teen father who later works for an intense workaholic boss with poor boundaries. Of course all his time is taken up with his daughter and his job until his daughter goes to college—not necessarily healthy, but understandable.
But it’s not understandable why Carlton has no other friends, inside or outside of work. What on earth did he do with himself until his nephew Trey moved in with him? I’m an antisocial nerd who needs a lot of alone time, and my social life is way, WAY more active than Carlton’s. I get that part of the drama is that Deion thinks Carlton’s some kind of playboy when he’s actually not…but also I don’t get that, either, because Deion and Carlton have literally been each other’s only friends for like twenty years, and they talk to each other all the time and visit each other regularly, so I don’t get why Deion thinks Carlton has some active social or sexual life. I also don’t really get what on earth they’ve talked about with each other for all those years, since all they talk about throughout the whole book is Olivia and their fraught feelings for each other.
Olivia and that whole plot line is really the bright spot of the book for me. She’s a fun, active teenage girl who wants to join the wrestling team and feels stifled by her grandparents, who, in the wake of her parents’ death, seem convinced that she should be the version 2.0 of her mother. Her older brother Trey, who may or may not be gay, also left their grandparents’ house to move in with Carlton. This posed obstacles to their relationship, since Olivia was still living with her grandparents with their stifling gender roles and emotional distance, but they maintained it, and the little family they form with Deion and Carlton is genuinely the heart of the book, and the part I think works the best emotionally. Is all the stuff with the social worker and the adoption realistic? No idea, none whatsoever, but I am willing to suspend disbelief for things that satisfy me emotionally.
I like Ellis’s writing style, and the sex scenes are hot, but this one frustrated me quite a lot—I definitely preferred Learned Behaviors.
There are some real problems with this one, though, and they start with the two main characters. They hooked up in college for one hot weekend before Carlton broke it off, and they’ve both been pining about it ever since. They loop around and around the same issue over and over again: Deion wants to be with Carlton but doesn’t think Carlton wants to settle down and especially not with him, and Carlton wants to be with Deion but has commitment issues stemming from his own parents’ all but abandonment of him in favor of his sister, the golden child. They have the same conversation repeatedly without ever getting to the point or being honest about how they feel, and it’s hard to get invested in this loop they’re stuck in sometimes because it doesn’t seem like they have lives outside each other. It’s like they’ve been stuck in the same place for twenty years, not just with respect to each other but with respect to the rest of their lives. It seems that neither of them has any substance to the careers and relationships they should theoretically have built since college.
I’ll start with Deion, because I have some specific bones to pick with his depiction coming out of an academic background. His whole deal is that he’s an assistant professor of philosophy on sabbatical visiting Carlton before going up for tenure at a university in Chicago. He’s not sure whether he wants to stay at his current university, though, especially since his parents are encouraging him to relocate to the UK.
So. Okay. He’s a philosophy professor. What kind of philosophy? We never know. There’s never any mention of what philosophers he’s interested in, or what topics he works on, or what draws him to philosophy. Is he an ethicist? Does he work on logic? Does he research historical philosophers, or is he more into modern stuff like theory of mind or cognitive science? Who knows? One might think it would come up—perhaps when Carlton is introducing Deion to his friends, or when they’re coming up with stories for the social worker?—but nope! At no point during his sabbatical is there any mention of specific classes he’s taught, or conferences he’s presented at, or papers he’s written, or dare I say it, the monograph book that might be required if he’s actually going up for tenure. His job is just…there, in the sense that it exists in the background as a marker of his intelligence, but there’s zero sense that he's interested in anything about philosophy or academia or research or even teaching, which is ostensibly his reason for going into academia in the first place.
And speaking of jobs! Okay, so one dilemma Deion faces is whether he will a) stay in Chicago and seek tenure, though he has no real roots there, b) go to London where his parents live, or c) go to D. C. where Carlton lives. There are some vague mentions like, “Oh, I’ll look for a job at a university there,” and I’m like, will he? Will he indeed? I went on the academic job Wiki for 2021, when this book was written, and there were two, count them, two tenure-track jobs in philosophy, one in Rochester, NY and one a Dean job in Finland. One does not simply go to a city and say, “Oh, I’ll just get a job as a professor at a university here.” The job market for tenure-track humanities scholars is famously horrific, and getting more so all the time.
It’s not that Deion couldn’t conceivably get a job at a university in London or DC—if the academics in the UK aren’t on strike at the particular time he’s looking—but the chances that it would be a tenure-track philosophy professor job are slim to none. Which is fine, if there was any exploration of what Deion might want to do instead! There’s a brief mention at the beginning that maybe working as a tenure-track academic isn’t for him in general, and that could be something really interesting to get into. Like, does he want to go into administration, or admissions, or maybe take a NTT lecturer position? Does he want to teach high school? Maybe he could get out of academia altogether—there’s a whole bunch of ex-academics who do stuff like consulting or educational technology or grant-writing. But there’s no discussion of that—as I’ll get into with Carlton below, there’s no real sense of what Deion wants outside of the relationship with Carlton. What are his hobbies, his professional interests, his ambitions? Does he have any friends outside of Carlton, maybe even other academics in philosophy? The first chapter mentions some colleagues and a mentor in Chicago, but after that, nothing. He’s there to pine after Carlton, and to make friends with Carlton’s friends, and to be wronged by him, and to randomly leave without letting Carlton or Olivia know where he’s going.
Apologies for the rant—part of this comes from my own experiences working in academia and therefore noticing issues in a way I probably didn’t notice any issues with developing product lines in Learned Behaviors. But I do think it ties into larger plotting and characterization problems in the book.
So, now we get to Carlton. I was really optimistic at the beginning of the novel when we start with Carlton staying late at his job as a financial aid counselor at Howard because his coworker LeeAnn screwed something up, as she often does. Yes, I thought! Here we get to see the professional side of extroverted, apparent party guy Carlton, what he cares about in his job, conflicts with coworkers, maybe even a plot where lousy LeeAnn is dealt with in the background of the family drama with Olivia and the romantic drama with Deion.
No dice. We meet a kid that Carlton helps again, in a dramatic moment with Olivia and some bullies, but other than that he might as well work as a teller in a bank for all his profession actually matters.
Carlton baffles me. He’s supposed to be the one sleeping around, the frivolous partier, but he doesn’t sleep around, nor does he have any kind of social life. Deion is literally his only friend—he met Lawrence and JaQuan moving his nephew into college, as detailed at the beginning of Learned Behaviors, and apparently before then he had nobody. Why? It made sense that Jaq had no friends outside of work in that book—it’s clearly set up that he was a single teen father who later works for an intense workaholic boss with poor boundaries. Of course all his time is taken up with his daughter and his job until his daughter goes to college—not necessarily healthy, but understandable.
But it’s not understandable why Carlton has no other friends, inside or outside of work. What on earth did he do with himself until his nephew Trey moved in with him? I’m an antisocial nerd who needs a lot of alone time, and my social life is way, WAY more active than Carlton’s. I get that part of the drama is that Deion thinks Carlton’s some kind of playboy when he’s actually not…but also I don’t get that, either, because Deion and Carlton have literally been each other’s only friends for like twenty years, and they talk to each other all the time and visit each other regularly, so I don’t get why Deion thinks Carlton has some active social or sexual life. I also don’t really get what on earth they’ve talked about with each other for all those years, since all they talk about throughout the whole book is Olivia and their fraught feelings for each other.
Olivia and that whole plot line is really the bright spot of the book for me. She’s a fun, active teenage girl who wants to join the wrestling team and feels stifled by her grandparents, who, in the wake of her parents’ death, seem convinced that she should be the version 2.0 of her mother. Her older brother Trey, who may or may not be gay, also left their grandparents’ house to move in with Carlton. This posed obstacles to their relationship, since Olivia was still living with her grandparents with their stifling gender roles and emotional distance, but they maintained it, and the little family they form with Deion and Carlton is genuinely the heart of the book, and the part I think works the best emotionally. Is all the stuff with the social worker and the adoption realistic? No idea, none whatsoever, but I am willing to suspend disbelief for things that satisfy me emotionally.
I like Ellis’s writing style, and the sex scenes are hot, but this one frustrated me quite a lot—I definitely preferred Learned Behaviors.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 14, 2021
Best friends obviously in love with each other but both are a bit foolish (I say that lovingly) and are each in their own way of being together. But wow, that grand gesture at the end really got me. Wonderful ending.
Thank you Carina Press and NetGalley for the ARC!
Thank you Carina Press and NetGalley for the ARC!
February 10, 2021
Learned Reactions is a cool book. Jayce Ellis is a new to me author. I love it when the men of color are not a pimp or thug. I will have to go back and read the first book in the series.
January 31, 2021
Hold onto your hats people because this one is a bumpy ride. This one has the feels and not all of them were sunshine and rainbows. I was with Deion's momma when it came to Carlton. Carlton has lived his entire life in fear and he's been stagnant, never moving on from the college student who lost his foundation. He earned big points for jumping in to be a parent to his nephew and then his niece. Deion wants everything with the man that he's been in love with for more than twenty years. Unfortunately, not only is he Carlton's crutch but he enables the man's bad habits. I wanted to wallop both of them multiple times. The moment in the counselor's office broke my heart. Carlton's epiphany happens when he sees that Deion is the only one giving in their relationship, accepting whatever Carlton is willing to offer him. Carlton's grand gesture was magnificent and the last chapter made me cheer. 4.75 stars!
March 15, 2021
Check out our full post for LEARNED REACTIONS on Wicked Reads.
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
I’m not a big fan of romance stories with fake relationships but by the time the assumption is made that Carlton and Deion are a couple, things between the men are already so complicated, I actually thought playing house might help. These two are just circling around each other, Carlton terrified to admit that he loves and needs Deion, and Deion openly admitting how he feels but not prepared to force the issue.
I loved Deion, but it killed me that this wonderful 38-year-old had effectively been pining after his friend all his adult life. This made it unlikely that his dream of marriage and family was going to happen. That made me sad. I wanted more than anything for Deion to be happy. When the story switched to Carlton’s point of view and we get to experience how he feels about Deion, it gave me a little hope that Deion had a chance with Carlton. Carlton is a really good guy. He looks out for others, takes over the parenting of his niece with no notice, and he does love Deion, he just won’t admit it.
This was a story that tugged on my heart strings big time. Sometimes my feelings were warm and fuzzy and other times they were being crushed by heartache. As the story progressed, Carlton started to frustrate me. I just wanted to smack him in the head and tell him to get his act together. But by the end of the story, the frustration at Carlton and the troubles between him and Deion were totally worth it. The ending to this story is so romantic.
For me, LEARNED REACTIONS was a wonderful, emotional, and at times, frustrating romance and I totally loved it.
Reviewers received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.
March 9, 2021
I received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.
I’m not a big fan of romance stories with fake relationships but by the time the assumption is made that Carlton and Deion are a couple, things between the men are already so complicated, I actually thought playing house might help. These two are just circling around each other, Carlton terrified to admit that he loves and needs Deion, and Deion openly admitting how he feels but not prepared to force the issue.
I loved Deion but it killed me that this wonderful 38 year old had effectively been pining after his friends all his adult life. This made it unlikely that his dream of marriage and family was going to happen. That made me sad. I wanted more than anything for Deion to be happy. When the story switched to Carlton’s point of view and we get to experience how he feels about Deion it gave me a little hope that Deion had a chance with Carlton. Carlton is a really good guy. He looks out for others, takes over the parenting of his niece with no notice and he does love Deion, he just won’t admit it.
This was a story that tugged on my heart strings big time. Sometimes my feelings were warm and fuzzy and other times they were being crushed by heart ache. As the story progressed Carton started to frustrate me. I just wanted to smack him in the head and tell him to get his act together. But by the end of the story the frustration at Carlton and the troubles between him and Deion were totally worth it. The ending to this story is so romantic.
For me, Learned Reaction was a wonderful, emotional and at times frustrating romance and I totally loved it.
I’m not a big fan of romance stories with fake relationships but by the time the assumption is made that Carlton and Deion are a couple, things between the men are already so complicated, I actually thought playing house might help. These two are just circling around each other, Carlton terrified to admit that he loves and needs Deion, and Deion openly admitting how he feels but not prepared to force the issue.
I loved Deion but it killed me that this wonderful 38 year old had effectively been pining after his friends all his adult life. This made it unlikely that his dream of marriage and family was going to happen. That made me sad. I wanted more than anything for Deion to be happy. When the story switched to Carlton’s point of view and we get to experience how he feels about Deion it gave me a little hope that Deion had a chance with Carlton. Carlton is a really good guy. He looks out for others, takes over the parenting of his niece with no notice and he does love Deion, he just won’t admit it.
This was a story that tugged on my heart strings big time. Sometimes my feelings were warm and fuzzy and other times they were being crushed by heart ache. As the story progressed Carton started to frustrate me. I just wanted to smack him in the head and tell him to get his act together. But by the end of the story the frustration at Carlton and the troubles between him and Deion were totally worth it. The ending to this story is so romantic.
For me, Learned Reaction was a wonderful, emotional and at times frustrating romance and I totally loved it.
March 6, 2023
Let me just say that Carlton is a selfish, manipulative POS! There were so many times I wanted to jump into my Kindle and throat punch him. OMG! But, I loved this! Funny, irreverent with J. Ellis' classic dialogue and superb dynamics among friends. Have to say I was worried since I didn't love book 1 in this series and sort of tiptoed into this one, but once I got going, I totally enjoyed it. Loved all the secondary characters - Ollie, Trey, and Lawrence! So are we going to get a book with Lawrence and the lovely barista? Also loved the grand gesture. I am a sucker for those in my romance reads and this did not disappoint. Loved Deion. His desperate love for Carlton that left you thinking he was a doormat, but no, he just loved Carlton. Given Carlton's deplorable behavior, have to wonder why. The writing just drew me in, so much so that I read and re-read passages. I understand we will get a book about Jaq's daughter Tanisha. Okay but what about Lawrence?!! Love books that celebrate queer Black love! More Ms. Ellis!!
March 12, 2021
Content warnings:
I was a bit wishy-washy about the first book in this series, but I really enjoyed the author’s writing style and the characters, so I was interested in giving this next book a try, especially since it was a friends-to-lovers, fake relationship romance. This occurs concurrently with the first book in the series, so many events, like their coffee meetups, are now seen from Carlton’s POV. While it is the second in the series, it could easily be read as a standalone.
Deion’s a philosophy professor in Chicago who’s taking a sabbatical for the semester. He’s intending to visit his parents in London, but first he’s going to spend time with his best friend – and unrequited love interest – Carlton in DC. Carlton and Deion have been friends since college, and Deion’s been in love with him for nearly that long. Deion’s always wanted a family, and he realizes that his continued focus on Carlton is preventing him from having that. Carlton had been a confirmed bachelor before his sister’s death, but when his nephew Trey asked to stay with him rather than with Carlton’s conservative grandparents, he immediately stepped up to the plate and took him in. He was a high school senior, so he mostly just needed a place to study and someone to feed him. He managed it and launched him successfully, and now that Deion’s coming to visit for homecoming, he’s hoping to get back to the bachelor lifestyle. But seeing Deion again reawakens feelings in him as well, and it’s making things… complicated. The arrival of Carlton’s niece Olivia complicates things even more, and once he sees how good Deion is with her, Carlton asks him to stay a little longer. But as time goes on and they start meshing as a family – with a fake relationship thrown in – both men start to realize that this fake thing might be the most real thing they’ve ever had.
Honestly, I wanted to shake both men at multiple points during the book. They both had valid reasons for being worried about getting into a romantic relationship and ruining their friendship. Carlton’s convinced the only way he and Deion are still such good friends is because he friend-zoned Deion. Deion’s used to going along with him, no matter what – even when Carlton lets Olivia’s social worker believe they’re together. He lets Carlton set the boundaries of the relationship and doesn’t push, and pretends it’s ok, even when he’s a giant ball of yearning on the inside. Plus, his mom doesn’t like Carlton, mostly because she’s annoyed that he doesn’t return his son’s feelings, and he’s been hung up on him for nineteen years. Carlton knows this and, given his own family issues, would never want to come between Deion and his mom. Their relationship – though it starts out “fake” – was sweet and so adorably domestic. Sure, there’s lots of steamy moments, but a big part for both men is having someone to come home to, to share dinner with, to go buy random decorative pillows with. I found their bleak moment extremely heart wrenching, though the grand gesture was a bit overdone for me, even if it was quite sweet.
I really love the author’s voice, and I thought the pacing in this book was much improved. I especially loved how Carlton and Lawrence, who just happens to be a family lawyer and helps him with adopting Olivia, interacted, and how much of a reality check he gave him. It definitely makes me very interested in Lawrence’s and Vance’s book! As for cons, I’d just like to point that out college professor sabbaticals – especially for ones that are one year away from tenure – don’t work the way the book suggested, where it was basically a vacation for Deion. Normally that time would be spent hustling to publish.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and I’m looking forward to Lawrence and Vance’s book!
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I was a bit wishy-washy about the first book in this series, but I really enjoyed the author’s writing style and the characters, so I was interested in giving this next book a try, especially since it was a friends-to-lovers, fake relationship romance. This occurs concurrently with the first book in the series, so many events, like their coffee meetups, are now seen from Carlton’s POV. While it is the second in the series, it could easily be read as a standalone.
Deion’s a philosophy professor in Chicago who’s taking a sabbatical for the semester. He’s intending to visit his parents in London, but first he’s going to spend time with his best friend – and unrequited love interest – Carlton in DC. Carlton and Deion have been friends since college, and Deion’s been in love with him for nearly that long. Deion’s always wanted a family, and he realizes that his continued focus on Carlton is preventing him from having that. Carlton had been a confirmed bachelor before his sister’s death, but when his nephew Trey asked to stay with him rather than with Carlton’s conservative grandparents, he immediately stepped up to the plate and took him in. He was a high school senior, so he mostly just needed a place to study and someone to feed him. He managed it and launched him successfully, and now that Deion’s coming to visit for homecoming, he’s hoping to get back to the bachelor lifestyle. But seeing Deion again reawakens feelings in him as well, and it’s making things… complicated. The arrival of Carlton’s niece Olivia complicates things even more, and once he sees how good Deion is with her, Carlton asks him to stay a little longer. But as time goes on and they start meshing as a family – with a fake relationship thrown in – both men start to realize that this fake thing might be the most real thing they’ve ever had.
“I’m sorry, man. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Carlton cocked his head to the side. “Said what?”
“Teased about sleeping with you. Now’s not the time for that.”
Carlton crooked a smile and sidled closer, letting his hand fall on Deion’s hip. It felt right. More than it should have. “It’s never a good time for us, is it?”
Honestly, I wanted to shake both men at multiple points during the book. They both had valid reasons for being worried about getting into a romantic relationship and ruining their friendship. Carlton’s convinced the only way he and Deion are still such good friends is because he friend-zoned Deion. Deion’s used to going along with him, no matter what – even when Carlton lets Olivia’s social worker believe they’re together. He lets Carlton set the boundaries of the relationship and doesn’t push, and pretends it’s ok, even when he’s a giant ball of yearning on the inside. Plus, his mom doesn’t like Carlton, mostly because she’s annoyed that he doesn’t return his son’s feelings, and he’s been hung up on him for nineteen years. Carlton knows this and, given his own family issues, would never want to come between Deion and his mom. Their relationship – though it starts out “fake” – was sweet and so adorably domestic. Sure, there’s lots of steamy moments, but a big part for both men is having someone to come home to, to share dinner with, to go buy random decorative pillows with. I found their bleak moment extremely heart wrenching, though the grand gesture was a bit overdone for me, even if it was quite sweet.
“But you’re right. I took advantage of a situation, because I wanted you to stay a little longer.”
“Why?” God, why? If Carlton wasn’t interested in him, why on god’s green earth was he pushing this narrative?
“Because everything is better with you. I’m not as overwhelmed when I know you’re here. Even without Ollie or Trey or whatever, coming home and knowing you’d be waiting made the days smoother. I didn’t want to lose that.”
I really love the author’s voice, and I thought the pacing in this book was much improved. I especially loved how Carlton and Lawrence, who just happens to be a family lawyer and helps him with adopting Olivia, interacted, and how much of a reality check he gave him. It definitely makes me very interested in Lawrence’s and Vance’s book! As for cons, I’d just like to point that out college professor sabbaticals – especially for ones that are one year away from tenure – don’t work the way the book suggested, where it was basically a vacation for Deion. Normally that time would be spent hustling to publish.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and I’m looking forward to Lawrence and Vance’s book!
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
March 15, 2021
4.5 Stars
Carlton Monroe is a financial aid officer at Howard University in DC. He’s been there a long time, and he works hard. He’s an out gay black man whose “traditional” (read: bigoted and austere) parents are not really talking with him–mostly on account of him being gay. He’d always had a conflicted relationship with his parents, though, even before he came out. Once he did though, they mostly disowned him. He had a good relationship with his sister, whom his parents idealized as the golden child of their family, but she and her husband died a few years ago leaving their children, Trey and Olivia, orphaned. Carlton’s parents took custody of the kids, but Trey, who may be genderqueer, soon turned up on his doorstep–after too many fights with his stifling grandparents. Carlton took him in with no qualms, and helped him graduate high school and enter college.
So, now Carlton is a free man! No responsibilities and looking forward to spending some time with his longtime best friend, and former college roomie, Deion Jones. Professor Jones is taking a sabbatical, and has agreed to visit Carlton for a bit.
Thing is, Deion has literally been in love with Carlton for…ever. Since freshman year of college, for sure. Deion is a beautiful, virile Black gay man, and he’s always wanted a loving partner and family. He’s a little jealous that Carlton, who always professed to never wanting kids himself, has become an uncle-dad to his nephew. While Deion’s visiting Carlton Olivia turns up on the doorstep, crying and wanting to be free of her domineering grandparents. Olivia wants to wrestle on her high school team, against the boys–and Grams was having none of it. But it was also how her grandparents cut her off from communicating with Trey and Uncle Carlton that messed things up with Olivia. Deion is happy to help co-parent, for the time he’s meant to be in DC, but Carlton–with the help and advice of his friend Lawrence–is moving to formally adopt Olivia. To protect her from the toxic homelife he’d narrowly escaped with his folks. And, the social worker helping to facilitate the adoption mistakes Carlton and Deion as cohabitating partners.
It’s then that Carlton suggests that Deion extend his stay, stop sleeping on his couch, and move himself into Carlton’s plush bed. And, if they can add benefits to their friendship, all the better. Because Carlton’s been low key in love with Deion all along. He’s just been too afraid to chance anything more, because Deion’s the only constant and healthy relationship Carlton has maintained in his adult life. He might make himself out to be a Grindr fan and freewheeling bachelor, but he isn’t really that guy. He’s a homebody who thrives on late-night check-ins with Deion, whose relationships haven’t really panned out either on account of his pining for Carlton.
Their extended cohabitation and more-than-friends sexytimes are blurring the lines, however, and with Deion’s sabbatical coming to an end there are realities that need to be faced and discussed. Shame Carlton’s so tongue-tied with his affections. At first. It’s a bittersweet break, because Trey and Olivia LOVE Uncle Deion as much as he does them. His dream of being a dad is nearly complete, if only Carlton truly loved him as a partner, as a potential husband, not a pseudo-temporary-boyfriend just to finalize the adoption. Can he live without Carlton, even as a friend? Because it might kill their friendship if he does what he needs to do to protect his heart. Once Carlton gets a handle on his life without Deion in it on the day-to-day he realizes his family dysfunctions have set him up for a lifetime of happiness. It’s difficult for each of these men to change their habits, but a happy ending is on the horizon, if only they can break the patterns that have bound them in misery the past 16 years (or so).
Loved this one!! Carlton’s hot mess of a life is so chaotic, but his love for Deion is clear, even if he can’t speak to it. Their sexytimes are amazing, so steamy, and yet playful. They have been friends too long for much awkwardness, even in the bedroom. I loved the grand gesture that Carlton plans, and it was awesome to see their happy ending on the page. Deion’s future had looked so bleak, but he’s more than happy to be a dad, even to a teen girl wrestler. There are fun interactions with Jaq and Lawrence who we met in the first book of this series. Lawrence, especially, got good page time as very successful Black lawyer who happens to be a father many times over and a divorced pansexual man. I’m sure we’ll see this “daddy” find himself a partner in the next book. I absolutely look forward to it.
Carlton Monroe is a financial aid officer at Howard University in DC. He’s been there a long time, and he works hard. He’s an out gay black man whose “traditional” (read: bigoted and austere) parents are not really talking with him–mostly on account of him being gay. He’d always had a conflicted relationship with his parents, though, even before he came out. Once he did though, they mostly disowned him. He had a good relationship with his sister, whom his parents idealized as the golden child of their family, but she and her husband died a few years ago leaving their children, Trey and Olivia, orphaned. Carlton’s parents took custody of the kids, but Trey, who may be genderqueer, soon turned up on his doorstep–after too many fights with his stifling grandparents. Carlton took him in with no qualms, and helped him graduate high school and enter college.
So, now Carlton is a free man! No responsibilities and looking forward to spending some time with his longtime best friend, and former college roomie, Deion Jones. Professor Jones is taking a sabbatical, and has agreed to visit Carlton for a bit.
Thing is, Deion has literally been in love with Carlton for…ever. Since freshman year of college, for sure. Deion is a beautiful, virile Black gay man, and he’s always wanted a loving partner and family. He’s a little jealous that Carlton, who always professed to never wanting kids himself, has become an uncle-dad to his nephew. While Deion’s visiting Carlton Olivia turns up on the doorstep, crying and wanting to be free of her domineering grandparents. Olivia wants to wrestle on her high school team, against the boys–and Grams was having none of it. But it was also how her grandparents cut her off from communicating with Trey and Uncle Carlton that messed things up with Olivia. Deion is happy to help co-parent, for the time he’s meant to be in DC, but Carlton–with the help and advice of his friend Lawrence–is moving to formally adopt Olivia. To protect her from the toxic homelife he’d narrowly escaped with his folks. And, the social worker helping to facilitate the adoption mistakes Carlton and Deion as cohabitating partners.
It’s then that Carlton suggests that Deion extend his stay, stop sleeping on his couch, and move himself into Carlton’s plush bed. And, if they can add benefits to their friendship, all the better. Because Carlton’s been low key in love with Deion all along. He’s just been too afraid to chance anything more, because Deion’s the only constant and healthy relationship Carlton has maintained in his adult life. He might make himself out to be a Grindr fan and freewheeling bachelor, but he isn’t really that guy. He’s a homebody who thrives on late-night check-ins with Deion, whose relationships haven’t really panned out either on account of his pining for Carlton.
Their extended cohabitation and more-than-friends sexytimes are blurring the lines, however, and with Deion’s sabbatical coming to an end there are realities that need to be faced and discussed. Shame Carlton’s so tongue-tied with his affections. At first. It’s a bittersweet break, because Trey and Olivia LOVE Uncle Deion as much as he does them. His dream of being a dad is nearly complete, if only Carlton truly loved him as a partner, as a potential husband, not a pseudo-temporary-boyfriend just to finalize the adoption. Can he live without Carlton, even as a friend? Because it might kill their friendship if he does what he needs to do to protect his heart. Once Carlton gets a handle on his life without Deion in it on the day-to-day he realizes his family dysfunctions have set him up for a lifetime of happiness. It’s difficult for each of these men to change their habits, but a happy ending is on the horizon, if only they can break the patterns that have bound them in misery the past 16 years (or so).
Loved this one!! Carlton’s hot mess of a life is so chaotic, but his love for Deion is clear, even if he can’t speak to it. Their sexytimes are amazing, so steamy, and yet playful. They have been friends too long for much awkwardness, even in the bedroom. I loved the grand gesture that Carlton plans, and it was awesome to see their happy ending on the page. Deion’s future had looked so bleak, but he’s more than happy to be a dad, even to a teen girl wrestler. There are fun interactions with Jaq and Lawrence who we met in the first book of this series. Lawrence, especially, got good page time as very successful Black lawyer who happens to be a father many times over and a divorced pansexual man. I’m sure we’ll see this “daddy” find himself a partner in the next book. I absolutely look forward to it.
May 25, 2021
Two-and-a-half stars, rounded down. I like Deion and Carlton, and I think they're a cute couple when they're actually together. That said, I felt frustrated with Carlton and I struggled to understand the 20-year impasse between the main characters. I know communication is much harder in practice than I might like, but I didn't find it romantic that Deion spent his entire adult life so consumed with unrequited love that he never actually communicated with Carlton and barely tried to pursue a serious relationship or build a family. Every time Carlton (briefly) acknowledges that he's taken advantage of Deion, I waited for him to make up for it or simply to stop and he never did.
The narrative does inspire sympathy for both Deion and Carlton, but since they never overcome their communication issues "on camera" and their dynamic is asymmetrical at best, I found it hard to celebrate when they finally figured things out. I think pacing was a significant issue: there is a lot of time spent on unnecessary set-up and they wait so long to deal with their feelings that they only have an official romantic relationship for a chapter or two.
On a very minor note, it was wild to hear Deion, et al discuss tenure because I'm a grad student. Tenure-track positions in philosophy are hard to come by and as I recall, the UK doesn't do tenure, so while it's perfectly realistic for the Joneses to discuss their son's job prospects as if precarity isn't a major issue in the academy, I was thrown when faculty suggested Deion pick a university in DC. It's easier to move between tenure-track/tenured positions, but it's by no means easy. I wish the text had explicitly mentioned it had taken liberties with academia, as it did with adoption, because I struggled to suspend my disbelief.
With that said, I liked Olivia and Trey and I was interested particularly in the former as the novel didn't more time with her and her problems. I thought Jaq, Lawrence, and Vance were excellent supporting characters, and I appreciated the attention to black queer life. I think it's important for characters to have friends; in fact, I wanted Deion to have more of a support network (outside of Carlton). The romance had some very compelling moments and the prose was distinctive. I think it's worth a read if you like stories about "the one that got away," best friends to lovers, and/or parenthood because there's a lot to like, even if it was less satisfying for me than I wanted it to be.
The narrative does inspire sympathy for both Deion and Carlton, but since they never overcome their communication issues "on camera" and their dynamic is asymmetrical at best, I found it hard to celebrate when they finally figured things out. I think pacing was a significant issue: there is a lot of time spent on unnecessary set-up and they wait so long to deal with their feelings that they only have an official romantic relationship for a chapter or two.
On a very minor note, it was wild to hear Deion, et al discuss tenure because I'm a grad student. Tenure-track positions in philosophy are hard to come by and as I recall, the UK doesn't do tenure, so while it's perfectly realistic for the Joneses to discuss their son's job prospects as if precarity isn't a major issue in the academy, I was thrown when faculty suggested Deion pick a university in DC. It's easier to move between tenure-track/tenured positions, but it's by no means easy. I wish the text had explicitly mentioned it had taken liberties with academia, as it did with adoption, because I struggled to suspend my disbelief.
With that said, I liked Olivia and Trey and I was interested particularly in the former as the novel didn't more time with her and her problems. I thought Jaq, Lawrence, and Vance were excellent supporting characters, and I appreciated the attention to black queer life. I think it's important for characters to have friends; in fact, I wanted Deion to have more of a support network (outside of Carlton). The romance had some very compelling moments and the prose was distinctive. I think it's worth a read if you like stories about "the one that got away," best friends to lovers, and/or parenthood because there's a lot to like, even if it was less satisfying for me than I wanted it to be.
May 20, 2021
A lovely friends-to lovers romance that left me smiling!
Friends-to-lovers can be a bit hit and miss for me, but this hit a lot of high notes by keeping the connection and tension between them at the forefront and not hidden away, while the reasons for the reluctance to try out a romantic relationship were also clear. The chemistry remained off the scales hot, and I was hugely cheering them on the whole time.
As with Jayce Ellis' other books, the sense of community, especially a Black queer community, is one of the highlights, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more books in this series!
I did feel a bit uneasy about the lying to a social worker and found that a bit hard to move on from, but the resolution was good in that respect for me.
One aspect towards the end was also tricky for me, but I appreciate that was a me thing and within the plot and the character's motivations, it made some sense
Overall another excellent book from Jayce Ellis and I am really looking forward to what she writes next!
Friends-to-lovers can be a bit hit and miss for me, but this hit a lot of high notes by keeping the connection and tension between them at the forefront and not hidden away, while the reasons for the reluctance to try out a romantic relationship were also clear. The chemistry remained off the scales hot, and I was hugely cheering them on the whole time.
As with Jayce Ellis' other books, the sense of community, especially a Black queer community, is one of the highlights, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more books in this series!
I did feel a bit uneasy about the lying to a social worker and found that a bit hard to move on from, but the resolution was good in that respect for me.
One aspect towards the end was also tricky for me, but I appreciate that was a me thing and within the plot and the character's motivations, it made some sense
Overall another excellent book from Jayce Ellis and I am really looking forward to what she writes next!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 16, 2021
I absolutely LOVED this story! Carlton and Deion are two professional men, who once upon a time 18+ years ago were college room mates. They remained best friends since then Carlton in D.C. and Deion living in Chicago. Deion has been secretly in love with Carlton all that time. Carlton lives in denial. They both carry heavy baggage from their parents' relationships and their upbringings. A family tragedy, changed the trajectory of Carlton's life a year ago. Deion took a sabbatical from his job and went on a 10 day visit with Carlton. While visiting, a few revelations and another bump in trajectory reformed the thinking of both men. Great story. Carlton, Deion and Carlton's friends are absolutely likeable. I hope we get to read stories about the gang. Carlton has a few issues that add weight to his baggage. Will Carlton and Deion ever have a real grownup conversation? Can Carlton pull his head out of his butt? Will both men's parents remember they are family? How does Deion resolve his sabbatical? Well done! I received an ARC from Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. Nice cover art!
May 14, 2021
I read the first installment of this series, Learned Behaviors, as well as Andre and quickly became addicted to Jayce Ellis's writing. She gives such a beautiful and nuanced depiction of the lives and loves of queer men of color.
Learned Reactions overlaps a bit with Learned Behaviors, which is a great way to prime readers for the couples to come. Carlton and Deion are the slow burn to end all slow-burns. They've been pining, unaware of the feelings the one has for the other for twenty years. A combination of insecurity and the confusion at having real feelings when they should be a pretend family leads to a denouement that is so poignant, I still get emotional thinking about it.
Olivia, or Ollie, as the fourteen-year-old girl they are trying to raise is a wonderful character, and steals the scenes she is in. She is the perfect depiction of a beautiful, brilliant, and somewhat tremendous teenager.
Ellis is such a fine writer and so far have enjoyed every book she's written. Now on to book 3!
ARC received from the publisher Carina Press via NetGalley in return for an honest and unbiased review.
Learned Reactions overlaps a bit with Learned Behaviors, which is a great way to prime readers for the couples to come. Carlton and Deion are the slow burn to end all slow-burns. They've been pining, unaware of the feelings the one has for the other for twenty years. A combination of insecurity and the confusion at having real feelings when they should be a pretend family leads to a denouement that is so poignant, I still get emotional thinking about it.
Olivia, or Ollie, as the fourteen-year-old girl they are trying to raise is a wonderful character, and steals the scenes she is in. She is the perfect depiction of a beautiful, brilliant, and somewhat tremendous teenager.
Ellis is such a fine writer and so far have enjoyed every book she's written. Now on to book 3!
ARC received from the publisher Carina Press via NetGalley in return for an honest and unbiased review.
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