Learned Reactions
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- € 4,49
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- € 4,49
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“The friends-to-lovers trope feels fresh in Ellis’s hands, in part because it’s underpinned by a lovingly drawn depiction of Black family dynamics.” —Publishers Weekly
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.
Higher Education
Book 1: Learned Behaviors
Book 2: Learned Reactions
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ellis's bighearted second Higher Education romance (after Learned Behaviors) turns to the unfinished business between Carlton Monroe and his former roommate Deion Jones. After a single steamy night their sophomore year, the two have been platonic besties, each convinced that the other isn't interested in anything more than friendship. Deion's on sabbatical from a tenure-track professorship when he accepts Carlton's invitation to homecoming, arriving just in time for Carlton's 14-year-old niece to turn up on Carlton's doorstep, begging refuge from her grandparent's house. Family-starved, Deion can't resist Carlton's plea that he stay and support Carlton in new fatherhood, though he can see no way to get his own needs met. The friends-to-lovers trope feels fresh in Ellis's hands, in part because it's underpinned by a lovingly drawn depiction of Black family dynamics. Meanwhile, the banter crackles and the emotional moves are believable but not predictable. Not every aspect of the milieu is convincing, however: untenured philosophy professors can't pick any city they like and find a job, and lawyers charging $1,100 an hour don't work in family court. But none of these nitpicks affect the sweet, insightful heart of this slow-burn romance.