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A review by lezreadalot
Learned Behaviors by Jayce Ellis
4.0
“I don’t want to just go back to the old us. I want to be a better us.”
There's so so much that I loved about this book. I read it with permanent heart eyes glued to my face. It was so great to read some queer black love, in a really cute setup that combined some choice tropes and realistic scenarios, and had characters that felt like real people. It's an office romance, enemies to lovers, between two single black fathers who are trying to find their footing in their work lives, do their jobs as parents, while navigating love. It had a light easy vibe that made it a breeze to read. It wasn't laugh out loud funny, but it had fun moments that made me smile. There's a subplot with their kids that I really enjoyed.
And once again, it just does my heart and body good to read black romance, which I categorise a little differently in my head than romance that includes black characters. We all already know that it just makes me happy to see slang in books, and in the same way I especially enjoy it in fantasy, I also really enjoy it in romance? IDK, probably because for a long time (at least to my reckoning) slang like AAVE wasn't seen as a love language? So its inclusion feels revolutionary to me in a way that it probably isn't, lol, but still! It made me happy!
Really, the book only has one flaw, but it's major enough that it could have tanked my enjoyment a lot. And it almost did, but the aspects of the book/writing that I loved served to balance things out. Basically, I feel like the pacing is really off, in the progression of almost all of the relationships. This isn't insta-love, thank goodness (the enemies thing didn't last as long as I expected, but it lasted long enough). It's just that relationship milestones, and the ways that they talked about each other, and the ways that their family and friends perceived the relationship wasn't on par with where they actually were at in their relationship. If that makes sense? So while it's not insta-love, it did permanently feel like things were just slightly off-kilter, and that was maddening.
An early example is Matt's best friend telling him that JaQuan is The One for Matt, before she's even met him. This happens to varying degrees with other characters. There were also a few time-skips (a week long, a month long) that threw me off so much, because it assumes that certain things have changed, but we haven't gotten to SEE any of that progression. I want to see the progression! Or at least get a sense of it, so that when the L word come up, I don't feel like I've been cheated. Also, JaQuan is a bit of a loner at the beginning and makes a couple new friends. But they very quickly start playing a role in his life that would be more suited to old, close friends. Which, I get it, he didn't have any of those. But I feel like the decision to make Carlton and Lawrence brand new additions to JaQuan's life was a misstep.
This was still a really sweet romance, really steamy, great characters. I'm very sure I'd have found the aforementioned flaws a little harder to overlook if I wasn't continuously chomping at the bit for queer black romance that's as cute and well-written as this. I'd still recommend this, and I'll definitely read more from Ellis in the future (I'm really hoping that Tanisha and Angela's story continues!).
3.5 stars. (I waffled a lot on whether I'd round up or down. The book made me really happy so: up.)
☆ Review copy provided via NetGalley.
There's so so much that I loved about this book. I read it with permanent heart eyes glued to my face. It was so great to read some queer black love, in a really cute setup that combined some choice tropes and realistic scenarios, and had characters that felt like real people. It's an office romance, enemies to lovers, between two single black fathers who are trying to find their footing in their work lives, do their jobs as parents, while navigating love. It had a light easy vibe that made it a breeze to read. It wasn't laugh out loud funny, but it had fun moments that made me smile. There's a subplot with their kids that I really enjoyed.
And once again, it just does my heart and body good to read black romance, which I categorise a little differently in my head than romance that includes black characters. We all already know that it just makes me happy to see slang in books, and in the same way I especially enjoy it in fantasy, I also really enjoy it in romance? IDK, probably because for a long time (at least to my reckoning) slang like AAVE wasn't seen as a love language? So its inclusion feels revolutionary to me in a way that it probably isn't, lol, but still! It made me happy!
Really, the book only has one flaw, but it's major enough that it could have tanked my enjoyment a lot. And it almost did, but the aspects of the book/writing that I loved served to balance things out. Basically, I feel like the pacing is really off, in the progression of almost all of the relationships. This isn't insta-love, thank goodness (the enemies thing didn't last as long as I expected, but it lasted long enough). It's just that relationship milestones, and the ways that they talked about each other, and the ways that their family and friends perceived the relationship wasn't on par with where they actually were at in their relationship. If that makes sense? So while it's not insta-love, it did permanently feel like things were just slightly off-kilter, and that was maddening.
An early example is Matt's best friend telling him that JaQuan is The One for Matt, before she's even met him. This happens to varying degrees with other characters. There were also a few time-skips (a week long, a month long) that threw me off so much, because it assumes that certain things have changed, but we haven't gotten to SEE any of that progression. I want to see the progression! Or at least get a sense of it, so that when the L word come up, I don't feel like I've been cheated. Also, JaQuan is a bit of a loner at the beginning and makes a couple new friends. But they very quickly start playing a role in his life that would be more suited to old, close friends. Which, I get it, he didn't have any of those. But I feel like the decision to make Carlton and Lawrence brand new additions to JaQuan's life was a misstep.
This was still a really sweet romance, really steamy, great characters. I'm very sure I'd have found the aforementioned flaws a little harder to overlook if I wasn't continuously chomping at the bit for queer black romance that's as cute and well-written as this. I'd still recommend this, and I'll definitely read more from Ellis in the future (I'm really hoping that Tanisha and Angela's story continues!).
3.5 stars. (I waffled a lot on whether I'd round up or down. The book made me really happy so: up.)
☆ Review copy provided via NetGalley.