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Relationships 201

by Alix Bekins (Goodreads Author)

3.56 of 5 stars 3.56 · rating details · 32 ratings · 9 reviews

Stephan Burke's relationship with Eric has hit a rough patch, and they can't seem to reconnect after their summer apart. Despite being good together, Stephan feels something undefinable is missing. Now starting grad school, he's reconnecting with old friends who offer not-so-sage-advice, rediscovering how much time schoolwork consumes, and-Eric aside-crushing hard on the p...more

ebook, 260 pages

Published December 13th 2010 by Dreamspinner

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May 25, 2012 Azhureheart rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks

I'm not usually a big fan of characters still in school or even in college, I don't really care about the problems they usually have. But and there is a big but here, it's not, for once, about a first relationship or discovering sexual orientation or coming out to parents. It's Relationships 201 . And that was already a nice change for that trope.
So we've got Stephan who is twenty-four, has a nice boyfriend Eric, is a good graduate student, has many friends who seems like a wonderful if not craz...more I'm not usually a big fan of characters still in school or even in college, I don't really care about the problems they usually have. But and there is a big but here, it's not, for once, about a first relationship or discovering sexual orientation or coming out to parents. It's Relationships 201 . And that was already a nice change for that trope.
So we've got Stephan who is twenty-four, has a nice boyfriend Eric, is a good graduate student, has many friends who seems like a wonderful if not crazy support system. And this year, he is going to be the TA for sexy new professor Jeff.
(view spoiler)[
What I loved about it :
- It's just life, there is no bad guy. Eric isn't an evil cheating bastard (like I feared at first), he really is as nice as he appears, he is just not very compatible with Stephan. And that's okay.
- No cheating. Seriously, that's more important to me than many things. Yet, that doesn't mean Stephan hadn't wandering eyes and a healthy imagination of course. :)
- The book is all about Stephan who he is, what he is and isn't and how he reacts to what's happening around him. We don't know anything about what's inside Eric's or Jeff's head before Stephan knows. The reader is really immersed in his life and roots and cheers for him. And shares his angst.
- The sexual tension between Stephan and Jeff is thick. UST abounds and yet we don't really know what's going on inside Jeff's head.
- I love love love they don't just fall in bed after 20 pages with the rest of the book as useless drama. Nope. It really is a romance novel (not a pornish one disguised as romance) and I would even say I wasn't always sure who Stephan was going to end up with. Which could have frustrating but really wasn't.
- Jeff and Stephan are friends first, and yes Stephan isn't blind, but they're friends and they geek together on history stuff (and yes history is one of my least favorite subject ever, and I know nothing about pretty much every historical period but there was just enough details to give us a feel about it and still keep it interesting). I love nerds. Of all kinds. Working side by side in the library, talking about obscure things while drinking too many coffees. You really feel the friendship, it's not just words like in too many romance novels.
- When they actually have sex for the first time it's in Jeff's office on his desk, on students papers.
H-O-T. Especially if you spent most of your student life fantasizing about your professors which was obviously not my case (except, you know for every math teacher I ever had – algebra for ever –, a few in computer science, etc. etc.).
- Stephan loves sex. And thinks about sex pretty much all the time. And it was funny. I like that he is so comfortable with who he is.

Strangely, Eric, I didn't like much at first (when I thought he had found someone else during the summer or something like that) was the character I could understand the most in the end. He has a stick in the ass when it concerns drugs and booze. While I was reading the novel, I thought he was overreacting about Stephan's wilder nights. But when I think about it now, I found that he was much more patient that I would have been in the same situation. And during the break-up, though Stephan is the more experienced of the two, the oldest, it's Eric who find the strength to end things. They both know it's over but Stephan is still trying to delay. (hide spoiler)]

Anyway, it was so good, I read it all in one afternoon and didn't stop for anything.

And I will totally read it again. See if knowing the end will change how I see the characters. What would be awesome is Jeff's side of the story, I would love reading that. We don't know much about his struggles and his thoughts and his desires even at the end, because the whole book is from Stephan's POV. It would be great to see how the other side lived through these months. When I enjoy a story I want to know everything... and I really loved it.(less)

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Dec 16, 2010 Magnolia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: teacher-professor-tutor-instructor, contemporary

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is a very difficult review for me to do. One on the hand I do not want to offend the author b/c overall I did like the book. But on the other hand, it was very hard for me to get into the book. The writing felt choppy, I had a hard time connecting with the characters til about half way through the book. It almost felt like I was on the outside looking in, I just could not get a feel for the book. Many times when I read a story I get sucked into the world that the author has created. Almost...more This is a very difficult review for me to do. One on the hand I do not want to offend the author b/c overall I did like the book. But on the other hand, it was very hard for me to get into the book. The writing felt choppy, I had a hard time connecting with the characters til about half way through the book. It almost felt like I was on the outside looking in, I just could not get a feel for the book. Many times when I read a story I get sucked into the world that the author has created. Almost like I am a character in the book, the one not written down, but is there watching events unfold. This time I just could not get to that place. It was almost like this was a subject that I was being taught. And I feared for the quiz afterwards. There were a few typos and on one of the last few pages Scott's name was changed to Steve, but these were not big deals to me. It was the feeling of being disjointed that bothered me.
Once I got more into the story I really felt for Stephan. He was in a relationship with a man who could not appreciate him for who he was. And Stephan took this personally instead of realizing that this was not his issue. He was blessed with some great friends though, and I was really happy with the cast of secondary characters. I wouldn't mind getting a peek into Billy and Scott's world, how they met and fell in love. Those two men had great personalities, very feisty and stubborn. I hope to see more of them some day(hint hint). As for Jeff, his character made me mad at times. It was obvious that he had feelings for Stephan, but tortured the poor guy til he finally couldn't take the sexual tension any longer. The ending felt pretty abrupt. It would have been nice to see Stephan in his new relationship. How they interacted with his friends(we got a hint of it) and how they were going to make things work. Things were wrapped up just a little too tidy, in my opinion. I'm still undecided on whether or not I would read another book by this author. While she had great imagination with the characters in this book, the storyline could have been much smoother. 2.75 stars(less)

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Apr 14, 2012 Jess Candela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m, read-in-2011

How did I know this was set at UCSC before the town was specified as Santa Cruz? Because although there were certainly a lot of clues, they might have been true of another campus. And there were enough details that seemed wrong to me (like talking about the semester) to be misleading. Yet somehow I was certain it was UCSC, which I'm sure enhanced my enjoyment greatly as I pictured where various things took place (even when descriptions seemed slightly off, like the taqueria being described as on...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Cole Riann rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m, m-m-contemporary, jessewave

I was really looking forward to this book. Sometimes you really just want to read a good love story, with no frills — with real people. And this book has a lot of strong points. Ultimately, however, all its component pieces never seemed to come together. The major downfall of this story is with the character of Steph and how he is written. I like the character himself. All the time I was reading it, I kept thinking how much he was getting on my nerves, harping on about these feelings and analyzi...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Shana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-contemporary, fiction-teachers-and-students, fiction-glbt

Stephan's got it all: he's starting grad school, he's got great friends, and he's dating the perfect boyfriend. So why does it feel like something's missing? The epic crush he's developing on the professor for whom he's a TA isn't helping matters. It takes some drastic changes for Stephan to reassess his life and decide just what it is that he wants.

Stephan is a compelling character, and I certainly enjoyed the time I spent with him. He's a bit of a party animal but not (usually) to excess, grou...more Stephan's got it all: he's starting grad school, he's got great friends, and he's dating the perfect boyfriend. So why does it feel like something's missing? The epic crush he's developing on the professor for whom he's a TA isn't helping matters. It takes some drastic changes for Stephan to reassess his life and decide just what it is that he wants.

Stephan is a compelling character, and I certainly enjoyed the time I spent with him. He's a bit of a party animal but not (usually) to excess, grounded when it comes to his classes and friends, and able to evaluate himself and his life without too much flinching. He's adept at building strong relationships with his friends; it's fun to read the different ways they interact (though most are built on the same sarcastic irreverence). I liked him quite enough to root for him throughout the story.

Jeff was a bit less developed, though this is pretty much a given as the entire story was told from Stephan's point-of-view. He's intelligent, considerate, outdoorsy, and fun without being over the top. I liked him well enough, though not as much as I did Stephan; something about him was a little less viable to me.

Stephan and Jeff started out as friends, which I actually found a little unbelievable, given that Jeff is a 38-year-old associate faculty member and Stephan is a 24-year-old grad student. Although Jeff socialized with Stephan and his friends often enough, there was never any indication that Jeff had any friends in his own circles, which made him a little, I don't know, pathetic? Even with the unresolved sexual tension between him and Stephan, you'd think he'd do some other socializing on his own, but there was never so much as a hint of it. The nearest thing to it was the 'grading parties' he had with Stephan and the other two TAs.

Speaking of unresolved sexual tension, there is a lot of it in this story. A lot. This made me happy, but someone looking for immediate gratification will probably be gnashing their teeth by the time Stephan and Jeff finally give it a try. Not that there's not sex prior to said consummation--after all, Stephan does have a boyfriend for the first portion of the story, and isn't quite celibate during the build-up of his relationship with Jeff--but it's not the main attraction. When Stephan and Jeff finally do give in, it's heavy and fun, despite the brief drama (which is thankfully quickly resolved).

The supporting cast is varied, but limited pretty much exclusively to Stephan's range of acquaintances--if Jeff has any of his own, I never came across them. They're in general quite entertaining, with just enough individual personality quirks to be interesting without being entirely interchangeable.

There's not much to the story itself, really; it's focused on Stephan and his relationships, so not much actually happens. There's just enough setting to provide a backdrop to Stephan's personal drama, providing flavoring without much more than is strictly necessary.

I adore stories that are really glorified character pieces, so this pushed a lot of my happy buttons. Those looking for a more event-driven story or, well, porn may find that their mileage varies. I certainly enjoyed it, though, and look forward to reading more by this author.(less)

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Mar 22, 2011 Lori K rated it 3 of 5 stars

Buried in tis book is a 5 star story fighting to get free. I am sorry to say that I began skimming early on and probably skipped half the book. The half I did read was good though and I wished I hadn't had to look for it.

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Apr 15, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, gay, ebook, romance, done

Good m/m romance about a first-year history grad student who's crushing on the straight professor he TA's for, at the same time he's struggling to reconnect with his boyfriend after a summer apart. I think this would've been a stronger story if it had been shorter, with less time spent on introspection.

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Apr 17, 2011 JenMcJ added it

Shelves: e-books, mm-mmm-a-few-mmf-too

to-read

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Apr 14, 2011 S.J.D. Peterson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Review coming soon

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Mar 23, 2013 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Feb 17, 2013 Ery rated it 2 of 5 stars

Feb 15, 2013 Moomba marked it as to-read

Feb 11, 2013 Andrew rated it 2 of 5 stars

Feb 03, 2013 Kyllian added it

Shelves: 2012

Jan 24, 2013 Andrea marked it as to-read

Shelves: to-read-ebook

Jan 26, 2013 Andrea is currently reading it

Jan 19, 2013 Katharina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, humour

May 11, 2013 jules0623 rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: asshat-friends-or-relatives, college-boys, established-couple, fabulous-friends-or-relatives, friends-to-lovers, genre-aaaangst, genre-romance, infidelity-or-temptation, love-triangle, meh, relationship-m-m, teacher-and-student

Dec 29, 2012 Shannon marked it as maybe

Dec 27, 2012 FlibBityFLooB marked it as to-read

Shelves: lgbt-characters, zshelf-e, contemporary

Jan 18, 2013 Kerstin marked it as to-read

Shelves: ebook, m-m-romance, mine-to-read

Nov 01, 2012 Mena marked it as my-library-a-b

Oct 28, 2012 Charley Descoteaux rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oct 27, 2012 Helle marked it as to-read

Sep 29, 2012 unchatnoir marked it as to-read

Shelves: m-m

Sep 15, 2012 Via rated it 4 of 5 stars

Aug 10, 2012 Shahreen marked it as to-read

Jul 25, 2012 mado marked it as to-read

Jul 17, 2012 Triski rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jul 09, 2012 Cecilia Rodriguez is currently reading it

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About Alix Bekins

Alix lives in the coastal mountains of Northern California with her partner and their dog. She’s been writing for as long as she can remember in a variety of genres, including fiction, erotica, poetry, and nonfiction and has even managed to get some of it published from time to time.

Sexuality is the cornerstone of her life and work and always has been, through two degrees and several life plans. H...more

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