Alexis Hall: Husband Material
I was very disappointed by this book. I had quite enjoyed the first of the series and was looking forward to the sequel but it ended up not being worth it.
Sloppy writing and a boring story with nothing but bad stereotypes and far-fetched drama that all did not make a lot of sense.
3.5 stars for a light romance. This was a fun sequel, though perhaps slightly less delightful than the original because it was so centered around weddings and placed a disproportionate amount of importance on the EVENT as opposed to the MARRIAGE. This was especially true in the first part, where Lucien is serving as his best friend's Maid of Honor, and she was a Bridezilla, wanting everything to be perfect. While I found the plot hard to care about, what absolutely saved this book were two things: 1) The witty/snarky dialogue; and 2) The point the author ends up making in helping Lucien and his bf find their truth.
Eh. Listen, I didn't really know what to expect walking into this book. I really enjoyed Boyfriend Material, but I thought it was good enough on it's own, not needing a sequel, but I wasn't unhappy that it was getting one. I was looking forward to revisiting the fun cast of characters in a new, hopefully more mature setting. But this just ended up being a bit of a mess, but it didn't start that way. Firstly, I actually really enjoyed the stylistic decision to reference Four Weddings and a Funeral. I admittedly did not read much about the synopsis before diving into the book, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that this book was NOT in fact about Luc and Oliver's wedding from beginning to end, but rather a series of weddings that gently lead them to deciding what they want for themselves. And everything leading up to …
Eh. Listen, I didn't really know what to expect walking into this book. I really enjoyed Boyfriend Material, but I thought it was good enough on it's own, not needing a sequel, but I wasn't unhappy that it was getting one. I was looking forward to revisiting the fun cast of characters in a new, hopefully more mature setting. But this just ended up being a bit of a mess, but it didn't start that way. Firstly, I actually really enjoyed the stylistic decision to reference Four Weddings and a Funeral. I admittedly did not read much about the synopsis before diving into the book, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that this book was NOT in fact about Luc and Oliver's wedding from beginning to end, but rather a series of weddings that gently lead them to deciding what they want for themselves. And everything leading up to that decision was executed quite well!
And then the three weddings and a funeral was over and we still had about 1/3rd of the book left.. And what was left ended up being the most insufferable slogfest of miscommunication, unnecessary conflict, and pointless tension that made absolutely no sense based on two books worth of character development. What really made both BM and HM shine were the wonderful characters and their shining personalities (honestly, I could read a whole book about Luc's coworkers), and the wonderful relationships that develop between all of them. What extinguished that shine was the baffling decision to not have Luc grow as a character in ANY sense from the beginning of BM to the end of HM. Zero. He is exactly the same, constantly fumbling over his words, constantly second guessing himself, constantly having the exact same insecurities and inner turmoil page after page after page. What worked best about the first 2/3rds of this book was that Luc was around so many other characters. But when it was just him and Oliver again.. UGH it was such a slog to read though.
The book was trying to say a lot about community, what it means to be queer, and identity. And to the book's credit, it certainly did.. broach.. these topics. But none of them were explored in a meaningful way. They all manifested as the same arguments happening over and over again between Luc and Oliver with no resolution or agreement. This obviously leads to the most baffling yet predictable ending I could have imagined. It felt undeserved and poorly planned out. Honestly, the first 2/3rds of this book would have probably been a solid 3.5 stars for me, but the last part really dropped it down.
I read somewhere that there is a "Father Material" book being planned. Based on the way this story was handled, I could not be more uninterested.
