I thought I was reading a romance novel and ended up with something way deeper. This was a story about Charlotte's journey of moving on and her grieving process.

I love how Charlotte buries herself in code as a coping strategy and I found it to be very relatable. She made some questionable choices throughout the book but well within character.

I enjoyed this one and was able to quickly get through it in less than a day!

This book was a lot of fun to read but it had a serious side as well. How do you move on from losing your husband so young and so suddenly? Charlotte thought she had moved on until his ashes showed up at her door. This opened up the floodgates of emotions and memories that she thought she had buried.

There are some comedic parts of the novel that will have you laughing and then poignant ones where you will have your heart in throat.

Charlotte is a relatable character as she looks for solace and logic in code.

Having been a young widow for the past five years, 29 year-old Charlotte has made every effort to move on by keeping this part of her life a secret. To people at work. To her roommate. Until one day, her late husband Deckers urn shows up in her apartment after the mausoleum caught fire, and she literally loses it. She reminisces, discovers new secrets, reconnects with Decker’s friend, all the while coding an app that follows an algorithm for finding the perfect match. In her journey of finding Decker’s urn a new home, she learns and accepts a new version of herself.

I thought I was picking up a romance (ok, there was a little), but the story revolved around Charlotte, her grieving process, and the journey she had to take to really move on. All because of fate (fate being the appearance of Decker’s urn). The dialogue was great, which made this such a fast-paced read! There were moments where I laughed and moments where I just really felt for Charlotte. And, there were a couple of curb balls I totally didn’t see coming. I recommend to my women’s fiction readers, as well as Netflix because I feel like this would make a good movie!

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Another book with great potential that just sort of falls flat. The premise is really cute - I like a good geeky plot - but the characters are overwhelmingly lacking in charm and the romance just seems completely off.

We meet Charlotte, a widow, who isn't truly over the death of her spouse, Decker, and who enters a weird personal spiral when she suddenly receives Decker's ashes and has to figure out how to proceed. Since his death, she revamped her life, started a geeky job as a coder, and re-entered the dating scene for which she developed a match-maker type algorithm. Brian, Decker's best friend, is also back on deck trying to help Charlotte navigate her way on what to do with her spouse's ashes.

This is where the book lost me. I am honestly utterly confused why Charlotte, a self-sufficient career girl at this point, falls back into the damsel in distress scheme asking Brian for every favor imaginable and making the decision process about Decker's ashes unnecessarily complicated. None of her distress seems genuine. Her internal turmoil appears more like an afterthought and zero of her actions drive the plot in a convincing way.

Furthermore, the budding romance between her and Brian is boring, completely lackluster, and just feels like an odd match. This is particularly off-putting when taking into consideration what she finds out at the end.

I am giving this novel 3 stars nonetheless because the writing was actually well done, some scenes were incredibly witty and funny, and despite me not being able to suspend disbelief for most of the time, the book did hold my attention. Overall, this is truly a fluff read and exactly what one might want to tackle over the holidays or on vacation.

Charlotte is SO RELATABLE in this book!! I too am very analytical and numbers-oriented. I am really enjoying the trend of analytical/data driven women in romances. I also loved that there was a unique and real spin to the romance which sets it apart from other romances/rom-coms!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Charlotte's husband,Decker, died 5 years ago. She had moved on and has a great job and loves to crunch numbers. No one knows she is a widow and she keeps to herself. Even her roommate and her don't know much about each other. Then one day her Decker's ashes show up. She lets her mother in law know what has happened and is treated horribly and treated like a child. Demanding the ashes and Charlotte has no right to them. Then Decker's best friend,Brian, enters the picture as well.
A secret surfaces about Decker and she is determined to get to the truth.
Charlotte and Brian seem to be getting close until the secret comes out and then Charlotte doesn't know who to trust.
I received this ARC from Harlequin and NetGalley

This book was an up and down ride for me.

It was quick and easy, didn’t take too much thought. But it was also not quite compelling enough that I could read it fast.

The premise and plot were both unique and interesting, and too unique and a little weird.

The main characters (a programmer/app developer named Charlotte, her stereotypically quirky roommate Casey, her dead husband’s BFF, Bryan…) were fine, all carefully in their lanes of slightly stereotyped and a bit predictable but interesting enough just the same.

The cover hasn’t got a darn thing to do with the plot, that I can tell you, so if you’re expecting one story based on the cover (like I was), you are in for a surprise. I’m not sure what the cover says, but it does not say what’s in the story.

What’s in the story is… a little weird. And yet a little endearing. Can it be both? Why not? It’s both.

The idea of husband ‘material’ has a lot of interpretations in Emily Belden’s story. Everything from dating apps searching for the perfect mate to what happens to our bodies after we die. In a way, and maybe it’s just me, that makes the title a pun which is very good… and weird.

Anyway, to summarize… HUSBAND MATERIAL is not the story I was expecting, given the cover art and the title. But it is not a bad story, not at all.

It’s fine.

(I received a copy of HUSBAND MATERIAL through NetGalley and Graydon House in exchange for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.)

Husband Material is a story about a widow but no one in her life except her parents, inlaws and husband's best friend know this crucial fact.

This was an easy quick read for me. I enjoyed it but didn't feel there was anything really special about the book. Some of the scenes felt to me too unbelievable. The resolution of one of the conflicted relationships felt fake.

If you are looking for an easy read or a palate cleanser after a very heavy book, this would fit the bill.

This was a surprising read for me. I was expecting a light-hearted romantic comedy, but it definitely had more depth and heartbreak than I was expecting. It deals with the loss of Charlotte's husband and her grieving process. Once I got past the fact that I wouldn't be reading a fun, rom-com, I was able to enjoy this book for what it is. I enjoyed seeing Charlotte's growth and watching her develop by the end of the book.

**I voluntarily read an early copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

Husband Material is the first Emily Belden novel that I've read. I was very drawn to the blurb for this book, so I decided to take a chance on a new-to-me author.

Charlotte Rosen is an extremely intelligent young woman who makes a living as a coder for an analytics company. She's twenty-nine, lives with a roommate and hasn't been totally honest with her roommate about the fact that she was in fact married at one time. When her husband's ashes show up on their doorstep, not only is Charlotte shocked, but it sends her into a bit of a tailspin. Couple that with the fact that she learns another secret about her husband that she is stunned to learn was kept from her.

As she tries to come to terms with everything that is going on in her life, she also finds herself in a position where she may be able to let love back into her life. But with everything that is going on, and everything she's been through, will she be able to do that?

I enjoyed this book, but I would have loved for there to have been more development of the romance. It felt rushed to me, but it had so much potential, especially because of where the relationship was born from. I did enjoy the aspects of self discovery, growth and healing that took place in the book. The characters were enjoyable as well.

I was provided with an eARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.

This book started off really well for me - I loved the premise and the second-change-romance aspect. Charlotte was a very real character and her anxiety and stress came across the page so well. Brian was swoon-worthy and had me rooting for him from the moment he appeared on the page.

And then, at about the 3/4 mark, we got the weirdest most random plot twist, which just got weirder and more confusing and then revealed some big betrayals that made my feels for everyone do a complete 180. But the thing is...it was so totally unnecessary. The plot already had just the right amount of ups and downs and conflict to more than adequately fill out the book, but this big twist was crammed in so last minute and somehow resolved before the end. It left me completely unsure of if I even liked the book anymore.

Since I'm still not settled with this one, I am going with a three star rating. I did really enjoy the book up until the 3/4 mark, and just wish it had resolved itself from that moment and not felt the need to go soap-opera weird on us.

I've seriously been reading some truly wonderfully fun and exciting books lately. Books that keep me wanting to read, stories that I just can't stop reading, stories that are heartfelt and just plain GOOD!!
So, a HUGE thank you goes to Harlequin, Emily Belden, NetGalley and Graydon House Books. Thank y'all immensely for the advanced readers copy! And make sure you grab this gem on DECEMBER 30th, a definite must read!
Are you like most people and only think of widows as older women and men? Then you don't know Charlotte, Decker left her as a widow 5 years ago and she's still dealing with the after affects of his death. Somehow his urn comes back to her due to a fire where it was being kept and that's when all hell breaks loose in her life but, it's also a turning point for her.
Grab it when it comes out and treat yourself to an overall great read!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is just not for me. I've read about 30% and I'm not connecting with the heroine. At all. Based on the cover and the publisher, I assumed this was a romance novel...so I'm disappointed that a romance hasn't developed yet. My sense is that Brian will play that role but he is not a likeable hero either. The characters are flat, the plot is not compelling and I can't keep reading. Thanks for the opportunity.

This was my first novel by Emily Belden, so I didn’t go in expecting anything but romance. I was surprised to find that romance was far less of a central topic and it was more about Charlotte finding herself and figuring out her mess of a life with a dash of romance.

Charlotte was difficult for me to connect with. I found her unlikable, but I got the impression I was supposed to like her. It wasn’t her obsession with numbers and analytics because I read The Rosie Project and The Kiss Quotient and found both of those characters charming, so something was missing in Charlotte on my end. I loved the concept of her having to unearth all these feelings she’s desperately tried to ignore, but I found she was too self-centered for me to get invested in her need to sort out her life. She was very surface level with everyone in her life, including her roommate. I was shocked to learn she’d been living with Casey for 5 years, because at their level of familiarity I expected only a couple months had passed. Her disinterest in forming connections with anyone she knows on a personal level made it harder for me to feel invested in her life. I didn’t sympathize with her grief because she wasn’t processing any feelings, she was ignoring everything to the point of feeling robotic.

I would have thought the mother-in-law plotline could be interesting and maybe we could find out why Charlotte has never felt liked by Decker’s family. Yet I found myself unsatisfied. Her mother-in-law, Debbie, was disappointing because she wasn’t fully developed. At one point, Debbie makes this absurdly kind/heartfelt remark to Charlotte about how she and Decker were meant to be together, which didn’t fit with the rest of the way she treated Charlotte or the way Charlotte talks about her previous interactions with her

I almost wish we’d gotten more Decker memories. I wanted to have a connection to that aspect of Charlotte’s past and maybe her struggle to reconcile her feelings would have impacted me emotionally. I didn’t like how Charlotte’s solution to her problems was often to run away, not just emotionally, but physically as well. If I connected with her I might have felt sympathy, but I was left with annoyance.

There were many topics addressed in this and I can’t say I didn’t like parts of it, but overall this wasn’t my favorite read. I’d still read another book by Belden because this particular one might not have been for me. If you are looking for a romance with a grieving widow or want another book with a similar premise, I’d recommend The Husband Hour by Jamie Brenner.

After losing her husband unexpectedly, Charlotte drastically changed her life and now only those directly related to her late husband her parents know about him. Shes been keeping the fact that she's a widow a secret from her roommate, coworkers, and other post-Decker friends that she has gained. Unexpectedly, Decker's ashes are delivered to her home and she is left reeling from the grief she didn't fully deal with. On top of all that, his best friend shows up to help deal with the ashes along with all the secrets that have been unfolding.

The Story-
This sort of had a slow start. By 25% I was still waiting to really start connecting with the characters. But once all the players were on the field the story started picking up. I could slowly feel Charlotte start to unravel more and more, and when her expectations really start to misfire, that's when my heart was cinched (That still didn't happen till 57%). So I only docked a star because of the slow start. I really appreciated the rest of the story.

From the cover and title you might expect a grand romance novel rife with meetcutes and comedic relief. But this actually a montage of a woman who is still recovering from the loss of her husband. A woman who suffers from the occasional panic attack.  It's the realization that how she handled the post-traumatic experience very poorly in the respect that she basically shoved it under the rug. I love how the transition is handled from her high horse to her finally falling apart. If you're looking for a cutesy romantic comedy story this isn't it. While it does have a smidge of romance, its not quite the eeek and awwwww that you might think would come from this book looking at it on the shelf. While it was slow to start and didn't have my heart in shambles over whether or not they romantic interests would end up together, I commend the writer for making a story that is visceral in its grief while still keeping it somewhat light.

The Characters-
What I really like about Charlotte is that she has learned to take care of herself. It takes her a lot to actually accept help from others, and it was something I could see a little in myself. People were just trying to be nice to her, but due to her lack of control in a scenario she backlashed in a way that put her in too much control. It just goes to show Newton's third law in a emotional side, most actions call for an equal opposite reaction.

Husband Material, by Emily Belden, was a romance about a widow, Charlotte, who is using her coding skills to try to create the perfect dating app to find her soulmate - but there’s a catch. She’s a widow, and no one in her life knows this about her. When all of the sudden, the ashes of her dead husband show up in the mail, her life is thrown into a completely different direction than she planned. The book explores issues of spousal loss, friendship, and general companionship. It took quite a few turns that I was not expecting and at times seemed to veer a little too far from where the story seemed to be heading originally.

I found only some of the characters to be like-able and while parts of the story were interesting, the book was ultimately forgettable and so much of it felt overly contrived. It took me a very long time to get into it and the early hook that seemed a bit interesting at the start (using her own dating app criteria to find the perfect husband) played a very secondary role in the overall story and romance.

It did keep me interested once I got into it, but I wish it had gone deeper into some of the more key issues in the story and that the story hadn’t taken such an odd and unbelievable twist towards the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Graydon House Books for the free electronic ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was fine, but for me, it wasn’t anything overly amazing.

Charlotte Rosen has a secret: she’s a 29-year-old widow. Ever since the untimely death of her husband, she’s been attempting to move on with her life. New roommate? Check. Awesome job? Check. Cutting out all her old friends? Check. Charlotte’s all about numbers and algorithms and anticipating and predicting her future interactions with every man she dates. But what Charlotte doesn’t anticipate is her dead husband Decker’s ashes showing up on her doorstep and said dead husband’s best friend Brian also making a resurgence.

I thought Charlotte was a fine character to follow, but she didn’t really have any qualities that drew me in to really rooting for her or connecting to her. When I first started this book, she felt kind of kooky, and manic pixie dream girl, which almost had me DNFing. But I stuck with it and the rest of the book was a bit of a roller coaster ride. There were parts I enjoyed and parts that felt weird and out of place. Namely, the romance between Charlotte and Brian. They reconnect after the ashes show up on Charlotte’s doorstep, and the friendship that is rekindled is nice, as they both grieve Decker again, but the romance felt a bit forced. There’re little bits of info about something happening between them in the past, but there’s really no development in the romance department in the current timeline, they just kind of decide to be together near the end of the book without a lot of good build up.

I think this book might appeal to a lot of people, but for me it just kind of fell flat.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Graydon House Books for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Husband Material by Emily Beden is a standalone novel. We meet Charlotte Rosen, our heroine immediately, as she is with a blind date, who totally turns her off; causing her to leave earlier. Charlotte has a successful career with a media influencer firm, as well as creating (she is a coder) her own dating app. When she arrives home, she finds a delivery at her door, and to her horror, she discovers the package contains her dead husband’s ashes, 5 years after his death; sent to her due a fire. Charlotte has not told her roommate or anyone she works with that she was married and is a widower. Life is about to change, as all those memories, as well as her having to meet with her in laws and an old friend causes her grief.

Charlotte finds herself falling apart, as the hidden grief and pain comes crashing back; putting her on the road to self-discovery. She can’t handle all the surprises and shocks she will learn along the way, as well as her job now in jeopardy. Charlotte has to fight with her in-laws about the ashes; meeting her ex’s best friend, who is close to the in-laws, as well as wanting to start a relationship with her; and facing her friends who knew nothing about her previous life.

What follows is Charlotte learning to deal with some shocks about her husband, and finding the way to heal herself and be able to forgive. It was a good story, though I thought some of it early on was a bit slow. The thing that annoyed me the most was Charlotte herself, as she was not only frustrating but rude as well; but the last third of the book, she did get better. I did like Brian, her ex’s friend, who did his best to help her move forward, but the chemistry between wasn’t there for me. I did enjoy how Charlotte finally picked herself up, and moved forward, opening up to her friends, Brian and the inlaws; as well as her career.

Husband Material was a nice story line, and written well by Emily Beden. There were some very good humorous moments throughout the book. The romance was more towards the background of the story, and Charlotte’s journey through her grief was interesting.

Imagine you receive a package in the mail containing your husband’s ashes. Your husband who passed away five years ago. This is what happens to Charlotte and she must finally deal with her past. I loved Charlotte in this book. She is faced with something very unexpected and does not handle it the best at first. She is forced to take two weeks off from work and this is the best thing that could have happened to her in my opinion. During these two weeks, she learns about her past and deals with things she had closed off. I loved watching her grow in this story.

This book deals with a heavy topic - a woman at only 29 is a widow for 5 years is forced to face her path when her husband's ashes are delivered on her doorstep. The fact that she was ever married is a secret to most everyone in her life including her roommate. But despite the heavy topic it was an enjoyable read and had a lot of light moments too.

Her husband's "return" forces her to reunite with her mother in law and her husband's best friend and unlocks a secret that makes her wonder if she ever really knew her husband at all. The stress of her life causes a misstep at work and she's given leave at work to get her life together including figuring out if the dating app she built is out of realistic expectations or dreams that would never become reality.

The pacing was well thought out and I thought the characters were believable and relatable. It's a good book to cozy down with and had a satisfying ending.

Thank you NetGalley and Graydon House for an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.