I didn't love this one as much as Boyfriend Material but I did really like it. I feel like there has to be a third book in this series called Daddy Material or something because I was left a little concerned that HEA might not be in the cards for our protagonists - and I need to know they'll be okay.

I absolutely love Luc and Oliver, and reading about more of their life together was amazing. There were so many adulthood struggles, relationship problems and insecurities explored that I related to. Would strongly recommend Alexis Hall's writing to anyone!

I just can never say no to an Alexis Hall book! Loved dived back into these characters and this world! OBSESSED

I loved Boyfriend Material so much - I fell in love with Luc and Oliver and their messy, sweet romance. It was one of my favorite books of the year. I was so thrilled when I saw that Husband Material was coming. Unfortunately, it didn't capture the magic of the first book for me.

We fast forward 2.5 years and see Luc and Oliver's current life together: everyone around them is getting married and Luc is feeling the pressure to join the masses. That's it, that is the summary. This has strong 4 wedding and a funeral vibes.

I wanted more of the sweet, tender, real moments that we saw in Boyfriend Material. The Luc / Oliver connection is still there in Husband Material the author chose to focus so much more on the challenges in their relationship. It took me out of it tbh. The ending was cute and yet also somehow unsatisfying.

Joe Jameson is an excellent narrator and his performance was lovely - I will continue to choose audiobooks that he narrates.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC - I will continue to read every single thing Alexis Hall writes because I loved Boyfriend Material so much and believe in this author. Husband Material is out now!

Joe Jameson reading anything Alexis Hall writes is instant magic. Pitch perfect narration and lively, sparkling writing with depth, humor, and heart.

This is one of those reviews where it is genuinely impossible to put into words how truly special this book is. If you haven't read Boyfriend Material, you must. I could not love that book more. When this follow up was announced, I was thrilled but also nervous that it wouldn't live up to its predecessor. I should have known that I had nothing to worry about with Alexis Hall. Luc and Oliver are just as funny, lovable, and gorgeous as ever. Part of what I love about their story is the beautifully vulnerable way they are with one another. Luc and Oliver found their safe space in one another in Boyfriend Material and this book is the continuation of that while challenging the bond that they have. Luc begins to realize that there are stark differences in the way they think about various things and wonders whether their relationship can withstand those opposing views as they begin to attend weddings of their friends and consider planning their own. I laughed and cried while reading this and, while I thought it would have been impossible, I fell in love with these two even more.

While this book is better for having read Boyfriend Material, it can be read on its own. You get to revisit all of Luc and Oliver's friends and family as well as Luc's nutty co-workers. Listening to the audio gives you the absolute gift that is Joe Jameson. I will never get tired of his saying "Lucien" in that voice of his. The recording is sheer perfection and brings all the characters to life. I relished every moment, did not want it to end, and would give this one way more than 5 stars if that were an option. Highly highly recommend!

I was a little disappointed in this book after loving the first one there was a lot of the miscommunication trope in this book which made it feel like their relationship wasn’t as strong as it was in the first book

Luc and Oliver have been in a very real relationship for two years after the events of Boyfriend Material where they pretended to be a couple for the sake of Luc's career. Friends and not-so-friendly acquaintances are getting married and the guys are celebrating (and not-so-celebrating) their big days with them. Could wedding bells be in the future for our favorite complicated couple?

My two favorite characters are back at it. After reading the journey that was Boyfriend Material, I was comforted to find that Husband Material feels much the same. It's familiar and comforting, but you can see the obvious growth and change in the characters. Luc, especially, has grown so much but is still vulnerable and battles past trauma and current anxieties. I loved going through this journey with them as much as the last.

I would highly recommend for anyone looking for a refreshing romance. It feels very much like a classic rom-com at moments but with definite, refreshing differences. A new spin on a classic genre. Joe Jameson is one of the best narrators I have ever listened to, would highly recommend listening to the audiobook. It was such a treat!

With Boyfriend Material one of my favorite romcoms, its sequel, Husband Material, had pretty massive shoes to fill. Y’all, it way more than surpassed my expectations! It’s funny, romantic, moving, goofy, tender, and just such an absolute joy to read from start to finish. ⁣
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Husband Material finds the perfect, delicate balance between allowing its characters to grow and learn, and still giving them plenty of baggage and conflict to deal with. It was such a relief to open this up and find that Luc and Oliver really hadn’t regressed, that they weren’t just rehashing all the same old issues; they’ve matured, they’ve worked on some stuff, they have all new issues now! They feel so much like real people - flawed and messy and trying their hardest. Their story touches on so much bigger than just their single relationship but it always, always brings both the rom and the com. ⁣
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I was able to listen to the audio arc and let me tell ya, 5 or more stars to Joe Jameson who reads it! His performance is fantastic (and I am suuuper picky about audiobook narrators), I genuinely had to double check that it wasn’t a multi-cast production because his voices for the range of characters are both spot on for each of them and widely different from one another. Everyone sounded perfect, every joke landed, it’s a marvelous production for a marvelous book.
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I adored Boyfriend Material, I was overjoyed to adore Husband Material, and I can’t wait for the future of the series!

First of all, the audiobook narrator is absolutely delightful. I loved the Boyfriend Material audiobook, so I knew I'd want to read this in the same format since the narrator was returning. So strictly speaking, the performance was 5 stars. The content of the book, however, was not. This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 and I am so disappointed. Luc was insufferable in this book, and I felt like they kept having problems that were sort of dealt with in book 1, so I don't know what the purpose of this was. Honestly, I don't think Boyfriend Material needed a sequel at all, and it feels like Hall just didn't know exactly how to deliver a sequel to a story that felt like it had been properly wrapped up. Overall, I did not like this, and I wish I had not read it.

I absolutely adored Boyfriend Material and was so excited and honoured to be able to review the sequel Husband Material. It was more than just a great sequel, it had all the things I loved about the first book and in addition to being fun, heartwarming, completely true to self and making me laugh out loud on multiple occasions, it took the characters and story to new depths and made them even more lovable.
I didn't know until I finished the book that it was a twist on 4 Weddings and a Funeral, but this is just another way the story is clever and witty and adorable, it's almost perfect!
I also really like that it's not all happiness and rainbow balloon arches, every character has their own issues and history and I think about half of the book is about this, so it's a bit sad, reflective and very realistic. Alexis Hall is a very talented writer to bring so much depth, feelings and societal issues to the page and morph everything into a beautiful heartfelt story. After enjoying this series so much, I'm excited to check out some of his other series and books, let me know if you have any recommendations on what to read next.
The audiobook narration by Joe Jameson was just perfect! Between Alexis's descriptions and Joe's voice I felt I was right there in the UK with them, attending weddings in misty castles with roaring fireplaces, and not in a heatwave in August in Western Canada, which was a lovely escape!

As excited as I was about the idea of this book, I was very much terrified about the actual real presence of it in my hands and in front of my eyeballs. You see, Boyfriend Material is one of the great loves of my life. I have read it and re-read it and listened to it countless times when I just needed...I don't know... just needed to feel SOMETHING. Had a bad day? Pull Boyfriend Material off the shelf and let Luc's hot-mess-express of a life give me all the giggles. Diving down an anxiety spiral? Cram earbuds into my ears and let myself get lost in this beautiful love story and Joe Jameson's perfect voice. So, all of this is a very long-winded way of saying that I was guarding my heart when I opened to the first page of Husband Material. Luc and Oliver and Bridget and Priya and the James Royce-Royces and all of the other delightful characters are like my best friends at this point, and I desperately wanted this book to measure up to the original.

One thing to never, ever doubt? That Alexis Hall will bring it in every possible way.

I thought I could not be more in love with Luc and Oliver than I was, but as I read this second book, I discovered that I was horribly, horribly wrong. Husband Material is not just a fluffy, "oh they're getting married now!" kind of a sequel. Instead, Hall has taken the characters we already know and has given them even more depth and dimension and some serious obstacles to overcome. Don't get me wrong, Luc is still awkward and insecure, but he has gained a bit of maturity. Oliver is still reserved and too much in his own head, but he is now in therapy to deal with his disordered eating. Taking inspiration from Four Weddings and a Funeral, this book brings us on a journey through a series of events (each challenging in its own way) as the couple considers what's next for their own relationship. And throughout, we are treated to as much mayhem and hilarity and heart as we have come to expect from this crew.

In the intervening years since the first book, Luc and Oliver have developed not only personally, but in their relationship as well, with slightly less of the anxiety and insecurity and angst that was so prevalent between them in Boyfriend Material. They have now grown into loving partners, supporting each other in so many little (and occasionally big) ways, even when circumstances keep them apart (and that happens a lot in this book). My one wish would have been to see more of them together in a domestic setting. Also, quick note to the author - I need more Odile. A very much large amount more of Odile. She is precisely the kind of plain-spoken, no-bullshit woman that I strive to be as I get older. And while we're at it, can we please check in with JoJo? Because - gah! He is my favorite new character. I just want to give him a big hug and make everything lovely for him.

If you're expecting the same mostly-lighthearted tale that Hall gave us with Boyfriend Material, understand that this book is not strictly that. In these pages we see our beloved leads battling with more complex issues, such as the commercial trappings of queer identity, and what it means to not feel represented by things like, say, a rainbow balloon arch. The most difficult part of the whole book for me was the funeral. The pain was palpable. I actually had to stop reading for a bit after the eulogy because it brought up some things in my own life that I wasn't necessarily delighted to think about. And throughout the book, Luc and Oliver find themselves facing the age-old dilemma: I know I'm an adult, but certainly there is, I don't know, an adultier adult somewhere? Maybe? Please? Because I cannot possibly be expected to manage all of these obstacles and worries and FEELINGS all on my own.

Throughout these pages you will laugh (a lot), you will cry (I certainly did), and you will close the book wishing that it didn't have to end. And since Father Material was just announced as a thing that is really happening (insert all the screaming and squealing here), we know that we may now look forward to more of Oliver's gentle, sweet-as-lemon-posset soul, and Luc's snarky, chaotic energy. But this time with (I'm assuming??) babies! *swoon*

A quick note on the audio presentation of this book, since I was blessed to receive both a digital and an audio copy. This second book in the series is once again narrated by Joe Jameson, and he is once again a complete delight to listen to. Each of the many characters in this story has their own unique and easily-identifiable voice, thanks to Jameson's immense talent. And you know that voice you have in your head when you're reading a print or digital copy of a book? The one that is narrating the story for you? For me, that voice now sounds like Joe Jameson, no matter the setting or the nationality of the characters I'm reading about.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an ARC, and to Dreamscape Media for providing me with an ALC, in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger Warnings: alcohol, cursing, gaslighting, therapy, police, bigotry, classism, eating disorder, mental illness, sex, nudity, church, homophobia, religious bigotry, internalized homophobia, self deprecation/self loathing, heart attack, death of parent, grief, funeral, transphobia

From the author:
Homophobia (challenged), internalised homophobia (challenged), bigoted language spoken by a minor character (presented very much as a bad thing), mentions of past emotional parental neglect, death of a parent (heart attack; happens off page), grief, on-page funeral service.

Representation: Gay, Lesbian, South Asian, throuple, Bisexual, therapy, Transgender

Husband Material is the sequel to Boyfriend Material. We pick up 2 years after the first book at Bridget’s hen party. Oliver and Luc are still together and thriving in their respective jobs. Told in five parts, the main couple are involved in a series of weddings leading up to their big day.

I thought this book was an excellent sequel and stayed true to the men we meet in the first book. I loved experiencing the author’s writing again and re-entering this world! I love the development in this story. Both men grow individually and together. There is such a realness to a story when characters are flawed but can recognize them and are actively working to be better.

“Be gay, do crimes!!”

I have seen some online dispute about the ending. Personally, and I’m speaking as someone who loves a HEA, I thought the ending was incredibly queer and mature. To be able to recognize that a heteronormative standard doesn’t fit your relationship takes real strength and self analysis skill. I thought both men handled the situation very well and doing something that goes against the system is exactly what being queer means. We can decide what works for us and what doesn’t, we decide what our relationships look like. This couple was not happy with the concept of marriage but it doesn’t make their love any less real or committed. In their own way, they still had their HEA, which is amazing. I think if the author had decided to “fix” everything at the end, I would have been disappointed because they clearly weren’t in a healthy place to get married. I know my opinion may be controversial but I liked the ending.

This book picks up two years after the events of Boyfriend Material, and readers really need to read the first book in the series in order to understand and appreciate the dynamic between Luc and Oliver, as well as the (many) quirks and foibles of the secondary characters.

As the description alludes to, there are four weddings and a funeral spread out over the course of the book. The four weddings are vastly different, but perfectly tailored to each of the four couples. Not to get too lit crit on main, but the differences serve as commentary on societal expectations and the acceptance or rejection of heteronormativity.

That definitely sounds really serious, and while there is a fair amount of genuine meditation on what it means to be a member of the modern queer community, there is also plenty of the same silliness that made the first book so fun: Luc’s coworkers are still absurdly clueless (but lovely!) and Luc’s mum is still getting up to no good with her sidekick Judy.

But what really sets this book apart from other “rom coms” is that Alexis Hall takes everything you think you know about the genre and turns it on its head. Obviously, I can’t go into details because I don’t want to spoil the book, but I promise that there is no cheating and there is still a happy ending. No, not THAT kind of happy ending.

Speaking of which, the romance is relatively low heat, but it works because the emphasis is on Luc and Oliver’s emotional connection and we don’t necessarily need sex scenes in order to show that the two men care for each other.

On that note, the narrative unfolds solely from Luc’s perspective. This means that the reader is only privy to the thoughts that Oliver tells Luc, and therefore the reader doesn’t have any sort of advantage over Luc in terms of knowing things that he doesn’t know. And frankly, knowing all of Oliver’s thoughts would be a spoiler of sorts.
The audiobook is excellent. Joe Jameson returns to narrate, and this is going to sound so cliché, but he really does bring the book to life. He does unique voices for all of the characters, and that is quite the versatile feat, considering how many secondary characters there are.

I would absolutely recommend Husband Material. This worthy sequel builds upon the premise of its predecessor and answers the question, “Where do we go from here?” Hall’s prose is exquisite, and the last fourth or so had me riveted. I didn’t want to do anything but sit on my couch and listen, avoiding all distractions to find out what was going to happen next. Alexis Hall is probably my favorite author, and am already looking forward to his next book.





I received a digital ARC of the audiobook from Dreamscape Media/NetGalley

I was interested to see where Husband Material would take us after reading Boyfriend Material recently, and I’m happy to say I was not disappointed. This book follows Luc and Oliver now that they’ve been together for a while. Luc feels the pressure to get married and proposes, but planning a wedding is not as easy as it sounds and the road to I do is full of hot mess moments for this couple.

I loved that this story was told through the different weddings and one funeral Luc and Oliver attended. This one was more character driven than book one, and really didn’t have a plot, but it was fun to be back with Luc and Oliver and all of their friends. I appreciated that there was no real drama between the couple, it was more dealing with internal conflicts which made me continue to love them together (not going to lie, I was nervous about that going in). This book really allowed the characters to grow as individuals in the best ways. This book was a great example of how relationships can be messy at times and HEAs look different for different people. It was so real and I loved it. As always I also adore Alexis Hall’s snarky sense of humor and that was back in this book.

I particularly loved the audiobook version, Joe Jameson does a stellar job bringing these characters to life!

Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Dreamscape Media for the advance copies.

Thank you to Sourcebooks, NetGalley, Edelweiss, and Dreamscape for the ARC/ALC in exchange for an honest review

This is a sequel to Boyfriend Material so you need to read that (amazing) book first before diving into this one.

CW: (taken from the author’s website): homophobia (challenged), internalised homophobia (challenged), bigoted language spoken by a minor character (presented very much as a bad thing), references (though not graphic) to an eating disorder, mentions of past emotional parental neglect, death of a parent (heart attack; happens off page), grief, and on-page funeral service

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/m contemporary romance
-life after the HFN
-a spin on 3 weddings and a funeral

I'm glad I waited until I had the audiobook for this one because Joe Jameson is these characters for me in so many ways. I loved seeing Oliver and Luc after the events of Boyfriend Material. Falling in love and being in a relationship doesn't magically fix all of a person's relationship hangups or changes them, rather they meld their lives together.

I enjoyed seeing how Luc and Oliver navigated their HEA as well as their differences in so many ways. This one was a bit more plot driven with the weddings and funeral, but Luc and Oliver were a wonderful constant. Highly recommend listening to this one,

While I won't spoil it, the ending did surprise me some, and I can see how and why it came to be, and very much appreciate the notion that someone's HEA is not necessarily the same as other's, I do wish it was layered a bit more into the story. That said I'm excited to see Luc and Oliver in the third book, which I still believe is Daddy Material and will just be the open door look into the bedroom and will not be told otherwise.

Steam: 2

3.5***

I was given an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have some mixed feelings about this book. I went back and forth from loving this book to being super annoyed by it. So I'll go ahead and get the negative thoughts out of the way.

For starters, this book could have been 15 chapters shorter. A lot of unnecessary things happened in this book. We went through 2.5 weddings, family dramas, relationship dramas, and more all in one book. It felt like multiple plots in one story. On top of all that, we have lots of dull moments in the book too where nothing really happened.

And the most unfortunate part of all, I really did not enjoy the ending. It's not so much how it ended, but what led up to the ending. And especially because so much went down in literally the LAST CHAPTER.

Now, the good parts of this book. The characters. Even when I was annoyed by the many different plots happening in this story, I can't help but love Luc and Oliver. They are cute and funny. But I could have done without all of the arguments they both had.

Overall, if you enjoyed the first book I would suggest picking this one up. It was fun to read about these loveable characters again.

After 2 years of officially dating, Luc and Oliver have gotten the whole dating thing down. Now their relationship is being put to the test after attending weddings of friends, exes, and coworkers, an accidental proposal, and a funeral.

HUSBAND MATERIAL is split into 5 parts that each represent a different stage in Luc and Oliver’s relationship… New challenges, new adventures, and new mindsets on life itself.

It was so interesting to listen to the two of them adjust to life together. I did feel like a lot of the major plot points could have been resolved by an honest conversation between Luc and Oliver, but in the end my heart continues to swoon over their unconditional love for each other.

Really did not expect to be giving one of my most anticipated books of the year such a low rating. I wanted to love this one so much. I was so excited when it was announced and preordered it in multiple formats and was over the moon when I got approved for the audiobook ARC. And while Boyfriend Material is one of my all time favorite books, I don’t think I went into Husband Material with unrealistic expectations. I don’t mind spoilers, so I’d read some reviews before getting the ARC and had some idea what to expect. All I really wanted from this book was to get back to some of my favorite characters and enjoy spending time with them. But while I did get more time with favorite characters, and at some points really enjoyed the book, by the end of it I mostly just felt really sad? This is a really obnoxiously long review because I couldn’t stop thinking about this book and the more I thought about it the more frustrated I felt with it and I just kind of needed to put all that somewhere.

I’ll start with what I liked. Up to around the 70% mark, I would have given this around a four star rating. It wasn’t perfect, but I enjoyed it. I laughed out loud quite a few times, found myself smiling while listening, was having fun catching up with familiar characters, and was eager to keep listening. I also liked the way the book delved into some of the heavier aspects of queer identity and some of the incredibly fucking frustrating ways society continues to police queerness. So many things are still so fucked up. It’s not all sunshine and rainbow balloon arches. And I appreciate a romance that doesn’t shy away from that reality.

From an audiobook standpoint, the narrator is FANTASTIC. I loved the audio for Boyfriend Material, and if anything I loved listening to Joe Jameson even more while reading Husband Material. He completely nails every character and imbues so much emotion and humor and just makes for such a wonderful audio experience. My one qualm is that I kind of hated the voice he did for one of the MCs in the next book in the series, who makes a short appearance in this book. So I’m a little nervous for the audio of the next one, but I have to believe that I’ll come to love the narration for that one as well if Joe Jameson is the one who narrates it.

Now for the not so good. Maybe I’m just the wrong audience for this book. Relationship-in-trouble is rarely a favorite trope for me. But there were so many things here that just did not work for me. Some of my smaller qualms were that certain portions of the book dragged on and didn’t end up contributing much to the story or my enjoyment of it.

My bigger issue though, is with the relationship arc between Luc and Oliver throughout this book. Up until the 70% mark, I was okay, if not thrilled, with all the time they spent apart and all the fights and miscommunication. Because I thought it would lead somewhere. I expected them to end up in a better place. But instead, things only got worse. And continued to get worse until around the 98% mark. I think that part of this is because of how the story skips around in time so often. There are so few quiet, sweet moments between Luc and Oliver. They start the book out fighting and then fight through almost the entire book. Even when we do get little moments of kindness and caring between them, it’s usually in the midst of a fight or crisis, so there’s always this undercurrent of things not being okay, of them not being okay. I have no idea what their life is like together when they aren’t going through a big fight or upheaval. There were a few times Luc described their life together, but we so rarely saw any of those moments. At one point Luc describes how while Oliver does the dishes, Luc often comes up from behind and wraps his arms around Oliver in a hug, partly because he doesn’t want to dry the dishes. And yes, that is sweet and very them and exactly the kind of thing I wanted from this book. But I wanted to SEE it, to be there in the moment, not just be told that it’s something that happens. In a book that was filled with some scenes that felt totally unnecessary and sometimes boring and repetitive, it’s particularly frustrating that there is so little actual romance. So few times when Luc and Oliver are in a good place and enjoying one another.

Every couple fights and of course Luc and Oliver were bound to fight in this book. My issue here was how they fight and the frequency with which they fight and what they fight about. They argue about the same things over and over again and never resolve anything. And the things they are fighting about are BIG things, possibly irreconcilable things, and things that hurt one another. We rarely see them texting or spending time together or reaching out to one another in any way. Luc works through his issues with Oliver by talking to his mother or his friends rather than to Oliver. It made me wonder who Oliver has to lean on or talk to, because it certainly didn’t feel like he had Luc for that. Luc is still bound and determined to ignore his problems in this book, and when Oliver approaches him to try and talk about anything, Luc either makes a joke of it or gets defensive or reframes the issue so that Oliver is at fault. This dynamic was just so hard to read. Especially since Oliver comes from a background where he’s rarely had anyone to talk to about how he’s actually feeling, where he’s been made to feel inadequate and at fault for who he is and what he feels. It felt to me like Luc was doing the same thing but in a different way. And every time a fight between them ended I didn’t feel any better, because it didn’t feel like anything was resolved between them, or like they even necessarily understood what the other person was feeling. It felt like they just swept it under the rug and then fought about it again later on.

Communication doesn’t have to look the same for everyone. Relationships don’t have to look the same for everyone. But in a romance I want to feel that the way the MCs communicate and the relationship that they have works for them, and it did not feel like Luc and Oliver’s relationship was working well for either of them here. Luc is a character that I really identified with in Boyfriend Material because I too am generally a wreck. I loved the message in Boyfriend Material that you can be a mess and still be lovable. I loved the idea that these two people felt comfortable enough to be a mess in front of one another. The whole concept in romance of “this person truly SEES me and loves me for everything I am” and Boyfriend Material really nailed that for me. In Husband Material, it felt like they were hiding themselves from one another while also constantly judging one another.

I don’t need, or want, a romance relationship to be all sunshine and rainbows. I absolutely don’t need a romance book to end in marriage or an engagement. I prefer when they don’t actually because getting engaged or married doesn’t carry a whole lot of meaning for me. It doesn’t guarantee any more happiness or commitment or longevity than any other arrangement. And I’m someone who loves an HFN ending done well. A romance can have a fantastic HEA if the MCs live apart forever or are only at the beginning of a relationship or have an open relationship or have multiple partners or a million other variations. I don’t need the relationship between the MCs to be the most important relationship in their lives. But I do want to know that these people make one another happy, most of the time. That they see and love one another for who they are. That they are in a better place than they were at the start. And I didn’t feel any of that here. There were many times when Oliver and Luc talked about how happy they were or how they could be themselves with one another. There were some really beautiful and moving lines about it. But them saying it doesn’t mean much to me if I don’t actually see it. And I never felt I got to see that in this book. Instead I felt like these people were making one another more unhappy than happy.

I’m genuinely glad other people loved this book. I very much wish I’d loved it. It might well be that it’s a great book and just not a great fit for me. When I finished Boyfriend Material I felt this boundless joy and could not shut up about it and wanted everyone to read it. When I finished Husband Material I mostly just felt sad and sort of like I wished I hadn’t read it. YMMV, and I hope it’s a better fit for most readers than it was for me.

ETA: I just saw it announced that there will be a third book for Luc and Oliver, which actually makes me feel much better about Husband Material. I definitely think it works better as a middle book than a final book. I look forward to reading Father Material and hope it finds Luc and Oliver in a better place communication wise.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced listening copy! If you loved Boyfriend Material and Alexis Hall’s writing, you should definitely give this book a try, but it’s not an easy journey. Luc and Oliver continue their romance in this sequel, where they attend friends' weddings, go through life traumas, grow together, and work through their unconventional love story. This book is kind of hard for me to review because I did love Boyfriend Material, the first in this series, so much. This book started out strong, making me laugh very often. It was nice to see the main characters of Luc and Oliver happy and thriving together, while still working through a lot of life issues. But then the book just goes on too long and the ending is a slog, and I will even venture to say I hated the ending. I am of course fine with Luc and Oliver having a different view on marriage and happy endings, but the fighting and miscommunication to get to the final scene was too much for me, especially in what started out as a sweet romantic comedy. Though it was a difficult reading journey for me, I am giving it three stars because of the beginning being great, the structure of being modeled after Four Weddings and a Funeral (love this idea and execution), and the charm that did escape through the hard parts of this book. I also listened to this book, and that part was a phenomenal experience: the narrator was hilarious, skilled, and really just perfect as Luc and the other characters. I recommend this book for fans of Boyfriend Material and Hall, contemporary romance, comedy, and LGBTQ+ stories.