Okay as per usual I went in based on vibes alone and managed not to realize that this book's primary trope is FAKE amnesia. Real head injury, fake amnesia. This is an important distinction going in, because the POV is from the would-be amnesiac, so you get a front-row seat to a whole lot of guilt. I did realize my mistake very early (I wish I could say it was before the head injury but no, I went to read the synopsis right after the whoopsie that led to the head injury), and it's truly unfortunate that I'm immune to shame but completely prone to secondhand embarrassment. However, we soldier on and I'm too stubborn to let some embarrassment stop me.

The pacing of this book was a bit tough for me. I love slow burn but the building emotions were a bit subtle for me; now, perhaps that would've been helped by dual POV, but I wasn't sure these boys were going to complement each other for a good chunk of the book. You know the feeling when you're aching to root for the couple but they're not giving you a lot to work with? I would've been delighted if the turn was a bit sooner, is all I'm saying. It did come together, and I flew through the last 20-30% of the book, but just know this is a very slow burn.

Ultimately, if you go into this knowing there's fake amnesia and you love the awkwardness that comes with that, this is definitely for you. I'm definitely going to give some of his other books a go, because I love British humor and I really truly loved the nerdy references tucked into this book here and there. Not to mention the ones not so tucked, I mean the main is literally named Samwise, which made me kick my toesies on page one.

I’m struggling with what to rate this one, because I both enjoyed it immensely and I struggled to get through it. Alexis Hall’s writing style is funny as ever — I’m constantly laughing out loud when reading his books, and this one is no exception. However my issue here is with the plot and characters. The plot, because I struggled for the better part of the first half of the book to accept that it is a romance; and the characters because they are the reason why I couldn’t see this book turning out to be a romance. I knew that Jonathan was going to be the love interest from the blurb, but there were various points where I thought we were being punk’d. Jonathan is not likable at all, and even in the “soft” moments where the reader is supposed to be seeing another side of him were so disingenuous and forced. I really thought he would be more like Oliver in Boyfriend Material because at least Oliver was endearing and cute. Jonathan….is a big no from me no matter that his behavior was “justified.” And Sam was giving Luc energy because he’s a bit of a hot mess, but I just don’t understand why he couldn’t be a better manager and get over himself? I don’t know, I read the whole thing cover to cover just because I like Alexis Hall’s writing — I wish the plot had more to offer, but c’est la vie.

10 Things That Never Happened focuses on Sam, who is the manager of a bed and bath superstore. He likes his job, but he doesn't love it. When his overbearing boss, Johnathan, demands that Sam come in for a talking to, things quickly go off the rails. As Johnathan threatens to fire Sam and some of his coworkers, Sam falls and hits his head. Thinking that Sam has amnesia, Johnathan is forced to have Sam live with him as he recovers. Fearing that if he tells the truth that he will be fired, Sam decides to go along with the lie.

As Sam lives with Johnathan, he sees new sides to him, including how he is with his large and loud extended family members. Sam starts to feel like he part of Johnathan's family, and he feels comfortable with him. Their bond starts to grow, but under the surface is the truth of Sam's lie. How will his lie affect their connection?

I really enjoyed this story for so many reasons, including:
-caretaking
- grumpy/sunshine
-enemies to lovers
-workplace romance
-holiday romance
- emotional themes
- two lonely people finding each other
- secret pining

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an ARC of this book.

I have conflicted feelings about this book. I have read this author before, and really enjoy his style of writing. Thus, there were elements that I loved: the witty banter between our main characters, Sam (an employee at a bedding store) and Jonathan (the owner of said bedding store), as well as their hilarious, heartfelt interactions with Jonathan's family. The premise of the book essentially revolves around Sam staying with Jonathan while he recovers from a concussion that occurs from a fall in the midst of Jonathan trying to fire Sam, so Sam fakes amnesia to save himself and the employees of the store he manages. I think what was lacking for me was the romantic connection between Sam and Jonathan. The story is told from Sam's POV and I believe that this story may have been greatly improved with an alternating POV from Jonathan. I have a hard time with books where I can't connect with the character on any level, and Jonathan just never really became a likeable or relatable character for me. I expected more character growth from him in the story, whereas we get a lot of character growth from Sam in the end. All in all, this is still a fun, well-paced romantic comedy, that I believe will please Alexis Hall fans to some extent.

I love Alexis Hall's work and this book was no different.
I was excited for this new twist on the amnesia trope - a character not actually getting amnesia, but faking it? Sign me up!
Hall always manages to create incredibly genuine characters, with both his leads and the side characters. The cast of people working at Sam's retail store felt so real i could have sworn I have worked with people similar in the past (for better or worse).
Sam was a lovable blundering hero. He's not perfect, but that makes the story much better. Jonathan was brooding and very Darcy-esque. It's really refreshing to have the main love interest not be an out-of -this-world sex god, as they so often are in rom-coms. Jonathan was a normal guy, with a loud and boisterous family.
The whole story felt attainable and realistic, despite the absurdity of Sam's actions.
Alexis Hall has done wonderful work once again!

The story was too unbelievable, especially the amnesia . The love interests didn't fit, and Sam's harshness was unattractive so why did Jonathan desire him?

Alexis Hall's works are some of my favorite reads but this one was NOT for me.

Thank you Sourcebooks for the complimentary copy.

This was my first book by Alexis Hall. I love m/m romances and am always looking to discover new authors in this area so when I got approved for the ARC for this I was super excited! Unfortunately this ended up being a mixed bag for me.

I enjoyed some parts of this but it was hard for me to connect to the characters. Sam was too much of a pushover and his tendency to try and save one employee at the expense of everyone else got on my nerves by the end of the book. Johnathon is all about the bottom line which didn't necessarily bother me.

I liked the opposites attract aspect to the story. It just dragged on and on for too long and I found myself losing interest quite frequently. I don't think this authors writing is my style but hopefully it's yours!

3 stars. Thank you for the arc!

First I want to thank #netgalley for the reading of ARC. I’ve never read an Alexis Hall book before and I was really excited to get this one. I wanted to love it but it fell flat a bit for me. I loved the premise of the story, and it’s at Christmas time, and it’s in Britain, but I didn’t love it. I did enjoy it and loved the authors writing style. I would recommend this book and I look forward to reading more by this author. Both the MC’s were boring, but Jonathan’s family is perfect. I loved their chaos and I really enjoyed how the author brought that to life.

10 Things That Never Happened, book one of Material World-

I’ll tell you one thing that never happened-
Me, connecting with this book. Each chapter dragged on and on, and on, and on…
I found this book lacking most things that make a book enjoyable. The one thing it did have, is a plot. Unfortunately, the plot alone could not carry the entire book. I found the main characters insufferable. Jonathan was the most dry, serious, all about numbers, money and the bottom line. He could care less about the actual livelihoods of people. Sam was the biggest push over and cared entirely TOO much about everyone else’s well being before his own. The support characters were over the top, each having their own quirks that made them outcasts, in general.

Sam suffers an accident at work and fakes amnesia in hopes that Jonathan will grow a conscience and change his mind about having fired him moments before Sam’s accident. Because of faked amnesia, Sam moves into Jonathans home so that Jonathan can keep an eye on him. This is how their story begins…and it took entirely too long to get to this moment of the book! And, for as long as it felt for this book to take getting to the end? The ending felt completely rushed. Sam has amnesia for the whole damn book and then BAM! Gone. What?!

Although this book was an entire “miss” for me, the grumpy sunshine trope and the banter were written pretty well. I received an advance reader copy and am leaving my review voluntarily.

How is it that I have never read an Alexis Hall book before?? Now I want to listen to this book just for the accents.
Apparently I had marked Boyfriend material and Husband material as Want to read, so I plan to find the audiobooks.
As an American I was surprised at the stores that Sam worked in and that Jonathan owned. A store that sold beds and toilets and all the accoutrements for both sounds interesting.
Jonathan is the owner who acknowledges that the Sheffield branch of his store that Sam manages is not doing well. We the readers see that he actually isn't a very good manager, but when he goes to London to ask Jonathan not to fire his workers ( though most are incompetent due to Sam's poor management skills) he somehow falls into a shower display and gets a concussion. In a split second he sort of claims he has amnesia and this starts the plot going.
I don't want to give more away, but for me, Christmas with Jonathan's large, contentious family, along with Sam being helpful, and his ugly cat Gollum attaching himself to Jonathan, is what made the book fun for me. With witty dialogue, a grumpy Jonathan and a sunny Sam, I found the book quite fun.
Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy
In exchange for an honest review. I will be recommending this book to people looking for an interesting gay romance.

I’m always excited to pick up an MM romance and one that features two British men, sign me up. “10 Things That Never Happened” is a sweet, fun and heartfelt romance that I enjoyed immensely.

Sam is like almost every working man out there, he mostly likes his job. Sure it wasn’t his dream to run a bed and bath retail store but it pays the bills. When his awful boss, Jonathan Forest calls him up to London for a meeting, he is sure that he is getting fired. But one accidental bump to the head and some assumptions by all, Jonathan thinks he has amnesia and Sam doesn’t deny it.

This was such a cute MM romance and I loved the plot of the story. Sam is in a job he really isn’t a fan of and he has a boss who makes things even more difficult. That instantly makes him so relatable. Jonathan is a classic grump and workaholic. He puts a lot of pressure on himself to have his company succeed so his family has everything they could possibly need. They are a classic grumpy/sunshine duo and they balanced out each other so well. I loved their banter and I found myself cracking up several times with them. Gollum the cat was the perfect cat in all of his cat qualities. The ending was so sweet and wrapped up their story wonderfully.

Okay listen. I love Alexis Hall's absurd, slightly-over-the-top humour in his romance, even though it requires a certain suspension of disbelief to accept that these ridiculous people and situations can exist. Unfortunately, that's also my major qualm with this one. The amnesia plot (tm) is just a bit too ridiculous to believe, and there's a weird lack of chemistry between the two main characters. I don't really get how Sam and Jonathan ended up falling for each other. Like don't get me wrong, it was enjoyable enough to read, but I definitely had to read it with the mindset that they're in love because I said so, not because I could actually see it.

I find that Alexis Hall's books are either amazing or bad, and this one is weirdly somewhere in the middle. I still had fun reading it, but I won't pick it up again.

Perfect for fans of The hating game or Red, White & Royal Blue, this enemies to lovers, fake amnesia, workplace holiday romance will make you laugh and warm your heart all at the same time. Full of family drama, found family, the perfect 'Grinchy' MMC and good on audio. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

** SPOILERS AHEAD**

This one was a tricky one for me, I did enjoy it but not as much as I remember enjoying Boyfriend Material. I found Sam a bit of a confusing protagonist - he continually risks everyone's jobs to defend one EXTREMELY incompetent employee (which I get he was considering that Brian had his grandmother to support) but it got a bit excessive - like now you're risking everyone else's jobs for his sake??? and it felt a bit confusing as he didn't really read like a dogooder in other aspects of his life. Not to mention we're meant to think Jonothan is the bad guy for wanting to fire him...? when this one employee is ruining thousands of dollars of stock...?

I think it also suffered badly for not having Jonothan's perspective, I think it could've really worked well to ramp up the angst and pining if we got to actually hear him agonise over liking Sam/firing him/the amnesia which also would've made us feel MUCH worse about Sam's lies. It also limited the chemistry between them which ultimately ended yo being pretty luke warm.

Moving on to the amnesia plot, I LOVE an amnesia (fake or real) plot but this one just didn't work that well for me. It dragged on for so long and most of the time it didn't even make sense why Sam was even bothering. He kept saying it was to buy time to come up with a solution but like we don't ever see him doing much problem solving? Aside from thinking throwing a good party will help? And after the feelings started occurring it didn't make sense that he continued to keep it going for so long when at literally any moment he could've just gone "omg woke up my memory back, can't believe you had to live with me after firing me hahaha!!" and play it super cool.

All in all, it just fell extremely flat for me and Isn't something I think I would reread.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgally for an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

🏳️‍🌈 ARC Review 🏳️‍🌈

Sam has been called down to see the big boss in London. With his retail store struggling, he decides to face his boss and try and save his misfit employees, if he can. But after a misstep he ends up in hospital and somehow his boss thinks he has amnesia and is the only one around to take care of him. But maybe just maybe this could help save his store and employees…

If you loved Boyfriend Material you will 100% love this. It has exactly what you want from Alexis Hall: hilarious side characters, heart warming family moments, a slow burn romance with imperfect protagonists. Honestly, I laughed and cried in this book!! It was perfection with the added bonus of hating capitalism and classism. I couldn’t stop reading it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you love Alexis hall, Jesse Sutano, Lex Croucher, you will love this book. Thank you so much to @netgalley and @sourcebookscasa for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. 10 things that never happened comes out on 17 October.

I had a blast reading this romance! Both of the main characters were written so well I felt like they were real men. One was a lonely workaholic boss and the other was a lonely sales manager who worked for that boss. The story takes place at Christmas which feels like the worst time to be lonely and alone. This story captured my attention to the point I read faster to help them get through all their blunders and find out how much they needed each other. The workaholic boss’ family members were a real hoot!

This book is not quite a meet-cute, more of an enemies to lovers trope. It’s fun/light read and you have to assume from the start that this amnesia lie is going go come out at just the wrong time. Johnathon’s crazy family is great and wonderful, they may be the best part of the story, and while the guys do get frisky later on, it’s very fade-to-black, PG at most. Overall it’s a feel good read with just a bit of angst.

Please note, I received an ARC copy of this book for review from NetGalley, but that never influences my honest reviews of books or authors.

This was such an awesome and fun read/listen.
Do you remember the classic rom-coms from the 90s that we love to rewatch whenever they are on TV because they were great and fun and it feels like current movies are not as great? Well, this book is like watching a classic 90s rom-com, it will make you laugh, swoon and maybe cry.
10 things that never happened is about Sam and Jonathan. Sam works for Jonathan in a bed/bath store and he is not doing so great but he doesn't want anyone fired. when Jonathan threatens to fire him and his staff, Sam might be pushed to fake amnesia. What could possible go wrong right? The rest of the book is filled with great banter, lots of grumpy/sunshine and all the warm and fuzzy feelings. I also appreciated that you don't need to have read either boyfriend material/husband material to get right into this book.
I mainly listened to his book and highly recommend the audio. Be mindful it has a British accent and it took me a little to get used to it (english is my second language).

Non-stop lovers’ tiff with a hilarious stream-of-consciousness.

10 Things That Never Happened is a first-person perspective novel that I inhaled with no second thoughts. The entirety of the book felt like living in Sam’s mind, happily watching while he (and Jonathan) colossally Fucked Shit Up. This is the slowest of burns, the fights between Sam and Jonathan were endless. Only weirder, is that they were good. It was strangely thrilling watching them bitch and snap and be entirely entertaining without ever crossing into toxic territory. I only regret that the long-awaited intimacy was not quite as blazing as their rows.

Based on Jonathan’s personality alone, this book had every right to be a slow burn. It did wonders in emphasizing his stubbornness to its fullest extent of the word. But I do wish we saw a shift in him that was more than a peg above marginal. Ultimately, Sam and Jonathan’s relationship dynamic was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and it was refreshing to see their imperfections in constant plain sight. They weren’t immediately made for each other (like, at all) but they made intentional adjustments that prompted their jagged edges to fit together perfectly.

★★★★★ (4.5 stars)
As always, Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Sadly DNF'd at 33%...

Thank you to netgalley and sourcebooks casablanca for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Having never read the author's work before I'm not sure it's for me. The style is different than a lot of things I read and while the premise is interesting it quickly gets frustrating.

Jonathan so far is annoying, grating and his absolute refusal to accept help and/or talk about things because “no one will understand” is frustrating.

Sam started off seeming sweet and quirky but now seems a bit annoying and frustrating himself. While I understand his fear of being fired, the whole “they didn't let him finish his sentence” reason for Jonathan thinking he has amnesia is wearing a bit thin. He should just tell him already and deal, but I get the feeling he won't be.

Jonathan's family is funny-ish but so far they also seem kind of rude? Just barging in, disrespecting his wishes re: smoking in the house etc.

The constant & over use of the full name of products starts to get grating less 1/3 of the way in. Saying the brand name once or twice is more than enough but saying the whole thing every single time it's mentioned is unnecessary.

As a non-UK I find myself having to google a lot of slang which is unfamiliar. The author does acknowledge that a lot of their readers aren't from the UK at the start of the book and provides an idea of what accent the main character has but gives no reference for slang and other things that non-UK readers might benefit from.