FOR REAL is a work of art. I’m a champion of romance novels, and I believe that so many of them deserve more acclaim than they receive, but this book is on an altogether different level. The caretaking and power and love that Hall is able to convey through Laurie and Toby is breathtaking. I first read this book years ago, and I think about it constantly. When Laurie first kneels? When Toby first returns? The Oxford trip? The cologne shopping? The St Andrew’s Cross? The lemon pie. This book dares to take taboos and just slice them right up. Hall makes his readers BELIEVE in love through immense differences, through painful conversations, and through misguided expectations. The plot structure is a masterclass, and the romance is a masterpiece.

I am a huge Alexis Hall and I was so excited to find out that For Real was getting rereleased with a beautiful new cover. I loved this story and I think Alexis Hall did a magnificent job of creating characters that you fall in love with and feel so strongly about and for. I liked how the story progressed and you slowly fall in love with these two main characters. There's a purpose for every scene and you don't have these intimate scenes between characters just for the sake of it (even if there was though, it would be worth it). Overall, I think Alexis Hall did a fantastic job of creating a world and people that you hope nothing but the best for.

This book like all Alexis hall books was funny and entertaining read. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the age gap between the two main characters and felt like it wasn’t really realistic that no one is their lives seemed to call them out on it or think it was odd.

< He’s got good hands. Because, frankly, he’s got good everything. They’re strong and blunt and very, very steady. Except, sometimes, when they’re really not. And that’s a wild thrill all by itself. I know so little about this man, but I know he unravels hands first. >

What a quote eh? Alexis Hall has a way with words.
This was the quote that made me think "yep, I'm going to adore this book."
I spoke too soon.

I am genuinely shocked I didn't love this as much as I hoped.
I'm also absolutely devastated too.
I can't believe I didn't love this: I don't know what went wrong, but I didn't.
I was so certain this book was going to be my favourite out of the Spires novels: BDSM, older, jaded sub finding himself again at the hands of a younger, unexperienced, Dom, age gap, a bit of an opposites attract, AND the Spires's universe brand of angst and emotional gut-punches? I was so certain I was going to adore it.

I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to say in this review. I keep thinking about how to word this, but it seems like I'm one of the few readers that couldn't manage to connect with this novel.
Mind you, I did enjoy it, and I even loved bits of it.
For one, I adored Laurie: give me all the jaded, afraid, lost men who hide their vulnerable hearts behind a cold façade. ALSO, subs at that? I love that kind of juxtaposition: I swear I could read hundreds of BDSM novels with this premise and I'd never tire. I adored bits of Laurie and Toby's dynamic too: most (most!) of their BDSM scenes together were wonderful, and I enjoyed the hell out of slowly witnissing their kinky relationship flourish. Those last few chapters, where everything comes to a heed? I loved that.
I also loved all the side characters to bits: from Grace and the mysterious Jasper (is there a novel about him?) to Dom-the-Dom; the small glimpses we get of the previous MCs gave me so much joy.

Apart from that, I wasn't feeling much of anything. I skimmed quite a lot, mainly Toby's POVs (@Toby enthusiasts, please don't hate me!!!!); the writing in those left me feeling lukewarm.
I really liked the kink dynamic between Laurie and Toby (like I said, younger Dom/older sub is my jam), but I wasn't feeling their romance, like at all? Outside the kink, I didn't buy the affection and love between them, I think. I'm so sad to be saying this, because I know LOTS of people adore this novel, but there was something not credible about their relationship that made me quite suddenly "leave" the novel, and I just could not, for the life of me, get back inside it. Maybe it was the fact that Toby isn't very Dom-like most of the time, and on the one hand, it's refreshing to see (you can be a Dom, and you can cry and be insecure, and whatnot) but on the other, it just added to the "I don't buy this" factor. I kind of feel cheated on that aspect? I don't know. Like I said, I loved most of the kink scenes, but even there, there was something at times that kept pulling me out of the novel. Plus, I wasn't the biggest Toby fan.

I think maybe I was expecting something different, or maybe it was the fact that "For Real" didn't feel like a Spires novel to me. It didn't make me feel much of anything, unlike "Glitterland" and "Waiting for the Flood" (two of my favourite novels of the past few months, and my favourite Alexis Hall romances to date). Something was off. Maybe it was me, who knows? But I'm still so damned devastated. I jumped into this book with giddy enthusiasm, and now I don't know what to do with this disappointment.
But oh well, better luck next time?

I still enjoyed bits of this, and I'm still looking forward to the rest of the Spires novels.
Long time fans of "For Real" will absolutely ADORE Alexis Hall's footnotes at the end of the book, I'm sure. It offered special insight into this book, its characters, and the whole of the Spires universe, so I'd totally recommend getting your hands on it.
As for the rest, I'd still recommend this book because it's part of a wonderful series (seriously, "Glitterland" and "Waiting for the Flood" OWN my heart), and who knows, you might, hopefully, love it more than me.

Very disappointed that the bonus story "In Vino" was not included in the Netgalley eARC as I had read the rest of the book before.......

For Real by Alexis Hall is a spicy contemporary romance with an age gap. The characters who meet in a BD SM club are quite different. Toby is 19, has dropped out of university and works at a café with no real plans for the future. He seems to be only sure about wanting to take on the dominant role in the bedroom. Laurie is a 37-year-old doctor who has been left by a man he had been with for ages and seems to be quite jaded, looking only for quick hook-ups. When the two meet they try to find together but stumble a lot. Their being at different points in life seems to be an obstacle causing a lot of doubt, insecurity and hesitation on both parts despite being quite compatible in other areas (well. the bedroom.).
The characters are quite complex and well-written, their cautious dance around each other, pushing towards a relationship but each being guarded and prepared for everything falling apart again makes this story also emotional and sweet. But there IS a lot of k!nky spice in there as well.

I needed less than 24 hours to finish this amazing story.

Toby and Laurie are everything and more. I was afraid the age gap would scare me off, but nothing like that happened.

Toby is young and so is his heart. Laurie is 37 with a heart full of scars. Their relationship starts with lots of hiccups and miscommunication but they are like magnets. They can’t without each other. Together they grow and they have their happily ever after.

But in between, oehlalalala 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️. This is the most spicy novel from Alexis Hall I’ve read and it’s so good. Toby is a natural dom with no experience and Laurie is an experienced sub. Together they explore each other and all the options. If spice isn’t your thing you better skip this book. Otherwise enjoy 🥵

**Thank to NetGalley and SouceBooks for the ARC **

For Real is a contemporary romance. It is a gorgeous coming together and opening up of two people who are, in their own ways, stuck and feeling broken. This is a theme across the Spires series and makes for grumpy, defensive, wonderfully lovable characters.
For Real involves an age gap and kink, and both of these themes are handled so interestingly. They’re not just trope hats that sit on top of the narrative, but are integral to the arc of the story. For Real challenges the mainstream tendency to conflate and simplify action, role, strength, and masculinity. In it Toby is a dom who is younger (GASP!), smaller (OMG!), inexperienced (SHOCK!), and is penetrated, not as an opposite day hilarious scene, but in the regular course of his sex life with Laurie. As readers we’re asked to look at our preconceptions and, perhaps unconscious, associations. In what way is their experience invalidated because Toby is young, or Laurie is tall, or the direction of penetration runs counter to one’s assumption based on their role designation? It’s important and so satisfying to see characters that exemplify the inescapably unique world created by each new relationship, and see those characters either bypassing or struggling against their own assumptions and expectations. Their relationship is what it is, and we can use common terms to describe it - age gap, d/s, etc - but those terms should not and can not define, limit, or dictate the shape and feel of that relationship.

I absolutely love this book and this series. Highly recommend.

I've read this in both its old and updated version and truly FOR REAL is one of the smartest romance novels re: using sex to deepen the understanding of emotional stakes in a relationship. Smart, sexy, and emotionally deep.

3.75 / 5 stars !!

okay... i have a lot of thoughts about this book to the point that i am not entirely sure i even know how to craft a proper review so... bare with me. i was not sure of this book at all going into it, but i do truly enjoy hall's work, so i wanted to give it a go even if it wasn't my typical sort of read.

with that being said, i did truly enjoy this more than i anticipated... to the point that i read it fairly quickly in five days and kept wanting to read it. i don't usually read things dealing with bdsm dynamics, and i don't usually read age-gap romances, they're just simply not my thing but this book kept my attention the entire time, truly.

my only sorts of "complaints", i wouldn't even call them that but little things i wasn't the most fond of was that it did seem like toby and laurie just kept circling back and forth with the same issues between them for quite some time, given, they did work it out at the end but it seems like a large majority of the book was that, i kind of wished maybe it wasn't so much of that and you got to see more of them as they had sort of settled. and as i said, i am not the most fond of age-gap romances, so that was always sort of an eh thing to me throughout the book as it is a large part of their plot. however, i did enjoy how their relationship sort of existed? how their dynamic and their love and those connections between the two, i think that was very beautifully written, not that i'm particularly surprised, hall's work always enthralls me.

thank you very much to netgalley and the publishers for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!!

This book stirred a mix of emotions within me. The palpable tension between Laurence and Toby, coupled with their vulnerabilities and desires, evoked a sense of raw intensity and longing. At times, I felt swept away by their passionate connection, rooting for them to find solace and fulfillment in each other. However, the underlying tension stemming from Laurie's reluctance to fully surrender his heart left me with a twinge of melancholy, underscoring the complexity of their relationship. Ultimately, the book left me introspective, pondering the intricacies of love, power dynamics, and the pursuit of authenticity in the face of uncertainty

I absolutely love Alexis Hall’s writing. He has a way of writing just the most interesting, unique characters and making them so lovable… even when you want to slap some sense into them. Laurie and Toby are two of my favorite of Hall’s characters. While their age gap doesn’t take away from their compatibility, it does mean they have different ways of communicating and different expectations of what they want from a relationship. It’s so enjoyable to read the *exquisite* smut, the different POVs, and the growth of each character throughout the novel.

This book was surprisingly fantastic in the best way. I was hesitant about For Real because I’m not a much of a fan of age gap romances, and then I learned that I didn’t know what “the scene” referenced in the summary actually was. Bdsm isn’t normally my thing, I kept reading anyway. I learned that I should try other genres and tropes more often. When a story is written well enough, the things you normally don’t care for don’t matter as much. I became engrossed, those age gap and bdsm aspects didn’t matter as much. I wanted to know more about these two characters. I really appreciated how Laurie and Toby complemented each and I enjoyed their dynamic greatly. It definitely left me wanting more. The writing style was great; I will read more from this author in the future.

It would have easily been a five star read, but the chapters seemed to be quite long and I found my attention waning at times because of it.

DNF at 55%

I have liked Alexis Hall's other works, but this one was a struggle to balance the Dom/Sub vibes along with the author's humor. There were repetitive scenes of relationship building where nothing got accomplished, nor did the characters grow. Add to that that this book was over 500 pages, and I had no desire to continue.

I do think the Dom/Sub elements were handled and written well, but I couldn't get past the character driven chapters that were in such a different tone.

My favorite thing to do in this life is to immerse myself into a novel by Alexis Hall. No other author compares to the utter completeness I feel when I am transported into a world of Hall’s making.

You will effortlessly fall into the romance Hall pens, completely surrendering yourself to the possibility of love, and all it entails.

I don’t know how he keeps doing this, but Hall always leaves me awestruck by his writing. Like what do you mean every book is five-stars?! He is absolutely brilliant; a master of his craft and I will never stop recommending his books to literally anyone I come across.

For Real is (in typical Alexis Hall fashion) so much more than a love story. It’s an emotional venture into the intricacies of a relationship that encompasses humor, heartbreak, submission and love. At the center of every “Spires” story is a timeless connection between two souls who have found each other despite all odds. Plus, the time of my life, as a reader who is fortune enough to exist in a time when Hall’s writing exists.

Toby and Laurie will remain in my soul forever. I would say my mind, but For Real lives and breathes as a part of my existence. From now on, a piece of my soul will belong to them, as without this novel, I wouldn’t have found a part of me that I was missing.

For Real releases June 11th with exclusive content and a brand-new cover!

PS: I will sell my soul, zero hesitation for Jasper’s book. I do not know how Hall utterly enchants me by his side characters, but I fall… every. single. time. If there is ever an opportunity for Hall to pen this novel, it will boost my serotonin levels to the height of Steamboat Geyser!

Note: My library will be purchasing a copy of For Real, and I have voted this novel for LibraryReads. I truly couldn’t have made a different decision. Our library has always been a safe space for readers, and it is within these walls that we provide diverse and poignant picks. I am proud to report that our patrons feel safe within the pages of Hall’s works as well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this advanced reader copy.

I love Alexis Hall. I have really enjoyed the Spires series and I liked this installment as well. That being said, this was probably my least favorite book in the series so far. That doesn't mean it was bad, as I said, I did enjoy it. But it wasn't as good as the others. Also, it felt like it took place before the events of Waiting for the Flood and Chasing the Light even though they come before it in the series. I say this because both Edwin and Marius make appearances but they don't seem to have gone through the changes that happen in their respective stories. Coal also makes an appearance and I hate her even more. She is a terrible parent even if Toby feels the need to defend her just because she is is mom. I adored Toby, he was a very realistically written 19 year-old. I liked Laurie too, even if I didn't quiet understand all of his reasoning. The book itself is a great representation of BDSM, Like quiet possibly the best I've read, to be honest. It's really refreshing. My main concern with the book was actually a problem with the digital ARC I received, which had a number of missing words. I hope it gets some editing before it's released. Also, it didn't have the Aftermath short story that will come with the book so I'll have to get my hands on that when it officially comes out. As always, I am looking forward to the next book being rereleased.

I know I read this over 3 days, but I really did plough through it. I had to force myself to go to put it down to go to sleep every night and to get up out of bed every morning, and I still ended up coming back to it multiple times throughout the day.

In the author annotations, Alexis Hall calls this his "kinky sex and dead grandad book", and I can't get that out of my head, because those are the two big plot points of this book. I really love romance stories with a touch of grief in them, and Toby grieves the dead of his great-grandad while Laurie grieves his first relationship. And, of course, there's all the kinky sex - which there is a LOT of. I do love kink romances that explore less traditional dynamics, and I love a younger!dom, older!sub dynamic. Laurie and Toby are both lovely characters and I loved their dynamic.

The book is a majority sex scenes, and learning more about the characters is a bit like pulling teeth at times - both as a reader and in the relationship itself. But the sex scenes are really diverse, interesting and entertaining, and have a lot of character building in them. I also absolutely love how poetic everything is.

There's also a small (teeny tiny) cameo of Edwin and Marius from Waiting for the Flood which I loved seeing. (Edwin is not mentioned by name, but he's the "librarian" Toby talks to at the Oxford dinner)

The author annotations are a nice bonus for this book, though I found them a bit annoying with the ebook - the use of star images instead of footnote numbers was quite distracting, especially as the stars were bigger than the text on my iPad, and thus made large spaces in the lines. Also, as this was the first time I am reading this story, I wasn't sure if I should read the annotations as I came to them, or wait to read them all once I finished the book. I tried doing the former, but some annotations referred to things still coming up in the story, so it ended up being a bit confusing and like I was spoiling myself. It was also quite difficult to page to the back of the book to read each annotation, as my Kindle did not keep track of the space I was at each time I did this. I wish it had used footnote numbers with links, the way other ebooks I've read have done in the past for translation notes. That all said, the annotations were interesting and made me laugh out loud a few times, so I do recommend reading over them - it'd just be easier to do so with a paperback copy.

This is definitely the funniest erotic MM BDSM novel I've ever read. It is, to be fair, the only one, but that doesn't make my statement untrue. Listen up: I like Alexis Hall's books a LOT. I loved the rereleases of Glitterland and Waiting for the Flood, so it seemed obvious that I should pick this one up. Hall was clear that this a "very, very, verrrrrrrry kinky book," but since Glitterland was (IMO) way steamier than Boyfriend Material and I loved them both, I thought I'd be fine.

This book was probably not the right fit for me, I'll be totally honest with you. Not only is this an erotic novel that leans in on the kink, it also features a very significant age gap between the main characters. I think it's clear that Hall is playing with the reader's expectations of what a D/s relationship is: Laurie, the sub, is 37, established in his career and experienced in the BDSM scene. Toby, the dom, is 19, knows his preferences but has never acted on them, and dropped out of university in his first semester. This is also the first Alexis Hall I've read with more than a single POV, and to me it seemed clear that he needed to include Toby's perspective so it was clear to the reader that he was not being coerced or exploited in any way.

I'm giving this four stars because the writing was great, I did actually laugh out loud at a couple of lines, and I think that this is the book for someone out there. Just not me.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

An erotic novel about a technical adult and a man who seems to be battling pretty severe depression doing not much aside from having extremely graphic sex and being annoying to each other. Still better than Husband Material.

I've never really enjoyed reading BDSM books, they always feel too much about a power trip for the Dom, but clearly I have just been reading the wrong books.

Laurie Dalziel is a 37 year old emergency hospital consultant, the sort they send to major incidents. He's feeling very lost, tired of the BDSM scene and heart-sick at seeing his ex with his new boyfriend at every turn. He's got a severe case of ennui, been there, done him, and everything feels fake. Then one night his long-suffering friends drag him to a club where he meets a young man, Toby Finch. Whilst Toby might be short, skinny and only 19 years old, he isn't a submissive, he wants to be a Dom, of course the sad thing is that everyone expects a Dom to be big and strong, possibly blindingly handsome, and a lot older.

At first Laurie is trying to help Toby, trying to stop him from being hurt in a club full of jaded middle-aged players, but soon he realises that Toby doesn't need saving.

This is a touching, heart-wrenching love story, about finding love in the strangest of places, about banishing pre-conceptions, about surrendering to love. It also taught me a lot about BDSM, I don't know how much is real, but it felt more truthful than all those m/f romances where the hero is 100% kink all the time, like there's never any spooning or snuggling or even plain old vanilla sex.

I just loved this, Alexi writes such different characters in each of his books, great to see a glimpse of Edwin, although I didn't recognise him at the time, and Marius was as much of an a-hole as I expected him to be.

On to the fourth book and I can't wait.

*edited for reread of ARC in 2024*

I echo all my previous thoughts about this book. The BDSM is very full-on, and yet is so much more real-life than FSoG and that ilk. There's laughter, and cuddling, and not being able to tie knots, and being taught how to use a flogger. There's tears, and an age-gap romance and best of all, no easy solutions.

BTW, Marius isn't as much of a a-hole as I recall, maybe because he has his own HEA now.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

I've got a whole new appreciation for lemon meringue pie thanks to this super-spicy book!
Laurie isn’t looking for a boyfriend, just a random dom to hook up with, when he meets Toby at a party. Toby is young and bouncy and cute- not Laurie's type at all... and Laurie is completely drawn in.
Thus begins their relationship, initially purely sexual, but very quickly delves into themes of love, trust, and surrender.
Honestly, my only issue was the age-gap. I think the story could have been told just as well without it. Toby didn't need to be 19 to be feeling lost and unsure of the direction of his life, stuck in a dead-end job, and sorting out his desires.
Like all of Alexis Hall's books, relationships are messy, growth is centered, and characters are as flawed as they are lovable.
I received this digital ARC from @netgalley and publisher @sourcebookscasa in exchange for an honest review.
For Real will be released June 11, 2024.