A decently charming novel, filled with cute moments and endearing sweetness. I personally can't relate to much going on, but I feel like this will mean a lot to someone else.

When Charlotte Rosen opens the package that was delivered, she wasn’t expecting to find her husband’s ashes. Charlotte hasn’t told the few people in her new life that she’s a widow, and just getting his ashes in the mail was a huge shock. It’s been five years since she’d last laid eyes on the container and now has to figure out what to do with it. That means having to get back in contact with her mother-in-law and Charlotte’s definitely not looking forward to it one bit.
Now only has her husband’s ashes come back into her life, his best friend has as well. Now a pediatrician at a nearby hospital, he attempts to help her deal with everything.
Charlotte’s pretty much cut herself off from all emotions since her husband’s passing and has used her ability to calculate data to create an app to find the perfect mate. Data crunching has become her way of life and tamping down her emotions has led her to the precipice she’s at today.
Charlotte’s story is full of many emotions for someone who really didn’t want to feel them. The sudden loss of her husband has created a chasm she hasn’t been able to fill. When a secret from her husbands past comes out while she’s dealing with everything else, she realizes she needs to learn to open herself back up.
Ms. Belden wrote a truly moving work of fiction. I couldn’t stop reading once I started and when I finished, it put me in a book funk that took me 2 weeks to get out of. I would’ve normally read about eight books in that time and all I could think about were the characters and plot of this story. Well done.
**I received an ARC from Netgalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

I enjoyed this author’s book Hot Mess so I was looking forward to this one. This book is marketed as a romcom which it is and isn’t. There are a lot of light hearted romcom moments here but there are a lot of serious moments as well. Charlotte is a young widow that has surrounded herself with a controlled environment. She works with numbers and algorithms so there is no ability for chance and she chose her roommate with the same care. Her well constructed world comes apart when her deceased husband’s ashes unexpectantly show up at her door. What follows is Charlotte coming to terms with her life and how she plans to move forward. There are some surprises along the way and Charlotte’s roommate Casey really adds to the story.

I think this book description and cover was a little misleading for me. I expected a romantic comedy but this is definitely a women's fiction. If I was more aware of the content, I probably wouldn't have picked up this book. It just wasn't for me.

This was a good women's fiction book - i think that the cover is a bit deceiving in that I thought it was going to be a romantic comedy.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The romance was cheesy but still very good. I didn't love it, but I did like it quite a it.
The cover does not match the type of book this is and I felt a bit deceived by the cover art.

Thank you so much to the author, the publisher, and netgalley for this review copy.

There were a lot of thing I like about this book: great writing, interesting plot, quirky characters, but overall I just didn't really connect with the main character and didn't really buy the love interest. It was a cute story and served its purpose as a lighter read between heavier ones but overall I didn't really love it. I did like the authors style though so I intend to check out her other works.

2 Stars / 1 Steam Fans

This book cover is very deceiving! I went into this book thinking I was going to read a romantic comedy, and what I got was a woman's fiction story about a woman that has a bunch of secrets. Charlotte lost her husband and is trying to get past the grief but is unexpectedly thrown back into her past. There were a bunch of secrets tangling a bunch of characters together that didn't make any sense. Most of my time reading this book, I was hoping it would just get better, which it didn't.

Video review available in Week 3 Jan 12 – 18 weekly book reviews.

For other video book reviews, check out my YouTube Channel: Steph's Romance Book Talk.

Twenty-nine-year-old Charlotte Rosen has a secret: she’s a widow. Ever since the fateful day that leveled her world, Charlotte has worked hard to move forward. Great job at a hot social media analytics company? Check. Roommate with no knowledge of her past? Check. Adorable dog? Check. All the while, she’s faithfully data-crunched her way through life, calculating the probability of risk—so she can avoid it.

Yet Charlotte’s algorithms could never have predicted that her late husband’s ashes would land squarely on her doorstep five years later. Stunned but determined, Charlotte sets out to find meaning in this sudden twist of fate, even if that includes facing her perfectly coiffed, and perfectly difficult, ex-mother-in-law—and her husband’s best friend, who seems to become a fixture at her side whether she likes it or not.

But when her quest reveals a shocking secret, Charlotte is forced to answer questions she never knew to ask and to consider the possibility of forgiveness. And when a chance at a new life arises, she’ll have to decide once and for all whether to follow the numbers or trust her heart.”


The beginning of this was a little bit slow for me but once I got into it I really enjoyed it! Although Charlottes grief is a main part of the story, it actually is a really light read. I was a huge fan of Brian until about the last 60 pages or so. I feel like the ending was a little abrupt when there was so much more to unpact with the turn of events! Overall I did really enjoy this story!

Huge thanks to Harlequin Books for choosing me to be apart of this Blog Tour! this title Publishes December 30th!

Husband Material by Emily Belden was an interesting and charming read. Charlotte is a widow trying to hide her past with a fresh start by masking her loss and grief. But hiding from something never works for long. Now she is facing her past and trying to find her future. What follows is a story of second chances, healing and hope. This story takes us on a woman’s journey as she navigates her life. It was heartwarming, touching and emotional read.

I mentioned this one last week but here's my overall feeling on this one. Charlotte is a successful business woman in Southern CA. She moved there, started a career and hasn't looked back. She spends her days building and reviewing analytics for an influencer marketing team. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
☕ She also uses these analytics to try and predict the right husband for her. She is beautiful, smart and totally available. That is until her past that she's hidden from everyone shows back up on her front door step. The husband she lost 5 years ago, a tragic surprise incident that took him away and years worth of guilt that she's carried.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
☕ Can Charlotte reconcile the pain she feels over the loss of her dead husband and the seemingly pivotal role she played in it all? Her late husband's best friend shows back up in her life to help her sort out some things and this is where Charlotte's life takes an even bigger turn.
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☕ I enjoyed this story premise and the characters felt real and believable, including Charlotte's previous mother-in-law who has some serious problems haha

Husband Material was an enjoyable rom-com. Twenty-nine-year-old Charlotte Rosen is a young widow that is trying to move past the pain and uncertainty of her future. One day Charlotte gets an unexpected delivery that changes her life: Her dead husband’s ashes. Since no one in her current life knows about her past life, she must figure out what is going on even if that means dredging up past relationships and bringing up long-forgotten feelings. Husband Material was a quick fun read, there were a few emotional parts and the grief that Charlotte felt was very realistic. You don’t read too many books with a widow at such a young age. It was an interesting concept, especially how dating has changed so much in modern times (for people at any age!)

This one just didn't work for me because I went into it expecting romance and it was really more of a women's fiction book In my opinion. I ended up putting it down about halfway (because I was more in the mood for a romance) so I won't be providing a full review or highlighting it on my social media pages.

DNF @20%

I've tried for a month to read this, but unfortunately I found it very slow and un-engaging.

I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

5 Stars
Synopsis according to Goodreads:

"Twenty-nine-year-old Charlotte Rosen has a secret: she’s a widow. Ever since the fateful day that leveled her world, Charlotte has worked hard to move forward. Great job at a hot social media analytics company? Check. Roommate with no knowledge of her past? Check. Adorable dog? Check. All the while, she’s faithfully data-crunched her way through life, calculating the probability of risk—so she can avoid it.
But soon a shocking secret surfaces, forcing Charlotte to answer questions she never knew to ask and to consider the possibility of forgiveness. And when a chance at new love arises, she’ll have to decide once and for all whether to follow the numbers or trust her heart."

Review
I legit have no complaints for this book. I did have low expectations because it was a rom-com and my first rom-com at that. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. I found this book to be hilarious, weird, awkward and enlightening all at the same time.
Why would I give such a silly book 5 stars? Because it was great for what it was supposed to be. A light read with ridiculous twists and unrealistic situations. I found that the fact that this woman was carrying around her husband’s urn to be hilarious. You have to read it to understand more of why she walked around with it, but she does. The love interest actually has a huge flaw in which our protagonists acknowledges over and over and as a reader you aren’t left liking him too much. Which is why I love the book even more. The guy she ended up with wasn’t the perfect guy and did some pretty sneaky stuff that would turn any one off. But as life would have it sometimes you don’t get to choose who you love you just do. The protagonist also has many flaws and overlooks important people in her life and I really appreciate the author showing us the ugly side of humanity. How often we are so caught into our own worlds that we overlook the little things people do for us that amount to a lot of things. Also the theme of grieving and that process. I don’t know what it’s like to lose someone close, but I can empathize with what that feeling must be like. It can’t be easy, and the author did a great job in incorporating that in this book without changing the mood of the novel.

This is my first rom-com, so maybe in the future, I might change my stars once I get more familiar with the genre, but overall I enjoyed it!

This book was provided to my by HARLEQUIN- Graydon House books through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This review will be posted on Instagram @books_and_stilettos and my blog www.booksandstilettos.com on 1/17/2020.

For the past five years Charlotte Rosen has been living her life, trying to develop a dating app and living with a roommate. When her dead husband's ashes show up on her front door step, she's not sure what to do with them or her life. As she tries to make decisions about the ashes as well as her life, secrets come to the surface that she would never expect. Did she know her husband as well as she thought she did? Will she be able to move on with her life with the ashes or will it bring everything to a screeching halt?

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for the opportunity to read and review this book.

When I first started reading this book, I had though I knew where this story was going to go, but there were twists and turns all along the way that I wasn't expecting. Charlotte has been a widow for much longer than she was married to Decker. For the past five years, she's been living her life trying to best not to let her past intersect with her present. But when her husband's ashes show up after the mausoleum he was buried in burns down, her whole world gets turned upside down.

This was the first book I have read by Emily Belden, but I look forward to reading more of what she writes. I know she has one other book called Hot Mess and I have added it to my TBR.

If you like romance books with a little bit of suspense behind them, you will enjoy this book. The title can have many different meanings in this book which I discovered after I finished reading it. At first I thought it might be the name of the dating app Charlotte was developing, then her husband's ashes show up so it could be that too.

Overall this book was very enjoyable and highly recommended.

DNF
I just couldn’t get into this book. I had no interest in learning more about the MC. I did skim to see if maybe there was something that would make me want to keep trying but the things that I did read just turned me off more. This didn’t read much like a romance, which isn’t a problem because I like women’s fiction too but only if the story draws me in. It just felt like the author was trying to hard to make this a poignant novel about loss but fell short.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley for voluntary review

This was one of those books you really want to read and have great hopes of enjoyment but about 30% in you are starting to question why! I had an issue relating to Charlotte and the romance was just not strong enough for my liking. I will be honest and say I could not finish it after skimming to just over halfway through. The blurb gave the impression of a different kind of read than the one I had.

This is inspiriting, joyful, motivational and humorous! Yes, this is just what I need and what I want after my long waltzes with thriller genre.

I just finished this inspirational, witty women’s fiction book. I have to emphasize this is not a romcom, even though we have too many funny, awkward situations and coincidences like we get used to see at romcoms but this book is a woman’s second chance to find herself and rebuild her life kind of fiction. Thankfully we have a creative, intelligent writer who could really bend the words, form them adroitly and presents us a heart-warming story which makes us smile too much that your cheeks could truly hurt after finishing it.

I may sense that not everyone could easily love or connect with our heroine Charlotte because she is quirky, withdrawn character with some many laughable, entertaining inner monologues. But I love her journey to fight against the walls she’s build around herself. She starts to dive into dating pool to make some changings in her life. But she is also young widow and she doesn’t like to share this information with the others.

She thinks algorithm will help her to make the right choice and help her to find the most convenient guy. But when she gets ashes of her deceased husband, she realizes that it was time to face her past and reveal all of her secrets she bottled up because if she doesn’t get the closure she needed and forgiveness about things happened long time ago, she cannot have her HEA!

So this story is about friendship, forgiveness, breaking the barriers, self-discovery, hope, joy, embracing the fullness of life.

I also loved our ideal book boyfriend Brian who is one of the sweetest and kindest guys as a supporting character and I also entertained the differences between Charlotte and Casey. Their characters couldn’t be so opposite of each other but they also balanced each others’ lives so perfectly.

And of course ending gives you so much “aawww” and deep sigh moments.

Overall: This is smartly written, riveting, enjoyable book with impeccably developed characters and heart-felting story gives me the hope, positive energy and relaxation I needed.

Special thanks to NetGalley and HARLEQUIN / Graydon House Books for sharing this joyful book’s ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.

Charlotte shut off her emotions and replaced them with obsessive behaviors five years ago, and now with the return of her husband’s ashes, everything is coming full circle. From a carefully constructed life with a cute little Frenchie, a roommate who doesn’t ask too much of her emotionally and a job that she adores, things were moving along swimmingly.

Until they weren’t, and her husband’s best friend, the one who she shared a night of ‘grief-passion’ with all those years ago has returned to her life, along with her former mother-in-law, someone she never got on with. Add to that a need to find a new place for her husband’s ashes to rest after all these years, and the pesky emotions that have her feeling off-kilter rather than in control and command.

A wonderfully complex story of finding new footing and acknowledging emotions and grief, while sorting through a ton of unanswered questions, discovering more than a few secrets, and finally finding a way to reframe her life and friendships, Belden takes us through the frustrating, the funny and the heartbreaking moments when retreat isn’t as comfortable as it once was for Charlotte. Sure to speak to everyone who has lost someone unexpectedly, or even when you “knew” it was coming, the unique experience of grief and the conflicting emotions and struggles as you navigate one very different day from another are clearly and gently defined and presented. An interesting read that isn’t truly a ‘normal light’ read – but one that provided an interesting perspective with an engaging (as much as she tried NOT to be) character who finds her way in the end to move forward.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-aAp/” > <a> I am, Indeed </a>