Husband Material was a fun read. The main character was slightly quirky (pretty much a staple in Chick Lit these days), but she also struggled with trust issues and opening up to others. She was a bit self-absorbed. On top of all of that, she was obsessed with the numbers and metrics of love, relying on her algorithm to try to find love. All of these attributes combined to create a character that was far more nuanced than I was expecting from this book. 

I enjoyed Charlotte's character arc. She grew a lot as the novel progressed. Her relationships with other characters also grew, which is always gratifying to see in a book in this genre. I really liked the speed with which the romance grew. It was a slow burn, and it was done well. There was enough conflict that the pacing felt right. While I enjoyed Charlotte's slow burn with Brian, I was not quite as happy with her relationship with her roommate, Casey. I felt like there could have been a lot more done with their friendship. It was present, but the depth wasn't. At the beginning of the book, it almost seemed like Charlotte barely even noticed Casey was there...which meant the reader barely did either. 

I liked the book overall, but there was also a certain clunkiness to some of the references and dialogue. It felt like the character should have been about 10 years older than she was supposed to be in the book because of all of the 80s and 90s references that she kept making. This bothered me throughout the book, but I understand that is a very nit-picky thing to be bothered by. 

I would recommend this to someone looking for a clean romance. If you are a fan of chick lit with a little bit of extra depth, you will enjoy this book. 


My Rating:

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2

I gave Husband Material 3.5 Stars!

Charlotte is looking for a husband and she has it all figured out just how she is going to find one. She has written a program full of data that will help her find Mr. Right! Things aren’t going so well, and things get even worse when a package shows up at her house and in it is an unexpected surprise.
Brian is a successful doctor who used to know Charlotte. They run into each other “by chance” or so Charlotte believes. Can they be friends again after all this time? Can he help Charlotte with her “surprise”?
Brian and Charlotte start being friends again, and soon things are heating up…that is until Charlotte finds out a secret that Brian has kept from her for years. Can she ever forgive him?
I loved this sweet story which has all the elements for a beautiful journey of love, loss and second chances. Emily Belden brings such a whit to the story and I laughed, I cried and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Thank you so much to Harlequin, Emily Belden and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the book to read and review.

Charlotte Rosen’s journey in Husband Material by Emily Belden was an emotional and enjoyable tale of an almost thirty-year old as she deals with major change that is unexpectedly dumped into her life. She has a great job crunching numbers and writing algorithms, an adorable dog, and a roommate who knows nothing about her. So when the ashes of her late husband arrive, five years after his death, Charlotte’s world falls apart. The perfect life she had with him starts to show wear and tear as she finally learns things about him; including a major secret. While trying to put the pieces back together Charlotte ends up dealing with her ex-mother-in-law as well as her husband’s best friend, Brian. As Charlotte tries to find answers to questions she never knew to ask Brian is along side her, trying to help her along the way. Not expecting to have a chance with a new love, Charlotte will need to decide whether to follow the results of her algorithm or trust her heart.

Ms. Belden wrote a fun, flirty romance that should not be missed. She provided a tale rich with emotions, sexual chemistry, wonderful dialogue, and endearing characters giving Charlotte a chance to tilt her world back on its axis and a chance at finding love with Brian. I highly recommend Husband Material to other readers.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

I slogged through 70 percent of this book. It was as basic and stereotypical as many other romances. Luckily, Emily Belden added a little extra to make the story stand out.
Charlotte is a 29 year old widow who has kept her secret for the last five years. But the past comes back to haunt her when her husband's ashes suddenly show up at her apartment after a fire at the mausoleum he was placed.
The first chapter was pretty funny and I was looking forward to hijinks that would ensue when the ashes arrived. But quickly I saw, that instead of being funny, Charlotte is rather pretty and bitchy. She complains about everything in life. She mentally slays the interns working but when she overhears them talking about her, she gets into a tizzy. What should have endured you to her makes you roll your eyes. Why should I feel bad for someone who thought even worse of the people who were talking about her?
And that becomes the biggest problem with the book. Not the predictable plot or weird and improbable dating app she wants to make, but Charlotte is so unlikable. She wants to keep her widowhood a secret but gets snippy wen people don't treat her with kid gloves. Mentally, chewing them out because she was dealing with her widow hood but no one knows to help her.
The saving grace is that the book throws you a curve ball and Charlotte gets called out for her horrible behavior. Charlotte finally begins to grow and because a somewhat more likable as she deals with the superb twist that Belden throws here. While, it doesn't work perfectly, it really gave the book depth and made me happy to have read the book.
I don't like the cover. It looked like many other romance books covers out there and made no sense to the story summary. In fact, after finishing it, it still doesn't match up. I wouldn't have ever read it I had just seen the cover.
Overall, the book isn't that great but, by the end, I enjoyed see how Charlotte finagled her precarious position.

This story started out as a romantic comedy, but turned into a suspenseful story.

There were so many twists that kept me guessing. Just when I thought I had things figured out, there would be another unexpected twist. I liked that so many surprising elements were slowly revealed, such as how Decker died and what had happened in the past between Charlotte and Brian.

I don’t think the title or cover of the book really matched it. From the title and cover, it looks like a fun romance, but there were some dark parts to the story, including Decker’s death.

I really enjoyed this book! I was glued to it until the end.

Thank you HarperCollins for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this story. There were so many issues that Charlotte wasn't dealing with, she thought she had everything under control and then things start spiraling with the delivery of one delivered package. The way this story begins it seems like it's going to be a rom com, but it delves a lot deeper and these characters have a lot unresolved feeling and issues from 5 years ago that keep them from truly being free to move on.

After trying to get through Husband Material for about a month, I finally called it quits. However, I do think that many readers will enjoy this one! When I first read the synopsis and saw the cover, I assumed that this one was more of a romantic comedy rather than a contemporary romance. Instead, Husband Material was more of an exploration of grief and learning how to live with the loss of a loved one. I think if I’d gone in expecting a different book (aka mentally prepared myself), I would have had a very different reading experience.

*Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher. This does not affect the content of my review or my opinion of the book.

Although this was a quick and easy read for me, it took me a while to really get into the book and start to empathize with Charlotte, the main character. She has been a “closet” widow for five years, not letting anyone know that her husband died of a stroke at a very young age. The novel ends up being a contemporary romance with a lot of characters, some likable and some not so much. Charlotte lives with a quirky roommate named Casey, whom I found to be really funny. The whole story is wrapped around the fact that Charlotte has to confront her past so that she can move on and find a new future for herself. The theme then is dealing with the past and forgiving others. I thought that Charlotte’s job of being an analysis expert for social media was very interesting and unusual. I enjoyed the book after I got into it more, and I think that fans of contemporary romantic fiction would enjoy this peculiar novel with a different tone and characters.

Unfortunately, I had to call it quits shortly after the halfway mark. I skimmed quite a few parts from the remainder of the book, so I have a fairly good idea of what happens and I’m sorry to say that had I finished it, my final opinion would have been just as bad.

What is this book about? Husband Material follows our protagonist, Charlotte, a widow who lost her husband five years ago from a freak accident. She’s made a new life for herself in LA, however, a misfortunate event causes the ashes of her deceased husband to appear at her front door five years later, along with the reappearance of his best friend. Do not let the fact that this book keeps showing up under the romance genre; Husband Material is a not a feel-good, lighthearted romance novel. I sort of feel like I misled in that aspect? Instead, the story is about grief, secrets, and forgiveness.

What did I like? Charlotte was a pretty decent character. I really felt for her throughout the story and the incredible circumstances she’s had to overcome.

What didn’t I like? The first issue I had was the overly descriptive writing. There were so many unnecessary specifics and I felt like the author kept name-dropping expensive brands just for the sake of it. A lot of time in the book was spent describing every little detail of the book and characters; I don’t need to know the color, type, and label of the pajamas the character was wearing – just say she was in pajamas in move on!

The “love interest” – if you could even call him that – was terrible. There was absolutely zero chemistry between him and Charlotte and I could not for the life of me even figure out why she would be with him or even like him?? There were hardly any genuine moments of tension or buildup between the two of them to convince me of any kind of feelings. Not to mention that he is a thief and a liar and a terrible person!! The title of this book is ironic because he is most decidedly NOT husband material.

Overall thoughts: Husband Material has been marketed as a romance book and so I was expecting an entirely different kind of novel. Regardless, between the overly descriptive writing and the horrible “love interest” this was not something I wanted to continue to read and ended up quitting halfway.

When reading a new-to-me author, I try not to look to see if they are seasoned or new. I don’t look at other reviews of the book I’m going to read or any of their other books. Therefore, I’m often not sure when reading a new-to-me author if they are actually new themselves. Depending how the reading goes, I’ll look that stuff up after I’ve finished the book. Unfortunately, I thought this was a brand-new author. While she’s not totally new, she only has a few books under her belt so there will be some leeway.

There is a lot in the positive column for this story. I love the concept of this story. I love Charlotte and most of the other characters in this book. For the most part, the flow of the story is pretty good. Yet, once in a while, I’d be taken out of the story by a reference I found dated. I know that in 10 or 20 years it won’t be anything that is noticed. But in the present, it was something that niggled at me. Why would you reference E.R. and not Grey’s Anatomy in 2019? It was just…off, for lack of a better word.

Charlotte is a very sympathetic character. The lengths she has gone to in order to “hide” her status of widow is on one hand sad yet sometimes manifests as funny. Not only did I feel for Charlotte, I was also rooting for her in many ways. From her job, to her decisions regarding the urn, to her tentative renewing of her friendship with Brian. Yet, when she was in the midst of her out of control spiral, I found myself skimming the pages. While I found Charlotte’s process and frame of mind very important to how the story was playing out, it was just a bit much…a bit too detailed.

I had high hopes for Brian and Charlotte. I can at the very least say the story is not predictable. There are a few turns that took me by surprise and I’m truly still not sure how I feel about these turns. There were things kept from Charlotte by more than one person and I wasn’t sure who to trust and who to forgive. In some ways this was a good thing. It’s not fun reading a book that is completely predictable. But at the same time I have a hard time, after finishing, knowing how I really feel about the story as a whole.

There is definite potential here and I will try another of this author’s books in the future. And let’s remember, a review is an opinion. There are some who will not have problems with the things that I got hung up on. Since this is a great story all in all, I would still recommend this book to others.

Charlotte is a young widow, something that shes kept a secret until now when her late husbands ashes shows up at the door. Her life seemed to be going well and from that moment on, secrets that were once kept quiet started to get exposed and her tidy little world is shaken up.

This book isn't what I thought it would be. I thought it would be a sort of romcom book that's light hearted maybe maybe its just because of that fun looking cover. This book was more about Charlotte still dealing with her grief many years later. Looking that this book was pretty good, I really did enjoy it. I did find it annoying after a while when it came to her grief but past that I was interesting in seeing a bit a romance, seeing her failed dates and wondering seeing if theres going to be something between her and her late husbands best friend. I also though it was interhttps://essentiallybookish.blogspot.com/2019/12/review-husband-material.html
his was a pretty good book I enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed Emily Belden's first novel, Hot Mess, so I was super excited to read Husband Material! Her second novel was just as fun and entertaining as her first, and I was hooked from the very first chapter. What I loved most about this book was that while the writing and story were funny and witty, the characters and subject matter had real depth to them. Charlotte is a young widow, and the portrayal of grief and how the grieving process affects your daily life, even years later, is addressed so well in this book. Though I haven't lost a spouse, I've lost a parent, and I related to Charlotte so much throughout this book. I loved that she was a data nerd like me!

Though the book does center around the fact that her husband's ashes show up at her door five years later, it's definitely not a downer! There are many moments that make you laugh, and there's even some romance thrown in. This is the perfect weekend binge read if you love contemporary women's fiction and need a fun read. I can't wait to read more from Emily Belden in the future!

DISCLAIMER: This post is not sponsored. However, I received an advanced reader copy (eBook) of Husband Material by Emily Belden from Harlequin through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Husband Material is part of Harlequin’s Fall/Winter Blog Tour for Romance & Women’s Fiction.

When you think of a widow stereotype, it isn’t Charlotte Rosen – a 29-year-old social media analyst. After less than a year of marriage, Charlotte’s husband, Decker, died from natural causes.

In Husband Material, Emily Belden did a great job marrying comedy and romance with such a morbid topic as losing a spouse at a young age (or any age). I felt horrible that our protagonist, Charlotte, had been through such a hardship, but it was laughable when her husband’s urn appeared randomly on her doorstep when the mausoleum burns down.

Overall, I liked Charlotte’s character. She’s got a lot of baggage and inner demons, just like the rest of us, which made her very real. Also, she has a pretty kickass job. Charlotte works for a social media analytics company and is programming a dating software – that’s freaking cool! I love that Belden gave her a very modern job that shows off her smarts.

Charlotte wants to find the perfect man for her – a man who won’t abandon her. Her true match. Which is why she created her own software to find men who are the most compatible with her. Throughout the book, Charlotte struggles with letting go of her past and being vulnerable with the people in her life in the present. She’s so afraid of getting hurt or abandoned by a man that she made a software just to find her “perfect” match – based on an algorithm.

Overall, I enjoyed Husband Material. The main premise of the book – Charlotte’s husband’s ashes randomly arriving on her doorstep – was very intriguing and a great start to the story. That event alone takes Charlotte down so many bumpy roads. First, she has to welcome her husband back into her and life, mourn his death all over again, and then move on. On top of that, she discovers Decker had some secrets of his own. Boy, what a good twist!

Also, Charlotte has to deal with her ex-mother-in-law, who has her own plans for Decker – a new home for his urn, since the mausoleum burned down. In addition, she reconnects with her husband’s best friend, Brian. Plus, throw in some work and roommate drama as the cherry on top.

I really didn’t dislike anything specific about the book. However, out of all of the drama with Charlotte’s job, Decker’s mom, and the urn, the romance was not the star of the story for me. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the romance part of it, I just liked the other parts of the story better. Charlotte’s love interest is Brian, a handsome pediatric doctor, who was her husband’s best friend. From Charlotte’s description, Brian does sound pretty hot and like a good all-around guy.

It makes perfect sense that the widow and the best friend could fall for each other. Charlotte and Brian get each other. They both lost someone who meant a lot to them, so they already have an emotional connection and friendship. Plus, he knows that she was married before. Fortunately, Charlotte doesn’t have to convince Brian that she doesn’t carry around any “widow baggage.” Together they have a history and Brian would never make her hide her past or forget about Decker. After all, he lost him too.

I give Husband Material 4 out of 5 stars. I was hooked by the first chapter and by the second, I was hooked even more. Even though I couldn't relate to all of Charlotte’s experiences, she felt like one of my gal pals and I rooted for her to find her way. But, we can relate that we all have a past and carry around our own baggage. I liked that Husband Material wasn’t just about love, but about loss, and life’s other daily struggles and challenges. Most importantly, this book reminds us that life isn’t perfect, no one is perfect, and there’s no algorithm or code that will solve all of life's problems, and that's okay!

Check out my full review of Husband Material on my blog! :)
www.candisbarbosa.com/book-review-husband-material-emily-belden/

I really tried this finish this book but just didn't like the characters. I know some people would enjoy this one but it just wasn't for me.

HUSBAND MATERIAL by Emily Belden is a contemporary women’s fiction story with elements of rom-con and romance genres included. This is a standalone book that deals with a young widow and how she deals with her life and those around her.

Five years after the death of her husband, Charlotte Rosen opens a box that contains the urn and ashes of her late husband who she thought was in a mausoleum in Pala, California. Suddenly, all her work at avoiding those who knew of her marriage and rebuilding her life based on mathematical algorithms is in jeopardy.

The return of Decker’s ashes and a secret to be revealed about his past are going to force Charlotte out of her controlled bubble of simple acquaintances, algorithms over emotions and her unresolved grief.

Charlotte took me on an unexpected journey. There were times Charlotte really annoyed me and yet the author had a way of revealing through another character or discovery, why she was the way she was. The whole situation of reading about being a widow at such a young age could feel uncomfortable and did at times, but I feel Ms. Belden handled Charlotte’s journey with empathy, humor, forgiveness and love. The secondary cast of characters in this story all start out on the periphery of Charlotte’s emotional life, but Ms. Belden does a beautiful job of one-by-one showing Charlotte why and how they should be let in even when her algorithms disagree.

I enjoyed Charlotte’s journey and Ms. Belden’s writing style, but I also know this is going to be one of those books that everyone reads through a differing emotional lens.

This was more women;'s fiction for my taste. There was a lot of drama and not what I was looking for. This was a DNF for me.

This book was absolutely beautifully written. Going in I wasn't sure what to expect but the blurb sounded interesting so I wanted to give it a shot. I am very glad I did! I adored Charlotte and was invested in her from the very first chapter. This story was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. I found myself putting myself in Charlotte's shoes and this definitely resulted in me crying (frequently). I can't wait to read more from Emily Belden!

Numbers Don't Lie, But People Do. This was a tragi-comedy of a widow finding herself -at a point when she thought she had already done so. Enough humor to keep a light-ish tone to what could have become a very dour subject matter, this book manages to combine quasi-software engineering (even the best of us can't do what the lead does in this book) with a tale of picking yourself up by the bootstraps... twice. Very much recommended.

Note: Since the publisher requested it, here is a note that I did in fact receive this book as an ARC. As *always* with *any* of my reviews, my thoughts are completely my own and I review absolutely any book I read, no matter how I acquired it.

A romcom with real emotions.

Charlotte worked in a social media company that got people together with am algorithm. Having lost her husband 5 years ago, she recently entered the dating scene. One day her husband’s ashes reached her doorstep with a Reveal in it. Her emotions of loss was still raw. Charlotte realized that she had to deal with the past to get to the future.

My first book by author Emily Bolden, it was sweet and delicious with its sarcasm. It took me some time to connect with the main character, but soon I could understand her mind set and where she was coming from. There was loads of emotions with humor and snark making it a light and humorous.

Loss of a partner is dreadful and moving on is scary. The author brought both out in a way that made the story easy to read. Laughter and tears both found their place in me. The writing captured me with its subtle nuances and uplifting tale of embracing life.

A cute read between my thrillers.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Graydon House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Charlotte Rosen is a twenty-nine-year-old data analyst in LA. She's developing an app that measures how compatible a potential mate is. To test her algorithm, and in the hopes of finding Mr. Right, she goes on several dates—but what nobody knows, not even her roommate, is that Charlotte was widowed five years earlier.

When Charlotte receives Decker's ashes in the mail, she is stunned, and all of the careful relationships she has constructed to keep her past hidden begin to crumble. When a chance at love comes her way, will Charlotte trust the numbers or her heart?

Belden walks a fine line between humour and grief and for the most part is successful. My only hesitation with rating this book higher is because Charlotte was rather annoying at times, too needy. I felt that most, if not all, of her relationships were forced, and I didn't fully buy in.

That being said, what I loved about the book was the humour. It was cheeky and fun—the opening wedding scene reads like a movie. The dynamic between Charlotte and her mother-in-law made for some of the best scenes in the book. I also enjoyed the support group and would have liked it to have more page time.

Husband Material is a fresh rom-com with a contemporary edge.