I adore Oliver and Lucien. They brighten my day and make me howl with laughter. Where can I buy a vulva hat?

This book has to be on my cool list because it has two of my most favourite jokes in it. No spoilers here so I won’t say what the punchlines are. Are there any better jokes than “What’s brown and sticky?” and “What do you call a deer with no eyes?” If “What do you call a fly with no wings?” and my favourite knock knock joke “Knock, knock. Who’s there. Yoda lady” were also included, then I might have spontaneously laughed my entire head off and not been able to get to the end of the book. And that would have been a shame.

Oliver and Lucien and their band of friends really are right out of a Richard Curtis film. It really is Four Weddings and a Funeral. Either that or they are like a Harry Enfield/Fast show character. Alex Twaddle is Tim Nicebutdim or he’s the posh bloke in The Vicar of Dibley who marries Alice.

Marriage isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s rainbows and butterflies and rainbow ballon arches and sometimes it’s storming off, doors slamming and eating all of the chocolate in the house. Marriage can take hard work and that’s exactly what our best boys Lucien and Oliver find out.

I do love those boys and I hate to see characters that I am so fond of put through the mill but it all worked out tip top in the end.

What,,, where do I start. How did we end up here..how is Alexis Hall such a good writer and why are her characters so real? I'm absolutely in love with this universe they created and need the third book now. But the ending, I have mixed feelings about it, but mostly love it.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While I was initially very excited to read Husband Material, this book ended up falling a bit flat for me. To keep this review spoiler-free, I'll keep some things vague. What excited me the most about this book was the opportunity to see Luc and Oliver together again, dating (for real this time). So I was disappointed when the first 2/3 of the book primarily surrounded their interactions with other people. In addition, I found the title to be quite misleading and the ending left me feeling less satisfactory than I did after Boyfriend Material. All in all, I wish I'd kept it at Boyfriend Material where these boys were safe, happy and comfortably in love. I will say, this book's saving grace in my opinion is Alexis Hall's unparalleled witty writing-- it always makes me laugh!

The highly anticipated sequel to Boyfriend Material is *finally* *finally* here, and let me tell you, it completely lives up to the hype of book one and asks "what happens after the HEA in the final chapter?" Luc and Oliver are just as adorable as ever, as this novel proves to be one for the fans of Boyfriend Material 1 million percent. True to the author's style, Husband Material is well-written, dividing up Luc and Oliver's next chapter in a series of milestone moments in like a Four Weddings and a Funeral-esque story. That in itself is an interesting premise and juxtaposition: to see commitment-phobic Luc set in a background of so many happy wedding days. It reads quite quickly with banter that I've gotten so into this one and barely wanted to put the book done. And by the end, it's a perfect reminder that love is love though doesn't always look or manifest the same.

Loved this book so much! I will def be reading more of this author in the future and will be recommending this book to everybody I know!

Pure frothy fun with a lot of heart and depth! While this wasn't quite what I expected in Luc and Oliver's sequel, it was a delightful continuation of their story once I set my expectations aside. I hope this is not the last we see of these characters.

Listen. I would read the phone book is Alexis Hall chose to write it. I love his writing, his characters, and his sense of humor. Husband Material is no different. As someone a few years older than Oliver and Luc in this book (they're in their late-20s to early-30s, I'm early- to mid-30s), it's nice to read something that I would consider a "coming of age" plot for people my age. I appreciate the idea that getting together with someone you love isn't the end of the story. I love seeing these two incredibly messy men get to know each other and love each other (and themselves) more thoroughly.

CW: death of a minor character, grief

TL;DR: This book is real, modern, and absolutely hilarious. READ IT!

Every book I’ve ever read from Alexis Hall has been a WIN, and his latest book (out Tuesday!) is no exception. Husband Material doubles down on everything that made Boyfriend Material such a delight. Hall, as always, writes with a sparkling wit that will make you bark with laughter and gush with feels, while thoughtfully exploring the joys and difficulties of modern love. Through a diverse cast and a Four Weddings and a Funeral format, the characters nudge MCs Luc and Oliver towards the conclusion that it’s okay to make the choices that are right for *you*, regardless of what anyone else expects. But maybe, also, don’t be a dick about it?

If you haven’t read Boyfriend Material, (1) you should and (2) here’s a quick intro to Luc and Oliver. Luc’s the hilarious mess who means well but is kind of a dick. But like, a *self-aware* dick. Oliver’s the hot perfectionist who’s big into duty. Husband Material builds on Boyfriend Material, diving deeper into their pasts as well as their future together, showing us how two such different characters can shape their own unique Happily Ever After in a world fraught with ridiculousness: relationship escalators, traditions, flawed political systems, capitalism, heteronormativity, filial piety, etc. It's a joy and a delight that you will devour in a sitting, and you can pick it up anywhere on Tuesday, August 2nd.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC!

Incredible. Amazing. I loved it. Husband Material by Alexis Hall is delightful. Luc and Oliver are just as sharp as they were the first time around. It was just as witty, quick, and hilarious as Boyfriend Material. Using Luc and Olivers’ friends weddings as the timeline for the novel created the pressure of living up to expectations and maintaining a particular type of relationship.

One of the challenges of sequels is that characters tend to have accomplished one of two things since the end of the first book. 1) absolutely nothing, and they remain the exact same and have cemented none of the lessons from the first novel, or 2) absolutely everything, and they have no flaws, they have learned their lesson and now communicate effectively every time. Hall manages to avoid this trap, and both Luc and Oliver feel as though they have grown and changed, but simultaneously are continuing to have to unlearn some of their unhealthy behaviors. I loved seeing the ways in which they had both grown individually and together overlapping with all the things that had not change.

Coleoptera Research and Protection Project also known as CRAPP where Luc works to help save the dung beetles, and their running jokes have evolved, but remain hilarious. Their relationships have developed and grown to provide an additional level of found family and support for Luc.

My one semi-dislike was the ending. I wish there was a bit more resolution as opposed to the more open ending. I wanted a bit more romantic bliss because I’m a softie, but I loved that the ending of this surprised me. One thing Alexis Hall did really well in Boyfriend Material is keep you guessing about whether or not these two would end up together and he manages a similar tension building up to the end of Husband Material.

I enjoyed the discussion of queer identity and acceptance taking place. This is a discussion that Boyfriend Material began and is continued into Husband Material. Luc and Oliver have distinctly different feelings towards their identities and how best to express and represent those. Neither is wrong, both have been shaped by their own experiences, and yet they still have to work to understand each other. In addition, Oliver the weight of expectations and incomplete acceptance from his parents. Oliver and his interactions with his family are, for me, some of the most profound moments in the book because he, very clearly, tells his family to fuck off, and then has to navigate the challenges of managing the fall out.

This fantabulous book showed how sequels can be better than the originals. We still had the jokes by Luc for Alex and the idiocy of Rhys, and the obvious passion between Oliver and Luc is more heart-warming and caring than ever. Also, thsi book handled the theme of deaath in a way that most people wish for. It reminded me of Graham Chapman's funeral when the comedian John Cleese performed more of a monologue than a eulogy that said "good riddance" ( in an ironic way) and how Chapman would have wanted this to be the first funeral to say the f-word. Well, that was taken and ran with in thsi novel which made it more heartfelt and it made my eyes well with tears- we often love those even if we disagree with parts of them. The medium can be change with eaxh author but it can still be filled with both melancholy and passion as the plot of P.S.I. Love you.
The ending did it for me. It holds the same values as I do. Just because we (LGBTQIA+ people) can get married must we? It is a comp-het view of a relationship's endgame, Thouhg Oliver claims not to immerse with a lot of gay culture I would say he represents an average LGBT+ person: respecting the important parts of our history whilst dipping his toe in and trying to question the parts of him that might be a product of misunderstanding family/parents.
Overall, Hall managed to write a magnificent piece that broke tropes, made me chuckle aloud with laughter at 1 o'clock in the morning (as it was thoroughly hard to put down), and made me shed a tear for the empathy formed towards the characters. As well as the sentiments shared between characters such as Oliver and Christopher when they have a 'my life is worse' arguement (it felt like the Monty Python's four yorkshiremen sketch- obviously I have Python's on the brain), in a realistic way as many sibling communication in novels and movies and television are not accurate to a often clashing sibling relationship.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from #netgalley , thank you. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this eARC of Husband Material. All opinions are my own!

So let's just start with the disclaimer that in my eyes, Alexis Hall can do no wrong. His writing consistently surprises me and his tendency to be quite prolific means I am reading a new AJH book practically every few months, which is just wonderfully fine and dandy with me. What I especially love about Husband Material is that it's just not what you think it's going to be (at least, it wasn't what I thought it was going to be). It's easy, in a second book of a series, to make the characters go through the same gestures and for us as readers to carry our own expectations for characters with us into the next book. And Luc and Oliver are certainly still the same essential people they were when they found each other in Boyfriend Material. But the way that they keep growing as a couple, reexamining their individual values, and pondering what that means for them as a couple once the whirlwind romance bits are over are deep and moving in a way I hadn't expected. Because what does it mean to be with the love of your life? Does life stop for you? Around you? Of course not! And Husband Material perfectly shows the ways that couples need to grow and react in response to the completely unexpected being thrown into their lives and how they keep learning and growing from each other as well.

As usual, the writing is everything at once: funny, poignant, and delightfully queer. Another winner, and the fact that there will be a third "London Calling" book? Love it even more!

In the second installment from Hall's London Calling series, we find Luc and Oliver 2 years down the road from their fake dating scheme. Surrounded by weddings, of both friends and foes, Luc is left having an existential crisis of what his and Oliver's relationship is supposed to look like.

In this adorable follow -up to 2020's Boyfriend Material, I felt like I was reuniting with old friends. Boyfriend Material was one of my favorites from a year when everything felt like it was falling apart. Watching Luc and Oliver fall apart and then find their happily ever after was something that was needed when the world was on fire. With romance series, we don't often get to see the after of happily ever after. To find out that Oliver and Luc are still this slightly odd puzzle, one might say a Moomin puzzle, is reassuring that the rest of us aren't just weirdos struggling through our not quite perfect, perfect relationships.

Husband Material was a delight. Luc has grown so much and was so relatable, though I'm very much more of an Oliver. I liked this book more than Boyfriend Material, if possible, so this sequel does something than few sequels do by exceling the first book. and who doesn't love a good twist on a classic British rom com? Alexis Hall is prolific and spectacular author. Thank goodness there is a whole backlog of books to read to fill the void until their next publication!

It’s been two years since their relationship started as a fake dating situation in Boyfriend Material, and Lucien and Oliver are still in love. And, well, they are getting to that age when all of their friends start tying the knot.

The James Royce-Royces now have a child. Bridget and Tom are all set for their wedding (one of the four in this book). Miles, the ex that sold Luc out to the tabloids, makes a reappearance here with his much younger fiancé (wedding 2). And Alex and Miffy have been engaged—well, Alex can’t exactly remember how long—but it’s time for them to get married, as well, he supposes (wedding 3). As for Oliver and Lucien, perhaps it’s that time for them, too. With such a spread of couples approaching their nuptials, Alexis Hall serves up weddings spanning a variety of styles and traditions (or, in some cases, eschewing of traditions).

Meanwhile, amidst all of this wedding hubbub, someone dies, so we get a funeral added to the mix.

Oh my heart, this book. It has the quips and the irreverent British humor. It has the truly terrific tilt-a-whirl of being privy to Luc’s thoughts. (I truly do adore that chaos Muppet.) It has Lucien being all Lucien; and Oliver being all Oliver (my favorite stern brunch daddy); and Lucien and Oliver being all Lucien and Oliver together. (I love them.)

It has laugh-out-loud moments coupled with a roller coaster of emotions. It has surprising insight from surprising sources. And at its heart, it has those two men—who seem like opposites in so very many ways and have such different upbringings that shaped them—who just work together.

Alexis Hall, in typical Alexis Hall fashion, masters that balance between humor and something deeper, and while many parts had me laughing out loud, plenty had me thinking and pondering and contemplating.

There are questions of identity and of defining yourself in relation to others; about social constructs and how they relate to you (and you to them); and about what outer influences you have internalized. There are opportunities for healing and growth and plenty of freakout moments, too.

Read Boyfriend Material first, and then dive back into the world of those beloved characters in Alexis Hall’s Husband Material.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for a review copy of the book. Review opinions are my own.

Making this review without going into spoiler territory is going to prove hard, but I’ll try my best.

Husband Material has been a real rollercoaster of a read for me. It pretty much has all the ingredients that made me love Boyfriend Material, and the first half of the book felt a bit like going back to that book, I really enjoyed it.

However, I felt that the second half of the story dragged a bit and was at times repetitive. Even though I found there was a lot of food for thought and the conflict didn’t lack realism, everything got a bit dense and heavy in a way I wasn’t expecting and there came a point when I felt that the characters were going in circles.

The resolution was quite fitting given how the story was going and I liked the fact that it went that route, but the execution and the abrupt ending didn’t feel satisfying. An extra chapter or an epilogue would have worked wonders in that regard, in my opinion.

All in all, it was an interesting read that illustrates really well the fact that people are complicated, and it made me laugh, think and shed a few tears, even though the conflict and the brusque ending didn’t feel as rewarding as I would have liked.

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca for approving my request for this ARC via Netgalley

A simple follow up book to Boyfriend Material, exploring the same characters but with new dynamics and ideas behind it in a stage of life where everyone’s getting married. The characterisation and continuity from the first book was clear and thoroughly enjoyable, and the plot was well thought out but felt lack lustre in the ending. Overall quite enjoyable.

*Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca via NetGalley for the ARC*

Ok.

Let’s start with the premise of Husband Material. Luc and Oliver’s story gets picked up after 2 seemingly stable years of dating, during a time when weddings are popping up like bubbles in a freshly cracked can of pop. The couple decide it’s time to jump on the marriage train and thus wedding preparation begins, but not before they attend a couple of weddings (and a funeral) themselves, comparing notes and ideas and disagreements along the way.

Ok now here’s my initial review for the first 5 chapters/sampler:

I'm wary of sequels, especially when it follows a book I absolutely loved. There's the matter of your beloved characters staying true to themselves and the author writing in the same style. Also, will the plot be just as engaging as the first? Will it give me those butterfly feelings again? The bar is "too damn high" meme.
So far, Husband Material seems promising. Luc, Oliver, and company are still the same yet there's definitely growth so it doesn't feel stagnant. I don't want to write too much since I haven't read enough but I will say, each time another chapter break came, I was disappointed because I was that much closer to getting to the end of the sample. I can't wait for release in August and will definitely update more then.

TLDR: super promising, enjoyed it very much, loved the character growth although they’ve still got the same *~essence~*, loved it and living for the pub date!

Now that I’ve read Husband Material in it’s entirety, my first thought is…what the actual?!? I feel like I’ve been bamboozled and the first 5 chapters were a bait and switch for the rest of the story. Look I totally had to pad this review before having to get to the actual book because it physically pains me to do so. I love Hall’s work! I’ve obviously read Boyfriend Material (l loved this book! Like Christina Lauren’s blurb ON Husband Material [why there?!?]), the first 2 spires books (also loved), and Rosie Palmer (again loved!). Husband Material? Didn’t love. Barely liked honestly. I’m sorry. It was way too chaotic. So many dilemmas that take Luc and Oliver away from each other physically, then emotionally, then almost romantically?! I totally understand the strain of wedding planning as well as the heavier topics such as “gender-essentialism/homophobia, identity politics, queer iconography, false consciousness” amongst other things that I’m not smart enough to repeat. I just felt like the fucking rainbow arch and constant round and round were a tad much. I wanted to love this book, desperately so, but I’ll still highly recommend and reread Boyfriend Material and pretend their HEA ends there. 3/5 cause Hall’s writing has that je ne sais quoi and there are tons of funny moments but HM was too chaotic and repetitive for me to even boost to a 3.5. I’m so sorry. I feel like a traitor but I too feel betrayed. Excuse me while I go lift my spirits with my own Bomb Pop.

Edited to add: I do hope that those who can relate more closely to Luc & Oliver can find a better connection to their sequel in Husband Material!

Parts of this book were fun and/or moving. Parts were bloody exhausting. Unfortunately, for me, the exhausting parts towered hugely over the enjoyable parts.

I feel like this book is built to be enjoyable under a very specific set of conditions:
a) You enjoy non-stop wedding-related drama.
b) You have watched and loved the classic romcoms of the 90s and 00s, specifically Pretty Woman and anything from the Richard Curtis oeuvre, more specifically Love Actually and MOST specifically Four Weddings and a Funeral, and would deeply love a queer spin on the latter.
c) Based on the first book, you are already deeply invested in these characters.

I think I’m around a 1.5 out of 3 on those conditions? I’m often bored by wedding drama plots and prefer them to be minimal fuss in fiction and in life (my favourite on-screen wedding is Andy and April’s in Parks & Rec, lol). I do love those classic romcoms, problematic aspects notwithstanding. I liked the characters, though they didn’t leave a massive impression (which is why I reread the first book). I’d even recently (unrelatedly) rewatched Four Weddings and a Funeral, so I was about as ideally primed for the continuation of Luc & Oliver’s relationship journey and for a big queer FW&AF homage as someone who’s just not hugely bothered about weddings could ever be.

And it started out good. The writing was witty and sharp as ever, with lots of laugh-out-loud moments. The homagey bits sometimes got a bit much (whole pages of Love Actually discussions and lots of quote-based banter) but they were full of love and snark for the source, and mostly they were fun. The interpersonal conflicts brought on first by wedding attendance and then by wedding preparations were handled with Hall’s usual deftness, authenticity, and beautiful emotional insight. There were some really achy and lovely conversations between the main characters that grew out of realising they think very differently about what a wedding should be, and what that means for them individually and as a couple.

My personal favourite was probably the Funeral part and the painful emotional fallout from that. In the midst of a book that was by its very nature full of Big Drama and manic exuberance, that part felt like a little oasis of breathing space where, in the midst of this confused, achey, angry, grieving sadness, the characters created this lovely, complex unity of mutual support, honesty, and tenderness. I loved that, and it felt like the most authentic moment in the book for both of them.

But then… it all kind of got too much. I grew tired of the weddings, and the wedding-related shenanigans. I had already grown tired of some of the jokes, like the fact that the James Royce-Royces just continue to be reduced to the fact that they share the same name, which always has to be spelled out in full, to the point where I still can’t tell who they actually are as people beyond a one-note joke. I especially grew tired of the back and forth of wedding-planning, the constant stupid fights over it, and how every single one of them seemed to bring Luc and Oliver into relationship-questioning territory. I can appreciate some of the character development associated with it, like Oliver struggling with what it means that he feels alienated by LGBTQIA+ iconography, and Luc feeling alienated by that. But there came a point where it felt like they’d had the same conversation about three bloody dozen times. And maybe that’s realistic, and probably that’s shit that comes up during wedding planning. IDK. I like elopements. But it also leaned really heavily into the tired cliché that all wedding planning has to be stressful and awful and relationship-threatening. I wasn’t here for it, and it felt like it went on way too long.

I also felt like the side characters were neither as present nor as layered and lovely as in the first book; they basically only feature as props for wedding drama. Also, the (previously established) choice to fade to black with sex scenes brought me farther away from the characters, as it’s always been clear that physical intimacy is a large part of these two’s emotional connection, and not having that on page (while I understand the choice) does feel like a shortcoming to me.

It still would have been a three-star book. An Alexis Hall book that I’m not 100% loving still tends to be a thoroughly enjoyable thing. But then came the ending. And… well. I hated it? I hated it a lot. I didn’t hate it as much as my most-hated wedding plot ever – that questionable honour still goes to Hell’s Bells in season six of Buffy – but it came astoundingly, appallingly close.

SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING.
Part of the problem was the timing. The Final Drama starts at the 95% mark, at which point I was genuinely sure we were over the drama. I guess given how heavily this is based on Four Weddings, I should have been prepared for it, but I wasn’t, or at least not (and this is the larger part of the issue) for the stupid, stupid way it went down. Honestly, by that point – where at 95%, the main character freaks the fuck out because he’s finally realised he doesn’t actually want to get married, then decides he has to go through with it anyway for his fiancé’s sake, then freaks the fuck out at the fiancé for telling him he also doesn’t want to get married – I was over them as a couple. If you realise, the night before your wedding, that marriage is not what you want, but you somehow fail to see that there is another option beyond gritting your teeth and enduring it anyway or leaving your man at the altar, and that you can ACTUALLY STILL HAVE A GODDAMN HONEST CONVERSATION WITH THE PERSON YOU LOVE, and also, then, if you finally – on your wedding day – realise that BOTH of you don’t want to get married but somehow still fail to understand, at the 99% mark (yes), that a) finally having that honest conversation, albeit quite late, is not equivalent to anyone being left at the altar, and b) not getting married doesn’t have to mean breaking up… I am just not capable of rooting for your dumb arses anymore. If for the umpteenth time in a book, you are once again having a fight that makes you question whether you should even be together (again, these are the very final few pages of the book), then… yeah, IDK, should you? You’re making a pretty good case for why maybe you shouldn’t.

Wedding-specific issues aside, it just felt like after two books, they've still somehow not learned to communicate/compromise properly, which was demonstrated over and over in this book, like, surely there are decor/music options that actually do suit both of them but it's always like "your thing and my thing are different things, oh no, should we break up??" instead of exploring things that work for both of you. The super-sudden, super-stupid 180 at the end just kind of cements that they've ended up in possibly a less healthy place than the end of the second book. I don't care that they're not getting married (after everything about the book was marketed that way, lol), but I don't appreciate being left with a sour taste and the impression that the characters have actually, ultimately, regressed rather than grown as a couple.

So yeah. It feels very much a YMMV book. I have no doubt that heaps of people are going to love it. Me, I came away from it exhausted, tense, and genuinely pissed off, so… I guess I’ll just go and reread the Prosperity books instead.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I honestly don't know how to review this book. On the one hand, it's not the least enjoyable book I've ever read. On the other hand, it's a massive disappointment as a sequel and also as another confusingly mediocre book by an author I considered a favorite.

The thing is, Husband Material doesn't feel like a romance to me. I loved Boyfriend Material and was open to exploring how that HFN could become an HEA for Luc and Oliver, but I'm not walking away from this book feeling like this is actually ABOUT Luc and Oliver. Proportionately they don't spend all that much time together on page. Their relationship is more the device that's used to tie together a series of random wedding- and (spoiler) funeral-related vignettes that were varyingly successful on their own. I'm not sure they succeed as a whole.

The story is divided into five parts, and to discuss them I have to include blatant spoilers. Skip this paragraph if you don't want to be spoiled. Parts 1 through 3 focus on weddings of characters who are not Luc and Oliver. This was fine, and if the entire book had proceeded as a haphazard but cute collection of short stories featuring characters we know and love from BM I probably would have felt overall more positive than I currently do. Parts 4 and 5 decided, for reasons I cannot fathom, to be drama. In Part 4, Oliver's father dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. I guess it's supposed to be a vehicle for something character-development-y for Oliver but it just didn't feel necessary. Oliver is hard enough on himself without adding grief-driven guilt and self-doubt into the mix. In Part 5, Luc and Oliver are supposed to be getting married...and they are both miserable. They fight all the time and almost break up, then at zero hour both of them realize they don't actually want to be married. Just committed life partners. Which seems like something they should have realized and discussed at any point before the day of the wedding, maybe? I think it would have paid off much better if Luc and Oliver had spent any of the rest of the book working through their beliefs and prejudices about the institution of marriage TOGETHER, instead of separately panicking, terrorizing each other, and then finding a magical solution in the last two pages. The author may have been trying to challenge the cisheteronormative assumption that HEA = marriage (which should absolutely be challenged!), but the handling of it lacks the deftness that this author has historically been capable of.

Husband Material as a novel unto itself ends up feeling pointless. It doesn't add anything to Luc and Oliver's story that I couldn't live without. I'm not saying you should avoid it...if you're a devoted fan and want to spend more time with them, there are some adorable vignettes that could be worth reading. If you're wary of sequels and want to preserve the magic that is Boyfriend Material, I think you could skip this one.

4.5 Stars!

Expect the unexpected.

If you have read Boyfriend Material, you already know how quirky, fun, and chaotic Luc and Oliver can be. Diving back into their world was a joy, and seeing them two years later was delightful.

There’s a lot that goes on in this book, and readers will have a full range of emotions to go through. Life is really not all rainbows and perfect endings. But this book did feel true to its characters.

I really think that challenging the way we think HEA’s “should” happen is very reasonable. And for the most part, romance readers are on the path there (HEA’s don’t need a baby to be happy/etc). I do wish there was more communication between Luc and Oliver, but over all this story feels right, especially how the author has been representing these two since their first book.