This book was interesting and very well-written. I would likely want to read more from this author and will recommend this to friends.

“I don’t want fine. Fine isn’t enough. Isn’t not about the open fire or whatever other clichés you can conjure up, but yes, I want a connection. I want you to care as much as I care. I want you to need it and want it and mean it. I want it to matter.”

I had a hard time reading this novel. Not that it's not great or entertaining, but it for me it felt occasionally confusing and far too long. And that ending? Uff.

I adored how cute Luc and Oliver are and how supportive they are of each other. Having meltdowns, insecurities and questioning life is hard enough, but when you have your partner with you, life gets better and more tolerable haha. Overall it was adorable, funny and much more than relationships based on spice. And I did like Alexis writing style. Secondary characters were enjoyable too. Luc's mom? haha, she is funny and tells whatever is on her mind. So yes, there were truly fun and lovely moments in this book, but I was not captivated enough to love it.

Thank you to Alexis Hall, publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts are my own and left voluntarily.

Husband Material was an absolute delight!

I laughed, I cried, my heart broke, and I was just utterly captivated from start to finish. Alexis has such a wonderful writing style, and brings such beautifully faceted characters to life. Luc and Oliver own a piece of my heart.

DNF 50%. I just found the second installment extremely boring & the characters completely different. Why are they having these arguments 2 years into their relationship?

This wasn't a very easy book for me to get into and I loved the Boyfriend Material. I'm not saying it's a bad book, it just wasn't for me and I had trouble finishing it.

Thank you #Netgalley for providing me with an early read of #husbandmaterial

I can't say much good about this book. There were great moments of humor and heart, but there were far more moments that felt like a lot like pointless nothing. There was no balance in the pacing or storytelling. If I'm honest, I didn't feel like there was much of a story at all—certainly not over four hundred pages' worth. I could see the end coming from the start, but I kept hoping the book would prove me wrong. I hated that was the way the author took the story. It was insulting how far we were supposed to suspend our disbelief on seventy percent of things that happened in the book, only to have an ending that was supposed to "feel authentic and real to the characters." Instead of the end feeling real, it just felt like a lecture to the audience and a slap in the face to the fans. I truly wish I had not read this. I could've gone on loving Luc and Oliver from Boyfriend Material in peace, but here we are.

I was so excited for this follow up to Boyfriend Material but left feeling disappointed. I think that Luc and Oliver had their HEA in Boyfriend Material and adding extra conflict into their relationship didn't fit. I know that there's a third book for them coming out and I probably will not be picking it up.

I did not finish this book. I did not really like it at all and was really sad it was a follow up to a book I really liked. I couldn't stand the fighting that seemed pointless, I couldn't stand Luc's attitudes towards Oliver at times and I thought pacing wise it just didn't work. Really sad to rate this so lowly, but I couldn't get myself to finish this.

I love Luc and Oliver. This is a perfect romcom for those who are wanting hilarious and ridicoulous hijinks that could only happen in Luc's world. But apart from that, there is a tenderness and realness to the characters that go beyond just the craziness. I love how the author shows real texting and speech patterns and how love is messy, but true.
If you enjoyed Boyfriend Material, you'll LOVE this next installment!

Oh man was I glad to be back with Oliver and Luc! I had missed them. Wished this book had more steam but it was still great being back in this world.

A complimentary e-book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I borrowed the audio from my library and base my review on that edition.

This installment did not work for me. I enjoyed book 1, see review here, so I don't understand what happened! There was just way too much filler "story" going on to make me care.

Luc running in to his Ex who is engaged and invites Luc to the wedding. Really? Why is Luc even debating going? They are not friends! I'd go so far as to say they are enemies with the way the Ex treated Luc. And there was ALL THE DRAMA around Bridget and her wedding, hunting down her fiancé [ whom she suspected was cheating on her and they call together a hunting party to find/spy on him. WTH? Seriously. What. The. Hell? I get that it was supposed to be funny and we were all going to laugh when the truth is revealed - he wasn't cheating, he was protecting a witness or something since he is a secret agent. Insert Eye Roll Here. But I didn't laugh, or if I did, it was because it was so stupid (hide spoiler)].

Then all the drama between Luc and Oliver leading up to their big day. Frankly, I skipped MOST of the story because I was bored and didn't care, and felt it was unnecessary drama for just DRAMTIC purposes and added no value to the characters or their story. This shouldn't have been a full novel if there wasn't enough material to write it, which clearly there wasn't. This could have been a simple, short story and it literally could have still ended the way it did. Take out all the CRAP, you have the SAME ENDING!

There appear to be 2 more books coming?!?!?! Unless something dramatic happens to make me think those will be better, I won't continue the series.

I cannot say I recommend this however if you read book 1 and enjoyed you, you will likely read this because it continues their story. Just know that you've been warned book 2 is NOT book 1. It may have actually soured me towards book 1.

Since I listened to the audio I will comment that the narration was good and added some animation and interest to an otherwise ridiculous and dreary tale. In the few comedic moments that I actually laughed at as the author intended, he nailed it, and I liked those parts.

[There is a scene where Bridget is wearing a borrowed wedding gown (long story) and it has like a mile long train, a mother saved her kid from being eaten by the monster train of the borrowed gown.

Long Story Short: They forgot to bring her wedding dress, so they had to borrow one. And who did they borrow one from? Why, the owner of the property to where they are holding the wedding, which is a new location because the church burned down.

And the owner of the dress volunteering she had been wed in the nude in the 60s, with flowers, though I don't remember if it was specified where the flowers were on her person, and that nudity, flowers, the outdoors, and bugs DON'T mix. Those two scenes I found funny, and a few minor scenes throughout the book, but they were limited. (hide spoiler)]

I am a fan of Alexis Hall but this one did not work for me. :(

Story 1 star
Narration 4.5 stars

DNF'ed at 53%.

I tried. I REALLLLLY tried. I attempted this on audio and as a physical read. After 26 days, it's time to throw in the towel. I just don't care for this book and that hurts to admit because Boyfriend Material was a favorite of mine in 2021 - I gave it five stars! Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I wanted Luc and Oliver. Not their friends. Not their families. I WANTED THEIR STORY. "Husband Material" is anything but.

Boyfriend Material was one of my favorite romances of all time, so I was so excited to pick back up with Luc and Oliver's story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. There were the typical hijinks we came to expect from the first book and lots of LOL moments. Luc was being a bit of an ungrateful twat for part of the book but that was pretty typical for his character. I was proud of Oliver for finally standing up for himself as well. The book also gave some classic British romcom vibes with Love Actually references and a Four Weddings and a Funeral plot. The ending did feel a bit rushed for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing if there is a third book to build out Luc and Oliver's future even more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was so, SO excited for Husband Material after completely devouring Boyfriend Material after its publication in 2019. That being said, I was not prepared to the sequel to be both underwhelming and disappointing.

Five-star romance novels are a rarity for me, however Boyfriend Material had all the right things to make it an exception: heartbreaking, raw and REAL, funny, romantic, and really just all-encompassing of a great romance novel. Husband Material took all of these things and completely crushed them to smithereens.

All in all, Husband Material was EXHAUSTING. It took me over a month to read simply because it took so much effort to drag my eyes across the page. All of the character development from Luc and Oliver in their debut seemed to disappear: they spent the majority of this novel bickering, misunderstanding each other, and not growing together (as you would expect a long term couple to do).

What I loved so much about Boyfriend Material was how complex both Luc and Oliver were, and yet they were able to figure things out and work hard to be together. None of this development shines in Husband Material, as we just see more of the same (Luc acting like an awful narcissist, Oliver acting eager to please and overly formal). This isn't to say I was expecting both of their characters' flaws to have simply solved themselves in the two year pan between novels. But I WAS expecting at least some growth (which, at this point, feels bare minimum). I found it extremely difficult to continue to care about ANY of these characters and the plot. The reader was dragged through meaningless weddings that didn't do much except expand the gaps in Luc and Oliver's relationship. (Maybe that was the point?)

The cherry on top had to be the ending, in which Luc and Oliver decide that, while neither of them are fit for marriage, they still want to be together. This leads them to skip out on their own wedding and... THE END! We're left with these two running off together to presumably continue to be miserable and insufferable. We could not have even gotten another chapter to wrap things up?!

All in all, I really wish this sequel didn't exist so as to tarnish its predecessor. In the meantime, I'm willing to forget it exists in order to enjoy a brilliant first novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this sequel to Boyfriend Material, and the characters are as loveable as ever. I found the pacing of it and where it brought emphasis to be a little disappointing. I thought the ending would have worked better had it come slightly earlier and been a bigger focus. As it is, I didn't totally see how we got to the ending that we did, and I wished it had made more sense in the context of everything that came before.

This was a good, but at times frustrating, book. I loved Boyfriend Material but this one fell a little short in comparison although it still had enjoyable moments. I felt like the book was constantly going in circles and was a bit repetitive. I plan to still read the rest of the series since I love the characters, but I don't feel like it added a whole lot to the story.

Husband Material is the continuation of Lucien and Oliver's love story that we were introduced to in Boyfriend Material.

I thoroughly enjoyed Boyfriend Material in all of it's silly and romantic trope-ness. I can't say the same for Husband Material. It felt like the same thing over and over again. A fight...a make up...a fight...a make up. Lucien was also pretty insufferable. Oliver should have ran for the hills.

I was given this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This had some laugh out loud moments. But it just wasn’t as good as the first. I don’t think it was necessary to have a second book. I’m a bit disappointed. I absolutely loved the first and it was nice to have the same banter and the jokes that one character still never understand. But it seemed like a lot of unnecessary drama and not enough spice or anything real happening. I wanted more depth to this one.

This book had a few too many plot lines going on, and served as a rather unenthusiastic sequel to Boyfriend Material. Hardly any of the loose ends were tied up, and the ending ruined all the character development this far.

100% Honesty here, I think reading Red, White, and Royal Blue first ruined this book for me. I just couldn't get into it. What I did read of it was good, and I like the book for its LGBTQ+ representation, but I think other books ruined my true enjoyment of this one.