Alexis Hall IS my reading taste. The end.

No, not really. That isn't the end and I'm so glad the first book in this series wasn't the end because this was everything I never knew I needed. I typically do not enjoy contemporary romance novels that follow the same couple throughout. I usually prefer following different couples throughout series, but Alexis has proven to me in his Billionaire series that he can pull it off and it is no different when it comes to this book.

I think the thing I loved the most about this book and following this couple two years after they have already gotten together, is how realistic the growing pains in their relationship are (is? What is grammar?)

Two years is both a long time, and it's not for relationships, and this book shows that so well. You see how comfortable and in love Oliver and Luc are, yet they are still getting to know each other and there are still new things in their relationship that they are exploring... like living together.

The characters were just as charming as ever and I fell so hard in love with both of them the more the book went on.

And as for the ending... I'll just say that not many authors could pull this off, but somehow Alexis has.

Thanks to @dreamscape_media and @netgalley for access to this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I listened to Boyfriend Material on audiobook when it came out and loved it (5⭐️) so Husband Material was one of my lost anticipated reads this year.

It was a pleasure to spend more time with all of these characters: Luc and Oliver of course, but the friend group, Luc's mom as well as Luc's zany coworkers - all were so funny. Add to that the narration of Joe Jameson doing all their voices, and the hours flew by.

I loved the format, continuing the 90s rom-come homage from book 1. I went into this blind so I was delighted when i realized the movie reference. 😃^💡
I think I even said "Ohhhhhhhh"
out loud, which caused a little confusion as my husband didn't know I had headphones on and wasn't watching tv with him.

There was a lot of tension (not always the sexy kind) between Oliver and Luc and that was more challenging for me. I can't say it was always the most enjoyable to listen to, but it did feel very true to what I went through after the two year mark in a few relationships. That said, those conflicts did result in some very sweet moments.

Overall, despite some of the heavier moments, this was overall a good read and I was happy to join Luc and friends for a few more adventures. 4⭐️

Steam 🔥
Banter 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣
Swoon 💕💕💕

I loved Boyfriend Material, so I was almost guaranteed to love Husband Material and I was not disappointed by this sequel. There were many times when a laughed out loud - Alexis Hall is a hilarious writer, and to date, I have loved everything that I have read by them.

There were a few instances where I found the narrative got too repetitive, particularly Luc and Oliver's main source of conflict throughout the novel. And this conflict was easily resolved with one conversation at the end, and this felt a bit lackluster to me. I may have been more frustrated with the repetition had not the fabulous Joe Jameson been narrating. Joe Jameson is a phenomenal audiobook narrator and he really made Husband Material come alive. Everything was funnier with Jameson's narration and I could just listen to him for hours!

I can't wait to see what's next from Alexis Hall!

"Wanted:
One (very real) husband
Nowhere near perfect but desperately trying his best"

Loved the narration by Joe Jameson. I loved listening to all the accents for them, their friends and coworkers.

I love all the weddings in this book and all the funny happenings that happen on the way and at the weddings. The four weddings and a funeral vibe and all the 80s/90s references was perfect for me. Everything was so quick!

I loved how many times that Luc would internally say don't ask it or don't say it and he would ask it and then get the exact ridiculous answer that he expected. Maybe not what he expected but ridiculous just the same.

So many different tough subjects touched on and done very well. I think I will be thinking in an accent for awhile.

Such a delightful week spent in London with Oliver and Lucien.

Thank you sourcebookscasa and dreamscape_media for the goodreads win! And the ALC for my honest and voluntary review.

✨ Luc needs a fake boyfriend to boost his image, so he strikes a deal with Oliver. In book 2, we have LOTS and LOTS of Weddings.

💥These are 2 characters I can get behind. Both completely opposite and flawed. And while this is a riff on Bridget Jones' diary, I love the characters just as much. These books made me feel good, even while discussing issues like self image and parental effect. It's exactly the kind of summer romances I like to read!

My face at the end: 🤓

🍪 I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to @netgalley and Dreamscape Media for allowing me to read this ahead of publication.

💯 For more details on the books we read, be sure to follow me on TikTok (@zaineylaney). I will give you a list of reasons to read! Or listen to our podcast, Elated Geek, wherever you subscribe.

Thank you to @dreamscape_media @netgalley for the ALC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts…
👐🏼Happily Ever After, After Happpily Ever After…I can’t even! The same narrator as book 1 “The Boyfriend Material” and #joejameson was again brilliant! When Oliver Blackwood said “Lucien” it was sexy AF 🔥 it made me want to change my name! And #alexishall is such a great writer who got me hooked from start to finish. Read book 1 first,then go straight to book 2, because it’s just a great series. I appreciated the theme of “what happens after HEA?” The characters leapt out of the page with their emotional struggles and thoughts. The way Luke was totally in his head, you just wanted to shake him and tell him to get out of his head was written and narrated so well! I can’t say more or I’ll give it away. Just get it. It deserves all the 👐🏼 jazz hands!

Alexis Hall has again given us an entertaining romance that takes its readers wholly along for the ride. Here Lucienne and Oliver are approaching the next step in the evolution of their relationship as well as their friends and not-friends, though there was some expectation of following their friends into matrimony without fully assessing whether it was right for them.

I appreciated the fact that both our MCs were given a chance to explore and face the less than attractive facets of their personalities and characteristics, and while there were dramatic reactions, there were also moments of open communicative interactions.

Even as much as I enjoyed the shenanigans of Luc and his friends, I did feel as if certain plot points were drawn out and a few were contrived. Though they did not impact in any way the enjoyment.

Biased because Hall is one of my favourite authors, but I’m seriously starting to think they can’t write a bad book.

Husband Material was a great read, I absolutely loved Boyfriend Material so it was awesome to be able to revisit Luc and Oliver and their world. Just as good as the first novel, Husband Material delves further into love and it was just so delightful to read.

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

As far as sequels go, this one was decent! I still absolutely adore Luc and Oliver, but I was left feeling slightly meh about this one. For one, this book seemed incredibly long. Second, I got tired of the constant bickering between the two of them. From the time that passed from book one, I was hoping for a slight improvement in their communication…

Despite these complaints, I still found the book charming and entertaining. I love the mix of friends and family, and I constantly smiled and laughed. If you liked the first, you definitively have to give this one a shot. And don’t forget, we’re getting book three!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

This book made me really wonder why there aren’t more romance novels with direct sequels! I loved getting to follow up with Luc and Oliver as they progress later into their relationship, following their hilarious fake-dating hijinks in Boyfriend Material. While this book had a more serious tone at points, it was still packed with humor, and the sweet romance that made me fall for Oliver and Luc in the first place. After finishing Husband Material, I find myself wishing that more authors would write direct sequels for romance novels, following the original protagonists as their happily-ever-after turns into a long-term relationship.

As with the audiobook for Boyfriend Material, I adored Joe Jameson’s narration. He has the perfect British disaster boyfriend voice for Luc’s overall narration and his voices for the other characters were spot-on! I am so glad that I had the privilege of reviewing both the books in this series as audiobooks because they were such fun to listen to!

My Recommendation-
If you love fun queer romance novels, you need to grab copies of Boyfriend Material and Husband Material as soon as you can! I would especially recommend this series to fans of Red, White and Royal Blue, and Heartstopper!

This was every bit as fun to read as Boyfriend Material. Luc and Oliver are two years into the relationship and surrounded by friends and exes getting married. I enjoyed seeing the growth of both characters. I found the ending very satisfying, even if I wish there had been an epilogue.

This is the second in the London Calling series, and I re-read Boyfriend Material right before I started this one, just so I could get a double dose of Luc and Oliver.

All around them everyone seems to be getting married. As they attend wedding after wedding (all of them drastically different) Luc starts to wonder if that should be him and Oliver. But is that the right thing for the two of them?

I adore both Luc and Oliver and loved getting to know them even better in this book. Plus the supporting characters are all absolute gold, and I wish I could meet Luc’s mum in real life.

This story has hilarious moments (like the unintentional group break and enter on the way to one of the weddings), but it’s also full of harder topics too. Oliver has a very complex, and not always healthy, relationship with his parents, and Luc’s relationship with his estranged father is tenuous at best. There are mental health issues, questions of identity, parental death, and other serious topics dealt with in the book, but all done in what I found to be a sensitive way that acknowledged the complexity of each.

I don’t feel ready to say goodbye to any of these characters just yet.

If you haven’t read the first book, Boyfriend Material, I recommend you read that first.

I found myself so drawn to the audio because Joe Jameson’s narration is just so wonderful. He also narrated Boyfriend Material too. The audio comes in at 13 hours 35 minutes.

Sometimes books don’t need sequels and that’s how I feel about this book. The first book was AMAZING. This was meh for me. I spent the whole time being like “ok when are they breaking up…?” It seemed one problem after another and it wasn’t really entertaining. After a while, I was just reading to find out what happened but I wasn’t as invested in Luc and Oliver as I was in the first book.

Husband Material is a wonderfully endearing follow up to Boyfriend Material. Picking up a couple years after the first book ended, it follows Luc and Oliver take the next steps in their relationship. This book is the messy bits after the happily ever after without just shipping to the epilogue. It’s endearing and charming and filled with some laugh-out-loud funny moments. But it’s also hard and real. I did want more of Oliver in this book. This follows Luc too in a sea of weddings he’s going to and it felt very centric to him, and the romantic moments with Oliver were so sweet, I did want more of that. In that same vein though, I adore the side characters. Luc’s coworkers really make me laugh, and his friends are so original and wonderful. They’re just a group you want to hang out with and they love so thoroughly, it’s so kind and heartwarming to read. I also wanted a little more growth from Luc—Oliver seems to have done a ton of work on himself since book 1 and Luc still feels really lost in the self deprecation. I also just really adore Oliver and his broodiness and kindness. It’s really sweet. This book is heartwarming and the ending I think is super fitting for the characters. Husband Materials is really endearing and charming and it was just a pleasure to read this book.

We pick up 2 years after the first book and our favorite couple is still together. As all their friends start getting married and having kids, they can't help but feel like they need to progress on that path as well. But as they start the wedding process they find themselves arguing more than they are excited about their nuptials. Can they get through the stress of a wedding? Or will the pressure to fit into societal norms break them.

While I enjoyed this book, I didn't think it held up to the first book. It felt a little repetitive and whiny. It was a lot of miscommunication (or failure to communicate altogether) which just isn't my trope of choice. We do get a lot of access to the beloved secondary characters. Luc's mom, co-workers and friends bring the comedic relief while Oliver's family packs the drama. I appreciated the plot of not feeling like you ned to fit into societal norms and doing what is right for you, but when the title include the term Husband, you kind of assume their gonna end up at the alter. It really bummed me out that this HEA was kind of an HEA but also not one.

After falling in love with Luc and Oliver's story in book one I was interested in where we go from there. I wasn't disappointed. Husband Material was so refreshing because it was whimsical and fun while still a great read about a maturing relationship. The struggles weren't just Luc being self-conscious or self-destructive, it was about identity and understanding. And I love an ending with a twist! I am here for their ending because it made so much sense for who they both are. It felt authentic and real. I fell even more in love with all of these characters and I'm already planning a reread.
Audiobook-wise, the narration is fantastic! They really captured each person's voice and now when I read a physical copy I'll always hear Luc's snarky sarcasm and I love it!

Husband material is book 2 of the London Calling series by Alexis Hall. It’s a sequel to the rom-com Boyfriend Material.

I believe the first matter to comment on is that I did not have the pleasure of reading the first book in the series and therefore didn’t know Luc and Oliver when starting this novel.

It was obvious that after two years of being together Luc and Oliver are very comfortable with each other, but watching everyone around them getting married affects Luc and causes too much fighting between them. Which led to some frustration given that I wasn’t invested in the couple in the first place.

I liked the performance done by the narrator, but I think that in order to get the full effect I should have read book 1 first. In other words, this doesn't easily read like a standalone.

Overall though I did smile, laugh and swoon. The writing was great and I will now go back to read book 1 and then re-read this one to get the best enjoyment

This book made me snort laugh out loud more times than I can count 😂. Hall writes this sharp-tongued witty banter with a dash of self deprecation that I am 100% here for. Boyfriend Material and Husband Material are now among my favorite audiobooks❤️🎧📚.
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While the first book centered around the fake dating trope with some enemies to lovers mixed in, this book is essentially Four Weddings and a Funeral. Luc and Oliver are feeling all the pressure to join their quirky friends in the race to the alter. After 2.5 years together, they are committed to staying and working through their differences. But what will their HEA look like?
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The characters are sarcastic and sometimes crass, funny but relatable. This is a story about dealing with trauma, and finding a way to move forward as your authentic self. The characters also deal with queer identity and how they fit within the community.
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Joe Jameson does a phenomenal job narrating these audiobooks from Luc’s perspective. Thank you to @dreamscape_media , @netgalley , @sourcebookscasa for this digital audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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Husband Material - Alexis Hall
4/5⭐️

As the second book, in a series, that I did not think was going to happen, I am overjoyed to say the least.
We are still following Lucien and Oliver through their weird fake relationship, that turned into a weird real relationship. This book still has out favorite characters going through their own insecurities, odd dating and texting rituals, and still overall getting to know each other.

After listening to this book in its entirety, I am glad that they reprised the narrator from "Boyfriend Material" to read again. He did a great job and I felt like I was truly listening to Lucien and Oliver. His voices for each of the charaters are precise and pristine. If there is another book in the series, have him narrate once more! I cannot see anyone else reading this.

As I listened to the book, I felt like I was next to Lucien, listening to him tell me a story of himself. This book definitely reads like a memoir and I love this fact. I felt that I could relate to him, in the idea of marriage, the arguing over random things back and forth, and just the needing for an overall break of everything. While yes this may be a LGBTQ book, I thought of it as a realistic romance first.

Overall, I would not change anything about this book. I feel the author did justice to get readers (or in my case listeners) to feel as though they are next to Luc and Oliver as they are telling their story. The author did a great job in grabbing readers on the first page and keeping them engaged throughout the whole book. Although there were times in which I thought, "oh my god, Oliver quit it" and the same for Lucien. I feel that when this happens, the author has effectively made me feel more emotionally invested in the book, and that should always be a great feeling.

Luc and Oliver are back!! 🇬🇧🎉

Between four weddings and a funeral, this story takes you on a serious ride. There are high highs for the couple, and very low lows. I found this read to be heavier than the first, there is a funeral, but some of the topics, homophobia, parent/child relationships, death/grief, brought a more serious tone to parts of this book. It also made me laugh so hard. There’s still special curry 😳, dogs, CRAPP and friendship antics.

What I take away most from this story is the strong message about self-identification and expression, especially in relation to being gay. One particular line from Oliver just smacked me in the heart and I’ve been thinking about it since I finished the book. This story really captured my heart in a different way than the first one. While I spent a lot of the book frustrated, yelling at Luc, the ending was PERFECT and worth the yelling. 🥰

I think this reads like a lot of sequels about the same couple, real life is different after the HEA of the first book. There were parts of this book that made me crazy and were repetitive, but that is more like life. Ultimately, I’m glad for their continued story, for the laughs and the love.

This book published yesterday and I was delighted to listen to an early copy. Narrator Joe Jameson knocks it out of the park again with his performance. He had a lot of characters to capture - Luc, Oliver, Luc’s French mom, Bridget, Priya, Welsh Rhys, Alex, Miffy, the Professor, and about a billion more side characters with unique voices. Audio is the way to go for this one!

Thank you to netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.