I normally really love the characters in Alexis Hall novels, and I really loved the ways we got to unfold both Jonathan and Sam’s characters. The plot seemed a bit tenuous for me, since it seemed very unrealistic even with the amnesia that Jonathan would be obligated to have Sam stay at his house, especially when they went all the way back to Sam’s house to get his cat, because that would have been the perfect opportunity to see if there was anyone there that Sam could stay with. I also didn’t like that we only learned about Sam’s family situation in the last chapter, even though I really liked the reveal and its surrounding scene, because that was all I was thinking about the entire book. Other than those two things, I really enjoyed reading it and loved Hall’s customary brand of humour!

If you love Alexis Hall's brilliant British humor and her fabulous banter, this book is for you. The premise is fairly ridiculous but the cast of characters is so lovable I was willing to go with it. I'm glad it's the first in a series and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for the copy to review.

3,5 stars
Good fun read! Not my absolute favourite book ever but I really liked the story and had a great time. Not the fastest read but the story was interesting enough to keep going.

A charming romance written with Alexis Hall’s usual British voice.

The book follows employee and employer and their enemies to lovers arc involving a lot of lies and misdirection.

I quite enjoy the humour and the lively characters that add a lot of fun to the story. The romance in itself is cliche with it’s misunderstood grumpy love interest, the reveal and breakup just before they reconcile for no much solid reason except letting bygones be bygones.

There is no smut in this book much to my surprise and still managed to be an enjoyable adult romance. I feel the author’s writing has considerably improved with this book.

For a book about faking amnesia, this book was certainly memorable! A medley of some of my favorite tropes (enemies to lovers, sleeping with the boss, found family, billionaire romance—though not quite a billionaire in this case) made for a fantastic story.

It took me a minute to find the narrator’s (Sam) voice, but the note included in the beginning of the story with examples from queer culture icons certainly helped with my American learning curve. I found Sam’s persistence and lack of filter charming, but I wouldn’t feel the same if he were my employee, which lent itself very well to his dynamic with Jonathon. Getting to see the growth in both of them as the story progressed and they learned more about each other was a real treat. They were also surrounded by an ensemble of memorable, distinct characters (including Gollum the cat) that made the dialogue a ton of fun to read and helped to alleviate some of the heavier, more emotional scenes between just same and Jonathon.

Reading this in November and having the story ended at Christmas (twice) made this the perfect read! I’d absolutely recommend anyone who enjoys snarky banter and the build that comes with an enemies-to-lovers relationship between two stubborn men.

The premise of this book is totally absurd and I don’t care in the slightest because Alexis Hall wrote it and he does such a perfect job that the whole thing works regardless. I like everything he writes but this one might be my favorite. The plot, while silly, was interesting and engaging. The characters were so well developed and relatable and I also appreciated how grown up they were, how even though they were flawed and made some dumb decisions they weren’t completely aggravating. The chemistry and tension were perfectly executed as always. The family stuff was so messily spot on and the characters’ growth arcs so well done. I just really enjoyed everything about this book.

Despite the fact that it had many similar elements to the London Calling series, I didn't like this book as much as I've liked those two. I believe it's because the lying element made me uncomfortable. I liked many elements of this book -- the humor, the setting, the culture -- but the lying and the main character really tripped me up through the whole novel. Despite that fact that this novel feels very similar to another series by the same author, I really struggled to connect with these characters or care about their story.

This book had a lot of potential but fell just a bit flat. I really wish there had been a smidge more relationship development between Jonathan and Sam. I felt they just weren’t IT. I do love how very realistic it felt though. The whole premise was grumpy/sunshine, but there was a lot of emotional turmoil involved that left bittersweet feelings in its wake. Overall a solid 3.

Alexis Hall is back with his classic humor and hot mess characters in 10 Things That Never Happened. Our protagonist Sam clashes with his difficult boss Jonathan and somehow ends up pretending to have amnesia to prevent getting sacked. This couldn’t possibly go wrong, right? Maybe his boss isn’t so bad?
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The side characters in Hall’s books are always fun and Jonathan’s family was no exception this time. I was happy this novel had a similar vibe to Boyfriend Material. I also enjoyed that there is a holiday element in this one. So great for this time of year!

Love this book, and loved the character interactions. I usually don't like enemies to lovers but Alexis Hall does it well. It takes a good writer to make the love interest not an ***hole.

Okay, I loved this book. As a romcom author myself, I appreciate a book that can make me snort-laugh out loud, and this one did it. The grumpy/sunshine trope is one of my favs and Jonathan is a real grump that's for sure, whereas Sam is a sweet and happy guy who just so happens to be having a rough time...no spoilers. It has a hapless Hugh Grant in Notting Hill vibe for me. The gigantic Christmas tree and obligatory van scenes (if you've read Boyfriend Material and Husband Material) were so much fun. Also, having worked in retail many moons ago I was cackling at the customer interactions and the deep, ridiculously detailed product knowledge of the characters at work. Excellent read! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I adored this. The banter and wit was addictive, I read this at the beginning of November which was the PERFECT time to read due to the Christmas setting, which I wasn’t expecting so it was a pleasant surprise!

Come for the fake amnesia, stay for the chaotic Alexis Hall supporting characters.

It's unusual for a character in a romance to be a low level store manager, but here we have one. For romance reasons, he ends up with fake amnesia and staying at his boss's house while he recovers. His boss is the grumpiest grump with a wacky family.

The fake amnesia thing is new, and funny. It's a big secret, which I usually hate, and it did make me uncomfortable at points for the lie to go on as long as it did, but the balance remains just this side of too cringey. There's a lot of cuteness and warmth. And Christmas.

If you like Boyfriend Material, you'll probably enjoy this one. 3.5 stars

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love Alexis Hall's books. I think his humor is a unique taste and not for everyone. It's very dry. What i will say is the characters are very similar to some of the one's in previous books which made parts of it repetitive, but i still really enjoyed the book.

I really enjoyed parts of this book, but it was honestly a little slow for me. I struggled to get into it, and could only read for short bursts at a time. I thought that Sam and Johnathan were really cute, and I loved golum. The homely vibes were unmatched and it was a cute holiday themed read almost. I wish the pacing of this story was a little better, as it just moved so slowly, but I did enjoy the relationship and dynamic with the main characters. I would recommend this book to people who really like funny, queer romances, but not to someone who prefers quick reads, as this just felt quite slow.

God, of course I loved this book. Alexis Hall can do no wrong. The premise did worry me somewhat, because amnesia seems like such a damn kooky premise. But true to form I absolutely, unrevokably fell in love with these two.

Sam is the manager of a bed and bath store. Jonathan is the owner of the chain. When Jonathan invites Sam to London for some remedial training and pushes Sam into a shower giving him a concussion, Sam fakes amnesia to save his and his team's jobs.

The book is full of hijinks, is laugh out loud hilarious and both Sam and Jonathan are just impossible not to fall in love with.

The absolute perfect Christmas read for 2023.

I loved Boyfriend Material and Husband Material. They are one of my favorite romances, so I was excited to read another book in this universe. To say that I was disappointed was an understatement.

Sam Becker is an incompetent manager. He doesn’t do anything when one worker keeps spilling tea on their sales merchandise, or another worker doesn’t think she should have to work. But he doesn’t like the worker that’s excited to work. Maybe this is a British thing of hating people who want to work. When his boss, Jonathan Frost, finally orders Sam to the company’s headquarters, he knows everyone will get fired because they deserve it. After an accident leaves Sam with a head injury, a misunderstanding leads Jonathan to believe Sam has amnesia. Sam continues the lie to see if he can change Jonathan to be as incompetent as Sam.

I hate Sam. Besides the incompetent boss part, he inserts himself into Jonathan’s relationship with his family. And it was hard to read any of those family scenes as warm because Sam constantly lies about having amnesia because he wants to change Jonathan into someone who won’t his store. The power imbalance is everywhere.

Jonathan’s character flaw is that he needs more tact when talking to people. But Sam thinks Jonathan is a horrible person because of the perceived coldness and develops feelings when he’s changed Jonathan enough. And Jonathan falls in love with a version of Sam that’s a big lie. He keeps heaping praise over how kind he perceives Sam, not knowing Sam uses him the whole time.

I thought better of Alexis Hall.

I didn't hate it since I was able to finish it quite easily. I just had very little investment in the story as it unfolded. So little that it took until the 65%ish mark to finally notice it's a story surrounding xmas. The dialogue has no spark. It's mainly just Sam and his coworkers (clowns) repeatedly calling Johnathan variations of a dick, dickhead and prick.

Johnathan is the stereotypical mean but misunderstood boss and Sam is the nice and quirky (if you can call him that) employee. The romance failed to convince me that they had any chemistry for it. They have as much tension as rubbing two milk cartons together. Just two boiled chicken breasts without even an ounce of a bouillon base. It was boring and had no real buildup. There’s more chemistry between me and the tortilla chips I had last week.

Here's the thing when it comes to the overall story: Sam just sucked. A full-blown insufferable loser who doesn't know when to mind his business. He’s incompetent and if I was his boss then I would’ve fired him too.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing a copy for an honest review.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this ARC. While I didn't love this book as much as I loved Boyfriend Material or other Alexis Hall novels, there was a lot I did really like about the story. The story feels fresh and funny, but not in a way that feels like it's copying characters from his previous books. I really enjoyed the grumpy/sunshine and most of the side characters, even though there were a LOT of them. Actually, the plot was a real stand-out for me, and it kept me wanting to read more.

Where I struggled with this story was with the romance. This is a romance book, after all, and while these two did get together, I had a lot of trouble connecting their personalities. Jonathan would be WAY too much of a jerk, just way too heavy on the conflict, and when the author tried to show a softer side, it always felt like it came out of nowhere and it was out of place. There wasn't enough organic, "getting to know you" kinds of romance-building romances for me. The conflict parts felt like they went on for way too long, and I don't think I got as in depth with Jonathan as a character as I did with the ones in Boyfriend Material or other more successful Alexis Hall books.

This is fine. I generally liked it but I think I’m going to continue to distance myself from Alexis Hall’s work. Things that are meant to be funny are always edges with meanness. Characters are likable enough but not endearing. I feel no desire to reread this, the writing and author are just not for me anymore.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.