This is Alexis Hall at his best! The concept of faking amnesia seemed a little iffy to me, but the characters feel so genuine, and the side characters, from the employees at the store to Jonathan's family, are so wonderful. There's a bit of grumpy (Jonathan)/sunshine (Sam). I loved all the little references to Lord of the Rings (with a name like Samwise...). And I teared up at the end. Exactly that kind of rom-com that has my heart.

I've never *not* enjoyed a book by Alexis Hall and this one is no different. It's not quite a rivals to lovers story but there's some power dynamics that are well done. It was fun seeing how deep of a hole the main character could dig himself into and the conversation when they finally get honest with each other felt realistic.

Story: 4.5 ⭐️
Steam: 2 🔥 closed door

I absolutely love the fast paced humor this author delivers. These characters were all so lovable and had amazing banter. The story was a perfect mix of plot and romance with SO many of my favorite tropes. It was overall a great time.

3.5/5 stars

Alexis Hall is a hit or miss author for me and this was a hit! I wasn't sure about the premise at first because I'm not a big fan of books that hinge on lying or misdirection but this was done with just enough levity and chaos that is was fun. Sam and Jonathan had a fun chemistry and I found myself laughing out loud at many points during the book.

Alexis Hall never fails to deliver well-written, real-feeling characters in wild circumstances. I do wish certain aspects of the relationship between Jonathon and Sam were explored a little more (and maybe they will be in Material World #2?), but I think the gaps leave just enough room for your imagination to fill in the rest. This book made me laugh out loud several times, to the point it disturbed my grumpy dog who just wanted to sleep in peace and not hear his mom helplessly giggling over a chicken and a lemon.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize how 10 Things connects to the London Calling universe, but once it clicked, it was like a delightful little surprise.

10 Things is a nice, fairly quick read with a lot of heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this ARC!

This was my first year starting to read M+M LGBTQ and this is going to the top of my list! I adored this book it is such a fun story and the characters are fun and had me laughing out loud!

If you want a cute romance with a fun story and great character development I suggest picking this one up!

5 Stars!

"...I don't know how I'm supposed to go the rest of my life without being kissed by you again."

Sam Becker likes his job. Managing a bed and bath retailer isn't glamorous, but it's worth it for the band of misfits who keep the store running. If only the owner wasn't the worst. Jonathan Forest should have hired someone other than Sam. Determined to set things right, Jonathan orders Sam down to London for a difficult task, only for a panicking Sam to trip, bump his head, and maybe accidentally imply he doesn't remember anything? Faking amnesia seemed like a good idea when Sam was afraid he was getting sacked. Still, now he has to deal with the reality of Jonathan's guilt and the unsettling fact that his surly boss might have a softer side to him.

This is the third book in the Material World/London Calling Universe and the first one that isn't about Luc & Oliver! They stand on their own, though, because apparently Jonathan only shows up in a brief scene in Husband Material (I don't remember that, but sure!)

I love and appreciate what Alexis Hall is trying to do with these books. Create these very over-the-top, ridiculous, and kind of unglamorous romcoms with some really, really unlikeable main characters. It makes these silly (silly!!) premises feel realistic and more complicated.

Despite all the over-the-top moments and arguments, Alexis manages to include these tender moments between the two characters that make me lose it. This book is about two lonely, stubborn men finding each other due to absurd circumstances and accepting that they may deserve more.

I know it's not everyone's thing, but I'm a sucker for an unlikeable mc. And it doesn't get more unlikeable than Jonathan Forest. Jonathan is the grumpiest of grumps; he's mean, and no one would want him as a boss. But like any grumpy/sunshine story, we get to see him unfold through Sam's eyes, to see his reasons for being the way he is, letting his guard come down, but this time with Sam together with him.

As one of the few people who loves Husband Material, if you're scared to read this bc you didn't vibe with HM, I don't think you need to worry! This has a similar tone/structure to Boyfriend Material, so if you liked that one, read this!!

I had such a good time with this. It wasn't as impactful as Boyfriend Material because I don't see a lot of myself in any of these characters (and also not to be a grinch, but I would have liked it more if it was less Christmassy), but still!! It's definitely a book I see myself returning to!

(especially whenever the audio comes out bc I want to listen to Sam's scouse accent!!

Thank you to the publisher for this ARC, however I feel this is my last Alexis Hall for a while. I coul not bring myself to finish it but I made it far enough for this gem: "This story is already long and very silly. I was seeing how long and silly it could get.”
This captures the book perfectly.

I get where Sam is coming from but it's too much, too naive, too nice, too unrealistic. Whereas, I know nothing about Jonathan. Yes he's a dick (I don't know what is mentioned more: that he is a dick or the Merlin 8mm blah blah shower) but there was no depth or nuance or empathy for him. Like not even an inkling. Sam was unlikable and Jonathan... may as well have been a piece of cardboard.
The banter I once found charming in Hall's writing is now, to quote his own writing "long and silly". It goes in circles and does not move the story forward. I mean seriously, someone who finished the book please tell me if the Merlin 8mm blah blah foor comes back to make a point because if not, this book could have been 5 pages shorter if they just said "shower door" instead of specifying it every. single. time.

Trust me, I wanted to love this! But the last couple of books from Hall have lost nuance, empathy, and their editor apparently.

I've really enjoyed a majority of Alexis Hall's books, but I will say some of his more recent works (Husband Material and Mortal Follies) got lower stared reviews from me. That being said, 10 Things That Never Happened was a delight. You have proper (workplace setting) enemies to lovers, faking amnesia, the special kind of chaos that is expected in any Alexis Hall book, a wonderfully sweet slow burn, and some very specific names of bed and bath units/decor. The thing I enjoyed about this book is when all was revealed and the cards were all on the table, the reactions were kind of reasonable. Considering the situation and how each of the characters are presented I would have been surprised if it became very dramatic to try to get back together, all-in-all I'm happy with the resolution of the story. The narrator of this book also did a lovely job.

thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Casablanca, and Dreamscape Media for the eARC and audiobook ARC!

I received an eARC of this book for review from Dreamscape Media via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
• The Brief: Samwise, a loyal manager but not necessarily a great leader, goes to extreme lengths to keep his staff on the payroll. This primarily consists of accidentally faking amnesia and grudgingly moving in with the owner of the chain of stores he runs. It’s all fine… until Sam starts falling for his distant boss.
• Anyone who enjoyed the good-natured, fast-paced, rumpus romance in Boyfriend Material is bound to enjoy the tone of 10 Things That Never Happened. Good thing too, it isn’t a direct sequel, so you don’t have to read the London Calling series first.
10 Things That Never Happened is a joy to read.

This is a single POV romance featuring forced proximity, caring for injured protagonist, and fake amnesia. I’m don’t particularly like romances featuring lying between the couple or single POV. Still, Hall was able to write a story I loved enough to overlook those preferences. The laugh-out-loud humor provided wonderful reading experience. I did this one as a blended read - listening to the audio book while reading the text. And, almost as important as the prose is the the narrator, Will Watt, who did an impeccable job giving voice to Sam and the entire cast of characters. If you are on the fence, give this one a try! I don’t think you’ll regret it.

3.5 STARS
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC of this book. All thoughts of this book are my own.
First of all, right from the hop the plotline of this story was wild. Our narrator - on page - is chaotic as hell, a little bit crazy, a lot desperate, and for those reasons its kind of hard to keep up with this type of narration because not only is it purely run by the thoughts of our MC, but his thoughts are not always linear - which is normal, and honestly its how I talk to myself and clearly how I write most of my reviews - in my own thoughts, in my own words. But it makes it difficult to stick to the flow of the story when the narrator is constantly breaking up the information with their thoughts, it just gets a little jumbled. Add into that the accent, turns of phrase, personal dialect and slang constantly used by the narrator and it becomes a little hard to focus on the story. I did get used to it, but right from the beginning it was a lot to take it. <BLOCKQUOTE><B>My mam called me Samwise, but I’m beginning to think she should’ve called me Frodo. Because I’m starting to feel invisible. Or like something got stuck in me and didn’t heal right.</B></BLOCKQUOTE> Sometimes our MC is a bit of a try hard in the comedy area, and sometimes he is just naturally funny. The inner dialogue is pretty funny once you get used to it. There were some more serious parts, I wish they had all been explored. It felt like our MC tried to be more emotionally invested at times which was nice. As for our secondary male lead he was a complete ass - the only really emotion our narrator could pin down from him was anger and irritation for most of the book and “uncertain emotions”. This is really why every romance needs dual POV - without it you are at risk for a lot of misinformation and miscommunication which really puts a damper on the story for me. <BLOCKQUOTE><B>Jonathan’s giving me a look that quite hard to describe. It’s sort of about 20% betray, 10% resignation, 30% resentment, and 40% straight up what are you talking about.</b></blockquote>
The plot of the story isn’t one I’m used to reading so I can’t say for sure if I like or dislike amnesia (or fake amnesia) as a trope. However I am a fan of forced proximity and although I thought it was super unnecessary to have the two MC’s be in a forced proximity scenario, there would be no book without it. Despite the ridiculous reasons these two were forced together in the first place, I thought the aspect of our MC bullshiting the extent of his injury just to try and save his ass was ballsy, hilarious and completely ridiculous. I liked his whole thought process of “well if I am around him in a weakened state he will see me as a person and feel bad for me”. <BLOCKQUOTE><b>”You can just be you. Y’know, the you you are when you’re with me.”</b></blockquote> You could see the building blocks of this relationship and although the secondary male lead was an absolute dick for most of the book, I did like seeing our MC try to get under his skin and make him act like an actual human being and learn to be more gentle and come out of his shell (and by shell I do mean brick citadel) . It took a while for the SML to seem interesting to me - he was such a hard ass and he was honestly kind of boring. And though I liked the amount of growth he went through I thought his reasoning was super confusing and he honestly didn’t feel very deep. <BLOCKQUOTE><B>When it’s just you and the nothing it’s easy to feel like you don’t exist, like you might as well have never existed. Like you’re nothing at all</b></blockquote> I did, in the end enjoy the story and the book. But it did remind me a lot of how <i>Boyfriend Material</i> was set up and executed. The characters also felt very similar to Luc and Oliver (whom I love to bits) so I wish author had tried just a little harder to make these characters feel difffernt than characters they have already portrayed.

Thank you Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

How does Alexis Hall consistently write books that feel like they were written specifically for me?

I didn’t really like either of our main characters at the start, and that is literally the only slightly negative thing I can say about this book. And by the end I adored them, so disliking them a little at a time in the book when you don’t yet know them properly doesn’t feel like much criticism at all.

Sam is that working-class idealistic kind of nice that is great in theory but not entirely practical when it comes to running an expanding business. He’s caring and compassionate and has absolutely no qualms about telling you where to stick it if he thinks you’re out of line. He’s stubborn and impatient and honestly there were so many times I wanted to scream at him to tell the truth. I loved him. I loved this precious idiot so much.

Jonathan is a cold, stern, stiff workaholic who honestly cares more about money than people. Or, like, so it seems. What I love about Jonathan is that his dickishness stems from fear and trauma from his upbringing, and once he realises exactly how much he’s missing out on in not allowing himself to relax just a little, he…well…allows himself to relax a little, and we get to see who he is beneath his need to control everything always.

And gosh, his whole family was incredible. Chaotic, overbearing, loud, annoying, but absolutely brilliant. They were all so warm and welcoming and full of love and I loved that Sam was just instantly accepted as one of them.

Look, I laughed and I cried and I loved this book so much. Definitely one to pick up this coming holiday season.

I want to thank NetGalley for an arc of this book, it didn’t influence my opinion in any way.

Ive read Boyfriend Material from this author, which wasn’t my cup of tea, but this book really took me by surprise.

I was sucked into the plot right away and really liked Sam’s coworkers. Enjoyed the twist on the whole amnesia thing and the ending was quite satisfying.

There was a moment it thought there would be only one bed, but there wasn’t and that was a bit of a let down…

However I really enjoyed this book and would absolutely recommend it.

nope, wasn't feeling this one at all. The character development wasn't there and it took forever to get anywhere. Shame as I love the other books from this author a lot.

An interesting twist on workplace romance. I liked the idea of the fake amnesia trope and I do think it was done well. This book was quite slow to start for me as I wasn’t a fan of the MC and love interest. BUT, my thoughts on the book did change the more I read it.
If you want a cheesy Achillean romance, this one is definitely a recommended read.

I have been a big Alexis Hall fan (Husband Material, Spires) and was looking forward to reading this new one--and he did not disappoint. He does an excellent job with the enemies-to-lovers and grumpy/sunshine tropes. Sam is a kind, warmhearted soul who is lost and figuring out who he is and what he wants. Jonathan is an antisocial workaholic and takes "grumpiness" to a whole new level. He is also Sam's boss in a small bed and bath store chain.

There are two sets of wacky but likeable secondary characters--Jonathan's many relatives and Sam's co-workers. I have to say that both sets did wear a bit thin--and we spend alot of time with them, particularly the family--and there were probably a few too many members. Did we need both Aunt Jack and BJ? And why Johnny? I think these sections could have been pared down and the book could lose 50 pages or so.

I liked very much how Sam gradually grew to see the caring side of Jonathan and that Jonathan's slow thaw was believable and not insta and also loved the slow burn and the way the one sex scene was handled. The story is definitely low-steam which as a reader who reads MM romance primarily for the romance could appreciate.

I like the author's assured and witty writing style and often found myself chuckling. He does need to lose the annoying tic: "The worst thing I could do was X. I did X." This was overused.

Overall, it was a warm, romantic story about two very different people who give each other exactly what the other needs. Sweet, sweet ending.

This book was a gosh darn delight!! It took me a bit to sort of switch gears and settle into the very Britishness of this book, but once I got cozy in there I was literally laughing out loud while reading. I honestly want to go back and reread the book to appreciate everything that's in here. It's kind of over the top but in the best way possible. Our main characters are somehow extremely lovable even though they both are quite aware that they are kind of sometimes, more often than not, rather dickish. I love them, I love the family, I love the coworkers. Quirky and ridiculous with just the perfect amount of heart.

I knew when I got this book that I was in for a fun ride, what I didn’t know expect was the amount of lol moments I would have. There were so many cute moments as well, but the banter, my gosh the banter is everything! And I do love me some good banter. Watching the chemistry grow between Jonathan and Sam at time was so vivid and palpable, that I felt like a voyeur. But there was no way I would look away.

Although the synopsis of faked amnesia wasn’t my favorite to begin with because I assumed it wouldn’t be well done, but this was so clever and entertaining that I guess I have one more trope to add to add to my must-read tropes!

A thoroughly entertaining must read!

I'm a sucker for British humour and Hall's Boyfriend Material is one of my all-time favourites. Hall's signature kooky characters are back in a story about Sam who fakes amnesia to avoid getting fired by his boss. It didn't quite live up to the charm of Boyfriend, but it came close.

I really liked the MMC Sam's character- very funny and charming and likeable. He and older boss Jonathan have an enemies to lovers/grumpy sunshine vibe going on that played out very well. As always, the cast of secondary characters were hilarious. Who knew a bed and bath store could be so exciting!

Also Gollum might be the best description of a cat/cat owner I have ever read. He stole the show and I could have read 50 more pages about him.

I definitely read this one with a British accent in my head (what you don't do it too?). Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an eARC and physical arc in exchange for my honest review.

The plotting is rom-com gold, Hall’s typical wit is on display, and the eclectic supporting cast charms, but the heroes themselves feel ever so slightly underdeveloped. Still, fans of grumpy/sunshine romances will eat this up.