Love love loved this book. Sam was a great narrator and I grew to love grumpy Johnathan and Gollum, along with the rest of Johnathan's family. So much fun and really happy to read another great Alexis Hall book

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for this eARC! If you liked Boyfriend Material, this book is 100% for you. It's smart and witty and will make you giggle and kick your feet quite a bit. It's not fake dating - it's accidental dating because everyone around them insists they are dating so much that it becomes not worth fighting it. And who doesn't love a good old fashioned fake amnesia storyline. It was nice to reenter the same vibe as Boyfriend Material with "Guy who is pretty okay at his kind of horrible job but he cares about people so it's all gonna be alright'. Overall a super fun read!

It was cute. This was my first Alexis Hall and I will be trying another one.

What I loved: The love interest not completely changing his whole personality once meeting the MC.
The zany family and coworkers. THE CAT, Gollum.

What I didn't like: The lying and lack of communication. On one hand I GET that it's THE STORY but also JUST TELL HIM....ya know?

Overall I enjoyed it. I found myself losing interest the second half of the book but I felt like it wrapped up nicely.

Thanks #NetGalley for the review copy.

I cackled and giggled my way through this until close to the end, where I was punched in the feels and almost brought to tears. No one, but no one, writes a better rom com than Alexis Hall.

Two far-from-perfect men. An even further-from-perfect cat. (I don’t usually like cute cats in romances but this cat was terrible so it was fine.) A large supporting cast of co workers and family, drawn sharply, but with such a light touch. A swoony, slow burn romance, which as always with Hall, has a lot to say about wider issues—class, wealth, poverty, family, and loss. Loved it.

Alexis Hall is an auto buy author for literally everyone, me most definitely included. I was pleasantly surprised to find out this is a Christmas book. Samwise Becker ("call me SAM!") is an employee of Jonathan's at a bed and bath retailer (think Bed, Bath, and Beyond). Faced with mounting costs and falling profits, Jonathan calls Sam into headquarters to inform him that he needs to fire a few employees and get the store in shape ASAP. But Sam has a heart. A too big heart at that. He can't fire any of his employees because he knows all of their lives and the reasons they need their jobs so badly. After a Hallmark movie-worthy fall into a shower at the showroom, Sam quickly decides to fake amnesia. Because he has nowhere else to go, he figures staying with Jonathan will allow the man to get to know him better and realize him and his employees all need their jobs. In usual Alexis Hall fashion, hilarity ensues.

This one took me a few pages to thoroughly get into the story. Sam is such a sweetheart character with definite pain in his past. Jonathan is married to his work and sees his eclectic but loving family as more of a nuisance than an enjoyable addition to his life. The dialogue was just hilarious and I want to sincerely be adopted into Jonathan's family. This is a typical grumpy/sunshine trope and of course includes a HEA, but isn't that what we're all here for?! Oh. And CHRISTMAS!! This is a truly enjoyable rom-com and as usual Hall doesn't disappoint.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I received an advanced review copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to NetGalley, Alexis Hall, and Sourcebooks Casablanca! ❤️

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I love Hall's writing and his hilarious banter. I'm also always caught off guard by how emotionally invested I get in his characters' relationships. Every fight is emotionally devastating and every reunion makes me want to jump for joy.

Thanks so much for sending me the ARC of this!

Unfortunately, I think this book by Alexis Hall fell a bit flat for me which makes me so sad. I’ve loved every other book from them that I’ve read, but this one in particular, I just never felt the chemistry between these two AT ALL.

A fun story about love and navigating lieing to your boss/boyfriend. Sam is a fun character and Jonathan is cute in a bossy/ kill joy kind of way. Easy book to read. Good for the holidays

This book was an entertaining read. It was funnier than a lot of romance books. I loved Jonathan's family especially. They were so over-the-top, yet believable. I also enjoyed watching Jonathan's frosty exterior slowly melt the more time he spent with Sam. The fake amnesia thing is not very believable, but suspending my disbelief on that, it made for a quick enjoyable read.

In all honesty, when I first began reading this book, I didn’t really expect it to be especially good. In the past, I have read quite a lot of Alexis Hall books, and to me they are the type of books that I dislike enough to not want to stop reading in fear of missing something hilariously bad (which has only happened once) but I like enough to start reading (his good concepts might be the reason for that). This book fell on the better side for me personally, I liked the narrator’s voice and personality a lot, although he made some very questionable choices. The fact that he had a hobbit name probably also helped as a lord of the rings fan. It was not an amazing book by any means, but it fulfilled the romcom that I expected and was better than the previous ones in the series (is it a series or just connected? idk) for me personally. I did still find the love interest slightly annoying, but I liked Sam’s narration enough to find it funnier.

Getting to go back into the world of boyfriend material is always a good time. In 10 things that never happened we meet grumpy Jonathan and sunshine Sam(wise) yes, you read that correctly. Hall is pretty much a master at romcoms. Heavy on the com. And like in his others, this book played out in my head like a movie. Taking place at Christmas time and with a hilarious cast of side characters, I couldn’t help but think of Christmas Vacation. And where most of the romcoms I read are heavier on the rom, the films I watch are not, but Hall’s witty banter had me laughing through the entire thing. Then he hits you with the sweetest, softest, declarations of love and my heart just explodes. Also, the delicacy he takes with his characters existing in this world always touches on something internal within me, kind of telling me it’s ok. Seeing Jonathan accept his wants and needs with Sam’s care did exactly that.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks providing the arc and giving me the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an ARC, all views are my own.
I am an Alexis Hall stan. I love everything they write, and this is no exception. I adored this book, the MC Sam Becker and surly love interest Jonathan Forest. It was filled with humor and I was laughing out loud in public when reading this. If you like the London Calling series, you will love this. All the characters were exceptional with Hall really making the side characters essential to the plot, humor and just overall story. And the cat, dear lord the cat Gollum.

This is definitely grumpy sunshine, but you do discover throughout the story that there are things in Sam Becker‘s past that definitely are not happy. There is underlying sadness that you are slowly seeing and as you unravel it, it leaves you feeling all the emotions. 5 star read for me, it hit all the boxes of a well rounded romance.

I loved this book! Alexis Hall is an auto read author for me, and this book is a reminder why I fall in love with his writing every time. You do need to just accept the basic zany-ness of the fake amnesia plot, but if you do then the emotional heart of the story really shines through and you can't help but fall in love with the characters.

As usual, I love everything Alexis Hall writes. I'm not usually a fan of amnesia stories, but I really liked the way this one was handled. I love Samwise, he's a real sweetie, and I fell just as hard for his grumpy boss.

This book was exactly what I’d expect from Alexis Hall after reading and loving Boyfriend Material. Sweet, genuinely funny, with lovably flawed leads and incredible side characters.

The central plot device of this book is “fake amnesia,” which is very different from its more popular cousin, “real amnesia.” As it turns out, I much prefer fake amnesia, lol. I hate the amnesia trope because, like…that’s not how that works. And also I don’t like the idea of falling in love with someone while you’re essentially a different person because you’ve forgotten everything. I’m obsessed with characters having painful regrets that make it hard for them to move forward with a relationship, and you can’t have painful regrets if you don’t have memories. Fake amnesia is much better because both people remain themselves the whole time, but there’s still an excellent engine for conflict and the eventual devastating breakup scene.

I could see other readers being annoyed with the fake amnesia because it *is* a bit of a stretch, and it does go on for longer than you’d think. It’s a tough balance to strike between making the amnesia a part of the plot and not letting it completely take over. Alexis gets a little meta with it too, with multiple characters acknowledging how ridiculous the whole thing is. There were times that came off as too cute for me (Agnieszka’s scenes, mostly) but overall I found it funny and charming.

The cast is also HUGE. There are a lot of family members and coworkers, and sometimes that made the book feel overstuffed, with certain plot lines and characters getting short shrift because there was just too much going on. Like, what was Auntie Jack’s deal? And why did Barbara Jane get divorced? And what happened with Brian? Etc etc. Still, though, Jonathan’s family is a treat, and a good chaotic family is a must-have in a Christmas rom-com.

Which reminds me—this is a Christmas book! What a delight for me to discover that. It’s a really good one, too. I’ve pretty much seen it all as a Hallmark devotee, and I got a big kick out of the Christmas shenanigans going on here.

In terms of the romance itself, Jonathan and Sam are a fantastic leading duo. Jonathan is a true grump—none of that diet grump from Mr. Hall—and he is pretty shitty for a lot of the book. Which means he has a lot of growing to do, and which makes his gentleness and sweetness toward Sam all the more moving. Sam, meanwhile, is a sunny, lovely counterpoint to Jonathan, even if he seems a little too well-adjusted at points. There’s a major revelation about Sam’s background in the last 10% of the book, which I felt was bit too late. But I do think there was a lot of groundwork and foreshadowing laid, so it didn’t come completely out of nowhere. Keep in mind that this book keeps spice at the fade-to-black level. Too bad, but I love everything else enough not to mind.

I definitely recommend this one. Just a ton of fun, and easy to breeze through in a couple of days. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I have not read the previous books by this author, but was aware of them - and plan to go back and check them out soonest.

This book was ridiculous in the best sense of the word. Some of the characters should have been caricatures, but they weren't. Just wonderfully ridiculous. Even minor characters were well-sketched with few lines.

The plot was also ridiculous, but again, in the best way.

And the names for the items sold in the stores were perfection.

Faking amnesia in order to not get fired seems extreme but don’t tell Sam that. Since that is exactly what he did. Jonathan believes that his amnesia is real which takes them on twists and turns through this book. Enjoyable read. 4/5 stars.

After an accident and miscommunication leads surly CEO Jonathan Forest to believe his employee Sam has amnesia, Sam sees it as an opportunity: use their doctor-ordered time together to make Jonathan see Sam and his co-workers as people so they don't get fired. But as Sam discovers his boss has a gentler, more loveable side and the two of them grow closer, he has to decide if happily ever after is a possibility when built on a lie.

A very silly, very adorable story that fans of Hall's other works will surely enjoy. It never quite lived up to its premise, and I had some issues with the resolution. Still, it was a fast-paced and (mostly) light-hearted read that is a fun addition to the broader Boyfriend Material universe.

I absolutely love rom-coms but rarely does one actually make me laugh which 10 THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED did several times. I so enjoyed the humor, the shenanigans and the sharp wit. I'm glad Jonathan's family was as big of a part in the story as they were as they were all a hoot and riot to listen to them amongst themselves. I loved both Sam and Jonathan and their dynamic together. Seeing how Jonathan treated Gollum early on says everything you need to know about him. This was the first book that I read by this author and am so glad I did! Very entertaining, fun, and sweet!

Thank you to Sourcebook Casablanca and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this, but didn't think it was nearly as good as Hall's other books. He does a great job writing secondary characters and making the main characters feel realistic, but I didn't really understand how the romance happened? Like at no point was I convinced the characters warmed up to one another until they were making out ready warmed up to each other. They have an antagonistic relationship essentially the entire time, so I was confused what caused the romance to come together, because there was very little if any thawing. But I still had a good time, plus it's Christmas-y which is fun.