Author: Alexis Hall
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Goodreads Rating: 3.70
Publication Date: August 2nd, 2022
Genre: LGBTQ Romance
Format Read: Audiobook
Goodreads Summary: Wanted:
One (very real) husband
Nowhere near perfect but desperately trying his best
In BOYFRIEND MATERIAL, Luc and Oliver met, pretended to fall in love, fell in love for real, dealt with heartbreak and disappointment and family and friends…and somehow figured out a way to make it work. Now it seems like everyone around them is getting married, and Luc’s feeling the social pressure to propose. But it’ll take more than four weddings, a funeral, and a bowl full of special curry to get these two from I don’t know what I’m doing to I do.
Good thing Oliver is such perfect HUSBAND MATERIAL.
This Summer 2022, you’re invited to the event(s) of the season.
Find the book: Goodreads
Review
This review contains spoilers for Boyfriend Material and light spoilers for Husband Material, books #1 and 2 in the London Calling series.
I didn’t discover Boyfriend Material until this year, and after binge listening to the entire book in just a couple of days, I was desperate to get my hands on the sequel. I was also worried that the buildup in the original would be difficult to sustain. Luc and Oliver had such a cute enemies-to-lovers meets fake dating romance story, so now that they were official, I wasn’t sure if Hall— talented though he is— could maintain the momentum. Well, he most certainly did!
Part of what made Boyfriend Material so great was the way it created a thriving world around Luc and Oliver. I had grown to love Bridget and James Royce-Royce and James Royce-Royce and all the rest just as much as I loved our main couple. While the focus of Husband Material was undoubtedly still on Luc, the time spent meandering in the greater world meant that there didn’t have to be constant relationship drama for the book to be entertaining.
While book #1 was primarily about the way Luc and Oliver made each other better by being together, book #2 focuses on the ways Luc and Oliver need to grow as individuals before they can be the partner that the other truly deserves. Oliver in particular goes through a lot of TOUGH things in this book, which is why I found myself wishing that it could have been written from his perspective at times. While I think he lacks the self-awareness to make that a truly compelling read, I would be obsessed with a post-mortem of sorts where we can psychoanalyze Oliver from the perspective of his future self.
One of the reasons I’m so obsessed with this series is that Luc and Oliver are incredibly similar to my girlfriend and I. It’s comforting to read a book about a couple whose love and commitment to each other doesn’t waver, even when they’re going through tough times both together and individually. As the title suggests, Husband Material is about reinvigorating the commitments that were made in Boyfriend Material, with all of the same antics and characters we grew to love along the way.
I would highly recommend this book for fans of the original; it won’t let you down.
