My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Received: ARC
Publication Date: August 2, 2022
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Point of View: First Person (Luc)
Genres & Themes: Romance, Contemporary, LGBTQ+
BLURB:
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.
REVIEW:
Whenever a novel knocks it out of the park, as readers we’re often championing for a sequel. If anything, I often find myself thinking when reading a romance, how I would literally read about a couple doing dishes and about domestic everyday life.
We really need to be careful what we wish for.
Throughout my reading of Husband Material, I kept telling myself it was going to be a solid 3 stars, and then I’d say a solid 4 stars. So not so solid, at all.
One thing that always scares me about a sequel, despite how much I want it, is that the author mars my love for the first book. That when thinking about the first book, reminds me how wrong the second book went.
It’s especially hard when a sequel is about the happily ever after portion. When the couple has been in a relationship after a happy ending. Because, you want to have plot. So, the author typically ends up writing about one of the characters cheating, but still end up together (burn this plot, please), or we have the couple distancing themselves to the point where their relationship is suffering.
In Husband Material, it’s clear that there was no real plot. Not that there was a big plot for Boyfriend Material, but whereas BM had a reason, I felt that this installment felt directionless. Pointless. I can’t even say it was to grow the relationship, because in the end it felt like neither really grew–as individuals nor in their relationship.
One of the things that I really liked about Boyfriend Material was that Luc wasn’t a perfect character, but the character growth we saw from him was slow and progressive that by the end there had been a clear journey. That’s not to say Luc changed completely in a way that’s not being true to himself.
One thing that is clear from the beginning of BM is that Luc and Oliver are vastly different, but they fit, nonetheless. In the end, they wanted to be better versions of themselves with each other and for each other.
Yet, in this book all of that went out the window. It could be a thing that although we left him at a better stage, that doesn’t mean he’s no longer self-deprecating, judgmental, and too harsh on everyone and anything. That’s not how people work. There are still moments that freak you out and have you reverting to not the best parts of you. But, this is a book and it felt like everything that Luc, and Oliver (with Oliver) went through in BM was for nothing? It felt like the guy from the beginning of BM was doing rounds again, and like a similar journey to book one, but without that feeling of character growth.
There were genuine fun moments, and the reason I’ll leave it as three stars and having liked it, nevertheless. But all of that gets bogged down with the level of just not fun, especially in the romance between Luc and Oliver.
And the thing is that this book is a declaration of how incompatible Luc and Oliver are and this is after we went through with how vastly different they were in Boyfriend Material, and two years into their relationship. And I don’t get who asked for this? All throughout the book, right up until the last page, I kept bracing for these two to break up and go their separate ways.
From the beginning, it feels like Luc is looking for something or rather missing something. That something being the past- either being his past self, his past ways, the past, I don’t really know, and I never really found out. We don’t really get to explore or confront his restlessness. I wish there had been a conversation between Luc and Oliver that though Oliver doesn’t like to party that doesn’t mean Luc can’t go out and do that. Growing as a person doesn’t mean you enjoy the wild lifestyle. I’m 100 percent sure Oliver wouldn’t hold Luc from going out whenever he wants.
It might be that the pacing of this book is in the wrong place. Why are we until the end or rather middle to end, exploring their fundamental personalities? When this could have been in the first book. And the thing is that this book felt very much like Luc finding Oliver not being the right kind of “gay” guy and that if he didn’t fit into this box then he must be internalizing homophobia from his conservative upbringing. Which, sure, could be a conversation, but when he has a problem at every turn it always feels like it’s Oliver lacking at something. And Oliver bending down to said lacking.
There was just so much that missed the mark for me. First, we have the ex-boyfriend appearing and I hated it from the get-go. I hate how horrible exes in stories, always have to come back and the protagonist has to forgive them in order for them to show maturity and growth. Especially when we have the ex’s new husband being the reason Luc feels that he needs to go to the wedding? A man he doesn’t even know? And it’s not to warn him he’s fiancé is a jackass (and that’s being nice). Although it wasn’t outright forgiving, it still felt unnecessary here. Especially when the ex-boyfriend and their ex-mutual friends tried to turn it into pettiness, and as if they and the ex-boyfriend have suffered from what said ex-boyfriend did. We’re talking about an incident that created trauma for Luc, a deeply messed up thing the ex-boyfriend did that has consequences mentally.
Then comes, the actual somewhat of a “plotline.” Weddings. I knew that will all the weddings (4 weddings and a funeral, anyone?), the topic of Luc and Oliver getting married would come up. Of course, based on the synopsis and cover, we know it’s going to be part of the plot. And though Oliver and Luc never struck me as people who would get married, this was the plot for most of the book. Then the end happens, and though I think it’s fitting, I think that there’s no reason that plotline should have dragged on until the 99 percent mark if that is where they were meant to go.
You have to realize that a major, not-so-good thing was still happening at 92 percent, at 95 percent, and ultimately at 99 percent. And it’s the kind of thing that could make or break a book. If that’s what we were meant to explore, it should have been done sooner not at the very end of the book. Because it’s not even explored, really. Not in an interesting, entertaining way, anyway. Instead, I felt miserable with these two characters, that I had previously enjoyed, being at each other throats for no discerning reason.
I was excited when I found out there was a second and third book, but after this book, I really hope the third book brings it full circle. If it’s someone else in the BM universe I’ll have to see who it is because although I like the supporting cast, I don’t think I care for anyone’s romance.
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and Oliver
