Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

RomanceContemporary

Feb 24

Written By taylor shepeard

Title: Boyfriend Material

Author: Alexis Hall

Publication Date: July 7, 2020

Audience: Adult

Genre: Romance

Sub-Genre: Contemporary

POV: Single

Series: Duology (This can also be read as a standalone)

Format: Audiobook

—Narrator(s): Joe Jameson

4 ⭐ | 2🌶️

Pros:
✨Authentic Romance
✨Queer Representation
✨Character Development and Relationships
✨Interwoven Plots
✨Easy Read

Cons:
✨Spotty Pacing
✨Chaotic Character Voice (Could not have read this without the audio narration)

Synopsis

Luc O’Donnell is tangentially—and reluctantly—famous. His rock star parents split when he was young, and the father he's never met spent the next twenty years cruising in and out of rehab. Now that his …

… dad's making a comeback, Luc's back in the public eye, and one compromising photo is enough to ruin everything.
To clean up his image, Luc has to find a nice, normal relationship…and Oliver Blackwood is as nice and normal as they come. He's a barrister, an ethical vegetarian, and he's never inspired a moment of scandal in his life. In other words: perfect boyfriend material. Unfortunately, apart from being gay, single, and really, really in need of a date for a big event, Luc and Oliver have nothing in common. So they strike a deal to be publicity-friendly (fake) boyfriends until the dust has settled. Then they can go their separate ways and pretend it never happened.
But the thing about fake-dating is that it can feel a lot like real-dating. And that's when you get used to someone. Start falling for them. Don't ever want to let them go.

*Blurb taken from The StoryGraph

Review

This review may contain spoilers.

This was yet another fast, easy, cute read, which is par the course for a rom-com. We follow chaotic, eccentric, anxiety-ridden Luc O’Donnell who, despite only being famous-by-association, must navigate the world of the recognized while hating the attention. When a drunken escaped leads to donors pulling out of the charity drive for his non-profit gig, he fake dates put-together, tight-laced Barrister, Oliver Blackwood.

Though the plot here was meh, I found myself taken by the characters and their relationships. Luc and his mother were adorable and absolute treasures together. The people Luc worked with at the dung beetle nonprofit were absolute characters, and I cackled at basically every interaction between them all. I also enjoyed the thought-provoking interactions between Luc and his dad, which were messy and complicated and that (in my opinion, rightfully so) left this parental figure as a villain who weaponized manipulation and gaslighting . Oliver and Luc slotted together so well, not only because they balanced one another out personality wise, but because, as people who communicated quite differently, they still managed to communicate thoroughly. Even when there were misinterpretations, each character would actually hear out the other character as they tried to explain how they messed up and the thought process that led them to such disastrous choice. There really was so much to enjoy here, even if the pacing did flag in places.

Despite quite enjoying this read, I don’t think I would have made it through the frenzied voice of Luc without the audiobook version. I cannot praise Joe Jameson enough. He brought Luc to life, and it truly felt like this was a real person relaying his life to us, not a character from a book.