CBR16 Book 38: "Husband Material" by Alexis Hall

Page count: 423 pages

Audio book length: 13 hrs 33 mins

Rating: 4 stars

CBR16 Bingo: Rings (a whole bunch of rings being exchanged in this book)

In Boyfriend Material, Luc and Oliver met, pretended to date for a number of reasons, pretended to be in love, fell in love, broke up, and then decided to actually date for real. By the time this book starts, they have been together for a good while (I want to say at least a year?) and as is often the case at a certain age of your life, they keep being invited to weddings. All this focus on romance and matrimony and people committing to spending their lives together. Luc begins to wonder if he and Oliver shouldn't also get married.

The structure of this book is loosely based on classic rom-com Four Weddings and a Funeral. I don't even want to go into detail about which people are getting married, because discovering that is part of the fun of the book. I can also reveal to potentially axious readers that the death that leads to the funeral is not for any of the main supporting cast (I was worried when reading the book), but does affect several of the characters. 

I have labelled this contemporary romance, even though the plot doesn't concern itself with a couple meeting, falling in love and working their way to the inevitable HEA or HFN. That was the previous book. This is a follow-up, but it is also a contemporary novel, with a central theme of romance. The ending is not in any way unhappy, and the story wouldn't work if one removed the central romance from it - hence I get to call it a contemporary romance, even if it's more of a 'What do they do after the HEA/HFN?' 

When this came out, there were a bunch of reviews saying that the tone was a lot more serious and depressing than in Boyfriend Material and a lot of people seemed to be disappointed in it. I was not in a place emotionally to be disappointed by the book, so kind of forgot about it even though I'd pre-ordered it. Then, a few months ago, my friend Ashley read a bunch of Alexis Hall books and did a vlog about it. She reminded me that this book existed, and furthermore, she was very positive about it. So back onto my soon to be read TBR it went and it seemed like a perfect fit to read in June, during Pride, since there's a bunch of queer characters in it, and the author is gay. 

Having also acquired it in an audiobook sale on Audible at some point, I mostly listened to this in audiobook while cycling to and from work. Joe Jameson also narrated Boyfriend Material and does an excellent job repeating his performance here. He has very distinct voices for most of the rather sprawling cast, and now there is no one else I would like to hear reading to me about these weirdos.

I will say, that being determined to structure it with four weddings and a funeral and giving each of the sections almost equal attention means that the book does drag on in places, and it's longer than it needed to be. It was still a very entertaining read, and I'm now very curious about another of the books Ashley talked about, 10 Things That Never Happened.

Judging a book by its cover: Very much in the style of the first book, this is a cute cover that suits the book. I don't really have much else to say about it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 69: "A Lady for a Duke" by Alexis Hall

Page count: 460 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

For most of her life, Viola Carroll was forced to live a lie. Then she went off to the Napoleonic wars, with her best friend and constant companion Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood, and because of a horrible accident where she was presumed dead by everyone who knew her, she decided to just let most people assume her former self was indeed dead (so her title and estates could pass to her brother), making it possible for her to finally live as her true self. For the past two years, she has been living with her brother and his family, acting as her sister-in-law, Lady Marleigh's companion. Then her sister-in-law gets a letter from Miranda, Gracewood's younger sister, and it's clear that neither she nor he are doing well. Stuck by herself in a big, lonely castle in Northumberland, Miranda is about to go all "Gothic heroine", according to Lady Marleigh, and something needs to be done.

Viola isn't exactly thrilled about the idea of being out among other people than her family, and is absolutely terrified of facing Gracewood again. Lady Marleigh doesn't suffer fools, however, and since she is literally Viola's employer, Viola has to reluctantly agree to accompany her. When they arrive at his imposing castle, Gracewood is clearly so drunk and/or drugged that he thinks they are ghosts and actually fires a gun at them (thankfully, due to the inebriation, he's a terrible shot, so no one is injured). His dreadful state makes Viola see that he can't possibly be left to moulder, grieve, and destroy not only the rest of his own life but most likely that of Miranda too, as she refuses to leave her brother. 

Gracewood has a badly healed leg injury, so can't move about without a cane. He has severe PTSD and survivor's guilt because he lived and his best friend died. He's been dulling both his physical and emotional pain with alcohol and laudanum and generally withdrawn so much that most of his servants have quit and the only one left who cares for him is his teenage sister Miranda, who was clearly always an original and unconventional individual but is now becoming decidedly peculiar. Lady Marleigh wants to take her to London and make sure she has a season, but Miranda won't leave her brother, so Lady Marleigh needs to get Gracewood to a state where his sister can see she doesn't have to stay constantly by his side. So Viola starts to try to nurse Gracewood back to health, and the chemistry between them is palpable, even before Viola reluctantly tells him the truth about who she is.

Gracewood doesn't take the news about Viola well at first, and she is heartbroken and goes back to her family. His main objections are really very selfish, and he feels betrayed because he's been grieving for years and feels guilty for dragging Viola to war in the first place, and now it turns out that Viola has been alive this whole time and never let him know (oh, and she lied to him throughout their entire friendship). Obviously, because he'd be a terrible romance hero otherwise, Gracewood comes to his senses, realises that he's being an ass, and he needs to apologise to Viola. He also acknowledges that Lady Marleigh is absolutely right, his sister cannot be left to wither away in some Northumbrian castle, she deserves a season and to meet possible suitors. He quits laudanum cold turkey, packs up his sister and takes her to London. Then he seeks out Viola and performs a most satisfactory grovel.

Once he stops being butthurt, Gracewood basically doesn't want to waste another second away from Viola. He wants to make her his wife, but Viola refuses him. She has always loved him, first as a friend and then romantically, even before she allowed herself to admit the truth to herself, but she doesn't feel she could ever marry someone, and certainly not become a duchess. Now Gracewood not only has to prove himself a worthy brother to Miranda, but persuade his best friend that they should spend the rest of their lives together, society's opinions be damned. 

Alexis Hall is a very talented writer. Not all of his books work for me, but when he's on form, his books are a delight. Something Fabulous, a previous novel of his is also set in the Regency period, but that book can most accurately be described as a romp, and the setting is more fantastic, with no negative consequences for the queer characters ever having to be dealt with. This book is a much darker story, with a lot more angst, but Hall has stated that he wanted to write a book with a trans heroine, without her transness being the main issue. That certainly applies to this book.

My main gripe with this book, and the reason I don't feel I can give it a full five stars, is a subplot involving Gracewood's sister Miranda, and some shenanigans involving her in the final third of the book. There's an abduction plot to be unraveled and it all felt needlessly melodramatic and tacked on, not really contributing much to the rest of the plot. Without it, the book would have been pretty much perfect.

Judging a book by its cover: I think this cover is so pretty, and the cover models are really selling the devotion and affection between the protagonists. I was very happy when I discovered that the cover model portraying Viola is a trans woman. Her name is Violet - almost the same as the character she portrays. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR14 Book 4: "Something Fabulous" by Alexis Hall

Page count: 363 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Official book description:

Valentine Layton, the Duke of Malvern, has twin problems: literally.

It was always his father’s hope that Valentine would marry Miss Arabella Tarleton. But, unfortunately, too many novels at an impressionable age have caused her to grow up…romantic. So romantic that a marriage of convenience will not do and after Valentine’s proposal she flees into the night determined never to set eyes on him again.

Arabella’s twin brother, Mr. Bonaventure “Bonny” Tarleton, has also grown up…romantic. And fully expects Valentine to ride out after Arabella and prove to her that he’s not the cold-hearted cad he seems to be.

Despite copious misgivings, Valentine finds himself on a pell-mell chase to Dover with Bonny by his side. Bonny is unreasonable, overdramatic, annoying, and…beautiful? And being with him makes Valentine question everything he thought he knew. About himself. About love. Even about which Tarleton he should be pursuing.

Just in case anyone was wondering, this book is unashamedly and extremely queer. It would not surprise me if several of the innkeepers and random people who are encountered over the course of the story and barely get to say two lines are also queer, it just didn't fit into the narrative to confirm how and in what way. So considering it's also a Regency romance, some disbelief will need to be suspended, because the very illegal nature of many of these queer relationships is not really dealt with in any way. Which was fine by me. 

I wanted to give this book five stars, but Arabella Tarleton made it utterly impossible for me. I get that she's a woman of meager financial means placed in a pretty undesirable situation with regards to her family wanting her to marry a duke she in no way likes or wished to spend any time with, but the completely irresponsible way she runs off and keeps spreading melodramatic lies about her situation was just insufferable to me. It might have been fine if it happened once, but the second or third time Valentine and Bonny catch up with her and she still keeps on with her ridiculous slander, I wished someone would drown her in a lake. I'm sure I should feel more sympathy for someone of my own gender, but I found her deeply frustrating and couldn't understand why her lovely companion put up with her either. Everyone in this story, including her twin, would have been better off without her. 

The rest of this book was delightful and I laughed out loud several times. Poor Valentine may be a rich and powerful duke, but he's deeply out of touch with his feelings and it was probably good that he had to go haring off through the south of England on an unusual road trip with a handsome young man, even with some of the misadventures they have along the way. 

Boyfriend Material is still my favourite Alexis Hall novel, but until the sequel comes out later this year and possibly surpasses it, this is in second place for me. 

Judging a book by its cover: I'm honestly not entirely sure what I think about this cover. I think I like it? I do like the very colourful coats on our heroes, but the face of the individual I think is supposed to be Valentine seems too leering and wrong to me. I also would have wished for more of a background image, not just ghostly outlines of buildings. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR13 Book 30: "Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake" by Alexis Hall

Page count: 449 pages

Rating: 4 stars

CBR13 Bingo: Libations (the whole setting of the book is a televised baking show, so there are a lot of both sweet and savoury baked treats in the story and featured on the cover)

Official book description:

Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there’s a whisk there’s a way . . . and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation’s most beloved baking show.

Winning the prize money would give her daughter the life she deserves—and Rosaline is determined to stick to the instructions. However, more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory.  Suave, well-educated, and parent-approved Alain Pope knows all the right moves to sweep her off her feet, but it’s shy electrician Harry Dobson who makes Rosaline question her long-held beliefs—about herself, her family, and her desires.

Rosaline fears falling for Harry is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Yet as the competition—and the ovens—heat up, Rosaline starts to realize the most delicious bakes come from the heart.

I'm not the first Cannonballer to review this title, and I doubt I will be the last. Last year, I read and absolutely adored Hall's Boyfriend Material. It got me out of a reading slump and I loved both the two protagonists and all of the supporting cast around them. My rather high expectations of this book were somewhat tempered when fellow romance reviewer, Emmalita, read an ARC of the book and admitted to not being able to finish the novel. Naturally, that made me a bit wary, but the reasons she gave for not being comfortable with the contents are not things that necessarily upset me. 

Nevertheless, I went into the book with lowered expectations, and that might have been good because Rosaline Palmer is a very different book from Boyfriend Material. The first one is a straight-up romantic comedy, complete with a lot of the tropes we expect from that genre. In this book, there is absolutely romance, but the heroine does spend basically the whole first half of the book with the wrong guy, so to speak and the primary plotline in the book is more about Rosaline's journey of self-discovery and self-determination than it is about her finding lasting romance.

As a huge fan of the Great British Bake Off (or Great British Baking Show, as it is known in the US), the fake baking reality show, complete with esteemed judges, snarky hosts, foul-mouthed and ill-tempered producers and all manner of baking shenanigans was absolutely an added bonus. The fact that Hall is apparently going to write more Bake Off-inspired romances delights me to no end.  

One of Hall's strengths, I find, is how well he writes not only his protagonists but makes all the supporting characters feel real and essential as well. Rosaline's daughter could well have been an annoying plot moppet in less skilled hands (seriously, so many writers just don't know how to include realistic children, and should just refrain from including them in their books). Lauren, Rosaline's ex and now best friend was also great (as were the appearances of Lauren's current girlfriend when she occasionally popped up). The various other baking show contestants felt very real, and even Rosaline's demanding and occasionally overbearing parents felt very realistic. 

If you don't find self-centred, narcissistic, and emotionally manipulative love interests an instant turn-off (be assured that he is not Rosaline's HEA, and she gets a lovely guy when she just wakes up and stops second-guessing herself), and are OK with this romance being a lot more slow-burn than Oliver and Luc's, this is a fun book, especially for those of us who want more GBBO. 

Judging a book by its cover: Possibly in keeping with the central story of this book being Rosaline finding herself and discovering what she wants to do with her future, rather than the romance, this cover doesn't feature any male love interest, only our heroine herself, with a number of delicious baked goods and baking utensils floating in the air around her. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR12 Book 63: "Boyfriend Material" by Alexis Hall

Page count: 432 pages

Rating: 5 stars

#CBR12 Bingo: Reader's Choice (replaces How-To)

Official book description:

Wanted:

One (fake) boyfriend

Practically perfect in every way

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.

A lot of contemporary romances are marketed as rom-coms nowadays, but very few of them actually feel as if they fit the description. Boyfriend Material, on the other hand, is frequently laugh out loud funny (and not just if you went to university with a bunch of British poshos, so parts of this feel terribly familiar) and the plot is even structured as a traditional British rom-com, complete several quirky and supportive secondary characters (one group for each protagonist, with some overlap) and a plot with big third act complications, grand gestures to win the other back and so forth. 

While I have known of Alexis Hall as a writer since he briefly reviewed new to him classic romances in a very witty way over on Dear Author a long time ago now, I've only actually read one other of his books, and that was back in 2014. That was also a m/m romance, but it was, if I recall, considerably more angsty and Hall's writing skills have greatly improved since then. 

The vast majority of contemporary romance that gets published is set in the US, and that's not surprising. Yet this book is very British, and as someone who lived in the UK for six years, and lived in dorms with and interacted with a lot of the same people as several supporting characters in this book, it felt refreshing and very comforting that this was set in London, and people drank cups of tea when they were upset and did other things that felt very familiar to me. 

Luc and Oliver work as a couple because they are both absolutely hopeless but in very different ways. They're just sort of getting by until they meet the other, who both complicates and improves their life. I loved both of them and had absolutely no problem understanding why they each had a number of very supportive friend groups, who invested a lot in getting their fake relationship to blossom into something actually real. 

If The Right Swipe felt like it just wasn't entirely for me, at least not at the time when I read it, this book, however, seemed like it was exactly what I needed and just hadn't realised until the moment when I picked it up. I stayed up way too late into the night reading this, which in itself is unusual these days, when it takes a lot more for a book to catch and hold my attention. As I have already mentioned, it made me laugh out loud several times while reading it. That's not to say that there isn't seriousness throughout, as well. 

I would love to see this book turned into an actual movie. Netflix seems to be doing big business resurrecting the rom-com as a profitable genre. Get on this, will you?

Judging a book by its cover: I've seen this cover compared to the cover for my beloved Red, White and Royal Blue several places online, which I find amusing, because with the exception of both books featuring two cartoon dudes on the cover, they look very little alike. The former book is bright pink, while this book is actually red, white and blue - so perhaps that is the source of the confusion? I do like the various nods to London sights on the cover, not to mention the absolutely essential cup of tea. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR6 Book 138: "Glitterland" by Alexis Hall

Page count: 248 pages
Rating:3.5 stars

Ash Winters is a bipolar depressive who once wrote a very clinically acclaimed novel, but now makes a living writing mystery genre fiction, when he´s well enough to do anything at all, that is. He feels like a constant disappointment to his friends and family and cannot remember the last time he felt happy or even content. He´s dragged along to a stag party in Brighton against his better judgement and ends up going home with Darian, an Essex model with a spray tan, elaborate coif and a ridiculously flashy outfit. He wakes up with a panic attack and leaves without saying goodbye, trying his best to forget the encounter ever happened.

But Darian tracks him down at a book signing and Ash has to admit that he´s still deeply attracted to the bouncy, talkative, orange-skinned, big-haired Essex lad. Even if Darian isn´t exactly his intellectual equal in any way, he seems to make Ash forget about his anxiety and misery while they´re together. Ash can´t bring himself to tell Darian the truth about his illness. He keeps telling himself that they have nothing in common except their sizzling chemistry, so how can they possibly have a future?

Alexis Hall first came to my attention when he did a series of very entertaining romance reviews for Dear Author, one of the many romance review sites I spend far too much of my time frequenting. I began following him on Twitter and discovered he had written his own book. Then, as is so often the case, I bought the e-book and forgot all about it. When looking for light entertainment while woolly-headed and sick with a cold over Christmas, I came across the book on my e-reader and the rest is history.

I like a lot about the book. I like that Ash has a genuine illness and that it´s quite clear that someone with a diagnosis as bipolar isn´t going to suddenly get well just because they fall in love. I like that while Darian clearly isn´t an intellectual and enjoys fashion, glamour and reality TV, he´s not actually stupid either and is a genuinely good person, whose optimism and cheerfulness is an important contrast to Ash´s gloom and fatalistic world view. I liked Ash´s literary agent, Amy, and her fiancee Max. They both seemed lovely. I liked Darian´s friends. While they are not the sort of people I would hang out with, they seemed to genuinely care for each other and support each other, which is more than I can say for all of Ash´s friends.

Which brings me to what I didn´t like. I did not like Ash´s ex-boyfriend Niall, whose passive-aggressive behaviour was clearly meant to make Ash feel guilty all the time. I didn´t feel even vaguely sorry for him, even towards the end of the book, when he breaks down and finally apologises to Ash for his controlling ways. I also, unfortunately, didn´t like Ash all that much. He´s mentally ill, yes, and unfortunately Niall´s so-called friendly advice has made him believe that he is beyond redemption or happiness, but he is far too judgemental and pretentious for much of the book and really very mean to Darian far too much of the time. I´m honestly not sure Darian should have forgiven him, considering what Ash did and how long it took him to apologise. I also feel that there should have been more grovelling.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.