A review by cluckieduck
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Everything I want in a rom-com

Boyfriend Material is sweet, funny, charming, angsty, poignant, adorable, snarky, heartbreaking...how many more adjectives can I throw at it?? It's a warm mug of tea on a foggy day. I loved everything about it (outside of the fade-to-blank sexy times, but I can overlook that ;) ).

Told only from Luc's POV, the book deftly follows his character growth as he comes to terms with how his childhood, as the famous-adjacent son of an absentee rock-star father, has affected his life and relationships. He's been in a bit of a rough patch the last few years and needs to present a more suitable face ahead of a major fundraising gig or else he'll be fired, so along comes clean-cut barrister Oliver to provide a grounding presence as Luc's fake boyfriend.

This is my first fake-dating trope in the romance genre and I loved it, especially because Luc & Oliver already had a bit of history.

Someone had come up to us and asked if we were a couple, and Oliver had looked utterly disgusted, and replied "No, this is just another homosexual I'm standing next to.”

Neither are each others' type, but as they spend more time being fake-boyfriends, the lines begin to blur as they each work through their own struggles & flaws, and finally begin to realize how good they are for one another.

"Are we really bad at this?" I asked. "We've been fake dating for three days and we've already fake broken up once."

"Yes, but we fake resolved our difficulties and fake got back together, and I'm hoping it's made us fake stronger."

Anyways, fake relationship aside, there is so much more to this story, including a wonderful cast of supporting characters, some really funny inside jokes (in particular, one revolving around some Dick pics), and working through some ingrained abandonment issues. I can't wait to see where Luc & Oliver's story goes in the next one!
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