Boyfriend Material
Ratings238
Average rating4
I don't know how I feel about this one, so I won't rate it.
I really enjoyed some of the humor, but there were some jokes and other things that very much hit me the wrong way (transphobic humor, jokes about sex workers, vegetarianism as a plot point).
I liked the push and pull romance plot, but I had a lot of trouble sympathizing with Luc at first, because he can be so unnecessarily mean.
This is a contemporary, but a lot of the action feels a little tilted away from reality. Mostly this is fun, as with Alex, the unbelievably posh co-worker. But then Oliver's parents are over-the-top evil, and what's happening there is really important.
I could identify with these characters' issues, unfortunately for me, and I feel the author did a great job of handling some weighty stuff. Hall also portrays a lot of different types of homophobia; it's a depressing background to most of the book's plot, but he treats it with a relatively light touch. I can't remember another book that handles the topic exactly that way.
Overall, this book feels like a slice of life, and I think that's my favorite thing about it. I don't believe Oliver and Luc are necessarily riding off into the sunset together, and that's okay. Only some of the non-romance-plot threads are resolved and not all in happy ways. That all feels realistic to me, and very sweet.
DNF - PG 23
If you like these type of books (romcom that is trying way too hard with the ‘com' aspect and dropping pop culture references left and right) you could probably do worse. I don't know. I don't read these type of books because I'm more annoyed with the sense of humor than anything else. Well, that and all the pop culture references - 95% of which I struggle to understand (and the other 5% I just don't like).
I didn't even get to meet the love interest, I was so annoyed by our ‘hero' and his sense of (non-stop) humor.
Here's to hoping that my next attempt at this author turns out better for me.
This review is just to help me remember key points about the book. If you find it helpful or relatable that's cool too.Pride Month Edition
I do believe my rating is mostly due to the narrator of this audiobook. I haven't laughed this hard while reading in a while. The cover had me believing it was gonna be a Red, White and Royal Blue knock-off but I was so wrong. I don't get why they put the union jack on the cover tbh, apart from the fact that the story takes place in London and everyone is British I guess. I'm glad I gave it a go. There were some bits that I didn't particularly like but overall it was a pretty awesome romcom and I loved the side characters. Any scene with Alex or Luc's mom and me rolling in stitches 😂 strongly recommend
I found this perfectly average. There were a lot of British references that I didn't get so maybe it's on me. But I didn't feel much of their chemistry at all.
I didn't like the repetitive dinners and making fun of Oliver's vegetarianism. I mean once would have been fine, but it was annoying to have it done repeatedly throughout the book.
This wasn't for me.
i gotta say, this probably has one of the most charming narrations i've ever read. it's so amusing!
at the start this was gearing to be another 5 star for me but i changed my mind towards the end. oliver and luc are both likeable characters and despite their flaws, i didn't find them insufferable. but i felt like with how the events had transpired, the problem was cramped within the last minutes of the book. i read this in kindle and i swear i had 15 minutes left when the ‘problem' happened and i felt like if it was told in another way, we could've explored more of that.
but i probably just want too much from them. idk.
Good book. The characters have a good story but I expected more. At least they have character development, I like it.
well.... anyways... this book was good and bad at the same time for me.
the only parts i enjoyed was the tension they had before they eventually started dating,luciens friends, co-workers and his mother. too much information got thrown at me in between situations/conversations...that i keep telling myself “omfg... just get to the point already or atleast simplify!!” so then i skip a few paragraphs ... which is not fun
“Someone else's actions may affect you. But what other people choose to do is about them.”
Fake relationship trope? Say no more.
This was so cute and had me laughing on multiple occasions. The banter between Oliver and Luc actually reminded me a lot of Red, White & Royal Blue and that was super fun for me.
Complicated relationships with fathers is something a lot of people can relate to. I understand that not all of our fathers are rockstars but the sentiment of having an estranged father wanting to be a father only on their terms is still relatable and heartbreaking to all people who read this or endure it in real life. I'm happy that there wasn't a redemption arc or an attempt to make us feel somewhat sympathetic for Jon.
I have a lot of words when it comes to Oliver's parents but all I am going to say is and mind my words for a moment, they are pieces of shits.
I would've liked if the romance was given more time to develop but overall, I really enjoyed this!
I'm starting to think the romance genre isn't for me, because my eyes were just glazing over the entirety of this book, except for the existence of the best character in the book—Alex, of course—who I honestly thought would have been the romantic lead, and I'm gonna be honest, would have been way funnier and interesting to me. Then again, I have no idea what people typically like when it comes to romance, and I can see why people would liken this to RWRB. There's that style of writing that some people think is funny and charming but I find vaguely irritating in the way I find white people trying to be funny irritating most of the time, there's the vaguely diverse group of friends that's there, being vaguely diverse (this just being Priya who is Muslim, which is crazy because Priya is as Hindu a name as I can conceive of, but who cares, there've been worse things in life), there's the snarky main character who's biracial (like, French and English, which as I understand might as well be vaguely ethnic to British people) and the uptight blonde dude that's there being sexy and constipated. Interestingly, it also shares a commonality with RWRB in that they both make an off color reference to American imperialism and violence that just jars you, because it reminds you that these books are written for an audience that decidedly excludes people like me and my friends, while also trying to pretend that it isn't. People of color are largely ornamental here, which I'm not disappointed about and I've just sort of expected from books like these written by white queer people—but it feels like there's a difference between knowing this, and seeing it in action. I'm sure this isn't the kind of book where I'm even supposed to care about, because who cares about the optics of representation when two white gay dudes are having a go at each other through fake dating tropes or whatever, and I know these books are largely meant to be escapist fantasies. But what kinds of romance books are people escaping into? Books where (ex?)Muslim South Asians lesbians are just inexplicably hanging out with nobody but white people? Books that make a one-liner out of a war? Again, I'm sure I'm hand wringing over things that nobody cares about but me. But I'm starting to think that books written by white queers and touted as feel-good romance books and escapist fantasies are books that are catered to the kind of person that doesn't want to think about these things, which is a luxury that quite a few people want to enjoy. I won't begrudge them that. But I will wonder.
Anyways, two stars because I really liked Alex♥️
Tbh spent the first half of this book complaining it was trash, and describing it as the “wattpad version of Red, White & Royal Blue”. However, around half way through I started to notice and appreciate the level of character development, the pacing of events and the writing style. Overall this book was a decent read.
DNFed at 30%.
This was disappointing. I wanted to enjoy it but I couldn't get past certain things. The dialogue between the two main characters was really confusing. They would be having what I deemed a typical banter and then out of nowhere one of them is deeply offended but I had no idea why. The amount of times this happened was annoying. It feels a lot like the miscommunication trope which I don't enjoy and it feels like at a certain point you would just stop feeling comfortable interacting with someone who is getting offended by everything you say. So the fact that it was building into a relationship didn't feel earned. It was awkward. But the most awkward part of the book was how Hall treats many of the characters. Like how dumb Hall tried to make Alex. To the point that it was absurd. The part where I just had to give up on this book was when Alex is making comments about how his father viewed jury members but kept mixing it up with his feelings on badgers. He even says something like “and they make so many holes in the walls... no wait that's badgers”. It was deeply cringey and embarrassing. None of the intended jokes were funny.
This was an easy and mostly enjoyable listen, but again suffered from being just too long.
The back and forth between the characters, the multiple break ups and getting back together just felt a bit too much after a while.
I did enjoy all of the characters, even Luc once he stopped being a child and grew a pair, but especially Oliver who had the patience of a saint.
The narrator (Joe Jameson) was brilliant and I definitely recommend the audio for this one.
the book was great in context of highlighting real life problems such as manipulative, controlling parents, deadbeat fathers, sef-loathing, homophobia in many different ways where people think they're just being funny, eating disorders (in a way?) but the story itself didnt do much for me
Finally, a good gay romcom. It's cheesy and cliche, but—what can I say—I really enjoyed it.
Ich mochte das Buch und auch die Story sehr gerne, war erst skeptisch wegen Fake Dating das finde ich manchmal etwas unrealistisch, aber hier hat es mir sehr gut gefallen.
Ich fand Luc und Oliver sehr sehr toll und fand sie haben sich gemeinsam toll entwickelt.
5 Sterne ist es nicht geworden, weil ich fand das an manchen stellen Humor eingeworfen wurde wo ich es nicht so passend fand und dadurch manche Emotionen nicht richtig durchgekommen sind.
Ich habe es aber sonst geliebt und freue mich schon auf 07/22 und den 2 Band
This book...ugh. I absolutely loved Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake so I decided to try Alexis Hall's other works. Clearly that didn't go well.
I hated almost all of the characters with exception of Luc's mother. Oliver and Bridget were THE WORST.
Oliver is definitely one of my least favorite love interests I have ever read about. This entire book made me so angry. There were one too many conflicts for my liking. Also, that entire plot-line with Luc's dad was...unnecessary??? I wish we'd just been told that he is an asshole and that'd been it because it went absolutely nowhere. I was just desperately waiting for it to end. Honestly, I kinda wanna forget about it.