Mood
The Lost Boys of Hell’s Kitchen, Book #3
Heat Factor: It’s got everything! I-think-you’re-a-hooker sex, hate sex, building-trust sex, AND love sex
Character Chemistry: Forced proximity and some sass turns mistrust to love
Plot: Natalia and Connor are forced to marry, plus a bunch of mafia shenanigans
Overall: I’m not gonna lie—I was apprehensive about reading this book, but I loved it
Heat Factor: These teenage college first years get up to stuff, but the door is firmly closed.
Character Chemistry: Layered and complex, with a mutual forbidden desire and a rivalry for the top spot in the NHL draft
Plot: Mickey’s difficulty acknowledging his mental health struggles makes all of the burdens of his own and others’ expectations for him much, much heavier.
Overall: This book made me cry.
We’re trying something a little different this week, where we read different books that all have the same title. Our first contender in Who Wore It Best: Smut Edition? Husband Material.
To properly kick off Husband Material week, I figured I should read the book that inspired us to do this in the first place: the version written by Alexis Hall that Erin squeed over.
Her review is below, but here are three additional things that you should know about this book:
You *definitely* have to read Boyfriend Material first. There are approximately a million characters who are vaguely introduced, but the expectation is that the reader already knows what Luc’s job is and who his coworkers are, who his besties are, and the general outline of his history. Luc’s friends Bridge and Priya get the most page time of the secondary characters and feel the most fully fleshed out, but if I hadn’t read Boyfriend Material, I would have been very confused with every interaction Luc has with his fellow CRAPPers.
Not because of the non-heteronormative HEA, but because I thought it read kind of day-in-the-life women’s fic-y. The focus of most of the book is not Luc and Oliver’s relationship, because their relationship is great, but on the stuff going on around them that’s making them process their various messes.
On the other hand, the conflict and resolution at the very end of the book may have changed my mind about this statement.
Just trust me on this one.
Read on for Erin’s review.
Continue reading “Review Revisited: Holly’s Take on Husband Material by Alexis Hall (2022)”So, Erin has been yelling at us about Boyfriend Material and how it’s her favoritest most funniest book ever for a while now, so I figured I should read it.
Erin and I do not have exactly the same sense of humor, because I was not laughing so hard that my husband had to check on me to make sure I was ok. (Maybe also she laughs harder at things than I do.) And there were some scenes where I could tell that we were going for humor, but it was too over-the-top for me to get a giggle out of it. (Erin and I had similarly divergent reactions to Something Fabulous.)
BUT. The bit where Luc is telling his coworkers the “interrupting cow” knock-knock joke is fucking hilarious. Alex Twaddle 4-EVA!
I will also say that I read this as part of a larger Alexis Hall binge, which really highlighted to me that his books are not for everyone. They are thoughtful and absolutely brilliantly written, but I find them incredibly stressful to read. The protagonists tend to be messy and unlikable; therefore, being in their heads is not always a pleasant experience.
Read on for all the deets (and lots of squeeing) from Erin.
Continue reading “Review Revisited: Holly’s Take on Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall (2020)”Crescent Pass, Book #1
Heat Factor: We really shouldn’t but we want to (and boy do they ever)
Character Chemistry: Attraction plus kindness is always a winning combination
Plot: Harper and Owen got Vegas married five years ago, and haven’t seen each other since. Now, Harper wants an annulment.
Overall: I really liked this book
The Smut Report 