Husband material

Set two years after rom-com sensation Boyfriend Material, Hall's unnecessary sequel sends reformed wild child Luc O'Donnell and his straitlaced boyfriend, Oliver Blackwood, to four weddings and a funeral. The first nuptials belong to Luc's BFF, Bridget, and strained comedy ensues when she fears her fiancé, Tom, is cheating on her. Next, Luc gets invited to his ex's wedding, which fuels his anxiety but provides an opportunity for closure. It also inspires Luc to first accidentally, then properly, propose to Oliver. A work colleague's wedding comes third, and feels the least integral to the plot. Much of the book's humor comes across as forced, from Luc's disastrous cooking to a running gag about a photocopier. But there is real drama as both Luc and Oliver grapple with their complicated relationships with their respective fathers, one of whom unexpectedly dies. And the heart of the story is Luc and Oliver's debate about their own wedding, which stems from their differing styles of expressing love. The banter between them is strong as ever, and fans of book one will be glad to see them again, but the frothy, episodic plot contains so much filler that it's difficult to invest in. This lacks the magic that made Boyfriend Material feel so special. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary. (Aug.)

A London couple navigates the highs and lows of weddings and even a funeral in this sequel to Boyfriend Material (2020). Two years after the events of that book, reformed bad boy Luc O'Donnell and Oliver Blackwood, his buttoned-up barrister boyfriend, have settled into something resembling domestic bliss. There's still an opposites-attract push and pull between them, but they've found a way to balance each other out. Now, with several wedding celebrations on their social calendar and an unexpected funeral to contend with, the couple is put into a pressure cooker of stressful situations. From running into old exes to dealing with their sneaky feelings of grief, Luc and Oliver will have their work cut out for them if they're going to make it through with their relationship intact. Luc and his issues take more of the focus, as he hems and haws over proposing to Oliver--especially after a terrible ex-boyfriend announces his own engagement. It never feels like the couple is in any real danger of splitting up, though, which raises the question of why they needed a sequel at all. While revisiting much-loved characters can leave fans feeling warm and fuzzy, this material would have been better off as a series of bonus stories rather than a full-length continuation of Luc and Oliver's relationship. While a happily-ever-after doesn't stop when a couple realizes their feelings for one another, this book feels more like an excuse to put the pair into a variety of loosely connected one-off situations than a fully fledged novel. A fine but unnecessary sequel. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.