★★★★☆ | Yes, I love the tropes

Title: Boyfriend Material
Author: Alexis Hall
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: July 7th, 2020
Pages: 432
Genres: Contemporary | Romance | NA | LGBT


❤️ m/m fake relationship
❤️ opposites attract & hate to love
❤️ “we’re so different but are we really??”
❤️ emotional baggage
Wanted:
One (fake) boyfriend
Practically perfect in every wayLuc 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.

ALC/ARC received from Libro.fm/NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Luc O’Donnell is a messy, anxious, and disastrous individual.
As a son of a rockstar, all his mistakes are well documented on the pages of magazines and gossip portals so when a compromising photo is about to ruin his life again he enlists the help of his friend group to find him a pleasant boyfriend who could help him repair his reputation.
Oliver Blackwood seems like a perfect man for the job. A barrister, an ethical vegetarian, and zero scandals on his account.
Except he hates Luc, doesn’t he?
I liked how those supposedly complete opposites managed to find a common ground and work through their issues. I’m a huge sucker for opposites attract AND hate to love so this was my jam.
The fake dating trope was also quite fun and organic though I would like it more overt in the early stages of their relationship? Hard to explain without spoiling anything but after [redacted] it didn’t feel like fake dating fake dating?
It was fun and tropey and had lots of British humour which I loved — Luc’s snarky narration was the best part of the book.
But it also had a deeper side with Luc’s and Oliver’s emotional baggage.
There’s dealing with anxiety, difficulty with talking about one’s emotions, lots of back and forth, messing up, and apologising.
In the end, I liked it very much but I still felt like something was missing? I loved the characters and had fun listening to it but I missed the intensity that would make my heart beat faster here.
- Have you read Boyfriend Material? Are you planning to?

E!!!! I LOVE enemies to lovers ROMANCE AS WELLLLLL!!! 😍😍😍😍 Love love loveeeee them. Sooo many heartwarming and cutteeee moments that I just *falls over and dies* 🤣🤣😍😍
AND I AM DEFINITELY GOING TO ADD THIS TO MY TBR! 😍😍😍
LikeLiked by 1 person
ENEMIES TO LOVERS IS THE MOST SUPERIOR TROPE!!! ❤️❤️ The banter! The denial! The slow progress to friends and then maybe something more! I’m a weak weak person…
I hope you like it! The audiobook was good too ❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! When it comes to that, I am a weak person as well!! 😉🤣🤣
I am sure I will!! 😘❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
I finished this one the other day and I loved it! It was so much fun! Great review, E ☺️
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad you did!! ❤️ Thank you, Amy!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
great review, e! i’ve been hearing lots of good things about this one lately so my interest in it has piqued 👀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, May! Yes, I’ve seen many people loved it and I’m glad because it deserves some attention ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Enemies-to-lovers AND fake dating? I’m definitely going to have to give this a read. Great review!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right?? All the Good Stuff!! Thank you, Erin!! ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have had my eye on this book ever since I saw it was going to be published. I can’t wait to get my hands on it and starting reading!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry for the late reply, your comment got stuck in the spam! 😓😓 I had it in my TBR for a while as well and I’m super grateful I got the ALC because it was hilarious!! Hope you’ll enjoy it when you get to it 🙂
LikeLike
this is such a great review, E! i wasn’t interested in this book before, but now i am because of all the great reviews it’s getting 👁 plus, it seems like it’ll make me really happy & that’s what i need right now. weirdly, i’m also getting red, white & royal blue vibes from this book? lmao 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Caitlin!! Yes, it’s a feel-better book! And it’s also opposites attract, hate to love & NA with lots of banter so, yeah, RW&RB vibes minus politics! 😀 Hope you’ll enjoy it!
LikeLiked by 1 person