Boyfriend Material
by Alexis Hall
ISBN 9781728206141
Boyfriend Material is a fake dating romance featuring Luc the unmitigated disaster and Oliver the polished barrister. Lucien O’Donnell works for an obscure environmental non-profit but his real problem is his D-list celebrity fame as the son of two estranged rock stars. When the paparazzi snaps a compromising photo, Luc is forced to do damage control with the charity’s stodgy donors; he needs to find a respectable date for the annual fundraiser. Enter Oliver Blackwood, a criminal defense lawyer who also needs a date for a big event—his parents’ upcoming ruby wedding anniversary garden party. The secret sauce of this romance is that under his polished exterior Oliver is, in his own way, just as much of a disaster as Luc, with a string of failed romances behind him and a tense relationship with his family. But their chaos is complimentary, which is perhaps why their mutual friend Bridget has been trying to set them up for years (though Luc insists it is because they are her only two gay friends). I liked this romance so much I read it not once but twice in the last year and enjoyed it just as much the second time through. When I was working on this mini review I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is a sequel, Husband Material, due to be published in the summer of 2022!
Tags: Fiction, Romance, LGBTQ+
The Heart Principle
by Helen Hoang
ISBN 9780451490841
Anna Sun’s life seems to be in free-fall. After burning out in her musical career as violinist following an unexpected bout of YouTube fame, she feels adrift. Then her boyfriend tells her that he wants an open relationship before they decide if they should marry. Steeling her nerve, Anna decides that if her boyfriend is going to sleep around, she can too. And this time she won’t pick a man just because her family approves. The Heart Principle is the third in Helen Hoang’s series of romances featuring people with autism as heroines or love interests; the first was 2018’s The Kiss Quotient. The series is tied together, and love interest Quan Diep is the business partner of Michael Phan, the love interest from the first book. With his motorcycle and tattoos, Quan is nothing Anna’s parents would ever approve of, but when a crisis strikes in Anna’s family, Quan is there for her in ways that are more than she ever could have expected from a fling. In fact, it feels a lot like love. Unlike the other installments in the series, The Heart Principle is written in the first person, lending a heart-wrenching immediacy to Anna’s struggle with her burnout, paralyzing repetitive behaviours, and controlling family. Despite this darker element when I was generally turning to romance for heart-warming fluff, I absolutely ripped through this book, and it may be my favourite novel in the series.
Somewhere Only We Know
by Maurene Goo
ISBN 9780374310578
Roman Holiday but make it K-pop. Lucky is a K-pop star at the height of her fame. She has captivated Asia, and her management team has turned their sights on a North American breakthrough for their Korean-American idol. But Lucky is burnt out, struggling to remember why she wanted this life so badly in the first place. Isolated in a Hong Kong hotel, what she really wants is the ability to go out for a hamburger without being mobbed by adoring fans who have no idea what her life is really like. Meanwhile, Jack is under pressure from his family to head to college when what he really wants is an art career. He’s been secretly moonlighting as a tabloid photographer for months, a surprisingly lucrative gig for a teenager. When he rescues an apparently drunk girl on the heels of an assignment at a swanky Hong Kong hotel, he has no idea at first that she is international superstar Lucky. Somewhere Only We Know has a strong sense of place as Lucky and Jack take a speed run through the sights of Hong Kong, eating everything they can get their hands on along the way. However, I struggled to sympathize with Jack or see his appeal as a love interest given what we know about his intentions once he realizes who Lucky really is.
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Young Adult
Required Reading 