Husband Material

okay, i was looking forward to this book a lot. like, boyfriend material was such a joy to read and genuinely funny, i laughed out loud so many times - and i truly only wanted the same reading experience one more time with husband material.

well. i got the opposite of that. i must admit, most of the time i just felt bored. not entertained at all. i think there were like 3 or 4 small moments in the entire book that actually made me laugh. and then i had moments of actual frustration while reading it. mainly because i kept thinking “what happened to the characters from the first book and why do i suddenly dislike them a lot?” - and yeah. that's exactly what kind of happened to me. i started to hate the characters. especially the protagonists. and the side characters who were mostly there to be funny in book 1 and then once more in book 2 were just starting to annoy me because it was the same thing again and again and again.

i also must admit that i personally don't care about wedding stories at all. but i was still in it for the boys (luc and oliver). but man, i think even if you like wedding stories, i don't think you would get much out of this book. i honestly wanted this book to have an open conversation about marriage and how not everyone has to get married or how you sometimes just aren't ready for it yet and that's okay. and i wanted it to end with luc and oliver deciding that they shouldnt get married (yet). in THEORY i got what i wanted. but it felt super rushed and kind of out of nowhere? like you can't just throw in the towel in the last 5% of the book. give me some proper foreshadowing. the conclusion just wasn't satisfying at all, i'm genuinely sad about this.

i wonder why this book is as long as it is because so much of its content just feels like filler. maybe filler that turns into a backdrop for luc and oliver's arguments but still. this could have happened anywhere and wasn't exciting at all. i think this book was missing some of the “high stakes” of book 1 that led to a proper plot and a red thread. sure we couldn't have had fake dating again but i'm sure one can come up with smth that isn't just “watch this established couple fight during weddings and then resolve the fights only to fight again”? this leads back to me being bored for most of the book.

as a conclusion, i just want to throw one question into the void: Did we really need this sequel?
- my answer would be a resounding NO. boyfriend material was fine where it ended. it was a very nice standalone book and i felt like the characters got their time to shine and grow. the sequel didn't give me any of that. especially when it comes to character development. and i think it didn't help that a lot of the issues that luc and oliver had got resolved in boyfriend material. there wasn't a lot to work with for a sequel. so maybe, the concept of “two 30 year olds don't know if getting married is the right next step” could have worked better with a fresh new couple. it could have even taken place in the same universe with luc and oliver as a power couple in the background who are like "nah, marriage just isn't for us, but it's good, we love each other"

i am wary about the third book that's gonna come out at some point. i will probably read it too just out of curiosity but i am just kind of disappointed and done right now