Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
By the time I finished reading this novel I was a fan. One reason for that is the comedy, the other is Oliver. The comedy works really well often enough that I found myself laughing out loud, often during the scenes with Odile and Judy, and Priya and the truck and the friends, and some of the scenes with Luc and Oliver. The comedy had different levels: working really well, working okay, and then there’s the level where the jokes get stretched thin and you have to wait till Hall gets it cranked up again. It’s a bit like The Little Engine That Could. But by the time you go through that cycle a couple of times you understand that the writer is quite reliable and the spark of the book if not steady is at least true. I will forgive a book for a lot if it can make me laugh with that sudden sharp quality that means a comic moment landed just right. There are a lot of those. Luc and Oliver are good characters, and Oliver when he comes along and starts to thaw draws out a side of Luc that I can feel. In reading a book from a genre where there are expected outcomes and conventions, like most romance (and frankly like all the genres if you factor in the different set of conventions each requires), you truly have to admire a writer who can negotiate all that and make you cheer for what happens, even if that feeling is sometimes intermittent. Comedy is the hardest thing. I did start the book and put it down after three chapters because the comic writing felt so forced and thin at the beginning. But I think this is because when we meet Luc he is alone (autocorrect keeps changing Luc to Luckily and Lucy) and his alone moments are never his best. He requires context. When I picked it up again and the fake boyfriend jokes start occurring and recurring, I read steadily. At any rate this book was a confection, a fine box of chocolates.