Husband Material (London Calling, 2)

Luc was increasingly more insufferable this time around which was grating by the end of the book. They said that Oliver had started therapy since the previous book but Luc is so clearly the one that needs extensive therapy!

It was so fun returning to Luc and Oliver's lives for this second book!

Underwhelming sequel to a good book, the constant balloon arch drama got old quickly and the ending was a little abrupt, although the fact that they stayed together despite not following societal norms (character development for both of them) did save it from losing more stars.

I'm having really conflicted feelings about this book. For the first say 95% of the book, I was vibing, i was sure this was going to be a 5 star read. The humor had me delighted, literally giggling aloud while reading, and it was funny enough where I was pretty sure their banter was going to make my discomfort with the conflict of the book worth it. But then the last 5% came out of fucking nowhere, and now I'm genuinely not sure what I read.

SPOILERS AHEAD WHY does it make any sense that after all that wedding planning, and fighting about wedding planning and genuinely resolving their disagreements about wedding planning..... does the final chapter include them both literally at the altar deciding 'marriage isn't for them.'

FIRST OF ALL, why isn't a wedding important to Luc, who for this entire book has been arguing about how important the right to marry is for his community. Also, the entire book is from his point of view. If he had a problem with like.... the institution of marriage why did it never come up in a single one of his many internal monologues?

and OLIVER, i just don't understand. This is the man who argued with all his queer friends that he rather liked and wanted a church wedding because he loves tradition and wants to be a part of it, but then in the very last section suddenly doesn't want to get married at all because it's a 'straight institution?' The CENTRAL CONFLICT of this book is that Oliver is a bit too traditional, is caught up in the trappings of tradition, and wants to be seen as respectable and is uncomfortable with any of the more ostentatious markers of queerness.

Honestly as a queer person it kinda felt like a slap in the face. I don't know, I just felt weird about it.




OVERALL:
The Pros:
1. Once again the banter is on point.
2. Once again, the sappy/romantic sections are cute as fuck
3. The whole section around Oliver's dad's funeral, and their fight and his complicated relationship with his father and how it affected him was really well handled. The best section of the book.
4. The delightful group of friends. Bridget and Priya do have my heart.

Cons:
1. The whole ending. See above.
2. Why do these adult men, who apparently essentially live together and see each other nearly daily, seem to never talk?
3. One problem I had with the section about Oliver's dad's funeral was the fight with Christopher. Like... I know on a logical level it does probably make sense that their parents were overly critical of BOTH of their sons and played them against each other, but on the other hand, as a reader who doesn't give a fuck about Christopher, and is VERY invested in Oliver, seeing their fight be resolved as 'i guess he sucked for both of us, and we both could've done more for each other/been a better brother' was so unsatisfactory. I mean, we all saw in the last book Christopher ganging up against Oliver with both of his parents it felt pretty shitty to not vindicate Oliver's pain here. Also - it reduced the real suffering of Oliver being raised in a homophobic household to a shared overly critical dad thing, which is very different.


Ultimately, I think this book reads like a very specific collection of fanfiction oneshots about Boyfriend Material. It takes all the characters and setting and humor that fans loved in the first and then offers five short interconnected mostly separate stories about their post-canon lives. Which is fun, but there really isn't a coherent plot or story, and some stories are more compelling than others.

I just found this book to be boring. And the ending to be a let down