Joined in 2023 
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Viola had to leave everyone and everything behind when she too the chance to create a new life for herself 2 years ago. That included her oldest and closest friend. Now he needs her more than ever, but he might just destroy everything she has worked to build.
In regards to the nobility, Mary Brown represents a woman who married John Brown, while Jane Smith represents an unmarried woman. When Viola Carroll was presumed dead at Waterloo she took the opportunity to live, at last, as herself. But freedom does not come without a price, and Viola paid for hers with the loss of her wealth, her title, and her closest companion, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood. If he allowed himself to think beyond the moment, beyond her closeness, and their entwined fingers, he would have known she was right. But he had no wish to think. Similarly, there have always been people who have lived as a gender that is not the gender they were assigned at birth (although, obviously, the only ones we know about are the ones who were outed, either during their lives or post-mortem), but we can’t necessarily know how those individuals understood their identities. It gets particularly complex when you’re talking about people who were assigned female at birth and lived as men. Hannah Snell, for example, dressed as a man to fight in a war but afterward told her own story in a way that very strongly framed her as a woman who had dressed as a man to fight in a war. But there are also people like Dr. James Barry who lived as men during their lifetimes and made it very clear that they wanted to be thought of, known and remembered as men after their deaths.
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Every once in a while you read a book that you want to SCREAM FROM ROOFTOPS about. I’m screaming, people!’– Sonali Dev, USA Today bestselling author, on Boyfriend Material This is my second Alexis Hall book (my first being Something Fabulous) and he writes stories in such a way that is free and unapologetic in a way that feels unique to him. In my experience anyways, that's how it feels. Throughout reading this book I have also been grieving my dog of over a decade. My best little buddy. And I have been miserable and pessimistic and bitter and this book made me FEEL. It is beautiful but it also made me laugh too because the dry humour is wonderful. She was laughing again and it felt like a second release. One of the heart or the soul or the self. As necessary as tears could be sometimes. As powerful as anger. Except this was nothing but love. Love and the triumph of joy.” Let's start this reaction off with some honesty: I am very conflicted about my star rating of this review. In my view, this book exists in three parts - The Reunion, The Pursuit, and The Random Side Story with the Sister. (Btw, while it seemed unnecessary as I was reading it, upon reflection, that Random Side Story absolutely served a purpose).
The exact form of a Scottish chief's style varies from family to family, and is generally based on tradition rather than formal rules. I also feel like the first half of the book was what the author wanted to write about. But they didn’t want the whole book to be about that so he probably scrambled for something else for the other half. It was fine, but didn’t come across and strong as the first half. Also, a character saying they didn’t believe a woman was ever beautiful in her life breaks my heart. The Rt Hon (the) Lord/Lady Smith Lord President of the Court of Session/Lord Justice General of Scotland When Viola Caroll was presumed dead at Waterloo she took the opportunity to live, at last, as herself. But freedom does not come without a price, and Viola paid for hers with the loss of her wealth, her title, and her closest companion, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood. Firstly, and most simply, Waterloo is a big, iconic, central feature of the Regency, and I wanted to engage with it in a meaningful way. It was kind of one of the most devastating military conflicts that Europe had ever seen, so that feels . . . significant? Otherwise, it would be like setting a book in 1916 and never mentioning the First World War.I'm going to do my best to review this book but honestly words fail me to describe how beautiful it was. It is not a light read, my heart broke for Viola and Gracewood. Viola making a difficult choice, live her life as her authentic self but leave her old life behind in a lot of ways, including Gracewood. I loved their transition from friends to lovers this story was so full of love and joy but also angst.
This story takes a sense of self and puts it far above gender in terms of importance. By telling this story in a time period where women were so defined by the rules of society, it sheds an even bigger light on some of the more absurd notions of masculinity and femininity that we still hold to this day. It may not have been a perfect read, but boy, did I have a perfectly good time reading it. It was unlike anything I had ever read, but everything that I was so happy to read. Reacquainting myself with Alexis Hall's writing paid off in flying colors - maybe, it's time I reconsider my hesitation to finally read Husband Material, as well... 🤔🤔
Speaking of, the secondary characters are as important to this story as our main characters. Lady Marleigh who is insufferable and yet I loved her. Her and Badger's relationship was wonderful and unapologetic. Then there's Miranda who is delightful and hilarious in such an unassuming way. Lady Lilimere is ruthless and I love her. And my fave of all time is Little Bartholomew. Honestly I would have happily read about him in every chapter. Also the repairing of Gracewood's and Miranda's relationship was also so lovely. The only spot of freshness in this story did not come from the main characters at all—it came from the side characters, Lady Marleigh (sister-in-law to Viola) and Lady Gracewood (Justin's younger sister). They were doing fresh things in this story, thank goodness, and Justin and Viola got to semi-react to those events throughout the novel. But that did make for awkward reading in a romance subniche that tends to rely on its main characters to provide the agency in a story.
The writing is witty, and [the] chemistry is irresistible, but it’s Hall’s insights about trust and self-worth that set the story apart. This is a triumph’– Publishers Weekly on Boyfriend Material The first thing I’d say is that it’s worth remembering that the Regency is an incredibly tiny bit of history both spatially and temporally. Like, not only did it cover just nine years of actual time (1811–1820), but if we’re talking about the specific community that people are usually talking about when they’re talking about the Regency, we’re talking about the 10,000 richest people in England. And, in fact, if you narrow it down to the subset of people that historical romance tends to focus on (which is to say, dukes and people who directly interacted with dukes), you’re getting into the low hundreds.Simply the best writer I’ve come across in years’– Laura Kinsale, New York Times bestselling author If the definite article is not used before courtesy peerages and The Hon Elizabeth Smith marries Sir William Brown, she becomes The Hon Lady Brown, but if she marries the higher-ranked Lord Brown, a courtesy Baron, she becomes only Lady Brown. If this Sir William Brown's father is created Earl of London and Baron Brown, as a result of this ennoblement his wife's style will actually change, from "The Hon Lady Brown" to "Lady Brown". While the style may appear diminished, the precedence taken increases from that of a wife of a knight to that of a wife of an earl's eldest son. There are those that are going to hate this book because they perceive it as being not historically accurate. My fear is that there will be readers that use that argument to disguise their own transphobia. On the one hand, I want to support this title and showcase how happy I am to see it exist, see it hold such a positive and happy storyline, and see it receive a wide readership. Squeals all around, this was adorable and wonderful and I felt all of the feelings.
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