Jonathan Forest should never have hired Sam. It was a sentimental decision, and Jonathan didn't get where he is by following his heart. Determined to set things right, Jonathan orders Sam down to London for a difficult talk…only for a panicking Sam to trip, bump his head, and maybe accidentally imply he doesn't remember anything?
Faking amnesia seemed like a good idea when Sam was afraid he was getting sacked, but now he has to deal with the reality of Jonathan's guilt—as well as the unsettling fact that his surly boss might have a softer side to him. There's an unexpected freedom in getting a second shot at a first impression…but as Sam and Jonathan grow closer, can Sam really bring himself to tell the truth, or will their future be built entirely on one impulsive lie? (Pub Date: Oct 17 2023)
Full disclosure: I loved Boyfriend Material and couldn't wait to read this book. And it didn't disappoint me at all.
But I'm not too keen on remembering summaries after I've added a book to my TBR, so I didn't remember any of the tropes the book was going to explore of even the names of the main couple. This made read the beginning very curiously because the tropes? One of them is faked amnesia when Sam is getting fired and a shower they sell where he works hits his head. His boss Jonathan doesn't realize Sam is just joking and jumps to the conclusion the damage was so much, Sam doesn't remember who Jonathan is or why the accident happened. That's why Jonathan decides to take Sam home and make sure to take care of him for the couple of weeks someone needs to make sure the concussion won't evolve to something scarier.
3.5, rounded up to 4.
I had no idea his pairing was Jonathan until this happened. And I was probably just like Sam, asking, "For real??" that Jonathan would care for him. Alexis Hall was a genius showing us how terrible of a human being Jonathan was, so I confess I was excited to see how that would be deconstructed to become a romance.
Their interactions were so funny, and then add to that Jonathan's loud family, and Sam's weird cat who immediately trades him for Jonathan, and you have a book that will give a great time. I'm not even sure in what moment we stop seeing Jonathan as a cold-heart monster and start cheering for them, but it was interesting that we grow to realize Sam also has his faults and issues he needs to work on.
As for problems with the book, there wasn't anything too much. Maybe I didn't close it entirely convinced Jonathan got that much better after meeting Sam, or if him being so rich and with such a nice family was what weighed more there (weighed in my opinion, Sam sure convinces us he likes him). A lot of the dialogs, and I love funny dialogs, were just there to be funny, which led the book to be unnecessarily long. It's a light read, of course, but sometimes I'd wonder why this or that didn't get the axe during revision, did they really have to make jokes every page? The dynamic grew repetitive, as in "Okay, I get it, they like being funny with each other." But the book kept showing me again and again. Sometimes we just want to know what will happen next, as much as we love the characters. Because that took so many pages, the serious part of the plot also seemed short in comparison. Why would you have so much depth planned for your character and not give it the highlight it deserves?
Still, this book is worth your time. It's funny, not so predictable even if in the end it doesn't go too far from the formula, so it's still a good comfort read. I'm not a fan of hot scenes, so for me it is a plus, but it could be a deal breaker to some—this didn't have much if any really. They're explicit enough that it's not a book for younger ages but it's like what you'd expect from a PG-13 movie, I think.
As I said, I'd been looking forward to this and now I can't wait for the next release.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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