Material World #1
e-ARC provided by NetGalley
Author: Alexis Hall
Thank you, NetGalley, Sourcebooks Casablanca and Alexis Hall for allowing me to read this early. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Sam Becker has an OK job managing a band of misfits in a bed and bath retailer. All is going sort of well until the infuriating owner decides that they have to “hit target sales” or else.
When Jonathan Forest shows up at Sam’s branch dead set on firing people, he ends up firing Sam and causing an accident in which Sam gets bumped on the head by the MERLYN 8mm Sliding Door Shower Enclosure. Sam gets a concussion, and as he seems a little fuzzy as to what happened, everyone assumes he has amnesia. Jonathan feels so guilty that he caused the accident that he volunteers to take care of him. Sam decides to go along with the amnesia stuff to buy them more time. But living with Jonathan, who surprisingly shows a caring side under the all the grumpy, ends up becoming a bigger problem than Sam expected.
With meddling family members, quirky shop assistants, a cat named Gollum and Scouse accents, we get a quintessential Alexis Hall band of characters. I had absolute fun with the shenanigans that ensued and this would have been a solid 5-stars if it weren’t for the lack of, well, ROMANCE. Sam and Jonathan are adorable together but things only start to resemble a romance novel around 70% of the book and I got a little frustrated. I wanted more of them together because when they were together they were utterly swoony.
Still a fun read, though a VERY SLOW burn and doors are closed shut.
