Published by Graydon House ISBN 9781525805981
Trade paperback, $15.99, 304 pages
Emily Belden's first novel, Hot Mess, (my review here) appealed to me because it was set in the restaurant world, and my husband and I owned a restaurant at one time. Her interesting characters and sharp writing style (which had lots of clever lines that made me laugh out loud) hooked me right away.
I was pleased to see that she has a new novel, Husband Material. Her new protagonist Charlotte, who works in analytics for a social media influencers company, is hiding something from her roommate and coworkers: Charlotte lost her husband five years ago when he died of a sudden stroke.
Charlotte is working on a new dating app that analyzes a person's social media posts and history to predict if the person is the perfect match. It gives her stats on how likely a second date would be, how likely they would be to marry, and how likely they would be to divorce. She has been trying it out on herself, but to no avail. Her Tinder dates haven't gone any better.
She brings a disastrous first date to her best friend's wedding, a setup by her best friend. He looks like a contestant from The Bachelor, and unfortunately he acts like one too, or as she puts it "he reminds me of a guy who gets sent home on night one of The Bachelor." Charlotte is so appalled by his comments and behavior, she asks him to leave before dinner is served.
When she returns home from the wedding, a package is waiting for her. The mausoleum where her husband Decker's ashes resided burned during a wildfire, and now the urn with his ashes are in her apartment. A letter accompanying the urn states that the company is no longer in business and she may do what she wishes with them.
This throws Charlotte for a loop, and brings back people into her life she hasn't seen since her husband died. Charlotte goes to the home of her former mother-in-law, a wealthy woman who has no love lost for Charlotte since she blames Charlotte for her son's death.
Charlotte also reconnects with her husband's best friend Brian, now a pediatrician. Brian offers to help her find another resting place for Decker's ashes, and then asks her if she'd like to go to a baseball game with him.
Husband Material contains the interesting characters and sharp wit seen in Hot Mess. (I wonder if her next novel's title will be two words beginning with H and M?) Brian's fancy car has air vents that can be customized to release scents like "freshly baked waffles", and Charlotte lamenting that her "aerobic capability caps at power walking to my Ubers before I get charged the late fee" are two examples of her wit.
While it would have been easy to make the mother-in-law strictly a Wicked Witch of the West character, a plot twist near the end shows a different shade. The plot twist is one I didn't see coming, and it certainly throws a interesting curveball.
Emily Belden's second novel Husband Material is even better than her first. I liked that it's not strictly a romance, it's more a story about Charlotte facing her future by dealing with her past. I highly recommend it.
Thanks to Harlequin for inviting me to be a part of their Romance & Women's Fiction blog tour, and providing me with an egalley for an honest review.
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