Name: Husband Material
ISBN: 9781643584850

Emily Belden

Sometimes love is unpredictable . . . Twenty-nine-year-old Charlotte Rosen has a secret: she's a widow. Ever since the fateful day that leveled her world, Charlotte has worked hard to move forward. Great job at a hot social media analytics company? Check. Roommate with no knowledge of her past? Check. Adorable dog? Check. All the while, she's faithfully data-crunched her way through life, calculating the probability of risk -- so she can avoid it.

Husband Material

Twenty-nine-year-old Charlotte Rosen has a secret: she's a widow. Ever since the fateful day that leveled her world, Charlotte has worked hard to move forward. Great job at a hot social media analytics company? Check. Roommate with no knowledge of her past? Check. Adorable dog? Check. All the while, she's faithfully data-crunched her way through life, calculating the probability of risk so that she can avoid it. Charlotte's algorithms could never have predicted that her late husband's ashes would land squarely on her doorstep five years later. Stunned but determined, Charlotte sets out to find meaning in this sudden twist of fate, even if that includes facing her perfectly coiffed, and perfectly difficult, ex-mother-in-law, and her husband's best friend, who seems to become a fixture at her side whether she likes it or not. But soon a shocking secret surfaces, forcing Charlotte to answer questions she never knew to ask and to consider the possibility of forgiveness.

Allison Garber

I wanted a light, easy read and it was that. The plot was just all over the place and the characters lacked substance. Unfortunately this just wasn’t the fun, engaging romantic comedy book I was hoping for.

Kayla 

I really enjoyed this women's fiction book about Charlotte Rosen, a widow, who is once again faced with the grief of her husband's death. When a fire breaks out at the place where her husbands ashes were kept and his ashes end up on her front door, Charlotte's life starts to unravel once again. For years she has planned and created a life free from risks. Five years later she needs to reconcile with her mother-in-law, who never liked her, meet her husband's best friend and try to come to terms with a secret she never knew about her husband. This book reminded me of the film Catch and Release and was filled with loss, forgiveness and a second chance at love and happiness.

“By turns heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny.” —Kristin Rockaway, author of How To Hack a Heartbreak “Sensitive, thoughtful, and touching.” —Library Journal A young widow must face the grief she’s always set aside when an unexpected delivery throws her life into disarray Twenty-nine-year-old Charlotte Rosen has a secret: she’s a widow. Ever since the fateful day that leveled her world, Charlotte has worked hard to move forward. Great job at a hot social media analytics company? Check. Roommate with no knowledge of her past? Check. Adorable dog? Check. All the while, she’s faithfully data-crunched her way through life, calculating the probability of risk—so she can avoid it. Yet Charlotte’s algorithms could never have predicted that her late husband’s ashes would land squarely on her doorstep five years later. Stunned but determined, Charlotte sets out to find meaning in this sudden twist of fate, even if that includes facing her perfectly coiffed, and perfectly difficult, ex-mother-in-law—and her husband’s best friend, who seems to become a fixture at her side whether she likes it or not. But when her quest reveals a shocking secret, Charlotte is forced to answer questions she never knew to ask and to consider the possibility of forgiveness. And when a chance at a new life arises, she’ll have to decide once and for all whether to follow the numbers or trust her heart.

Leelynn Brady

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Netgalley, and Graydon Books for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

Sorry for the mix-up earlier fam. Spending hours in the ER and totally spacing on making sure I had this review up the right way was not on the priority list unfortunately, but here we are, and thanks for the early likes!

So this book pretty much broke my heart because I personally couldn’t imagine losing my husband like that. Even in general, I don’t know if I could imagine having to deal with my husband dying and then having to deal with the aftermath. So low and behold my true feelings when I read more about Charlotte trying to move forward in her life, and doing a very good job at it, if I do say so myself.

And she’s such a young widow too. It’s not common to have storylines about late twenty-year old widows, and while this immediately makes me think about young military widows – ha, my husband is in the military so that is a constant fear of mine whenever he has to go out to sea – I know that it’s not always the case. I also felt a certain type of way that she totally immerses herself into risk-analytics to try to make sure that she doesn’t take any negative risks in her life ever again. How sad is that though when you think about it? But if I was smart enough to calculate that too, I know I would do the same thing.

Charlotte even handles things better than I do because I don’t know if I would be able to handle having any memories of my late husband around me, mostly his mother or his best friend. It would just be too painful, and honestly I don’t know if I could even bring up the courage to talk to them ever again. I know their pain would probably be worse than mine, but still. Just don’t know if I could do it.

But despite some of the tears that this book brought up for me, there were moments of happiness, some silliness, and it gave me some sort of hope that Charlotte would be okay no matter what. Grief is a process and I think that this may be a part of getting through it.

Ashlee

This is such a down-to-earth, lighthearted and enjoyable read! 

First of all, the cover and the title are all wrong for this book. It definitely gives the impression that Charlotte is a) a shopaholic and b) Brian is just there to do her bidding and c) that this is an over-the-top sort of romantic comedy. That couldn’t be further from the truth and to be honest, I feel as though the title and cover are meant for a completely different book.

Rather, Charlotte’s fascination with data and numbers are reminiscent of Stella from The Kiss Quotient. She’s far from the type of character the cover appears to try and make her out to be. Instead, she’s been hiding from her past for several years. You see, most of the people in her current life have no idea that she’s a widower ... and has been for five years. She’s always felt lost on how to explain it, when many people her age aren’t even married ... so she simply stopped mentioning it.

Her past comes roaring back though when a natural disaster ends up with her late husband’s ashes in her possession again. Once again, she’s faced with the loss of her husband, the reality of her past and has no idea what to do with his ashes. Especially when her husband’s mother wants the ashes for herself.

Through all of this, she reconnects with her late husband’s best friend Brian. He isn’t willing to let her disappear from his life again and as they grow closer she begins to question how much she truly knew of about her husband. 

This story certainly has a fluffy, sweet romance, but that is somewhat sidelined by Charlotte’s journey to connect with who she is – rather than the shell she’s built around herself. If you’re going into this expecting a steamy romantic comedy, you’ll probably be disappointed. That said, there is absolutely nothing to fault this book for, except perhaps wishing it were a little longer!

Kaylee Z

This book was more like a 280 page advertisement for every major brand out there right now. Unfortunately this book fell into the ‘what I don’t like’ column in terms of contemporary reads. It is too anchored to the time. I don’t need to hear about Zac Efron or Apple devices or The Bachelor or Jason Bateman or Tinder or Bumble or Fifty Shade of Grey… and all of this (and more) is referenced in the first chapter alone. I know that people argue that these not so subtle nods to pop culture helps to root them into the story but it does the exact opposite for me.

I was interested in the premise of this book after reading the synopsis but the actual execution of the story was unsatisfying. I felt like I was promised one thing and then given another. I hardly felt anything for the characters and I really did not see the appeal of Charlotte and Brian as a potential couple. And honestly, after what we learn Brian did, I wrote him off completely.

This entire book is full of strained characters where one or two make it seem like they have depth but they are all sadly one-note. I know that Belden interviewed a series of real people who have dealt with the loss of their significant others and children to have true-to-life examples to draw from and I commend her for that. Some moments managed to bring those feeling forward but the majority was lost amongst everything else. 

I wish that I had enjoyed this book because it had potential but I just couldn’t. In all honesty it would have been a DNF if it hadn’t been a buddy read.

Husband Material

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