This was every bit as much fun to read as was Boyfriend Material. Once again, Luc and Oliver’s friends play big parts in the story, and snippet opportunities were plenty. Here’s a handful of them (the entire book is from Luc’s 1st-person POV):

I selected this first snippet because it made me laugh out loud. From the first book I loved how one of Luc’s friends, named James Royce, married another man named James Royce, and now they are the James Royce-Royces. Sounds like it would be complicated, but they are so different from each other than it’s always crystal clear which James Royce-Royce is speaking and/or doing something, and I take my hat off to the author for that accomplishment. Anyway, they crack me up, and here’s the first mention of them in this new book (for context, Luc is the maid of honor for his best friend Bridget’s upcoming wedding, and this scene is at the bachelorette party he’s arranged):

James Royce-Royce plucked a dong-shaped lolly from the dong-shaped lolly jar. It was the first time I’d seen him, or his husband James Royce-Royce, without their newly adopted son in months. Their newly adopted son who they had, inevitably, named James. Although to avoid confusion, they just called him Baby J. “I must say, Luc,” he said. “I’m a little offended that you went with commercially produced phallic sweeties rather than asking for my contribution.”

Here’s Luc dealing with his ex, Miles (Luc is the first speaker):

Fuck. It was happening again. I was Bruce Willis in Die Hard 2 with the same shit happening to me twice. “And don’t say I’ve got a right to be angry. I know I’ve got a right to be angry. The thing is, until you barged into my office like…like…like Bargey McBargeface…I didn’t have to be angry because I didn’t have to think about you at all. I could think about ordinary things like my job and my boyfriend and the fact that one of my coworkers doesn’t realise he’s an amateur porn star.”

“An amateur—”

“Don’t ask.”

Miles stood up, straightening his jacket in a way that said I am being the only reasonable person in an unreasonable situation. “Look,” he said. “I knew it was a risk coming here.”

Another that’s just because it made me laugh out loud:

For a moment Oliver thought about it. He was never a man to give a hasty answer to an important question. “Well, I’d be lying if I said that attending the wedding of a total stranger was my idea of a fabulous night out. And you don’t owe Miles anything so neither he nor JoJo should be a factor here.”

“I feel like you’re about to drop a massive ‘but’ on me.”

“I was heading that way, but now I feel you’ve cut my ‘but’ off at the pass.”

This was a very serious conversation about very serious things, and Oliver was taking time out of his evening to boyfriend at me, but there was no way I was letting that go without comment. “Oliver, I would never cut your ‘but’ off.”

“Lucien”—his eyes had gone all soft while his mouth was trying really hard to be severe—“you’re making it very hard for me to finish my sentence.”

“Sorry. Sorry.” I paused. “‘But’ me.”

A few short snips that don’t really need any additional introduction:

Was it weird that I always heard Oliver’s texts in Oliver’s voice? Or was it weirder that Oliver texted exactly the same way he spoke?

This was beginning to feel nastily like a hole, and I should have stopped digging.

The truck lurched into gear and Priya eased us out into the road. “Drop it, Luc. You sound like a prick.”

I dropped it. Because if Priya was telling you that you sounded like a prick, it meant you’d gone way over the prick line.

It had been kind of the elephant in the room, and now I’d… I dunno. Had I shot the elephant? Had I said, Hey, is that an elephant? Was the elephant now rampaging around stomping on things? I didn’t think it was a stompy atmosphere. Perhaps we were just staring at an elephant and going, Yup, that’s an elephant all right.

“Soooo…” As ways to begin a conversation went, a long so was up there with Hi, have you considered changing your broadband provider?

There are so many, many more I’d love to include, but I’ll stop there. Seriously, go get this book…both books if you haven’t read the first one yet! And for the record, I’ve listened to the audiobooks for both while reading the ebook and when it wasn’t convenient for me to be sitting and just reading. The narration is amazing and so worth it!