Husband Material by Emily Belden (Review by Stephanie Smith)

Rating 3.2 out of 5.

“Husband Material” by Emily Belden. 29 year old Charlotte has successful job at an up and coming social media firm, a cute dog, a roommate who lets her be, and a computer program that will analytically find the “love” of her life. However, Charlotte also has a secret she’s a widow of 5 years. She has kept this bit of information at bay from everyone in an attempt to cope in her data driven, analytic, risk averse way. When her late husband’s urn unexpectedly shows up at her door everything comes crashing down. To solve this, she will have to face her difficult mother-in-law and her husband’s best friend. She will also start to realize that life is more than accumulated data. But when a secret comes out after all this time will Charlotte be able to forgive? Will she be able to trust her heart or revert to her safe analytical ways?

Overall this was a fun read. Cute, romance with a few twists. But truthfully a little bland and predictable, lacking depth. Girl meets boy, tragic ending, girl tries to move on… secrets come out, girl falls in love with new boy. That being said I do feel that this would be a good weekend read or beach read if you are wanting something cute and charming but not much depth. I wanted to love this book and the characters but I just couldn’t connect with the surface level depth provided for each character. I wanted more. I felt the story took time to build but then rushed to a finish leaving me wanting so much more. This story had a good base but left something to be desired and lacked depth. I give it 3.2 out of 5.