Review: A Tour de Force on All Levels From a Brilliant New Author
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 3, 2014
With his Brandt & Donnelly series, and now Husband Material, Xavier Mayne has quickly established himself as a premier, plot master, and extremely clever emotions manipulator (of characters and readers alike) by specializing in a risky genre: Throwing together two men, one completely straight, the other gay or maybe tending to think about it, and letting the chips fall where they may.  In Husband Material, he carries this theme straight off the charts of angst, cynicism, romance, doubt, and does it with a combination of tongue-in-cheek, slapstick and good old fashioned romance and sex that takes your breath away and leaves you shaking in the end (spoiler: it's a good shake).Riley and Asher have tried our for the reality TV show Bachelorette from opposite sides of the country along with 16 other hot young men who will spend weeks trying to convince the lovely Daphne that she should marry one of them.  Riley was left at the altar, literally, by his fiancee after four years of engagement and has buffed his body, and he thinks his ego as well, for the effort.  Asher is a grade school art teacher who was a major gymnast in college and is still at the top of his game when it comes to athletic prowess, but has a hidden agenda for wanting to compete and win,  These two are thrown to the wolves with the other guys and through happenstance and manipulation, manage to become friendly and form a team between them to guarantee one will win and the other will get the quarter-million dollar runner-up prize.It's a hoot of a premise, but probably pretty close to reality, but what we are treated to is character development and plot lines involving the bachelor challenges that are well thought out, brilliantly written and downright hilarious in some cases.  In others, they are simply scorching.  Along the way he also develops one of the most manipulative, insightful, hopelessly romantic supporting characters you will ever meet--the show's assistant producer, Kaitlyn, who sees all and says nothing, and sometimes says everything while seeing very little--which her cleverly developed assistant, Omar, might see better.Part Survivor, part Brokeback Mountain, part Ocean's 11, part Fire From Heaven, Husband Material is one of the books on my shelf that deserves every star I can give it--I only wish I could give it more, because it and its characters, stole my heart.  Thank you, Mr. Mayne, for this gift.