How Does 'Boyfriend Material' Portray Fake Dating Tropes?

As someone who devours romance novels like candy, 'Boyfriend Material' nails the fake dating trope with a fresh twist. The setup is classic - Luc needs a respectable boyfriend to salvage his reputation, and Oliver needs a date to keep his family off his back. But what makes it shine is how their arrangement feels painfully real. The awkwardness isn't played for laughs; it's cringe-worthy in the best way. Their rehearsed backstory cracks under pressure during social events, leading to hilarious yet relatable disasters. The author brilliantly shows how pretending forces them to notice real qualities in each other - Oliver's quiet patience with Luc's chaos, Luc's humor breaking through Oliver's stiffness. Their emotional walls start crumbling precisely because they're constantly 'performing' intimacy, making the eventual real feelings utterly believable.

Having analyzed dozens of romantic comedies, 'Boyfriend Material' stands out for how it weaponizes the fake dating premise to explore emotional vulnerability. The novel doesn't just use the trope as a shortcut to intimacy; it dissects why these two emotionally unavailable men would agree to such an arrangement in the first place. Luc's self-sabotaging tendencies and Oliver's perfectionism create fascinating tension within their fabricated relationship. Every staged touch or practiced anecdote reveals subconscious truths about their characters.

The brilliance lies in how their fake relationship highlights their genuine incompatibilities early on. Oliver's need for order clashes spectacularly with Luc's spontaneity during 'couple' outings. These aren't cute misunderstandings but fundamental differences that would normally make them avoid each other. Yet through pretending to work through conflicts for appearances' sake, they accidentally develop real conflict resolution skills. Their growing attraction feels earned because we see them grudgingly adapt to each other's quirks long before admitting feelings.

What truly elevates the trope is the aftermath. When the façade inevitably cracks, the fallout isn't just about revealed lies but about both men confronting why they preferred a scripted relationship to real vulnerability. The fake dating premise becomes a mirror forcing them to acknowledge their emotional baggage - Oliver's fear of disapproval, Luc's belief he's unlovable. This depth transforms what could've been a fluffy trope into a meaningful exploration of how we perform relationships to avoid being truly seen.

If you think fake dating plots are just fluff, 'Boyfriend Material' will wreck you. The way Alexis Hall writes these two disasters fumbling through their arrangement kills me. Luc’s chaotic energy means he keeps improvising ridiculous backstory details that Oliver, the human equivalent of a stiff upper lip, has to desperately maintain. Their terrible acting becomes this weirdly intimate inside joke - like when Oliver forgets ‘their song’ at a party and Luc whispers ‘Just say it’s Wonderwall, everyone believes that.’

What gets me is how the fake dates expose their insecurities. Oliver’s family events reveal how Luc uses humor as armor, while Luc’s musician friends see right through Oliver’s polished act. The trope works because their performances for outsiders accidentally show their true selves to each other. When Oliver starts genuinely laughing at Luc’s nonsense or Luc notices Oliver’s tells when he’s lying, it hits harder than any confession. The best part? Neither realizes they’ve stopped pretending until it’s too late.