Something Fabulous

By: Alexis Hall

Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the acclaimed author of Boyfriend Material comes a delightfully witty romance featuring a reserved duke who’s betrothed to one twin and hopelessly enamoured of the other.

Valentine Layton, the Duke of Malvern, has twin problems: literally.

It was always his father’s hope that Valentine would marry Miss Arabella Tarleton. But, unfortunately, too many novels at an impressionable age have caused her to grow up...romantic. So romantic that a marriage of convenience will not do and after Valentine’s proposal she flees into the night determined never to set eyes on him again.

Arabella’s twin brother, Mr. Bonaventure “Bonny” Tarleton, has also grown up...romantic. And fully expects Valentine to ride out after Arabella and prove to her that he’s not the cold-hearted cad he seems to be.

Despite copious misgivings, Valentine finds himself on a pell-mell chase to Dover with Bonny by his side. Bonny is unreasonable, overdramatic, annoying, and...beautiful? And being with him makes Valentine question everything he thought he knew. About himself. About love. Even about which Tarleton he should be pursuing.

©2022 Alexis Hall. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic Reviews

“[Nicholas] Boulton perfectly captures Valentine's tendency to become stiff and overly formal when he is distressed.… On the surface, Bonny seems flighty and flirty, but Boulton gives him unexpected depths of compassion and insight into Valentine and the workings of the world at large.... A delightful performance will leave listeners alternately cackling with glee and cringing in sympathy.”–AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner

“Alexis Hall’s first queer historical, Something Fabulous pays homage to the classic Heyeresque Regency romp while subverting many of its problems…The whole duke archetype is deconstructed piece by piece in a series of comic mishaps unfurled with impeccable authorial control.”—The New York Times

“[A] wonderfully queer mash-up/send-up of buddy movies, Austen novels, and classic rom-coms.”—Publishers Weekly 

Fabulous

I have to agree with the title; this story is something fabulous. A young duke (Valentine) finally proposes to the daughter of a family friend (Arabella Tarleton). Their fathers had always wanted them to marry and now Valentine wants to do right by his deceased father. Arabella runs away because she doesn't want to marry him and Valentine goes after her along with Arabella's twin brother, Bonny. On the way, Valentine and Bonny fall in love. Crazy things happen, mostly because Arabella is a lying, impulsive drama queen who thinks she is living in a novel and wants to get away at any cost and Valentine is a bit obtuse. Arabella's actions are annoying and I wanted to throttle her and some of the other characters too. That is the point, though. The novel pokes fun at over-the-top dramatic characters and plot elements, the gothic genre of the 19th c. as well as ideas of respectability and decorum (hence the reference to Austen's Northanger Abbey). The characters and dialogues are hilariously funny but the novel is plot-driven; it hangs on the ridiculous plot elements and how they develop. The point of this novel is to entertain, first and foremost and it does exactly that without being realistic or profound. It's just fun! I've listened to and read a few of Alexis Hall's novels and while very different, all have been well-written and this one is no exception. The narrator also did an excellent job of portraying the different characters and the absurdity of situations. His performance was just right for this work. I'll probably listen to this again when I'm having a bad day and want something to cheer me up.

Fabulously Ridiculous

Very fun and such a delightful, sexy romp. Clever humor and a great listen.

DNF...returned.

Not even close to on par with the other Alexis Hall books I've read. None of the characters were likable and the story was dragging so much. I stopped a little over 1/3rd of the way through.

A gem among gems

I haven't yet read a M/M romance from Alexis Hall that has been a waste of my time, and Something Fabulous is something the most fabulous so far. The characters are delightfully flawed and forever dramatic - even Valentine, the most staid of the bunch (except for Peggy), has his particular peculiarities. My favorite thing about this story was the deep development of an asexual character without ever resorting to labels or using the description in the synopsis, which is rare even among the few romances that feature asexual main characters. I always appreciate a thoughtfully developed representation!

The narrator and writing were good. That's it.

This review will contain spoilers. Especially because I can't get my credit back. I was very excited when I saw this book. LGBTQA in regency era? I had so much hope. as I said the narrator was great and the story was very well written. I'm getting really sick and tired of the narrative where quiet introverts shouldn't be introverts need to be wild and out in order to fully live life. The Duke was the best character out of the whole thing and he constantly gets villainized and to be quite Frank he shouldn't.
I see where they tried to have it extremely loosely based on pride and prejudice, But even the Duke was nicer than Mr Darcy. The twins were horrible. absolutely horrible. Bonnie is the better of the two but even he was just too much and not in a good way. The twin sister was horrible and I hated her through the whole thing. She didn't want to marry him, but was all upset because he didn't fawn over her in a proposal and was affronted when he said he didn't love her either, but he was honor bound to marry her. He would marry her, but let her live an independent and protected life.
This poor man gets conned into going after her multiple times, gets tied to a chair, they threatened to kill him or just leave him there to starve, and wouldn't hear his side. Meanwhile the male twin Bonnie who knew the duke wasn't a bad guy and was falling for him, didn't help him but seemed to egg his sister on.
The Duke nearly breaks out of his confines by breaking the chair and accidentally hurts one of his captors, and they treat the Duke like a bad guy. They throw him in the basement then Bonnie helps him get out while his sister runs off again. They get all caught up and the sister lies again to some random gentleman and a duel between the Duke and the guy take place. Again, the duke is seen as the bad guy in this. I would have said f them both and just left but the Duke is so in love with Bonnie (after his first ever sexual experience mind you) he keeps going.
More craziness later, and the female twin shoots the Duke and he is severely injured. I DIDN'T FINISH and stopped after he woke up and the twin brother was still defending his sister! He kept making the Duke feel horrible and to be frank the Duke was severely abused in this book. it's insane. I am literally hoping there is a fanfiction out there I can read where he flips them both off, goes home for his book and bath. I love this author, and this idea but if this was a hard copy I would have thrown it against the wall within an hour of starting it. I can't even get my credit back.

Funny, romantic, and a fantastic narration!

Narration: Nicholas Boulton does an incredible job with narrating Something Fabulous. He brought the story and its characters to life, and his comedic timing was perfection. I plan to listen to this again; it’s going in my favorites list!

Story: This is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Poor Valentine is so naive and innocent and reserved and certainly not ready for the whirlwind that is Bonny. Valentine is plucked out of his comfortable life when he decides to honor his late father’s wishes and pursue marriage with Arabella, but quickly finds himself - along with Arabella’s twin Bonny - literally in pursuit of her as she runs away from an unwanted marriage proposal. The wackiest stuff happens in this book and it only gets wackier and wackier. Valentine also quickly realizes that there’s more to romance beyond a man and a woman getting married.

I laughed and laughed and then laughed some more. I loved everything about this wildly fun book, but especially the romance. The way that Valentine finds himself falling in love with Bonny? And how free Valentine is with expressing his feelings? Sigh! Part of the story is Valentine’s journey to understanding who he is and it’s really lovely (ok, and hilarious.)

And then Bonny! Oh, Bonny. I loved him so much. He is such a free spirit with his head literally stuck in the fiction of the romance books he adores. All of his commentary and banter with Valentine really made the book. It’s easy to see why Valentine falls so hard for Bonny because Bonny is such a kind sweetheart.

I absolutely loved this book; stop reading reviews and go read it!

Valentine deserves the word

I loved Valentine with all my heart and i did not understand why he had to apologize even for the things done to me! He deserved better.

delightful

this was a delightful romp with a fantastic cast of characters and all the Alexis Hall charm you could hope for.

Perfect story and narration

Nicholas Boulton is perfection. I had to keep reminding myself that I was listening to one person voice all of these characters. It was the biggest joy to listen to him read this story to me.

The story itself is also perfection. It's hilarious and touching and tender and adventurous -- it contains multitudes. It is about freeing yourself from external expectations, exploring to find your true self, uncovering incorrect assumptions. It's a literal journey across the countryside and also a journey of self discovery. And, it contains such queer joy that my heart is bursting with happiness.

MM Regency Gold

Regency romance usually isn’t my thing, but this story was so funny and charming and I’m so glad I picked it up.
If it hadn’t been free to listen to with my kindle unlimited I probably wouldn’t have given it a shot, so I loved that it was included.
I think my enjoyment was heavily due to the audiobook and narration. The narrator did such a great job keeping the voices separate and his accent really added to the experience.

Bonnie was the epitome of a ray of sunshine. I absolutely loved him and his over dramatic sister. Valentine couldn’t help but keep sticking his foot in his mouth and his conservativeness and innocence kept working against him, but bring these two together and it was magic. These characters get into so many antics while on the road.

Tropes: Fiancés Brother, MM Regency, One Bed, Road Trip
⭐️ 5/5
🌶2/5

Utter nonsense

Completely silly and unrealistic. The characters are all ridiculous. This reads like a kids book peppered with unappealing, explicit sex scenes.

Such a shame as I loved Boyfriend Material, but if I had read this blind, I wouldn't have had a clue it was by the same author.

I don't understand why you would give a book an historical setting but have all the characters speak and have the social values of the 21st century. What is the point?

Ridiculous. But fun.

I was on the verge of stopping this and returning the book several times.
It's frankly ridiculous.
But then, it's also funny. And hot.
But so stupid.
But I finished it.
So, I dunno.
Narrator does a great job.
Don't make it the first of their books that you read, but if you've binged all the rest of their stuff, go for it.
So, so dumb.

🎧 Valentine and Bonny 🎧

Hilarious, heartwarming, inspiring, eloquent and educational.
zi never have the words to adequately describe how much I enjoy Alexis Hall's books, but this is one of my favourites!
Marvellous narration from Nicholas Boulton was the icing on the cake.

Nicholas Boulton/Alexis Hall...WINNING combo!!

Having read AND listened to nearly everything Alexis has written over the years [I would read one of his shopping lists...honest], I was chuffed to bits when I saw that Nicholas Boulton [Glitterland/Prosperity] was doing the audio for this, he is AMAZING!! The story I also sort of loved : Regency romp, plenty of laughs, beautiful words from Alexis...what's not to like? Unfortunately, I did find the middle of the story which was set around the Misses Fairfax and Evans' cottage irritating to the extreme, and coupled with that awful attention-seeker Arabella Tarleton [whom I absolutely detested 😠], I was completely thrown off for a while.

I was very happy at the end for the lonely 'Flower' and his beautiful but excitable man Bonny 🥰🥰. I loved most of the characters, especially Sir Horley Comewithers [I kid you not], Peggy [who was a girl some of the time...and I understand Peggy's story comes after this one] and the very droll but funny Periwinkle [Valentine's valet]. All in all though, a great listen and 4.25 stars from me.

Something fabulous indeed

A silly little fairytale, but fun.

Honestly wasn't expecting the quality ace rep so that was a bonus.

Brilliant narration

Narration was superb, writing and dialogue is brilliant. Arabella was incredibly irritating however and oddly, considering she was a secondary character, she really affected how much I enjoyed the story overall.

ridiculous but i loved it

I did not know what to think but in the end really enjoyed it a lot!! grumpy x sunshine for real

Adorable

What an adorably Romantic Story! a perfect little Romcom with some unexpectedly steamy scenes.
I highly recommend it!