The Bromance Book Club

I freely admit I am a guy who is a huge fan of contemporary romance. Don’t like Regency romance, and have bad memories of 1970’s era ripped bodice novels and book covers. I also don’t get grief from guys for reading romance novels.

Given my background and experiences, I was intrigued by the idea of a secret romance book club for men, to better understand women. I didn’t initially like the idea of the guys using a Regency novel as Gavin’s manual, but it was well done and led to some humorous lines. I liked Gavin’s willingness as well as his resistance to the idea in order to romance his wife back. I also appreciated that Thea had her own issues that she had to recognize and repair, so that both Gavin and Thea contributed to the problems in their marriage.

What I didn’t like was Thea’s sister Liv, Bromance book club member Mack, and the author’s views on toxic masculinity. Liv was a sister Thea didn’t need. Liv was toxic towards marriage and Gavin. But I truly despised Mack. He was just a toxic jerk to everyone. I could not see any reason he was a member of the BBC, as he was a single guy and treated every member poorly. No one would put up with his behavior in real life. The only reason I could see for his character here is his role as the Male main character in the second book. Toxic masculinity (TM) is mentioned three times in the book. The first states pumpkin spice latte is denigrated because women love PSL, but pumpkin spice is EVERYWHERE in the fall, which seems at odds with societal condemnation. PSL toxic masculinity then leads to the statement that romance novels aren’t taken seriously because of toxic masculinity. If there really is a societal dismissal of romance novels, maybe it is because the image is of cheesy bodice rippers. And the RWA survey says 19% of romance readers are men. The second and third instances of TM involve Mack and Gavin, and I couldn’t determine if the author was serious or not in invoking TM. My reading of the book shows both Gavin and Thea both have toxic issues, behaviors, and lack of communication that almost destroys their marriage, so is TM really the problem in the book?

I do recommend this book. The concept of a Bromance book club so guys can learn to understand their wives better is original, and except for the despicable Mack, great to read. However, don’t know if I can stomach reading the next novel featuring both Mack and Liv.

Too bad most of the characters had such a limited vocabulary. Otherwise, it would have been a fun but touching story. However, when f*** and f***ing are used as nouns, verbs, and adjectives throughout the book, it just gets annoying. Maybe the people in the authors life really do talk like that therefore the language is realistic to her. Im not used to it – the athletes that I know have more extensive vocabularies. Such a shame. Taking out at least 3/4 of those words would have made this book enjoyable for me. The synopsis sounded good, but there was no warning for the language. I guess if youre used to such language, you might enjoy the book (the premise really is very sweet). But if youre a prude like me (meaning, if you think there are other words that could be used instead of the same ones over and over throughout the book), stick to actual Regency romances with hot love scenes.

When men band together, will it be enough to put back the broken pieces of a relationship shattered by secrets and lies …

I am so focused on reading historical romances with sometimes a detour to paranormals, I kept delaying my reading of this one book, as I do not read contemporary books anymore except for Mrs Annabelle Costa, until I could not any longer put back my reading as its release date is tomorrow.
I confess i was even surprised to be immediately sucked in the characters story as I landed in the peak of their most dramatic moment in their couples life.

But cherry on top, the book which is figured to help the hero understand and sort out how win back his wife is an historical romance.
It was such a fun read, between the quips and pokes of the books club members, alternating with extracts from the book which were sandwiched by the progression of Gavin and Theas relationship.
When most of the blame was at first put on Gavins shoulders, it takes two to make a couple and two to make it fail.
Gavin is a nice and very in love with his wife fellow, he just preferred play ostrich instead of facing his marriages issues, until they exploded to his face.
While Thea let her marriage change her in a sanitized version of herself, forgetting her own dreams and hopes. Yet, the situation spiraled out of her hands and turned ugly when both pride and past scars were added to the game.

t was an awesome clever read filled with humour but also a good dose of optimism and introspection as each will have to walk half the path to meet at the middle.
5 stars

I was granted an advance copy by the publisher Berkley via Edelweiss, I rightly preordered my own copy after finishing my reading.
Here is my true and unbiased opinion.

I finally finished! You all might be wondering what took me so long, right!? Well I just needed to take those extra moments to pace myself. I’ve realized I’ve been doing that a lot recently with reading and that in doing so, I have a greater appreciation of the book.

It was hard for me not to feel a little frustrated with Thea, the heroine. Due to her own experiences as a child, she was extremely jaded and could not overlook the mistakes Gavin made. I feel like he deserved a second chance instantly and I rooted hard for him from beginning to end; however, the story wouldn’t have taken the course it did if Thea was quick to give him that chance, sigh. How bittersweet

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams was such a bubbly, laugh-out-loud, second chance romance filled with angst, two cute little girls, and a full batch of emotions!! Enough said about the wonderful characters involved throughout. This book wouldn’t have been what it was without them all. That being said I need Mack’s book right now, PLEASE. Thank you so much Berkley Romance!

Gavin Scott is a millionaire baseball star, recently separated from his wife, and mother to his twin daughters, Thea. After three years of marriage Gavin discovers his wife has been faking it in bed, ironically after she has an orgasm. Humiliated Gavin retreated to the spare room, then gave her the silent treatment; which led to the separation.

Cornered in his skanky hotel room where he is drowning in a bottle of whisky, Gavin is introduced to the top secret men’s book club where they read historical romances and learn how to understand women. Armed with his new-found knowledge, can Gavin woo his own wife?

I read several reviews of this before it was released and loved the premise of a group of high-powered businessmen and professional athletes reading historical romances as an insight into what a woman needs. Reading the book did not disappoint, it had everything I would expect from a second-chance sports romance with that added layer of historical romance. I also liked that the blame for the failure of their marriage was spread between Gavin and Thea, not just the wife as so often happens.

Overall, I really enjoyed this funny romance and I will definitely be looking to read the second book in the series.