The Bromance Book Club was simultaneously exactly what was advertised to readers and so much more. It’s feminist and romantic and real in a way I wasn’t expecting but thoroughly loved.
The first rule of book club:
You don’t talk about book club.Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott’s marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.
Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.
Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville’s top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it’ll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife. (Goodreads)
I received an eARC of The Bromance Book Club in exchange for an honest review.
It needs some trigger warnings for alcohol use, parental neglect, the memory of bullying for a speech impediment, and snide comments by a non-main character about said speech impediment.
I loved a lot about this book – the way it dealt with how family trauma affects your current familial, platonic and romantic relationships; the way the men all came together to say “no you’re being a dick let’s fix that”; even the challenges that came with being separated parents for the first part of the book.
The center of this book is in male friendships and I loved that so much. Friendships outside of the romantic couple, particularly between men, are still pretty rare in a lot of romance books. I loved the book club and all of the members. Even Braden-Fucking-Mack, who surprised me a lot.
I loved that Thea strove to go back to a truer version of herself and that Gavin wanted to support that, even if he didn’t know how to show it before everything went to hell.
Before I finish this review, I want to talk about Gavin’s stutter. Something you may not know about me if we haven’t met in person is that I stammer and words get lost a lot. Sometimes when things get more emotional or overwhelming, I have to pull out my phone or a notebook and write down what I want to say because I just can’t make them audible. I also tend to rely on quotes, templates, and things like it at times when I’m struggling with my words, which is something I saw Gavin doing throughout this book. It both broke my heart and helped heal it a little bit, especially after the template discourse on Twitter the last few weeks. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, trust me, you’re better off.)
Thea made it really clear why finding out that his words weren’t his own hurt her feelings. By talking about it, Gavin made sure that she understood why he did it. And together, they built the confidence they needed to be able to trust each other. It was beautiful to me and gives me hope for their happily ever after.
Adams set us up for an enemies-to-lovers sequel with Liv and Mack which intrigues me. I would love to get more into Liv’s head and see her flourish. I’d also love to see Mack get increasingly frustrated with not getting his usual response from women. I look forward to the sequel and anything else Adams puts out!
In case you couldn’t tell, I loved this book. I highly recommend you pick this up if it appeals to you at all. You can pick up a copy through Indiebound or Amazon!