The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
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.
🔥🔥🔥🔥 out of 5 steam level
I recently had someone tell me they would love to be warned about the language in a novel- whether it be romance or otherwise! (For crass talk in romance novels, see the breakdown of my steam ratings on the side of my blog!) So I'll start with mentioning that F-bombs start dropping in this book around the 12% mark.Now I know that this book as been all over bookstagram for a book that people are loving. I obviously didn't love it. Let's get into it, shall we?
First of all- I read this as an ebook and there was really difficult formatting- the chapters should tell you who's talking! But this is an ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) so that could change before publication occurs.Early on in the book we are treated to a scene of two women attempted to take down a wall in their house. And let me just say that this scene is really insulting to women everywhere. They're using the sledge hammer on a wall just with drywall and they're barely getting a hole in it. I'm sorry, WHAT?! It's drywall! You could punch it with your fist and make a hole in it!Okay, I'm moving on from that obvious lack of research into another point. This book takes place in Franklin, TN. It is mentioned numerous times that Franklin is a small town. Franklin is not all about small town lifestyle. How many times is she going to mention this allegedly being a small town?! Seriously, I go to Franklin every year. It's not small. Research I am telling you!Overall this book went on too long. I really didn't like the whole "grand gesture" part. To be fair I'm not sure that I'm ever into that storyline (with the exception of Well Met).Lastly this book featured something that became repetitive and a bit formulaic. You get to read a chapter in the fictional historical romance that Gavin is reading... which basically foreshadows EVERY future chapter for the real life couple. That got old really fast for me.
I did a lot of laughing out loud as the men explained their romance book club. Also these men are WOKE! I love their breakdown of romance books how feminist they are! This is the definite highlight of this book and why I think so many people are raving about it! It literally tells you what is so darn amazing about this genre and why people need to stop being so judgemental about an entire genre of literature.This is book one of a series (featuring great covers btw. The second cover was recently revealed) but I wasn't that wrapped up in the story. I might pick up the series sometime but for now I'll keep moving on with my TBR pile.