Bromance Book Club
By: Lyssa Kay Adams
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 352
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 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.
First Impressions
Men? Reading romance novels? I’m in! The cover is also super cute. I knew immediately that this was the kind of book I’d be into.
What I thought
This book was everything I expected and needed it to be.
Gavin is a major league baseball player for the Nashville Legends. On the greatest night of his baseball career, he finds out that his wife of 3 years, Thea, has been faking her orgasms their entire marriage. Hurt, he moves to the guest room and gives her the silent treatment until she gets fed up, tells him she wants a divorce, and asks him to leave. When his best friend a teammate realizes what’s happening, he invites him into his secret book club where a group of men read romance novels in order to better their relationships and understanding of women.
This book was so much fun. I didn’t know that there were going to be snippets of the pretend romance novel that Gavin was reading and I loved it that much more. It has such fun little insider jokes of romance novel readers. I also love that the guys rate the steaminess of the books sex scenes because my friends and I have done that too. Most importantly, it really shows that there is more to romance novels than just the steamy scenes.
I loved Gavin from the beginning, even though he could be a bit of an idiot. His growth and understanding of his wife was so appealing. Thea was also an enjoyable, if at times frustrating character. She had a lot of baggage that she hadn’t dealt with.
The one thing that was a bit silly was the fact that the book Gavin was reading so closely paralleled his own life even though it occurred in England in the 1800s. I guess, it’s not silly that there was a story he could draw similarities from, but more so that his friends managed to pick the exact story he needed.
I will say, this book makes me want to encourage every man I’ve ever met to read a romance novel and learn from it.
This book is the perfect blend of silly and romantic. This is only the first in the series and I cannot wait to read more. I loved the side characters and look forward to learning more about them and seeing how the Bromance book club helps them all. Even if you don’t normally enjoy romance novels, I encourage you to pic this one up. It’s just a delight.