Reviews - A Very Merry Bromance

2.5k reviews for:

A Very Merry Bromance

Lyssa Kay Adams

4.02 AVERAGE

eyelit's review against another edition

3.25

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

emmorganz's review

3.0

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jschneid23's review against another edition

4.0

funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Lyssa Kay Adams does it again. Gretchen and Colton are such well crafted characters and have such great banter and chemistry. And I love how all of the Bromance novels still follow the same formula but also dive deeper into different and unique struggles and insecurities for each of the couples.

I know Gretchen appeared before, but not sure if this was Colton's first appearance or not. Can't wait to go back and the read 3 and 4 to find out!

iselenris's review

4.0

emotional relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

No like they’re actually really cute. Trust my family to keep Colton real and they really did give grumpyxsunshine

livlosiewicz's review

2.0

funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Pros:

this was a fast and easy read, and it’s a Christmas book! The end especially is fast and kind of silly but also kind of fun

Cons:

Colton is entitled and unrelatable. The way he pursues a relationship with Gretchen by essentially blackmailing her when she’s made her intentions clear is not okay. We also see this unlikeable entitlement when he gets mad that his label doesn’t like his music and he throws a fit instead of acknowledging that he needs to change his music (this is implicitly acknowledged later, but we never get Colton acknowledging that this is inappropriate).
Similar but this gets its own bullet point because it pissed me off. Colton punches one of Gretchen’s family members twice and it’s kind of viewed as nice because he was “protecting” Gretchen??? (She was not in danger). Ew ew too much toxic masculinity bye
Also, aside from Colton’s mom naming that both Gretchen and Colton have been very lonely, we have no reason to believe in their relationship and the only connection fleshed out is their sexual connection. There’s really no banter and while they name the grumpy-sunshine trope, we don’t actually see it in action
Gretchen was also kind of whiny and annoying
The writing was bad

Recommendation: Okay well while I didn’t love this, it was a fun little Christmas romance book, so I might recommend if that’s the vibe you’re looking for. I had not read the other four books in this series, and that may have detracted from my enjoyment of the ensemble themes. The writing was bad and I didn’t like the male main character but tbh I was still rooting for their relationship because that’s what a romance novel does to me. Avoid if you want something with good writing or well developed characters.