A review by bookishnerdyandcurious
The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

4.0

4.5 stars.

This is one of the few books that I'm actually doing a review on without being a part of the Romanceopoly challenge. I've owned the book for a few months now, but just haven't been in the mood to read a physical book, but something made me grab this the other night and I'm really glad I did.

Gavin Scott is an MLB second baseman who thinks he has the perfect life: a wife who loves him and twin girls he thinks the world of, a house in a smaller Nashville neighborhood where they can put down roots and be a family... until he's blindsided by the fact that his wife has been hiding something from him and wants a divorce. Thea Scott gave up a lot when she got pregnant and married Gavin - being a WAG isn't all its cracked up to be. She's always been on the outside looking in and her husband hasn't noticed; he's on the road so much he's been fairly absent. She loves him, but she needs more for herself. Gavin's best friend and a group of other guys tell him about their book club. A way to win back his wife by learning from romance novels. Can this work?

I loved that our hero was the one fighting for the marriage - but that both the hero and the heroine learn that they need to work on themselves to make their marriage work. While love can be enough, to be truly happy, each person needs to be happy with themselves first and work their shit out. There were plenty of times where I wanted to smack the back of both of their heads and tell them to freaking communicate, which would normally annoy me and make me dislike the book. In this case, however, it didn't. The writing was so well done that it was a natural thing to discover that they needed to learn to communicate to have a healthy relationship, instead of it being written as a misguided way to cause conflict. Some romances are written where the relationship just doesn't seem real - Gavin and Thea's relationship seemed very real. Like, we all know that one couple who seem perfect, like there are never arguments or "discussions", but do we really know that they are perfect? No. We get to see the good and the bad in this and I appreciated that.

To say that I'm looking forward to getting the next book in the series is an understatement. (Also, I need to find a Romanceopoly square to fit that one into!)