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A review by a_ab
A Very Merry Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
This was a surprisingly frustrating and blood-boiling reading experience that I wouldn't recommend to anyone.
This series has a great fun premise, and I naively keep hoping that it will start living up to it, but so far - no luck.
There is a lot of lip service to progressive ideas in each book, but the characters' actions (even those of the protagonists and sympathetically portrayed characters) are full of internalized misogyny, toxic masculinity, patriarchal BS and rich entitled elitism.
I wish this idea landed in the hands of a better author or that this one would make some self improvement efforts, but I should accept that this wish is not going to be granted. Not even at Christmas.
This book has another relationship which survives entirely on the power of "magical" sex, because outside of it there is nothing that could possibly keep these characters even interested in each other. They are not a good match, they do not treat each other with respect or understanding, they keep making wrong decisions for and on behalf of the other, and they never really learn from their mistakes - they just plaster it all over with more intense supposedly passionate sex.
There was a detail in this book which made me incandescent with rage - the main female character is supposed to be competent and a lawyer, yet all effective decisions in her life are made for her by different men around her - aside from making a coffee house order, nothing she does by herself or of her own free will sticks - not a single thing throughout the whole book! What. The. Hell?!?!
This series has a great fun premise, and I naively keep hoping that it will start living up to it, but so far - no luck.
There is a lot of lip service to progressive ideas in each book, but the characters' actions (even those of the protagonists and sympathetically portrayed characters) are full of internalized misogyny, toxic masculinity, patriarchal BS and rich entitled elitism.
I wish this idea landed in the hands of a better author or that this one would make some self improvement efforts, but I should accept that this wish is not going to be granted. Not even at Christmas.
This book has another relationship which survives entirely on the power of "magical" sex, because outside of it there is nothing that could possibly keep these characters even interested in each other. They are not a good match, they do not treat each other with respect or understanding, they keep making wrong decisions for and on behalf of the other, and they never really learn from their mistakes - they just plaster it all over with more intense supposedly passionate sex.
There was a detail in this book which made me incandescent with rage - the main female character is supposed to be competent and a lawyer, yet all effective decisions in her life are made for her by different men around her - aside from making a coffee house order, nothing she does by herself or of her own free will sticks - not a single thing throughout the whole book! What. The. Hell?!?!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Child abuse, Bullying, Misogyny, and Gaslighting