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embermatthews 's review for:
A Very Merry Bromance
by Lyssa Kay Adams
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have a habit of grabbing a random book assuming it is a standalone and finding out is a series after I read other people’s reviews when posting my own, which is why I am now reviewing the most recent addition to the Bromance Book Club series. For being the last book in the publishing order (for now) A Very Merry Bromance is a good introduction to the Tennessee based romance novels centering a group of guys who want to better their love lives through their all-male romance book club. A year after country music star Colton Wheeler, a family loving Christmas connoisseur in a musical slump, and Gretchen Winthrop, a secret Whiskey heiress turned immigration lawyer struggling to help her growing group of client’s stay in the country, had the most amazing night together at their mutual friend’s wedding (which ended in Gretchen ghosting Colton), they are drawn together when Gretchen’s brother wants a new face for their company and asks her to get in touch with Colton to seal the deal before the holidays. Colton agrees to look over the proposal, in exchange for a few dates before Christmas.
The antagonist of the story is Gretchen’s brother Evan, with a little bit of back up from her image -obsessed parents. It is repeatedly alluded to that Gretchen’s brother physically and mentally abused her as a child, but it felt like their story lacked follow through. I do not advocate for, nor enjoy, the abuse of characters in books, but in this case I felt that the lack of information became minimizing to that aspect of her story; it felt it boiled down to no more than a broken arm and being locked out of the house. It’s also shown that Evan is a heavy drinker, and not much comes of that either.
While Gretchen’s mother spends much of the book teetering on the edge of redeeming herself by laying Evan out, a few moments where it feels like she is about to step in build to nothing when she doesn’t intervene. I also couldn’t understand exactly why Gretchen was so angry with Jack at the end of it all - her uncle who always came to rescue her was suddenly a villain in her eyes.
I loved Colton’s family, both biological and chosen, and I can’t wait to dig into the books about the other guys just to see their stories. I have been in Gretchen’s shoes when stepping into a tight knit friend group and the anxiety that comes with being a “girlfriend” to one of the guys but not feeling like a part of things, and I hope that in future books (if we get more) we will see her grow into her role in the friend group. Colton’s character embodies the sunshine trope: he loves children, loves family, and loves Gretchen for all her sides. Gretchen is the perfect kind of grumpy, she isn’t mean for the sake of being mean but instead is an extremely morals-centered person and just wants the world to be a better place for the less fortunate after seeing how the uber-rich live and behave her whole life growing up. I was nervous early on that Gretchen would give up her practice to usurp Evan, but she was consistent in her intentions to keep at her work no matter what.
I think the third-act break up came too late in the book, I’d like to have seen more of their relationship after getting back together, and to have a little more time taken for the plot for saving Colton/taking down Evan.
There were a few spicy scenes in the book, but most of it was kissing. There is never a lot of sex in Christmas romances, but in the scenes we get Colton is a “season of giving” kind of guy. The only issue was the phrase “womb clench” which is, by definition, what period cramps/contractions are.