Undercover Bromance (Bromance Book Club #2) - Lyssa Kay Adams
Published: 10th March 2020
Source: Netgalley & Purchased
Genre: Contemporary Romance
My Rating:
The first rule of book club:
You don't talk about book club.Braden Mack thinks reading romance novels makes him an expert in love, but he'll soon discover that real life is better than fiction.
Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a sous chef at Nashville's hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she catches him harassing a young hostess, she confronts him and gets fired. Liv vows revenge, but she'll need assistance to take on the powerful chef.
Unfortunately, that means turning to Braden Mack. When Liv's blackballed from the restaurant scene, the charismatic nightclub entrepreneur offers to help expose her ex-boss, but she is suspicious of his motives. He'll need to call in reinforcements: the Bromance Book Club.
Inspired by the romantic suspense novel they're reading, the book club assists Liv in setting up a sting operation to take down the chef. But they're just as eager to help Mack figure out the way to Liv's heart...even though she's determined to squelch the sparks between them before she gets burned.
It’s been a little while since I’ve done a standalone review. And I feel like the pressure is on since I’ll be talking about just one book. Really need to make sure this review is good. Also, this is the first post I'm editing on the new Blogger's updated post editor so this is a true test of if it's any good.
Where to begin with this one? I have to say, I was impressed at how much story was packed into a book which felt like it flew by when I was reading. It doesn’t feel long and honestly, as I was reading I kept thinking to myself ‘just one more chapter’. It was definitely an easy read.
This one focuses on Mack and Liv and I had some reservations about that. I liked Mack in the first book. he was charming, a smooth talker, and he seemed fun. He was always going to be easy to like (even if he occasionally felt a little too slick and a little superficial) but Liv? I kind of hated her. I mean, she was kind of the worst in the first book. So unsupportive of Thea and Gavin and so very against Thea even speaking to Gavin. Even if they hadn’t gotten back together in that book the couple would have always had to interact as they had two children to think about and Liv seemed to be against any interaction. It was rather upsetting considering Liv and Thea grew up with parents who weren’t together, they knew the strain that puts on kids. But anyway, I digress, the point was I didn’t like Liv and was not all that happy to see her here. Thankfully, once you get to see things from Liv’s perspective, it’s far easier to like her. I mean, she still needed calling out on her shit (often) but it helped to hear her own thoughts to explain some of her negative nelly attitude, you know?
Liv was always the difficult one to like and it was still true when she got her own book. I didn’t always understand her. She refused help from anyone but expected others to accept her help. And when I say help I mean her forced assistance and shoving her nose into other people’s business. That’s not a bad thing, she was calling out sexual harassment in the workplace, but she went in full bull in a china shop with everything she did. She didn’t think at all and she frequently opened her mouth without ever engaging her brain. She was called out on a lot of her comments. From the casually sexist comment, we all make like 'man up' and 'don’t be a girl' to the comments which were basically victim-blaming when it came to speaking to someone who was a victim of sexual assault. I mean, she just didn’t think things through at all. It was all kinds of frustrating and although I loved her romance with Mack and the growth she had through this book, she was still not going to be my absolute favourite character ever.
Thankfully, Liv was balanced out with a man who was all about the charm. A smooth-talking nightclub owner who was a fan of romance books. What’s not to like about Mack? I was excited to meet him because he really was easy to like and didn’t he just know it. But, as some of the women he dated said, it did often feel like he was putting on an act and when we got to know him more and past! Hot damn, did I understand why he was always putting on a show, he had a lot of things he was carrying around with him. Scars from his past and his family that meant he didn’t want to allow anyone too close. But still, I liked him best when he wasn’t trying to follow the romantic guidance of a romance novel or trying to find the perfect line for Liv. But when he acted on impulse and allowed his emotions to take over.
Liv and Mack together? They were great. Mack was all pretence and outward appearances whilst Liv was kind of what you see is what you get. She was blunt and straight to the point (most of the time). I liked to see these opposites get together.
And the best part? The feminism throughout every page. I mean, I knew it was a winner when the book opened with our little book club making their first trip to an actual book shop rather than ordering their romance online because they wanted to tackle the whole concept of toxic masculinity and any shame they might feel in walking into a bookshop to purchase romance for themselves. It was even better when they were despairing at the woeful romance selection with a single small section dedicated to romance. These men need to come to the UK where you will fail to find any romance section in pretty much any bookshop. I can't talk for independent ones of course, but big book chains like Waterstones and Foyles? Yep, you aren't finding a romance shelf. Might as well go home now. But I digress, basically, I loved the fun lighthearted opening of these men complaining that there isn't more romance. I loved that these small moments of the guys talking openly about how toxic masculinity and patriarchal concepts are the very same things holding women back. When Hop lamented the fact he could no longer make jokes about women as if it was political correctness gone made yet said he hoped to have a female president in his lifetime was great because when the guys came back at him and said that those jokes might be the very reason there hasn't been a female president. I was practically cheering because Adams so easily put into words concepts I struggle to explain to others. And she does it so well throughout the book.
The story was good as well. I kind of don't want to spoil too much because I actually went into this one totally blind and probably enjoyed it more for it, but the story was good. I was never bored by any of the plot development. I didn't find anything too farfetched or skim through a part of the story. I was just swept along the whole way laughing and just plain old enjoyed myself. This was just so damn enjoyable. I cannot stress it enough how much fun this was to read. I mean, I'm smiling writing the review. How can I be smiling writing a review of a book?
I'm sure I've not done this book justice here, I always hate putting into words the ways in which a book has gone right but honestly, give this book a go and you'll see what I mean.
Have you read this already, did you enjoy it as much as I did?
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