Isn’t It Bromantic? by Lyssa Kay Adams

Summary:
With his passion for romance novels, it was only a matter of time before Vlad took up the pen to write a novel the Bromance Book Club would swoon over.
Elena Konnikova has lived her entire adult life in the shadows. As the daughter of a Russian journalist who mysteriously disappeared after speaking out against government corruption, she escaped danger the only way she knew how. She agreed to marry her childhood friend, Vladimir, and move to the United States, where he is a professional hockey player in Nashville.
Vlad, aka The Russian, thought he could be content with his marriage of convenience. But after four years, it’s become too difficult to continue in a one-sided relationship. He joined the Bromance Book Club to learn how to make his wife love him, but all he’s learned is that he deserves more. He’s ready to create his own sweeping romance–both on and off the page.
The Bros are unwilling to let Vlad forgo true love–and this time they’re not operating solo. They join forces with Vlad’s senior citizen neighbors, a group of meddling widows who call themselves The Loners. Just when things finally look promising, the danger from Elena’s past life intrudes, and the book club will face their first-ever life-or-death grand gesture as they race to a happy ever after.

Review:
I’m going to do this review in the ‘what I liked/what I didn’t like’ format because I think that’s going to be the best way to get my thoughts across.

What I Liked:

I genuinely liked Vlad. He’s very obviously a good dude. He’s a good friend to his fellow book club members. He’s kind and thoughtful. He’s sweet and romantic. He’s a little dense when it comes to Elena, but I liked him anyway.

I liked that he wanted to write a book. I thought it was a bit on the nose that he realized what he needed to do in order to be with Elena from writing his own book.

The book club guys will always be the highlight of these books. The way they come in and pick their friends up, brush them off, and tell them to pull their heads out of their asses every book really is wonderful.

I liked the childhood friends to lovers peak that we got with Elena and Vlad. We see glimpses of it, but I liked it.

What I Didn’t Like:

The whole reason that Elena and Vlad were in a marriage of convenience was not enough for me. I couldn’t get behind it. I didn’t think that after four years, neither one of them would have had any sort of conversation about their relationship. If they were childhood friends, they should have been able to talk to one another. I married my childhood best friend and we certainly went through times where we didn’t talk because of dumb stuff, but we always eventually talked about it or moved past it.

I didn’t like that there wasn’t really any book club content. They sort of used Vlad’s book for the book club, but I didn’t love that like I loved the guys learning from their book club books in the other books in this series.

I didn’t love Vlad’s writing being included. We only got a small bit of it and it felt a bit convenient to the story instead of natural like it felt with the book club books in the earlier books.

Overall, I liked this book, but it wasn’t my favorite. I was disappointed I think because I was super excited to read ‘The Russian’s’ story and it wasn’t what I wanted. I will probably continue the series if there’s going to be more books, but I think I’ll lower my expectations for future books.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda

Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

Review:
A hacktivist and a cat café owner decode the friend zone in this romantic comedy from the author of Undercover Bromance.
Alexis Carlisle and her cat café, ToeBeans, have shot to fame after she came forward as a victim of a celebrity chef’s sexual harassment. When a new customer approaches to confide in her, the last thing Alexis expects is for the woman to claim they’re sisters. Unsure what to do, Alexis turns to the only man she trusts—her best friend, Noah Logan.
Computer genius Noah left his rebellious teenage hacker past behind to become a computer security expert. Now he only uses his old skills for the right cause. But Noah’s got a secret: He’s madly in love with Alexis. When she asks for his help, he wonders if the timing will ever be right to confess his crush.
Noah’s pals in The Bromance Book Club are more than willing to share their beloved “manuals” to help him go from bud to boyfriend. But he must decide if telling the truth is worth risking the best friendship he’s ever had.
Review:
Crazy Stupid Bromance is the newest book in the Bromance Bookclub series. I love the concept of this series, where men figure out how to be better to the women they have feelings for by reading and learning from romance novels they read together and discuss. I think this book had a good combination of the romance between Alexis and Noah, and the bromance bookclub gang. I liked that the book club was there for Noah when he knew he’d made a mistake and they helped him figure out what to do next.
Alexis is a character we met in previous books. She’s one of the people that we learned in the last book was sexually harassed by a celebrity chef she used to work for. She spoke out about this harassment along with a few other women. She’s cultivated her car café into a safe space for other women that have been assaulted or harassed. She organized things like yoga classes and such to help others after she learned things that helped her. I liked that this was a part of the story. It wasn’t the whole story, not overtaking anything, but it was there. It wasn’t brushed aside or just mentioned once. It was a part of Alexis, so it was a part of the story.
As for the mysterious sister, and the father that Alexis never met that needs an organ donation, I don’t know how I felt about this. I liked that it was something close to the author’s heart (there’s an author’s note about her reasoning for choosing to write about organ donation). But it felt out of place in a romance novel.
Overall, I still am not totally sure how I felt about this book and that’s very clear in this review. I really liked Noah and Alexis together. Their friends to lovers romance was sweet and I really enjoyed seeing them take that step past friends. I read this book quickly and enjoyed it while I was reading it. I think most that like the friends to lovers trope will enjoy this one.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.