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The Bromance Book Club

Book 1 in the series:Bromance Book Club

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The Bromance Book Club is a heartwarming story about Gavin Scott, a pro baseball player who is on the verge of losing his marriage. After his wife, Thea, kicks him out, Gavin's friends introduce him to a secret book club where they read romance novels to understand women better. Through the book club, Gavin learns valuable lessons that help him reignite the passion in his marriage and save it. The story explores themes of second chance romance, personal growth, and challenging stereotypes about masculinity, all while providing a fast-paced and engaging narrative.

The book delves into the journey of Gavin as he navigates the complexities of relationships, insecurities, and personal growth. With the support of his friends and the insights gained from reading romance novels, Gavin embarks on a mission to understand his wife and himself better. The narrative not only focuses on saving a marriage but also on self-discovery, vulnerability, and the importance of communication in relationships. Through a blend of humor, romance, and emotional depth, the book offers a refreshing take on love, friendship, and personal development.

Characters:

The characters include a well-meaning husband, a complex wife, and a supportive group of friends who highlight various aspects of masculinity and femininity in relationships.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style is accessible and humorous, incorporating witty banter and emotional moments, though it occasionally leans on clichés.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot revolves around a baseball player, Gavin, striving to mend his crumbling marriage with his wife, Thea. After learning about her dissatisfaction, he turns to romance novels for guidance.

Setting:

The setting is contemporary Nashville, providing a backdrop for the personal and professional lives of the characters.

Pacing:

The pacing is fast and engaging, maintaining reader interest through a combination of main narrative and interspersed readings.
Which is why he didn’t get up when his best friend and Nashville Legends teammate, Delray Hicks, pounded on the door to his hotel room, a fourth-floor state of depression that reminded him every minut...

Notes:

The book features a professional baseball player, Gavin Scott, who is trying to save his marriage.
Gavin's friends form a secret club where they read romance novels to learn about women and improve their relationships.
The main couple, Gavin and Thea, struggle with marital issues, including the fact that Thea has been faking orgasms for years.
The story includes excerpts from a Regency romance novel that parallels Gavin's attempts to understand and woo Thea back.
The male characters discuss toxic masculinity and the importance of emotional openness.
The book touches on important themes such as communication, relationship struggles, and personal growth.
The narrative alternates between Gavin's perspective and the story within the romance novel he reads.
Gavin's character is portrayed as endearing yet flawed, as he learns to become a better husband.
The Bromance Book Club offers a humorous yet heartfelt take on romance, with a focus on real marital challenges.
The series has multiple books, each focusing on different characters and their romantic journeys.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

Medium content warnings include topics like divorce, emotional turmoil, and discussions around sexual relationships.

Has Romance?

Romantic elements are very prominent, as the story centers around Gavin's efforts to win back Thea's love.

From The Publisher:

The first rule of book club: You don't talk about book club.

Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble. He's recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it's the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he's let his pride and fear get the better of him.

Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.

Ratings (60)

Incredible (9)
Loved It (26)
Liked It (8)
It Was OK (11)
Did Not Like (4)
Hated It (2)

Reader Stats (112):

Read It (59)
Want To Read (31)
Did Not Finish (4)
Not Interested (18)

3 comment(s)

Loved It
3 weeks

Gavin Scott’s life is in shambles after he discovers that Thea, his wife of three years, has been faking orgasms with him for three years. Gavin and Thea’s relationship moved quickly with them dating for three months before Thea became pregnant with twin girls. With Gavin being on the road playing baseball, this leaves Thea raising the girls alone as well as being thrown to the group of players wives and girlfriends who transform her into someone she no longer recognizes.

Thea seeks to divorce Gavin as a way to rediscover herself. Gavin has been so focused on baseball and providing for his family, he hasn’t noticed Thea’s transformation.

Through the help of his baseball teammates, and surprisingly, help from a romance novel, Gavin uses tactics from the romance novel to woo his wife and save his marriage.

I liked this novel because it discusses the Adams doesn’t only focus on how Thea’s childhood has impacted Thea abs her view of romantic relationships, she also shows Gavin’s underlying fears of being inadequate due to his lifelong problem with speech. This novel is also insightful in how the idea of losing and maintaining that one’s self in marriage is presented. I finished the book thinking about how important it is to have individual interests as a person in a marriage as well as group interest as a couple. Lastly, it is vital to openly communicate with your significant other when issues arise.

 
Loved It
1 month

This was really cute and I loved the concept of it. I could easily see this being the basis of a successful romcom. The sex scenes were R rated, so be aware of that going in but there were only two or three of them and weren’t too gratuitous. I loved the concept of a bunch of dudes helping their friend to rebuild his marriage and the introspection (“back story”) that both of the main characters engage in. I read this one really quickly (in a day!) and I already have the second one on hold at my library!

 
Loved It
2 months

I won't be surprised if I increase my rating on re-reading.

This book is so interestingly meta. The premise is that a pro baseball player is having marital problems so some friends bring him into a secret book club of Nashville movers and shakers who read romance novels to learn how to improve their own relationships. The claim is that because romances are largely written by women, for women (and kudos to Adams for that "mainly", because men and nonbinary people do read and write romances), they are a good guide to how to treat women. And... yeah. There's a huge question there of which romance novels, and which women -- because there's lots of relationship behavior in lots of romance novels that I wouldn't want directed at me. But these guys clearly pick good examples; they use a book about a duke who needs to romance his wife to serve as the male MC's guide.

I love the men supporting men and talking about feelings, relationships, and women's needs. I love that it's a romance novel in which romance novels are discussed and in which the things being discussed also happen -- like when the guys tell the hero about the importance of understanding the backstory to understand the current conflict, and it's a book in which the backstories of the MCs are well fleshed-out and very relevant to the relationship struggles. I love that it's an established relationship story. And I adore the big-deal male (and kinda macho tbh) businessman who's always going on enthusiastically about feminism.

There's stuff in this book that landed especially strongly for me because they relate to issues in my own life, and it'll be a definite re-read for that reason alone. And I'll be reading further in the series because, yeah. Love this stuff.

 

About the Author:

After a nearly twenty-year career as a journalist, Lyssa Kay Adams's dreams of writing and publishing her own HEAs came true in 2015 with the release of her first novel. Today, she writes full-time from her home in Michigan with…

 
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