Contemporary Romance Review: Undercover Bromance | Lyssa Kay Adams | Bromance Book Club #2

The Bromance Bookclub series by Lyssa Kay Adams is a constant and memorable delight in the contemporary romance genre. Every book has a bit of twinkle to it that brings the magic to a genre full of tropes and stories. In the second book, Undercover Bromance, a nightclub entrepreneur turns to his friends in the bromance book club to help him with his own real life love story.

About the Book | Undercover Bromance

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 pastry 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. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

Review | Undercover Bromance

If you are new to the Bromance Bookclub series, it is a contemporary romance series written by Lyssa Kay Adams that centers around a group of men who are having trouble with relationships. They start a book club where they read romance novels to help them learn more about women, love, and relationships. How could anyone not be interested in trying this series?

Each book in the series centers around someone that was a minor (or even major) character in a prior book. Of course, since we expect a happily ever after with each book, these can easily be read out of order. In fact, I just read book 2 after already reading books 1 and 3 (you can see my reviews of The Bromance Book Club and Crazy Stupid Bromance for more fun with the book club).

Liv Papandreas is a chef at one of Nashville’s hottest restaurants. Of course, anyone who has worked in the restaurant industry knows that chefs have a reputation of being a bit temperamental at times. But Liv’s boss Royce Preston takes this to an extreme—verbally abusing his staff, taking credit for their recipes, and most recently, sexually assaulting the hostess, Jessica. Liv unfortunately witnesses the sexual assault and confronts him, leading him to fire her. Afterwards, she makes it her mission to shine a light on Royce’s abuse.

Braden Mack, a friend of Liv’s brother-in-law Gavin, becomes an unlikely ally in her quest to take down Royce. Mack is fired up when he learns about Royce’s predatory and abusive actions towards his staff (and particularly women) in his restaurant. Mack brings in some of the bros from book club to help out. Nothing turns up the heat like collaborating on revenge, and Liv and Mack find a bit of time to pursue a no-strings-attached fling. But what will happen when real feelings become involved?

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, since Liv was the sister of the main female lead in the first book of the series and I had a fairly negative reaction to her. She was combative and her efforts to be protective sometimes crossed a line. But her fiery spirit is perfect to be the female lead in this story. She needed a growth arc to be a rootable heroine, and she gets one in Undercover Bromance.

The topic of sexual assault in the work place and the power that men in leadership positions hold is at the forefront of the workplace conflict. This book doesn’t purport to be the most nuanced portrayal of a #metoo story, and leans into the stark portrayal and revenge plot that felt like it kept a very heavy topic from flipping the book in a bad way.

Mack is another interesting figure as the leading male. We learn that he has always failed in love, and perhaps that is because he leans too much into trying to be the male hero from a romance book and isn’t authentically himself. Mack is fiercely protective over those in his life—a pattern we also know is characteristic of Liv. It was easy to see why these two just may end up being meant to be after all.

The romance part is slower since the revenge plot is central to the book. This kept it fresh and made it so that the issue of sexual assault didn’t feel like it was thrown in gratuitously. As always with this series, there are plenty of humorous moments particularly with the side characters (the bromance book club always delivers the laughs). Every time I read one of these books I get excited for the characters who may become leads in the future!

About the Author | Lyssa Kay Adams

Lyssa Kay Adams is the pen name of an award-winning journalist who gave up the world of telling true stories to pen emotional romances. She’s also a diehard Detroit Tigers fan who will occasionally cheer for the Red Sox because her husband is from Boston.

Lyssa lives in Michigan with her family and an anxiety-ridden Maltese who steals food and buries it around the house and who will undoubtedly be a character in a future book.

Things Lyssa loves: Baseball pants, mashed potatoes, and that little clicking sound that scissors make on the cutting table at fabric stores.

Things she doesn’t love: Mean people, melting ice cream cones, and finding food in her underwear drawer.

Keep up with Lyssa on Twitter at @LyssaKayAdams. Please note: She mostly tweets about baseball pants and mashed potatoes.