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purplepenning 's review for:
Crazy Stupid Bromance
by Lyssa Kay Adams
A friends-to-lovers rom-com with some big doses of family drama and the support of our favorite all-male, romance-reading, anti-toxic-masculinity book club!
In the year since they worked together to bring down a serial sexual assaulter, Alexis and Noah have become best friends. Alexis sees the steady, caring man that former angry hacktivist Noah has become. Noah sees the courage, strength, and empathy that cat cafe owner Alexis serves up every day. They're both starting to see that they may want more than friendship, but they can't risk screwing up the most important and healthy relationship either of them has ever had. Can they? The Bromance Book Club is happy to swear Noah in as a member and guide him to the wisdom of a good romance novel — and try to steer him clear of the bad tropey nonsense that ruins relationships and novels alike.
That's one of the obvious strengths of this series — it gets to lean in and play off of romance novel tropes in a really fun, smart way. I was happy to see that book 3 includes excerpts from the book club novel again (after book 2 abandoned that format). I'd like to see it used even more, as it was in book 1. The Bromance boys are back in good form as well, insisting on emotional honesty and respect and giving a couple of rousing feminist speeches that are as much of a turn on as the steamy sex scenes later in the book. And I'm happy to see the Russian starting to break out of the caricatured space he was relegated to — although I'll be happier when he gets a name and is treated like a fully human person (coming in book 4 I think!). As "woke" as some of the gender-relationship stuff is, there's a bit of a haze of privilege and othering here. I'm also not a fan of the use of "crazy stupid" in the title (but it does comes directly from dialogue in the book).
Overall, this series continues to be a brilliant idea that delivers fun, heartfelt stories with smart, interesting characters who treat each other (and sex) like adults — owning their issues, having difficult conversations, being mature and vulnerable, and reaping the rewards.
Content notes: main character is a survivor of sexual assault, main character committed a computer security crime in his past, loss of parent, DNA test reveals unknown family, hospital scene for surgery, organ donation, minor injuries caused by major feline, a character gets punched in the face, a character expresses toxic masculinity, strong language, frank discussions about and realistic descriptions of sex (including use of condoms — yay!)
My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for a digital ARC.
In the year since they worked together to bring down a serial sexual assaulter, Alexis and Noah have become best friends. Alexis sees the steady, caring man that former angry hacktivist Noah has become. Noah sees the courage, strength, and empathy that cat cafe owner Alexis serves up every day. They're both starting to see that they may want more than friendship, but they can't risk screwing up the most important and healthy relationship either of them has ever had. Can they? The Bromance Book Club is happy to swear Noah in as a member and guide him to the wisdom of a good romance novel — and try to steer him clear of the bad tropey nonsense that ruins relationships and novels alike.
That's one of the obvious strengths of this series — it gets to lean in and play off of romance novel tropes in a really fun, smart way. I was happy to see that book 3 includes excerpts from the book club novel again (after book 2 abandoned that format). I'd like to see it used even more, as it was in book 1. The Bromance boys are back in good form as well, insisting on emotional honesty and respect and giving a couple of rousing feminist speeches that are as much of a turn on as the steamy sex scenes later in the book. And I'm happy to see the Russian starting to break out of the caricatured space he was relegated to — although I'll be happier when he gets a name and is treated like a fully human person (coming in book 4 I think!). As "woke" as some of the gender-relationship stuff is, there's a bit of a haze of privilege and othering here. I'm also not a fan of the use of "crazy stupid" in the title (but it does comes directly from dialogue in the book).
Overall, this series continues to be a brilliant idea that delivers fun, heartfelt stories with smart, interesting characters who treat each other (and sex) like adults — owning their issues, having difficult conversations, being mature and vulnerable, and reaping the rewards.
Content notes: main character is a survivor of sexual assault, main character committed a computer security crime in his past, loss of parent, DNA test reveals unknown family, hospital scene for surgery, organ donation, minor injuries caused by major feline, a character gets punched in the face, a character expresses toxic masculinity, strong language, frank discussions about and realistic descriptions of sex (including use of condoms — yay!)
My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for a digital ARC.