NetGalley Review: Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

Hey all, Dani here.

Okay, so yesterday I reviewed some historical romance, and today my focus is shifting to contemporary romance. Yes, while I do really enjoy my fantasy reads, I have to admit that I read romance fairly quickly, and it has been easy to dive into them to try and get out of my reading slumps and catch up on my Goodreads Reading Challenge. For the record, yes, I did get back on track with that, thanks to the books I read during Dewey’s 24 Hour Summer Reverse Readathon Friday night-Saturday night. But I’ll talk about that more when I get around to my August Reading Wrap-Up post.

Anyway, let’s jump into today’s review, because I have a bunch more posts I want to try and prep up.

“[A] catchy premise with surprising wisdom and specificity.”—New York Times Book Reviewon The Bromance Book Club

A LibraryReads Hall of Fame Title 

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.

My Thoughts:

Rating: 5 stars

I’m kind of a sucker for this series. I don’t know. I enjoy this group of high-powered seemingly-macho-alpha men who have formed a book club that reads romance novels so they can learn to be better men and to be better participants in relationships. It’s just a concept that I enjoy so much.

I like that we get to see the guys meeting up to discuss the books they’re reading, and I like that we sometimes get to read snippets from those books. What I really enjoy is when the guys can see one of the others of the group acting poorly and they call him out on his crap. Honestly I think we need more men in the world who are willing to call out their fellow men when they’re being sexist or pig-headed or just outright jerks.

Noah and Alexis’s tale is that of friends-to-lovers, and Noah has known for a while that he is crushing on her, but we get to see Alexis as she starts to crush on Noah, though neither of them says anything or makes any moves.

Both Noah and Alexis have some past issues they need to work through, and it causes tension for their relationship, both on a friendship level, and on a budding romance level. But with a little bit of communication, a little bit of desire to not lose their friendship while also forging something else, and of course with a little bit of help from the Bromance Book Club, perhaps everything will work out.

It’s not really a spoiler to say that things work out, right? I mean, a book can’t be fully classified as romance if there’s not a happily ever after, or technically a happily for now. Otherwise the book is a fantasy with romance elements or a historical with romance elements, or whatever.

I also love that the guys are so gung-ho about the “Grand Gesture,” and that they insist on always running for the grand gesture. I think it’s utterly adorable.

While I was excited for this story, because I enjoyed getting to know both Noah and Alexis a little bit in the previous Bromance Book Club novel, I will say that nothing compared to how I felt when I heard that the next book was to be the Russian’s story…and I’ll have that review up in a couple weeks.

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All right, well that is all from me for today. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.