Crazy Stupid Bromance, by Lyssa Kay Adams

Cover art: Crazy Stupid Bromance, by Lyssa Kay Adams

If you’d told me before picking up the first book in this series that in a year’s time, one of my favorite romance series would be about a group of dudes, I would have laughed and laughed until I fell off the couch.

But here we are.

The Bromance Book Club series is about a group of (high-powered, rich, hot, etc., etc.) guys in Atlanta who have a secret book club in which they read romance novels to improve their love lives.

Or, well, improving their love lives is how they generally pitch it to new members, but they also read them to become better people in general.

Which, like, I’m at the googly eyes stage at that premise alone, thank you and good night.

I don’t think it’s been overtly verbalized in any of the three available books, but their book club—like many book clubs—also acts as group therapy, and romance ASIDE, there is something profoundly heartening and hopeful about a series of books in which dudes not only talk about, but embrace their own vulnerability?

(And I say this as someone who haaaaaates feelings, who even am I?)

Anyway, Crazy Stupid Bromance is the most recent entry—it features Alexis, who owns a cat cafe that doubles as a safe space for sexual assault survivors, and her best friend Noah, a computer hacker turned security consultant. They’re clearly already in love with each other, but are both skittish about attempting to change the dynamic—Noah because he’s worried about Alexis’ history, overstepping his role as a friend, and/or ruining their friendship (AND because he’s scared of opening himself up, though that’s not something he’s come to terms with yet), and Alexis, well, for basically the same reasons.

They’re also both dealing with some huge family stuff—Noah with his never-dealt-with feelings about his father’s death; Alexis with the sudden appearance of her biological family (her mother raised her; she’s never met her father)—and the number of threads about trust and forgiveness and leaps of faith and so on… well, suffice to say that the book is very much about trust and forgiveness and leaps of faith.

One of the things I appreciated most about it is that even though some of the choices they make aren’t choices that *I* personally would or could make, those choices worked and felt right for them, which speaks to the strength of the characterization.

These books are funny, they’re warm, and they’re set in a magical world where big burly dudes say things like, “The so-called friend zone is nothing but a social construct designed to give a man an excuse to justify why a woman might not want to have sex with him.”

This one also features a sideplot about our heroes planning a wedding—which includes a synchronized dance by the groomsmen, because of course it does, andddddd a Maine coon cat named Beefcake.

I mean. BEEFCAKE. What’s not to love?