Publisher: Berkley
Page Count: 352
A couple of my friends liked this book series and since it kept coming up on my feed, I thought I’d take a look at it as well. This year in general, I came a bit out of my reading comfort zone and tried more romance novels. I’m not sure it’s really my genre, but I found some real gems (thank you Talia Hibbert) and really hoped I’d be able to count the Bromance Book Club among them as well. Unfortunately, the book wasn’t really what I thought it would be.
To make this easier on me (and you?), I decided to just divide this post into two simple lists – what I enjoyed and what I didn’t like about the book!
What I Liked About the Book
- I generally like settings in the professional sports world, even when it’s just a small component of the world. As much as I avoid all physical activities in real life, there’s just something so enticing to me when it’s in a fictional context. So, Gavin being a professional baseball player was intriguing in my book.
- This book has some really funny moments! As much as it’s dealing with some serious topics in terms of potential divorce and childhood trauma, it never felt too heavy and knew how to crack those jokes.
- Gavin has a stutter and I liked that no one tried to cover it up and that his wife was never ashamed of it.
- Lastly, I adore the actual bromance book club. Those dudes are ridiculous, but they really made me wonder if I, as a woman, could be broken down by the simple guidelines of a romance novel. It was so funny.
What I Didn’t Enjoy About the Book
- I was so very frustrated with the main characters. I just wanted to shake Thea and yell at her to give her husband a second chance, because he was really trying. And yes, he had hurt her and I understood that her childhood added to the betrayal she felt, but what he did wasn’t that unforgivable … like not even one bit. But not to say that Gavin is perfect, far from it, because the dude needs to learn how to chill and not be so full on all the time … then again, Thea seemed to really like it.
- It’s a pretty fast paced book, but it still took me until almost the halfway point to really get into it. If I take a break from a story for more than a month and still didn’t really look forward to continuing it, it’s often not the best of signs.
I very much realise that my pros outweigh the cons in number, but while it was an entertaining book in part, the annoyance at the characters (especially Thea) overshadowed it all. As mentioned above, I loved the actual bromance book club part of it and really think there shouldn’t be as much of a stigma on romance books and men should have the support system to talk about their feelings and problems with their friends without judgment.
So, it could be fun for readers who aren’t me, but I also heard that the other books are mostly received better than this one …
Fazit: 2.5/5 stars! Mildly entertaining but not amazing either.
Life and Other Disasters 