I really enjoyed The Bromance Book Club, so it was a no brainer to read Undercover Bromance.

I mean, this is all about Braden Mack - who doesn't want more of him after book one?

I enjoyed the story of this installment. It was well paced, enjoyable and I both laughed and got sad at times as the story continued.

The one thing that bugged me about the story? Our leading lady Liv. Gah, she is so darn frustrating. She came across as spoiled and bratty and I just wanted to shake some sense into her. I get being strong and independant, but she took it to the extreme and OTT and made her just come across as unlikable - but this could just be me.

I loved seeing more of Gavin and Thea from the first book, and all the Bromance Book Club guys.

I hope we get The Russian's story!

Undercover Bromance is the second book in the Bromance Book Club series. Now you can read as a standalone, but I would personally would not. I highly suggest you read Bromance Book Club before diving into this book. You see Mack and Liv are mentioned in the first book and you will miss a lot of context just diving into this book.

Having read the first book, I was most certainly intrigued to find out about Braden Mack or just Mack. He's the creator of the Bromance Book Club. His flirt game in book one was on point, but behind the flirtatiousness, I knew there had to be a backstory behind it all. Liv, Thea's sister, is a cranky sarcastic heroine, and I loved her. But of course, she too, has some trust issues that she needs to let go.

The banter and back and forth between Mack and Liv was priceless. So much so, that I could not wait for the sexy times to ever happen because I knew it would be explosive, and boy was it ever.

Now, many who may read this book may or may not be put off on the theme of the book, it didn't bother me. Unfortunately, (without too many spoilers), the things Liv is trying to uncover is what is still happening to women.

Once you get to Mack's backstory, you will understand why he is such a romantic. Liv being stubborn and prideful, may or may not lose the love that she truly deserves.

I did enjoy this book, but the first one will by far be my favorite. Of course, the Bromance dudes are back and are still equally hysterical. Poor Russian and his digestive system lol.

Come March, give a chance.

I love a romance book that completely dismantles toxic masculinity. I'd say the vast majority of modern romance that I read these days does exactly that. But, to have the toxic masculinity named, called out, and destroyed by the male characters without requiring work from female characters is cathartic.

In Undercover Bromance you get the swoon, the sexy, and a breath of fresh air.

When I read Bromance Bookclub, I could see that Mack was going to be the next character in the series, if there was one. All and all another cute story about men moving away from the stereotypical stoic man role by reading and learning from romance novels. In my opinion, you do not need to read the first book in the series to follow the plot of the second book. However, I have been told I am too lenient in that regard. The book starts off looking like a “I hate you until I am hot for you” story but fairly quickly it turns into a #metoo story. If that is triggering for you I would definitely stay away. I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own

4.5 stars!! I love love loved this book. Braden Mack made me laugh hysterically in the first book of this series with his raunchy sarcasm, so I was super psyched to read his story. In this book you get to see his sweet, amazing side, and it was perfection coupled with Liv, the fearless, wounded, brave and fierce-as-hell pastry chef who is out to expose a powerful and terrible former boss. Mack and his bromance book club get into all kinds of antics, as usual, which made me laugh and feel all the feels. Get your hands on this book immediately when it comes out in March!! :)

*Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC of this book.

Undercover Bromance 🧁

I loved I loved I loved I loved!
A huge shout out to my friends over at @berkleypub for sending me an advanced copy! #partner

If you loved The Bromance Bookclub you will loveee this book just as much if not more!
It was hysterical, full of growth, heavy on the drama/suspense, and the slow burn of the romance was 🔥🔥🔥🔥

This book was different from the first in that it was much more about taking down an evil force than dealing with problems within a relationship. Both the main characters were extremely independent and head strong which that lead to them being the perfect pair. When their romance finally kicked off the chemistry was off the charts!

I loved the interlacing of all the characters from the last book and the growth the book showed of all the male friendships. I also reallly liked the new addition of an older man to the book club.

If you loved the first book you will definitely not be disappointed in this one!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another total winner from Lyssa Kay Adams. I'm in love with this series. Fun premise, fresh voice. I look forward to the next book.

I really liked the first one in this series and this follow-up was a great second volume. With shades of #metoo and men (and women) having to learn how to deal with their pasts, there were also funny moments and some insightful clarity into the pitfalls of taking down sexual predators.

Ugh, this was the cheesiest book. I did not like The Bromance Book Club, so i'm not sure why I thought i'd like this one. It was painful. I hated the main character. She is so entitled, prickly, and selfish. It's just your run of the mill predictable HEA rom-com. I found it cringe-worthy. How many times can a character growl? Or flip the bird? The same problems as I had with the first book.

I'd give this 3.5 stars. I didn't like it as much as I liked the first book, but it was fun to see Gavin, Thea, and the rest of the Bromance Bookclub again. And I enjoyed learning Mack's story, as he was the only single guy in the group (and the founder).

Liv and Mack make for a hot couple and watching their romance bloom is fun. I do think that with the #metoo storyline and them working together to destroy a famous chef, the additional drama about Mack's family background didn't feel well-developed.

There is some Hallmark cheesiness towards the end that I could have done without, and there was some criticism about the guys feeling super sterotypical and caricatures of sorts in the first book (which is true here too... especially with the Russian), but honestly, if you're looking for a fun romance read, this is a great one to pick up.

This is the second book in the Bromance Bookclub series. The first book, The Bromance Book Club, was one of my favorite books of 2019. It’s about a group of dudebros who seek (and find!) relationship guidance through romance novels. It’s amazing and hilarious, and if you haven’t read it, you need to.

The same characters are in Undercover Bromance, though you won’t need to have read the first book to follow the second. This time around the story focuses on Liv (Thea’s sister) and Mack (Gavin’s buddy). Mack accidentally gets Liv fired from her dream job as a sous chef at a posh restaurant, and even though Liv can’t stand her sleazy boss, she’s rightfully pissed at Mack. But on her way out of the building after getting fired, Liv witnesses her boss sexually assault another employee. Furious, she promises the employee to help her file a report and seek justice—but Liv is shocked when the woman is too embarrassed to seek help.

Determined to find another way to take down her ex-boss, Liv turns to her family and friends for support. Surprisingly, it’s Mack who steps up to help first. Liv is reluctant to accept it, but since she’s in a tight spot, eventually she agrees, and they come up with a plan. As the two spend more time together, their relationship develops into something deeper—which is great, but also complicated… Liv’s hurtful past relationship with her father gets in the way of her ability to trust men. Can she let her guard down enough to let Mack in and really begin to trust him?

MY THOUGHTS

Undercover Bromance is another winner for me. I love the broseph-ness of the men and their slightly ridiculous fascination with romance novels. All of the characters, including Liv, are just so endearing and lovable. But what stayed with me most was the complex exploration of what it means to support victims of sexual assault. We tend to want to see the world in black and white terms, but these issues are nuanced. There is a lot of grey area, especially where human frailty and shame are involved. And while it is, of course, imperative that we support victims in every way possible, sometimes the hardest thing to do is support them the way they want it. Sometimes support requires patience, not aggression—listening, not yelling and casting blame. I think many of us want to ride in on a white horse, but sometimes the best thing we can do is empower the victim to save herself.

I know these are deep thoughts for a modern romance novel, but, shoot, author Lyssa Kay Adams pulls it off! What a gem of a book. I still find myself pondering the story, even weeks after I’ve finished it. Five enthusiastic stars from me!

This one definitely did not disappoint...even with an entirely different feel in comparison to the first.⁣

The king of 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 Braden Mack gets turned on his head when he has to deal with some love problems of his own...and is forced to grapple with deeply rooted issues he has had his whole life. Similarly, Liv, freshly fired from her job, witnesses something that alters her life path and gives her purpose, as well as lands her right in the lap of the swooniest of all swoon worthy men.😉⁣
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First of all, the girl power in this sequel is INCREDIBLE. The development and character arcs of Mack and Liv are beautifully told, both independently and when woven together. Adams writes angsty, steamy romance with themes that are relevant and powerfully important.⁣
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Although marketed as a romance, the love story was just one facet of this story. The flow and dialogue were superb and kept me turning that page. I live for the way this author writes BANTER!⁣
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I did feel like the ending was a tad rushed (literally resolved in the last 9 pages) and slightly predictable, but the story concluded in a way that left me feeling satisfied, happy, and vindicated!💪🏼⁣
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Trigger warnings: sexual assault, abuse (domestic, child)⁣
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Overall, a fun and solid sequel to The Bromance Book Club world! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5⁣
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I really enjoyed reading "The Bromance Book Club but i may have liked this one even more! I really enjoyed all of the characters and I hope to read more books in this series!

I enjoyed this one as a rom-com, but did not enjoy the serious stuff going on. It is hard to do a romantic comedy and have serious issues. This author did it well, but I read to escape reality and I would have just liked the comedy part of things. This is all based on a bromance book club, which kind of takes a back seat in this story. I loved Mack and Liv and their relationship. Liv does not trust men and Mack has a big secret he has not told anybody. I liked that Mack and Liv both had insecurities and they had to learn to trust each other and to take the chance at love.

"Not for the first time, he felt on the outs. The odd man in the group. The man who could save a hundred marriages but was doomed to never find his own happy ending."

"I just like the idea of having someone to lean on sometimes."

"I used to think I knew what I was doing with women, Liv," he whispered. "But then I met a certain pastry chef, and my whole world turned on its head."

*Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review*

Undercover Bromance is a suspense-romance lite following Liv Papandreas and Braden Mack, two side characters in The Bromance Book Club. After Liv gets fired by her sleazy, sexually harassing boss, she teams up with Mack to take him down.

I've always wanted a romance novel about Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn 99, and this is it. Liv Papandreas is tough and biting and funny. I desperately wish the author wrote physical descriptions of her female characters - from all I can pick up she has curly hair. I understand why an author would veer from physical descriptions, but I just want to know.

Office place harassment is talked about in detail here, which I'm on board with. Much like in BBC, Mack dispels many platitudes about toxic masculinity, which I'm also on board with even though it felt a bit preachy at times. The tiniest bit. Still, I love reading a series about men fully aware of the power of romance novels.

I know this is a small-ish thing, but because I'm a sucker for continuity I just wanted to mention Gavin (main character BBC/side character UB). In Gavin's story, his stutter was a big plotline, but it disappeared here? Granted, this is an early copy. Also, maybe it only pops up in times of stress, and he has it pretty good right now. I don't know, but the Bromance Book Club has a lot of male characters that blend into one Background Hot Guy for me (I can't pick up on Malcolm or Del's personalities, for instance). I'll take any defining feature, especially if it was a big deal before.

To my own surprise I loved this just as much, if not MORE, than The Bromance Book Club. Lyssa Kay Adams absolutely knocked it out of the park. She took a really serious and tough topic, sexual assault, and addressed it with respect and poise. Braden Mack might be my new favorite romance hero ever and might also single-handedly overturn toxic masculinity by himself. There was just so much to love about this- the main romance was perfect, the side plot was so good, and ALL the characters are hilarious and heartwarming.

A fun follow up to the Bromance Book Club. It was not as emotionally engaging as the prior book but still funny and entertaining.

Since the moment I finished reading The Bromance Book Club, I’ve been excited to jump into the sequel but I was prepared to wait for months. Imagine my surprise when I got approved for the ARC (Berkley rarely does) and I knew I had to read it as soon as possible. And it lived up to all my expectations and then some.

The writing in this book is as much fun as it’s predecessor was and I couldn’t put the book down at all. It’s not exactly an enemies to lovers kinda story, but more like two bickering people who don’t want to fall for each but just can’t help it. This leads to a lot of amazing banter and dialogue in the book and I thoroughly enjoyed the interactions. If the first book tried to tackle one form of toxic masculinity, this book tries to shine some light on sexual harassment in the workplace and the power imbalance even in seemingly consensual actions. The author also doesn’t shy away from pointing out that powerful men get away with their despicable actions because other “supposedly” good men look the other way. I also appreciated the message that not all survivors of harassment are in a position to fight and we shouldn’t judge them for whatever decisions they make for their own physical, mental and financial well being.

I was really excited to read Mack’s story because he was a total charmer in the first book and I wanted to get to know him better. It was really fascinating to get into the head of a man who is kind, totally considerate, a bit extra protective, always there to help, and an unapologetic believer of the power of romance novels. There is a whole backstory to why he reads romance and why the book club started and it was heartbreaking to get to know that. But he is a total charmed and he has completely made me fall in love with him and he is definitely the latest addition to my list of book boyfriends.

I won’t say hated but I really disliked Liv in the first book and I wasn’t sure if the author could make me like her this time around. And I have to say the author tried and while I could sympathize with Liv most of the times, she is still mostly arrogant and judgmental and doesn’t think of consequences before taking any actions or saying what comes to her mind. Everyone around her was very supportive of her efforts to take down a serial sexual predator despite her not appreciating any of their help. I also hated how she judged the other survivors and only could see her perspective as the right one, and it took multiple people explaining and yelling for her to realize she was in the wrong. Her trust issues run deep and I totally could see how much she didn’t want to be vulnerable, but I didn’t appreciate her hurting others in the process. She does realize all of it eventually but it just wasn’t convincing enough for me.

If I liked the book club in the first book, I completely fell in love with them here. They are all so much fun, taunting and teasing each other but also having each other’s back, having thoughtful discussions about the book they were reading and also the wider implications of the story, about harassment in general and what they could do about it. They never once hesitated about helping Liv in her endeavor. They are also such amazing friends to Mack and were there whenever he needed them, even when he didn’t know it. I think every guy needs such a gang in his life. While I like all of them, the Russian was a delight this time around (read the book to find his name 😜) and we have a new addition in Noah who I hope becomes a permanent part of the group. We also meet another bickering elderly couple Rosie and Hop and they were just the characters we needed to round out this amazing book.

In the end, I just want to say that I had so much fun reading this book and I would love to reread it soon. If you like prickly but vulnerable heroines with daddy issues and a thoughtful group of guys who rely on romance novels to understand women better, you should totally checkout this series because it’s the perfect antidote to toxic masculinity. If you already enjoyed The Bromance Book Club, pick this up as soon as it releases because I promise you that you will be utterly charmed by both Mack and the whole delightful gang. And now I’m quite interested in knowing who the next book is going to feature and what sub genre of romance the book club decides to choose.

I loved the first book so much but this one is even better. It has my fave love to hate troupe! It brings back all my favorite characters from the previous story. It was so fun to watch them interact in different ways. I loved that even though this is sequel the plot wasn't repetitive. Undercover Bromance is sexy, fun and highly addictive!

Anyone who knows me can tell you that The Bromance Book Club was one of my favourite reads in 2019, so obviously I was beyond excited that Adams was releasing a sequel starring Mack and Liv (my two favourite characters).

I figured I’d love Undercover Bromance just as much as The Bromance Book Club, but I was wrong. I loved it SO MUCH MORE! I was unexpectedly blown away with this. This book was wow. Just wow. No other word can explain. WOW!

Just going by the synopsis you can tell this was going to be a vastly different story from the first book. But one way it differs is that there is less “focus” on the book that the club is reading. We don’t get excerpts like we did in the first book, but I feel like if we did, it would have thrown off the story. It wasn’t necessary to the narrative like it was for Gavin and Thea.

Instead we got a very emotional story. I cried several times in the second half because I could completely feel the pain of the memories that Mack and Liv were experiencing. This book broke my heart and put it back together in a new and beautiful way.

And don’t worry. While it is emotional, the book is also completely hilarious. Adams has a way with words. I loved this story and I hope we get to see more of everyone’s favourite book club.

Now for some potential spoilers. If you don’t want any plot points spoiled, stop reading now:

As mentioned in the synopsis, Liv witnesses her boss sexually harassing her colleague. I’m bringing this up because it has a potential to be a trigger warning.

Adams takes care with bringing attention to sexual harassment in the workplace and handles the topic of toxic masculinity in a very affective way.