I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review – thanks as always to Netgalley for sending this to me!

The Bromance Book Club was one of the best romance novels I read in 2019, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating the sequel. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this one anywhere near as much. It wasn’t a bad book by any means, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the first.

For those who might have missed it, The Bromance Book Club follows baseballer Gavin and his wife Thea, whose marriage begins to fall apart when Gavin realises he’s been failing to satisfy her in the bedroom. Gavin’s friends immediately indoctrinate him into their book club, during which they all read romance novels to help them understand what women what – and because romance novels are awesome, of course. The first book is a funny, light-hearted rom-com with an awesome premise, and I think the main issue I had with book two is that it takes such a massive departure from the tone I was expecting from this series.

Undercover Bromance follows Thea’s sister Liv, and Bromance Book Club founder Mack, self-professed love expert who turns out to be… not that much of an expert. Mack and Liv already know and dislike one another, and matters are only made worse when he indirectly causes her to get fired. On her way out, Liv learns that her soon-to-be-ex boss has been sexually harassing his staff, and she and Mack team up to make sure he gets his just deserts.

It’s a topical and valuable plot for a book – I just don’t think it was necessarily the right route to go down for this series. We leave the book club premise in the dust in favour of a series of swashbuckling shenanigans with Mack as the night in shining armour helping to take down this evil abuser, and it just didn’t work for me. What I loved about The Bromance Book Club was its humour and heart, and this was understandably not a plot that would work well in tandem with inappropriate jokes. The author focuses very intently on the sexual assault plotline, which is fair, because it’s an issue that needs sensitivity and careful handling – but this meant that Liv and Mack’s romance takes a back seat. There’s no time for silliness and sparkle – this book means business. Whenever there were jokes, they felt at odds with the rest of the book; there’s a running gag from book one about a character’s food intolerances, and a few throwaway lines about chicken genitals that just fell flat. I feel like the author couldn’t entirely commit to either making this a rom-com or making it a serious issue book, and as a result we get a weird blend of the two that culminates in what should be a serious moment being entirely hijacked by a fart joke.

In addition to this, I just wasn’t invested in Liv and Mack as characters. I found Liv to be abrasive and frustrating. It was hard for me to be invested in their relationship when I couldn’t see why on earth anyone would want to be with her. It’s sad, because I actually liked her in book one but I didn’t enjoy her as a POV character at all. She’s established as a character who has a lot of walls in place, and I think they were a little too solid, because I couldn’t get close to her. Mack, meanwhile, was sweet but very surface-level.

It’s not a bad book – I read it super quickly, and the pages flew by. The pacing is fast and I liked the side characters. II also really enjoyed the ending, which was a great callback to the first book and left me with the fuzzy, warm feelings I'd hoped for from the beginning - it was an excellent conclusion. Overall I’d say this book was pretty average, which is kind of sad considering how excited I was, but oh well.

I still have an attachment to the characters and I’ll definitely continue with the series, as I’m curious to see how things pan out for the other members of the club. Unfortunately though, Undercover Bromance just didn’t live up to the hype I had in my head.

So, I think I'm done with this author and this book series.

This book is messy. It's needlessly complicated for the sake of creating drama - a thing I really didn't like about this author's first book. Everything is a soap opera, pushed to limits of believability, always ready to make tension and cause fights for absolutely no reason. On paper, it seems like it could have something of substance to it: but in actuality, it's a bit of a shit show.

The motivations for the central characters aren't exactly clear. She hates him because he ate her food? Or she hates him because she can't confront her own vulnerabilities? It makes it seem like they're two teenagers rather than two fully grown adults. The second book basically becomes the first with the lead female character picking fights for no reason. She's an entirely two dimensional character, which sucks because she was one of the only redeemable characters in the first book.

The addition of a sexual harasser is not done well. If anything, it's a little bit insulting and feels a shoehorned in to make the book appear modern. Except it's not even the central plot. It takes a bit of a back seat to the back and forth between the two central characters as they figure their way through this book's huge plot holes. If you're going to talk about sexual harassment in the workplace, just fucking talk about it.

It reads like a first draft. Like an editor needs to take a red pen to it and do some serious work. This just kind of confirms why I don't really like romance: it's ignorant, it's cringey and it's never written well.

A great read! Hope there will be more in this series.

An enemies to lovers story for Liv and Mac. She needs his help but doesn't want it - will she give in to him and her attraction to him?

This book had some major formatting issues which were difficult to overcome.
I think I enjoyed it more than The Bromance Bookclub but to be honest, with the formatting it was hard to tell...

Lyssa Kay Adams is a freaking GENIUS. This series is one of the best I've EVER read. Undercover Bromance has another strong heroine and flawed (but loveable) hero, just learning how to love each other. Brilliantly funny and so full of heart, the moment I finished it, I wanted to read it again.

Your usual enemies to lovers story, it follows Mack and Liv from Bromance Book Club as they team up to correct an injustice...

This book is like ice cream - light, yummy, and goes down easy. I cannot recommend it enough!

This review has been posted on Goodreads and will be posted on Amazon once the title has released.