The Bromance Book Club By Lyssa Kay Adams Book Review
“Ever said something to Thea that you thought was totally innocuous only to have her storm off and then claim for hours that she’s fine?” Malcom asked.
“Yeah.”
“Or say something you thought was funny only to have her get super offended?
“Well, yeah, but—“
Yan piped in. “Or tell her that you put the dishes in the dishwasher only to have her get all prissy about how you shouldn’t expect a gold star for doing what should be the responsibility of any adult in the [gosh darn] house?”
A chill ran down his spine. “Have you guys been talking to her?
Yan snorted. “You guys speak different languages to each other.” He pointed at the book. “You’ll learn hers by reading romance.”
(pg. 35)
About
Author: Lyssa Kay Adams
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Series: Bromance Book Club Book 1
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Other Bromance Book Club Book Reviews
Synopsis
The first rule of book club: You don’t talk about book club.
Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott’s marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.
Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.
Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville’s top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it’ll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To the bros,
If there is one book that I read this year that made me smile, laugh, cry, and laugh again, this would hands-down be it. Such a fun read that I could not put down no matter how much my school textbooks were calling me!
The plot itself was what drew me into reading this because, I mean, men starting a book club is the most outlandish, ridiculous, unrealistic, idea that I LOVED IT. I loved that guys started a book club around romance book as to know the language of women 😂 I always hear how guys don’t have a lot of intuition to know what’s up and that they need to be told exactly how a woman feels, so to know that these guys knew what was up from the get-go was FREAKING AMAZING 👌🏼
I swear, I can’t emphasize enough how great this book was.
Thoroughly can’t.
“Nothing on Earth is as strong as a woman who’s good and fed up.”
(pg. 10)
Ladies, isn’t that the truth?!
We do not take your issues, boys!
The main issue of this book was kind of awkward for me because I am an inexperienced teenager and I have absolutely no idea as to the truth of what Gavin and Thea were arguing about. They had a big blow-out because Thea was faking her big-O’s if you know what I mean 😉 Gavin was angry at Thea and ignored her for a week and then she kicked him out the house and wanted a divorce. In my opinion, I thought both of them overreacted. Do people really get divorced if a person fakes a big-O? Again, I am a child so I am not too sure as to if the point of contention was realistic, but if I’m being honest, even that seems kind of excessive. Shouldn’t there be more to marriage and love than whether or not a person can give you a big-O? I don’t know. I gosh darn hope I marry someone for love. But that’s not the point.
Grant overreacted because his big male ego was hurt. Someone should have slapped his head! Heck, Grant overreacted because his big male ego was hurt. Someone should have slapped his head! Heck, Thea should have whacked him on the head with his baseball bat for how dumb he was being. Why was he ignoring her when he could have sucked up his pride and talked to his wife? No, he had to put his anger into the situation by ignoring her. Men. But Thea wasn’t innocent either. She could have talked to him about it as well, even if he was receptive to hearing it. She didn’t need to kick him out of the house and say that she wanted a divorcee right when Gavin did something as dumb as ignore her because she faked her orgasms. She was being hasty, but like Gran Gran said, she was FED UP. And I understand why she wanted a divorce because she was fed up, but they could have communicated with each other or try to make things work 🤪.
However, I think Thea wanted the divorce for more than Gavin being a big baby. She realized how angry she was in how much of her life and herself she gave up to be with Gavin. Before she was with Gavin, she used to be free-spirited, adventurous, and creative, but all that was tamped down because she felt the need to fit into this “baseball wives” or a WAG of being proper and content. Thea saying that reminded me a lot of the What a Girl Wants scene when Amanda Bynes’s character started to dress all prim and proper and lost herself in creating this clean image for her dad. But when doing so she was never happy, nor was she ever herself. I felt like Thea was the same in how she lost a big part of herself when she tried to be perfect for Gavin and this image that she never thought about herself.
I also thought that the situation itself made Thea lose who she was . She met Gavin, they were going to have a baby together, and then they got married all rather quickly. Won and done. And for Thea, it resonated a lot with the situation her mom and dad had. When the mom told Thea on her wedding day that she was locking Gavin down with a baby and that she would turn out like her was honestly the worst thing a mother could say to a daughter on her wedding day. I mean, what kind of mother does such a thing! A sucky one, that’s who. Thea’s mother deserved to get kicked out of the wedding with that attitude. So I think in the back of Thea’s mind she always had this idea that she was “locked” to Gavin and his career because they had a baby together. And also best on her parents model of marriage, she was very hesitant of her own.
Thea’s mom sucked, but her dad sucked even more. He was another point of contention in Gavin and Thea’s relationship because she grew up with a father who walked out. She grew up with a father who Thea’s mom sucked, but her dad sucked even more. He was another point of contention in Gavin and Thea’s relationship because she grew up with a father who walked out. She grew up with a father who married younger the more Thea got older. **cough, cough, sleaze** To any daughter in that situation it could be considered highly sleazy and kind of weird; It’s kind of awkward to meet the third wife and she is younger than you, you know? I do not blame Thea for resenting or being angry at her dad because he gave her no reason to trust or love him. But because he walked out on her mom, it made Thea distrusting of love because she didn’t have a good example of it. So when Gavin easily walked out the door when she kicked him out, to her it solidified this idea that he was just like her dad and wasn’t willing to fight for her.
I understood where Thea was coming from—-your early attachments serve as a basis for later ones—-but she kicked Gavin out the house. Sure, he could have fought back and stayed, but he was defeated in the moment and didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t going to start another fight with her, so of course he left. Doesn’t mean he wanted to though. So I don’t think it was fair of her to judge him as being the same as her father when Gavin only left because she asked that of him.
It’s all about the communication people 😅.
I mean, women say one thing and we always mean or want another. We often forget guys can’t read our minds. Sometimes we literally have to spell out for them what we want because obviously they are going to disappoint us when they don’t do the one thing that we want them to do if they don’t know what that is. Women are confusing and I thoroughly acknowledge that as a woman because I do that same thing—–I say one thing and want another.
There’s also the fact that Gavin doesn’t know that he’s being compared to such a low standard. I found this slightly weird because if they were married, wouldn’t they have known each other better? But Gavin didn’t even know the full extent of the tough relationship Thea had with her dad. This goes back to the way they got married and started a family way too soon before even getting to know each other.
Thea was holding back as much as Gavin was holding back. There’s this saying I heard from Gretchen Gretey on the Happy Hour podcast where she said, “You have to be 100% and the other person has to be 100% so you both can be 200%.” It’s kind of like that idea where a person has to be whole before being with someone else—-that a person isn’t your better half, but your better whole. I just kept hitting on this idea when I read the book because both sounded like they were not at a 100% and that’s why they were having so many issues that they needed to work through on their own and then together.
As much as Thea was stubborn and going through it with Gavin, I honestly, I loved her. She was a great mom in prioritizing her kids’ well-being. She’s also such a strong, bold woman who takes zero poops from anyone and she knows what she wants and she acts on it. She’s brazen and bold and I admire that for her. Gosh, when we first met her, she was busting down a wall and if that’s not as kickbutt as that sounds, you’re kidding yourself. Your sis, was not crying into her pillow her woes of why her husband left and what a douche he was being. No siree, she got his bat and she knocked down the ugly wall in the living room like it was Gavin’s head.
“If a man wants to leave you, you wave goodbye and lock the doors. You’ve got better things to do than chase a lost cause.”
(pg. 52)
But in this situation, I’m happy Gavin had a key to come back so he could fight for his woman 😂
I admire Gavin and his fire to win back Thea. I mean, get you a man who thoroughly wants to fight for you ladies! But my gosh, did Gavin screw up when he kissed her in the kitchen. *Shakes head* He should have given her some space to be angry because doing so was only going to make her more resistant to him because she didn’t want to love him anymore.
But you know, I think there comes an all time low and Gavin hits it.
And in the best way he joined the Bromance book club, which was the best thing to ever happen to him.
“Romance novels are primarily written by women for women and they’re entirely about how they want to be treated and what they want out of life and in a relationship. We read them to be more comfortable expressing ourselves and to look at things from their perspective.”
(pg. 34)
That’s probably the smartest thing a fictional male as ever said 👌🏼
Can we just talk about how I love how this book took a group of highly masculine guys who played baseball and stripped them down to read romance books with Fabio on the cover. It takes a real man to read a romance book if you ask me.
“Men are idiots. We complain that women are so mysterious and [shiz] and we never know what they want. We [fork] up our relationships because we convince ourselves that it’s too hard to refigure them out. But the real problem is with us. We think we’re not supposed to feel things and cry and express ourselves. We expect women to do all the emotional labor in a relationship and then act confused when they give up on us.”
(pg. 34)
Correction, this is the smartest thing a male fictional character has ever said.
IIt goes with this idea of toxic masculinity because in an American society we say men have to be tough—-suck in their feelings. Boys are taught from the womb that if they shed a tear, they’re a wimp or too girly to express their emotions, which is the most ridiculous load of garbage I’ve ever heard. Why can’t guys openly express their sadness? Why do we have to toughen them up to the idea that tears are a weakness? There’s really nothing more poetic than a guy who has a single tear falling from his cheek as Adele or some other sob song is playing in the background. Because at least the guy is IN TUNE with his emotions enough to FEEL it. When we teach our sons/boys that they can’t cry or open up about how they feel, we create this toxic cycle of masculinity in what it means. It’s wrong. And that’s why relationships partially struggle because men have this strength attitude in bottling up emotions and feelings so when it comes time to communicate or to do something, they either 1) don’t do anything because they don’t feel like it’s worth it or 2) they act out in anger or aggression because somehow being angry is better than being sad. Sadness is not a weakness people. It’s like any emotion but with water coming out of the eyes, nothing to be feminine about.
What Malcom said meant a lot though because I think guys aren’t used to expressing how they feel—-“That women do all the emotional labor in a relationship.” Women say their feelings and are more vulnerable in this way, when guys have to look unto themselves as to do the heavy lifting.
In this case, it was reading “feminine” books to understand their own emotions and faults. It was actually one of the admirable things about the bromance book club because, yes, they were reading a hyperbolized book of Courting the Countess (is that a real book?) to poke fun at the smutty books women read, but it also helped the guys learn. Gavin’s storyline was a fun ride because he learned to delve into his emotions and instead of pushing it down or getting mad, he asked himself why he felt that way and how it impacted himself and his marriage. And I think the romance books themselves weren’t the cure-all to these guys’ marriages, but they supplemented it by making the guys feel okay with being emotional.
When they were initiating Gavin into the book club, I found it utterly hilarious how when someone said BB, Gavin was like “What?” And everyone was like “Book Boner.” 😂 Just the fact that the whole group knew and created an acronym for a book boner is just utterly ridiculous in the best way. Men.
Before I delve more into Gavin and his experience with reading Courting the Countess, I just want to give a big thorough shoutout to my two main men in this book who made me absolutely smile: Braden Mack and Del.
They were Gavin’s hype men like not other and I was LIVING for it.
First, I love Del. His name sounds like Del Taco 😂 Second, he is such a good friend. He was rooting for Gavin from the get-go on his relationship and he invited Gavin in on his book club. I’m kind of wondering, how did Del and the guys get into reading romance books in the first place? Like did they happen to stumble across a romance book and was like, “I should read this?” Curious. Maybe there should be a bromance book club organ story 🤔 I would read that. But Del is also such a good father and a husband.
If there’s someone I love a little bit more than Del, it’s Braden Mack. That guy is the bee’s knees! I absolutely loved the love-hate banter between Gavin and Braden Mackfrom the minute Braden Mack ate his apple. Then there was the moment where Mack brought Gavin a pumpkin spiced latte and he fell in love with it, which I was just cackling over. It’s the typical fall drink all girls drink. Guys think we don’t know what’s up, but we do. The laughter just kept coming when they wanted to take Gavin on a shopping trip, but Gavin saw it as a girl activity. But Braden Mack was like, “Toxic masculinity.” There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good. But the moment when Del and Braden Braden Mack tried to seduce Gavin because they wanted to teach him how to seduce his wife again, was honestly kind of hot. Gavin was turned on and I was HERE for it 😂
But the absolute moment I loved with Braden Mackwas when Thea and Gavin went on a date and Mack followed him on his date. If you watch Remi Ashenten on Youtube, she has two best friends named Eli aBut the absolute moment I loved with Braden Mackwas when Thea and Gavin went on a date and Mack followed him on his date. If you watch Remi Ashenten on Youtube, she has two best friends named Eli and Bri and they followed her on one of her dates by dressing up in a disguise. This reminded me a lot like that situation and I was just cracking up because Braden Make Even said he was going to follow Gavin on the date, but no one thought that he was serious in the slightest. Gavin and Thea were actually having such a cute date together where he took her to the craft store to buy her anything she wanted. It was so personal because he knew how much she loved arts and crafts, and going back to art school, she needed supplies. So it was beyond thoughtful that he thought to take her there. I also thought it was hilarious when they were discussing where Gavin could take her on the date and they brought up Pinterest. Oh, my heart was so full of bubbly laughter at the fact that I was fascinated the guys were at Pinterest. They were so interested in how there were mood boards or collages of them on there. And don’t even get me started on the washi tape. Man, it’s like men don’t know anything! I don’t think men pay enough attention to the world to understand the beauty of washi tape. My heart, when Thea was looking at washi tape, Gavin was like, “I would buy her all the gosh darn washi tape.” I don’t know about you, but washi tape was bigger in 2016, but heck, who am I to judge, I still use washi tape. I would like to thoroughly have a novella where all the guys go to a craft store or shopping. The bromance shopaholics 😉.
Anyway, while in the store, they were very flirtatious and I was loving it, but then Thea noticed someone was following them and then Gavin started to be on guard. When they went to the restaurant, Thea noticed the same guys at the craft store there. And when Gavin turned around it was Braden Mack and the Russian from the team 😂
I COULD NOT 😂
Gavin confronted them in the bathroom and Mack kept telling him to go ask Thea to dance. Then this random guy came out of a stall and he was like, “You should ask her to dance.” 😂 Great, everyone has an opinion. And then Gavin reported them to security as some crazy fans, and my stomach hurt with laughter at how Mack was saying how he loved Gain so much and all those things as he was being dragged out the door. I LOVE MACK!
And then Gavin asked Thea to dance 😂
Mack knows what is up.
There was also this beautiful moment when all the baseball guys were at his house with the books. They played dress up with the girls and if that’s not manly, I don’t know what is. But then Thea came home along with Liv, her younger sister, and Gavin scattered to put away the books and act casual. But what I loved about the moment was Braden Mack’s reaction to Liv.
Liv is overprotective of her sister because Gavin hurt her. If there’s one thing I admire about Liv, is how she is completely loyal and caring. If you give her any reason to dislike you, she will, and if she hates you guts, she will tell you straight up and then some. I admire a spunky woman who speaks her mind and protects those she loves. She’s kind of stuck in the middle of this situation between Thea and Gavin. After Gavin left, Liv went to live with her sister to take care of her and to help around the house with the twins. I mean, what a good sister. And when things were rough between Thea and Gavin, although Liv was okay with Gavin, she turned on him the mixture he broke Thea’s heart. And she was not letting up on that hatred, which I understand because no one wants their loved ones to hurt and when we see someone that hurt them come back in their lives, that’s a big red flag waiting to crash down. So I get it. But I also felt like Thea couldn’t go on and allow herself to forgive Gavin when she felt the shame and disappointment exuding off her sister.
I think Liv should have given Gavin more of a chance, but then again, I think she was just doing her job as a sister. Still, I think it wasn’t her place to make Thea feel bad about her feelings because I thought it was okay that Thea still liked Gavin and wanted to try even if her heart was at a tug-of-war.
When Braden Mack meets Liv, it’s the first time in the ENTIRE book his confidence wavers. I mean, he even flirted with Thea, which caused Gavin to punch him. So to see him stumbling over his words at Liv, I was SCREAMING! He liked her 😆 My friends, I think Braden Mack met his match. Liv totally did not pick up on it, but if you’re like me, you definitely did. My gosh, Liv was a raging riot of rage in the moment, angry at the amount of males in the house and here Braden Mack was falling in love. Oh, but the moment Liv walked to the basement bathroom where Yan just dropped a load, I WAS IN HYSTERICS.
Braden Mack and Liv’s blooming relationship was one of the things that I kept wondering about after I read the book and when I started to write this book review, linking all the things, I saw that Lyssa Kay Adams had another Bromance Book Club book out about, dare I say it, Braden Mack and Liv. *Cue Screaming*
It’s called Undercover Bromance and if Braden Mack’s undercover skills in this book is any indication of what might happen in his book, I think that things aren’t going to go well for him 😅
But you best bet I bought that book and a review is coming.
Right now, we’re talking about Gavin and Thea and their relationship because I’ve never got into it fully.
So the first part of the book club for Gavin was to read the darn book. He read verrrrryy slowly. He didn’t know how to fix his marriage, but his bros had his back.
“Backstory.”
“What the [fork] is backstory?”
“Everything, man. Backstory is everything.”
(pg. 102-3)
This goes back to how Gavin never really knew Thea’s backstory or why she was the way she was. It also involved Gavin digging deep into himself to understand his own backstory to heal. It’s part of the process of becoming 100% oneself. And I couldn’t have agreed more that backstory is everything because our experiences make us who we are.
When Gavin opened up to the bros about how Thea’s parents were divorced, I loved how quick the bros were able to piece together how Thea felt. I applaud these men. I also loved how Mack was like, “You are some kind of stupid,” to Gavin when he didn’t understand.
From this, Gavin created his own terms of the divorce in how he would let Thea keep the house and she would agree to divorce her if she gave him a month to win her back if he could stay at the house, kiss her goodnight, and go on a date with her every week. Honestly, his terms were pretty solid, but at the same time, I knew that Thea would resist his terms or the situation in general. If she knew that she would get what she wanted by not falling in love with him, then she would do her best to ignore that. So I thought it was well of Gavin to lay his terms because it wasn’t fair to him if all she did was ignore him because that wouldn’t get them anywhere.
The moment he laid down the law was steamy as heck. And gosh, when he said this:
“Why are you doing this?” She rasped, “What do you possibly get out of this.”
. . . “I win you.”
(pg. 118)
I melted.
Get you a man who knows women are prizes to be earned 👌🏼
But man, the steamy-ness was at it’s max when they had that shower face off. It was oddly funny, but very tense at the same time. You can’t say Gavin didn’t play dirty by using her shower intentionally and then strolling out half naked. But darn, Thea was dirtier and I was like here for it. But it was also strange because she was trying to get back at him for playing dirty first, but stripping down naked in front of her wasn’t really doing anything except making him want her. So . . . I don’t know the logic with that. But Thea knew how to flaunt and taunt. I mean, if you got it, you got it. Show it.
“The difference,” Malcom said, “Is to make her want you, not prove how much you want her.”
(pg 139)
Also very wise words because I think Gavin’s whole tactic in the beginning was him wanting her back, but he needed to make her want him and to love him back.
Their first date at the craft store, like I said, was very cute. But when Gavin asked her to dance, things just seemed very light-hearted for the both of them and I loved that because they were falling in love again. And that was another part of Courting the Countess in how a man should date his wife again. I thought that was a cute concept because I think when we think of marriages, we think all the fun things like dates stop, but they shouldn’t because marriages take work.
But I also enjoyed the moments when they would read together because that’s just super cute. I LOVED the moment when they were actually vulnerable to each other about their pasts. It was such a beautiful moment because even before they were married, they never had these types of conversations, so it warmed my heart how they were able to open up to each other. I felt like Thea was more vulnerable to Gavin because she saw how much of an effort he was making to be better. And can we just say how much Gavin did change in the best way. He was less impulsive with his actions once he started reading Courting the Countess and seeing the storyline from an outsider’s perspective. He also started to be more empathetic with Thea and that made her want to open up to him even more. I also loved when Gavin owned up to how he knew he trapped Thea into this life with him because it highlighted how he was able to think about how she felt. Before the book club, Gavin only saw their life as his life—-baseball—–and never how that affected her. When Thea heard this, I knew a part of her broke inside because that’s all she ever wanted: to be acknowledged that it was never her fault and she wasn’t alone.
As much as they had their good moments during this journey to save their marriage, they also had their pitfalls. Most of their arguments centered around the Big-O-No, which was the night where Gavin figured out she faked it. Naturally, this makes them argue because it’s what caused Thea to want to divorce him in the first place. But, again, I think it wasn’t just the Big-O-No that they needed to build a bridge and climb over, but those vulnerable topics they discussed as mentioned before. During one of their bigger fights, Gavin left and I shook my head because it goes back to that idea that Gavin leaves, which Thea doesn’t have a good experience with.
There was this moment, I’m not sure when, when he called his parents for help. He never wanted to go to his mom and dad and tell them Thea and him were having issues because he thought his parents had the perfect relationship. He didn’t want to disappoint them that he was losing a good woman like Thea. But his dad told him that his mom and him had problems all the time. Hearing that eased the pressure off of Gavin to know that all marriages have their issues and that if the relationships is worth it, the people in the relationship will fight for it. And I loved how his dad told him to fight for it.
When Gavin comes back from clearing his head, he says the most honest thing to Thea:
“I’ve always feared that you wouldn’t have married me, that I wouldn’t have been able to keep you, if you hadn’t gotten pregnant . . . So, yes, there is a part of method w-wishes I didn’t know you’d been faking it with me, because then I could keep pretending we were fine. That I wasn’t losing it with you.”
(pg. 261)
If all men were as in tune with their feelings as Gavin, we would have better relationships.
It takes a real man to own up to his faults and his past——to be vulnerable. I felt like the bigger issue was always that he was afraid that he was going to lose her because he knew she could do better. He had a stutter and he couldn’t even please his wife and bed and to his male ego, that made him a failure. It made him think he was going to lose the best thing he ever had. And that’s why he was so angry when he found out she was faking it, he never wanted to lose her. But when he pushed her away and was angry at her—-himself—–he did just that. And sometimes it’s crazy how the one thing we don’t want to do to the people we love is the very thing we do.
Gavin had his epiphany with himself, which sealed the deal in all kinds of ways.
The Baseball Award thing was also such a beautiful and fun moment because it was the first night that they went out together officially back together. I also highly enjoyed how the baseball legends applauded their wives because what a chivalrous thing to do. Why don’t we do that in real life? I mean, men it’s about time you are thanking your wife he stands by you and supports you.
Ooooooh.
But you know what moment slapped?
When Thea clapped back. And when I say clapped, I say CLAPPED. 👏🏼 STANDING OVATION 👏🏼
Rachel and the other petty WAG girls were talking about them because they are, well, PETTY.
And the AUDACITY of Rachel to blame Thea and Gavin for taking her own husband’s achievement was ridiculous. Don’t blame them for their achievements that lead you to be stuck in that life you chose.
“You want to know what kind of baseball wife I am? I’m the kind of baseball wife who had to give birth alone because her husband was gone. I’m the kind of baseball wife who had to spend twenty-four hours in the emergency room with twins by herself because they had the stomach flu during the season. I’m the kind of baseball wife who still isn’t sure the difference between a no-hitter and a perfect fame, and you know what? It does matter. Because I didn’t marry baseball. I married Gavin, a man with more integrity than you could ever dream of having. . . . And I’m the kind of baseball wife who put her own [gosh darn] dreams on hold for three years so I could support my husband’s career and try to fit in with the likes of you, but that is a mistake I am finally fixing. And the only reason you actually hate me is because you don’t have the guts to do the same. You’d rather last out, blame other people. But no one broke up you and Jake but you.”
(pg. 280)
My gosh, someone call the fire fighters because Thea set it off and caused Rachel to burn!
YOU TELL HER!!!!
Wait, never mind, don’t call the firefighters Rachel needs a tissue box for the tears I can imagine coming down her face.
“And for your information, yes, Gavin stutters in bed. And it’s [forking] beautiful.”
(pg. 280)
People always made Gavin feel uncomfortable because he stuttered. They treated him differently for it or ignored it like it didn’t exist, but what made Thea different was that she never ignored it or thought it weird. She loved him for it. And I loved how even when they’re relationship was rocky, she still protected him when people would tease him for his stutter. And I loved how she still did.
After they had their steamy moment for hours on end, my gosh, I don’t know how 😳, but what got me, truly, was how Thea said, “Let’s go home, Gavin.”
MY GOSH, HE COULD GO HOME!!!
He was already home, but he could finally move back into his room and actually be around his kids and I loved that for him.
Ava and Amelia were the two sweetie pies that I just wanted to wrap in a hug. Their parents were fighting and they were old enough to pick up on something being wrong and it just hurt my heart that they were also in the middle of that. Kids aren’t dumb. I could really feel their unease when Gavin started coming back to the house. To them, that had to be weird to have the dad always in and out, but at the same time it also made sense why they thought nothing of it. It was sad, though, when Amelia said how she didn’t want Gavin to play baseball anymore because it made him leave all the time. My heart. A daughter needs her father 💙.
Ava and Amelia also started to form these unconscious tendencies that I could see was hurting Gavin. To me, Amelia was more like Gavin and she was more open to him because they bonded over how Amelia had a lisp. Anyone who made Amelia feel bad about her lisp deserves Thea to set off because Amelia is too precious for this world and deserves better. Ava reminded me of Thea in guarding her heart, no matter how young she was. She also had Thea’s tendency of perfection that I thought was cute. But it broke my heart when Ava would always ask for Thea or when she closed off to Gavin. He just wanted to be there for his daughters and one of them was angry at him.
When they picked up on the tension, they started acting out more because they felt insecure and unsafe. They also didn’t want things to change because kids need a stable environment—-something familiar.
What really got me though was when Amelia wanted Gavin to stay and read, but he said another night and then they all got fussy. I think this was the same night where Gavin insisted they go to that restaurant to look like a “normal family.” And then Ava and Amelia started throwing up and then Thea and Gavin had to work together to take care and wash off the girls. You can’t say that Gavin didn’t love his kids. He truly did and he knew that not only would he lose Thea with the divorce, but he would lose a big part of his daughters too. When Thea was washing off Amelia, Gavin had to tuck Ava into bed, but she was resisting him. But before she fell asleep she said, “I love you, Daddy,” and that just took my heart and popped it like a balloon. Ava was the twin most receptive to him, but she still loved him.
The cutest moment between Gavin and the twins was that morning where the twins were upset and Gavin had them help make breakfast. It was beyond sweet and he turned something around and bonded with his daughters by making the pancake batter because they always eat chocolate chip pancakes. When Thea walked out and saw Gavin with the girls, I could feel her giving in a little because it was like a picture-perfect image of a dad laughing with his daughters. How can you not like that? Gavin wasn’t doing it for show, but he was a good father when it counted and he never wanted to give that up.
Gavin really did fight for Thea and he proved himself even if he used a book to do so. Liv had to go add some tension in the mix by telling Thea not to look in the closet where he stashed the romance books.
Now, here’s my thought process.
Hiding romance books, smutty as they may be, is honestly not the worst secret. I mean, what is Thea going to get mad about? Your husband reads romance books. Big whoop. Maybe it’s a secret fetish, I don’t know. But there really wasn’t anything wrong with what he was doing. Sure, he stole the best book lines from the book and used it on Thea, but a man has to start somewhere and sometimes they don’t know what the heck to say. Now if a man was trying to recreate a book and make it some sick, twisted fantasy come to life, then sure, there’s something wrong with that. But Gavin was just using the books to guide his thoughts to win her back.
When Thea found the books, I liked how Gavin knew to be honest rather than lie about what they were for. If he lied, it would have seemed worse.
“Backstory is everything, Thea. Dig into yours. Maybe then we’ll have a chance.”
(pg. 310)
If you’re a child like me, 😆 then you’ve watched High School Musical: The Musical The Series—–the longest, most ridiculous title, but a legit great show, I highly recommend you watch it—-then you would know they have a song called “All I Want” by Olivia Rodrigo. And in that song she sings, “I won’t fight for love if you won’t meet me halfway.” And if there’s one lyric that speaks truth, it’s that: You can’t make a relationship work if only one person is putting in all the work. Both people have to work for it and Thea wasn’t meeting him halfway. He tired his part.
“A lonely marriage is the worst kind of lonely there is.”
(pg 312)
I was honestly really proud of Gavin for knowing when to leave and this time with a purpose. It wasn’t because he gave up on her, but he wasn’t going to keep trying if Thea wasn’t going to be honest with him.
And that’s because Thea wasn’t open to her own past and fears. And it stemmed from those daddy issues she had.
“Don’t go kicking over some logs if you’re not prepared for what crawls out.”
(pg. 317)
Thea’s Gran Gran said this to her and in some odd way, I actually really like what it means. It’s not about don’t be scared of what you might discover when you dig deeper or when you finally uncover something beneath you, but be strong enough to face all that’s beneath. Because when you kick over those logs, there are going to be critters and creepy-crawlies that will make you scream. When you kick over those logs there will be things within you that you never wanted to confront, but when you do so, it’s teaching you to be brave. Because the fear you had to do so in the first place is replaced by strength.
Thea kicked over those logs when she went to her dad’s wedding.
When Thea looked at her father and she didn’t see what she wanted to see, my heart really went out for her. She wanted to see if her dad looked at her with the same love Gavin looked at her. And I think she needed to know that because for years, she blamed herself for not being good enough for her dad to stay—-to love her—–when it was never her fault.
It was the dad’s.
And I couldn’t believe the excuses he was making for being the father he was because his actions did not justify anything. If he wanted to try harder or rectify with his daughters, he could have. But he left. He remarried all the time. Oh, but he said it was because he thought Liv and her were better off without him. Gosh, right they were, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t have tried to make things better with them. It’s because he failed to try that Thea failed to.
I thought it was very big of Thea to actually walk into the wedding reception. I thought she was going to go after Gavin like some big RomCom movie ending. But her staying showed how she was bigger than her dad and that she could be happy for him, but also for herself.
Gavin, on the other hand, was making his RomCom debut and I was LIVING for it. I loved how rushed it felt with him saying he needed to go to her. But I loved it when all the baseball bros went with him to crash Thea’s dad’s wedding.
“Why are we running?” Mack yelled.
They were all running.
Mack. Del, Yan. The Russian. Gavin. Running up a crooked sidewalk in Atlanta toward the giant church in the distance.
“Because this is a grand gesture,” the Russian panted. “You always run for a grand gesture.”
“And you parked seven blocks away!” Gavin yelled.
(pg 330)
The entire parallel at the end between Thea’s dad getting married to his third wife and Gavin asking Thea tThe entire parallel at the end between Thea’s dad getting married to his third wife and Gavin asking Thea to marry him again. It was a full circle moment in how the dad created Thea’s trust issues and when she confronted her past, she finally allowed herself to love Gavin back—-to trust him. They were both starting new chapters, but my bet is that Thea and Gavins are going to work better.
A big part of the Courting the Countess was this idea of:
Love is never enough.
In a lot of ways I could understand the idea behind this. You can love a person so much and say you love them, but words don’t mean anything as much as the way you act on it. If you love someone, you not only tell them, but you show them. Love is never enough in the sense that sometimes marriages are hard and even though the couple is in love, there are other outside factors that interfere with that love—–never enough. Or it could be in the sense that “love” (as in doing it) is never enough to save a relationship, but it’s the two people who have to save themselves. Thea and Gavin used to think love was never enough and it helped save their marriage to where at the end Thea said Love is enough.
Love is enough.
In a lot of ways love is.
It’s all you need to keep fighting for someone or something you love. It’s all you need to fight for yourself. It’s all you need to mend something that was broken. Because love is such a powerful thing that it’s a contradiction within itself. Love brings the most heartache and the most happiness. Love is and isn’t enough and that’s what I think makes the most sense.
Love is complicated, but when you feel it and you have it, trust it. Fight for it. And never give up on it.
This was such a beautiful story and the way that it took on both perspectives was very purposeful. I liked how it wasn’t one sided where we see Thea suffering or angry or Gavin hurt and confused, but both of them because it was about both of them confronting their pasts so they could move forward together. I don’t think they were a 100% as themselves, maybe like 92% for Thea and 95% for Gavin, but are we ever at a 100%? We are all still growing and figuring out who we are. But they were more than enough at this point, they were better because of what they’d been through.
On the off chance that your name is Lyssa Kay Adams and is reading this, I have some million dollar ideas for you 😆 It would be amazing if you wrote more masculine books that tackle feminine stereotypes like this one and you can even create other series with it. I can already imagine the Bromance Shopaholics, the Bromance Bakers, Bromance Single-Fathers, Bromance Artists, Bromance Designers, all the Bromances indeed! 💙 I would definitely read.
Anyway if you read this book, what was your favorite part? Least favorite part? Are you a part of any clubs? What is your take about any points I talked about? Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕
I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this.
And as always, with love,
Rating
5.00 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: There’s someone for everyone in this book that you will fall in love with, laugh about, and root for.
Plot: An interesting concept, but an even more beautiful story of mending marriages, loyal bros, and kicking over some logs 😉
Writing: Lyssa Kay Adams knows how to make you laugh until you need to scream and maybe even cry a little. But then you’re back at laughing again. The endless emotional rollercoaster never ends! Her books are as much of a guilty pleasure as it is as watching the Bachelor.
Romance: Definitely something worth fighting for