{Review} Undercover Bromance (Bromance Book Club #2) by Lyssa Kay Adams (@LyssaKayAdams @BerkleyRomance)

Braden Mack thinks reading romance novels makes him an expert in love, but he’ll soon discover that real life is better than fiction. 

Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a sous chef at Nashville’s hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she catches him harassing a young hostess, she confronts him and gets fired. Liv vows revenge, but she’ll need assistance to take on the powerful chef.

Unfortunately, that means turning to Braden Mack. When Liv’s blackballed from the restaurant scene, the charismatic nightclub entrepreneur offers to help expose her ex-boss, but she is suspicious of his motives. He’ll need to call in reinforcements: the Bromance Book Club.

Inspired by the romantic suspense novel they’re reading, the book club assists Liv in setting up a sting operation to take down the chef. But they’re just as eager to help Mack figure out the way to Liv’s heart... even though she’s determined to squelch the sparks between them before she gets burned.

​Liv is nothing if not fiercely independent.  She’s trained so hard to be the best pastry chef in Nashville but somehow her dream always seems just out of reach.  She refuses to take her sister’s money to finally open a place of her own and settles for toiling in a restaurant where there’s a $1000 cupcake on the menu and an owner that preys on the female staff.
 
The very last thing she needs is for the stupidly handsome Braden Mack to waltz into the restaurant and try to impress his current girlfriend with her hard work.  As expected, the results of the evening are disastrous.  Liv is now without a job and Braden is without a girlfriend. But what they do have is some seriously off-the-charts chemistry.

​ “So you and Livvie are dating?” Rosie asked.
Water sprayed from Liv’s mouth.  “God no.”
“That’s too bad.  It’s been a long time since Liv had a man.”
“Rosie,” Liv whined.
Mack grinned again.  “Is that right?”
Liv sat up straight.  “I don’t want a man.  I don’t have time for a man.  They’re needy, clingy, and never keep their promises.”
Mack whistled.  “Damn, girl.  Who hurt you?”
“The patriarchy,” she deadpanned.

​Braden Mack is known to be a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy.  That’s something that he desperately wants to change.  His plans take a very welcome and unexpected turn when Liv enters the picture. She’s a puzzle that he’s determined to solve. Because he knows that underneath the hard exterior she shows to the world, she’s the one that he’s been waiting all his life for. 

​She felt him swallow.  Hard.  “What else happens in this fantasy?”
“You rub my back.”
His muscles shifted, and anticipation danced along her nerves.  His hand slid beneath the fabric of her shirt and began a lazy path up her spine.  “Like this?”
“Yes.” She closed her eyes and curled her fingers into his shirt.  He was hard beneath her touch.  She was weak beneath his.
“Tell me more,” he murmured, voice strained beneath the rise and fall of his own labored breathing.  There was no mistaking the tug of heavy desire in every exhalation.
“Maybe rub my neck.”
“Now you’re just milking it.”
She laughed, but then she went motionless as his hand slid up farther under her shirt.  His fingers began to work magic against the tight cords of her neck.  She tilted her head to give him greater access.  “Are you trying to get lucky?”
“I already feel lucky.”
Her breath lodged in her chest.  When she opened her eyes and looked up, she found the affection she’d heard in his voice also in his eyes, gazing down at her through dark pupils.  Whatever they were doing—whatever was suddenly happening—it was monumental.  Intimate.  Hot.  And so dangerous.

​In Undercover Bromance, Lyssa Kay Adams not only continues to charm readers, she also takes on the serious issue of sexual assault.
She doesn’t treat it lightly.  So even when the guys from the Book Club become involved, their humor and their humanity still shine through.
 
The attraction between the main characters is an electric mixture of love and hate. Liv is stubborn to a fault and yet fragile.  Braden is overly protective and yet vulnerable.  Together, their story had me laughing one moment and then swooning the next.  And I may never look at roosters in the same way ever again…