Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: The Bromance Zone
SERIES: The Good Guys Book 1
AUTHOR: Lauren Blakely
NARRATOR: Vikas Adam, Evan Parker, Michael Crouch
PUBLISHER: Lauren Blakely Books
LENGTH: 7 hours and 42 minutes
RELEASE DATE: October 26, 2021
BLURB:
A friends-to-lovers romance performed by Audie winner Vikas Adam and introducing the award-winning Ron Butler narrating as Evan Parker!
Two great friends. One road trip. And eight inches…of snow that night at the cabin.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Friends don’t bang friends. I want my friends to stay in my life, especially that flirty, clever, outgoing best friend of mine. It’s a darn good thing Owen and I made a pact in college to never ever sleep together, or else I’d be tempted. Trouble is, eight years later, I’ve been wondering what his kisses taste like. And I’ve been curious if our chemistry would extend into the bedroom. If he might feel the same risky pull. But I don’t want to lose Owen, and history says there’s no way a tryst between friends can end well. So as long as I avoid the bedroom with him, I won’t break that hard-as-steel rule.
The Bromance Zone is a deliciously flirty, red-hot sexy, friends-to-lovers MM romance about the charming guy next door who’s sworn to never date a friend, the flirty hot nerd who’s been secretly crushing on that friend forever, and one night snowed in in a cabin. This book comes fully equipped for your listening pleasure with sexy banter, a super awkward dinner party, and a scene in front of a fireplace that proves just how dangerous the friend zone is. You’ll also find an epilogue performed by Audie winner Michael Crouch, as well as the bonus novella Maybe This Time, performed by Teddy Hamilton and Jacob Morgan.
REVIEW:
If you’ve listened to Lauren Blakely’s audiobooks before, you know she takes them seriously, packing them with amazing content even above and beyond her featured story. Ms. Blakely is exceptionally generous to her audiobook listeners, granting them sublime audios of her addictive romances through delectable vocal performances from some of the best narrators out there. And if that isn’t enough incentive, she often provides significant bonus content as well.
In her latest audiobook, the delicious The Bromance Zone, she also gifts us with the electric audio of Maybe This Time, the prequel novella to Ms. Blakely’s fabulous One Time Only. Additionally, she provides an extra epilogue/short story featuring Toby, one of the characters we meet in The Bromance Zone, narrated by Michael Crouch. One of the chapters of The Bromance Zone is told from TJ’s point of view, so we get a short but intense burst of Teddy Hamilton goodness in the audiobook as well. *squeeee* (Apropos of nothing, is it just me, or is that gorgeous cover model a Chris Pine doppelgänger? Drool-worthy. 🤤 )
In terms of the story itself, The Bromance Zone is River and Owen’s best friends-to-lovers story, and it’s one of the best I’ve read in this trope. If you’ve read the Men of Summer series (although not strictly required to enjoy TBZ), River is the bartender at The Lazy Hammock, the bar where Grant and Declan secreted away for dates during the early days of their relationship. Grant and River became close friends and now are business partners, co-owning a chain of The Lazy Hammock gay bars. Owen is the PR guy for Declan’s MLB baseball team, the San Francisco Dragons, and, coincidentally, River’s BFF.
Ms. Blakely provides exceptional depth in establishing River and Owen’s long-time friendship. We see how they talk to each other, know each other’s preferences, dislikes, moods, and tells. That takes time. As such, the pacing is slow in the early parts, which is the only complaint I have about the book. In retrospect, I appreciate the necessity of that groundwork. I don’t think what transpires in the cabin and after would have been as impactful without it.
Ms. Blakely makes these two men real and relatable through the intimate details provided in their monologues. They are brimming with desire, longing, humor, heartbreak … all the feels. These two men engage in playful banter, which frequently devolves into sexy flirting and eventually into inferno-worthy verbal foreplay. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Then there are the sexy times which are scorching hot. Ms. Blakely is Queen of the first kiss. In my Scoring with Him review, I commented that Grant and Declan’s first kiss was off the charts, the best first kiss ever. I may have also said that about Fitz and Dean’s first kiss in A Guy Walks into my Bar. But I really mean it this time.
River and Owen’s first kiss scene gives off meteoric level heat. If you listen to Vikas Adam (Owen) and Evan Parker (River) – whose voice is sex incarnate – perform that scene in the audiobook, the heat level rises to surface-of-the-sun level. Like strip-off-your-clothes-and-stand-in-front-of-your-open-freezer-door-begging-for-mercy hot. Mr. Parker’s deep, sexy growl gets under your skin, thrums through your veins, and ratchets up your pulse. River is high-energy, with a more volatile personality than Owen, and that all comes through in Mr. Parker’s delivery.
Mr. Adam is spot-on in his characterization of Owen. His voice sits higher, but it has weight to it which fits Owen’s character. He then lightens it up through slightly faster pacing and upward inflections when Owen slips out of professional mode into his playful River’s BFF persona. Then he flips it again during the sexy scenes, dropping his pitch a bit and adding roughness to it.
Mr. Adam and Mr. Parker are new narrators to me, and they both blew me away. It turns out they are both award winners, and now I know why. The pacing was maybe a tiny bit slow, but they sink into their characters, delivering highly nuanced performances. You can feel them taking their time, providing the words with the correct emotion and impact. I’ve rarely heard audio with so much texture and depth.
They both authentically recreate River and Owen and deliver a remarkably seamless performance despite the dual narration, where each male lead has two voices.
Overall, this is a masterful audio performance by these two narrators, overlaying a delicious best friends to lovers story. The Bromance Zone is pure indulgence, a decadent treat from start to finish. The bonus content is icing on the cake. You can have your cake and eat it too in this audiobook. Grab it and enjoy.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
[…] and longtime friend of Owen, whose romance with his BFF River is featured in Blakely’s The Bromance Zone. Owen is the twin brother of Chance, who is the star MLB closer for the San Francisco Cougars and […]