Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Filthy Bromance

SERIES:  Love Unexpected Book 2

AUTHOR:  R. Cayden

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  227 pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 30, 2021

BLURB:

It’s totally normal for two straight guys to do this when they’re alone, right?

That’s what I keep telling myself after I meet Reggie.

I’m a pro tennis player, and I usually spend my life on the court. But an embarrassing injury in the middle of the US Open sidelined my career, landing me in the hands of my new athletic trainer.

Reggie is a big old jock with an easy smile, and my grumpy butt has never met anyone like him.

We start hanging—at the gym and at his place, on the tennis court and out at the bar.

I haven’t had a real friend in years, and Reggie’s big heart warms me deep inside.

He finds something I’ve tried to keep buried, and when we end up sweaty in a hotel bed one night, my world turns upside down.

Then comes the cabin weekend, and all the long massages at the gym…

Reggie gets his big hands all over me, and I can’t stop thinking about him.

It’s chill, though, because we’re a couple of straight guys, and this is just a bromance.

A sweaty, grunty, sticky bromance.

It can’t be more than that, not with my tennis career waiting—

and no matter what my heart insists.

Filthy Bromance is a friends-to-lovers romance with a grumpy tennis star, his big-hearted athletic trainer, and a mess of unexpected feelings. It features dirty talk and exploration on the way to a well-earned HEA. Book two of Love Unexpected, it can be enjoyed as a standalone or read along with the series.

REVIEW:

R. Cayden’s Filthy Bromance follows Filthy Sweet, Book One in his Love Unexpected series.  This book focuses on Reggie, the older brother of Owen and best friend of Fox, the couple featured in Book One.  We meet Reggie for the first time in Filthy Sweet as his role is pivotal to the plot in that Brother’s Best Friend/Best Friend’s Brother romance.

Filthy Bromance tells the story of Reggie getting his HEA with Everett, an injured pro-tennis player who’s come to Seattle to hide from the media scrutiny surrounding his humiliating injury.  He hires Reggie as his personal trainer and the two develop a friendship that then improbably turns into more, much to their mutual surprise given they have both previously identified as straight.  But Everett’s life has always been tennis and he doesn’t know how to move forward other than by continuing with his single-minded determination to recover and stage a comeback.  He doesn’t know how Reggie fits in his life once he’s back on the tennis circuit. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to make of Reggie based on our glimpses of him in Filthy Sweet.  He’s an overbearing, buffoonish guy, sweet and protective at heart, but with a ridiculousness that’s endearing, but also annoying.  For example, Reggie’s “Big Reggie” persona that he adopts in his interactions with Owen, a throwback to behavior from their youth, resonates like nails on a chalkboard.

But getting to know and eventually adore Reggie in Filthy Bromance, even the annoying, juvenile behaviors are easy to forgive.  Reggie acts like a big kid at times, for example, finding excitement in “keeping a secret” from Owen and Fox and reveling in the “haha, gotcha” reveal.  But really, Reggie is a teddy bear, a big guy with a bigger heart and zero ability to hide who he is or how he feels.  He’s sunshine and light, always finding the positive, providing warmth and understanding, as well as unwavering support for those around him, even when what they need is for him to tamp his feelings or personality down, as he does with Everett.

Reggie’s open, caring nature makes him susceptible to being hurt, so to some extent, his pervasive obliviousness serves him well.  But he’s not an idiot.  He is self-aware enough to recognize that he’s all big love, OTT actions and feelings, which is too much for many people.  It truly broke my heart to see him sadly reign himself in, squashing his warm, loving nature, when he thinks he’s embarrassing Everett.  His enthusiasm and overwhelming support for Everett is a generous gift freely given even at Reggie’s own expense, so having it rejected because it’s “too much” makes Reggie – and me – sad.  😢

Cayden does a nice job of giving texture and dimension to Reggie and Everett.  Everett takes a bit to warm up to, but that seems intentional.  It provides the perfect counterpoint to Reggie’s personality and ability to draw out even the most conflicted, grumpy people, like Everett.  However, the story left a lot on the cutting room floor.  I think more could have been explored about these men, especially in terms of getting a holistic view of their lives.  

For example, in both books, inexplicably, the male leads do not seem to have any friends or family beyond one BFF.  Given how endearing they are, it feels contrived and implausible that they could be so isolated and lonely.  It’s no hindrance to the romantic storylines, but it’s a plot point that struck me as odd and left me wondering about the rest of their lives outside of the sliver we see.  Some other plot points are resolved too easily, like Everett’s conflict over coming out as bisexual in a professional sport where he is trying to rise in the ranks.

Filthy Bromance is the novel equivalent of a snowball rolling downhill, growing in size and picking up speed as it goes.  The story gets better and better as you progress deeper into the story.  The story and character exploration expand into captivating, albeit not particularly novel, territory.  The momentum propels the reader toward the conflict and then resolution.  I could not put the book down for the final third of it. I wish there were more of an epilogue, though, because by that point, I was all in with Reggie and Everett.  A bonus story would certainly be welcome. 😉

Overall, Filthy Bromance provides an easy, quick read suitable for an afternoon binge.  Like the first book, it’s light, easily digestible fare that will keep you engaged. When I started the book, I thought I’d land on a lower rating than I’m giving it.  Maybe that was due to the carryover effect of my initial impression of Reggie from Filthy Sweet, which, BTW, you do not need to read first.  Filthy Bromance works just fine as a standalone.  But once the story hooks you, and it does that pretty quickly, it’s all downhill from there.  Filthy Bromance is a sweet, enjoyable, not too deep romance that I recommend.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

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