Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Hopelessly Bromantic

SERIES: The Hopelessly Bromantic Duet, Book 1

AUTHOR:  Lauren Blakely

NARRATOR:  Teddy Hamilton, Shane East and full supporting cast

PUBLISHER:  Lauren Blakely Books

LENGTH:  8 hours and 37 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  May 31, 2022

BLURB:

An irresistibly sexy, emotionally charged MM romance between a broody American and a charming Brit, from number one NYT best seller Lauren Blakely and performed with duet narration by Teddy Hamilton and Shane East!

Look, when I met the sexy, witty Brit on the streets of London last night, I had no idea who he was. He was just that hot guy I wanted to have a drink with, so I asked him out for my first evening in town. One thing almost led to another. After a midnight kiss, we made plans for a whole lot more the next day.

But when I unlock the door to my rental in the morning, the English hottie is lounging on the couch like he lives here too. Great. For the next year, I’ll be sharing a tiny flat with the sexiest guy I’ve ever known.

Time for a few simple rules—don’t walk around the flat wearing only a towel, don’t spend our nights together exploring London, and don’t crack open my secrets for him. Even as I smash all those rules, I try to resist falling for the cocky charmer. But after a taste of his lips, I give all the way in, telling myself one night, and we won’t fall in love.

Too bad in the morning, I discover that hiding my true feelings is the least of my worries, compared to a twist I never see coming.

Hopelessly Bromantic is the first novel in a scorching, emotional, hilarious, two-book epic romance that’ll take you from London to New York, from Paris to Los Angeles, and back home. Performed with a full supporting cast including Vanessa Edwin, J. F. Harding, James Joseph, Faye Adele, Evan Parker, Shakira Shute, Robbie Martino, Blake Lockheart, Stephanie Németh-Parker, and Stella Hunter.

REVIEW:

In Hopelessly Bromantic, the first book in Lauren Blakely’s latest MM romance duet, Blakely takes us to the theater. This play stars two exceptional talents in the inimitable Teddy Hamilton and Shane East, along with a stellar supporting cast, as they act the hell out of Blakely’s delicious tale of inevitable love between two roommates on borrowed time. Anyone can partake in this addictive sweeping romance. You don’t need to go to Broadway and you don’t need the best seat in the house. Every seat is the best seat because you can indulge in this love story with your eyes closed.  Hopelessly Bromantic is vocal theater at its finest. Let Hamilton, East, and cast transport you into the global romance of TJ Ashford and Jude Graham even as you lie on your beach chair in the sun.  

Hopelessly Bromantic’s TJ is a business news reporter turned hit romance novelist 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 the PR guy for Declan’s Dragons MLB baseball team, thus tying back to Blakely’s Men of Summer series. Of note, a chapter of The Bromance Zone is told from TJ’s point of view and lives in the space between books one and two of the Hopelessly Bromantic duet. Blakely’s MM romances live in the same universe. So while the series don’t depend on each other, Blakely includes references to events playing out in the other stories from different points of view or at different points in time. She also drops fun Easter eggs (like TJ’s best-selling book Top Notch Boyfriend).

Compared to Blakely’s other MM romances, Hopelessly Bromantic gets off to a slow start. Its relationship building between TJ and Jude, the struggling British actor who works at TJ’s favorite bookstore in London, takes time. However, from the outset, we get tons of Blakely’s trademark wit and banter. TJ and Jude shamelessly flirt, consistent with the prequel, Shameless Flirt, that shows their initial meet-cute. It’s not necessary reading before Hopelessly Bromantic, but nice context.  

While Hopelessly Bromantic feels like Blakely’s Men of Summer series with its sweeping, epic feel, a story stretching over close to a decade, multiple locations, and two men who can’t figure out how to be together even while they struggle to stay apart, Blakely gives Hopelessly Bromantic is its own identity. She slowly but deftly reveals TJ and Jude’s hidden layers. Their complex natures drive the trajectory of their on-again-off-again relationship. Yet, the story takes unexpected turns Blakely fluidly works into the story arc. As the first book in this duet, one thing is certain, though, and Blakely delivers the anticipated heartache in wrenching fashion with a cliffhanger that will annoy until book two, Here Comes My Man, releases. 

The experience of reading Blakely’s evil genius in this captivating story is best relayed by analogy:  Imagine a cargo net – you know, one of those thick rope nets with cinch ropes extending from the corners. It’s buried on the ground, hidden under leaves, just waiting to spring a trap. A tactic seen in action/adventure movies or TV shows. The reader is Blakely’s prey and we unwittingly walk right onto this net-trap Blakely has weaved from seemingly insignificant but crucial facts she’s laid throughout the story. As we reach the end of the story, in one fell swoop, she swiftly pulls the corners of the net up, taking the world out from under their feet.  We find ourselves suspended, captive – wondering what the hell just happened, stunned by the unexpected heartache she’s leveled on our beloved men, trying to understand how everything went so wrong even though we knew, knew, it would.  

While Blakely’s source material is fantastic, what makes this story is the award-winning-caliber vocal performances of Hamilton and East in duet narration. They deliver this story like a play, staying in character throughout – Hamilton as TJ and East as Jude. The supporting cast rounds out the experience, fully immersing you in the story. 

Hamilton and East know how to channel deep emotion into their lines using pacing, dramatic effect, inflections, pitch, volume, and a clear understanding of the characters they inhabit.  They serve up Blakely’s UST-laden banter and sexy flirting as inferno-level verbal foreplay. They infuse angst-filled conflict and swoon-worthy declarations with emotionally potent vulnerability showing desire, longing, and heartbreak. Hamilton and East give a master class on how to channel complex content while keeping the characters authentic and relatable.

While Hamilton is exceptional as always, East is sublime, providing one of the best performances I’ve heard from him – which is saying something especially if you’ve listened to Blakely’s A Guy Walks into My Bar, which is one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to. East is locked in as Jude, completely in touch with Jude’s overt confidence hiding insecurity about his worth and his battle with trust. It’s an often frustrating yet empathetically painful state of being.  In the denouement that leads into the cliffhanger, East channels Jude’s emotionally wrought, vacillating state of mind, as he loses his grip on … everything. East delivers Jude’s lines with emotion, shaking rage, heartbreak, sadness, betrayal, and regret. You hear it in the volume of his words, the explosive exclamations and accusations, the devastating cracks and breaks in his voice, the quivering vocals as he asks heartbreaking questions, and the strained, desperate whispers and pleas. If you weren’t feeling it before, by the time East runs you through the wringer, you’ll be rubbing your hand over your heart looking for relief that’s not due to arrive until the end of June.

Hopelessly Bromantic is a top-notch audiobook overlaying a captivating Blakely epic romance. You’ll be hopelessly lost in this fictional, complex world where everything seems fine until nothing is fine at all.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Audible 

Amazon