A Very Merry Bromance is the fifth book in the Bromance Book Club series, and while it can be read as a standalone, the sheer number of characters from other books can be distracting. It’s a Christmas romance, but it deals quite a bit with toxic families and childhood trauma, so I wouldn’t consider it cozy reading, which is what I had been expecting.

Gretchen Winthrop had a one-night-stand with country music star Colton Wheeler after a friend’s wedding and promptly ran out the next morning, leaving him wanting more. When the book opens, Gretchen’s family, owners of a successful whiskey brand, want Colton to be their new brand ambassador and dangle a seat on the family’s foundation board in front of Gretchen if she can convince Colton to do it. Colton is willing to consider it, if Gretchen will agree to go on a few dates with him and see if they can make it work.

Gretchen struggles with commitment in part due to how deeply hurt she was by her family. They are narcissistic and manipulative, and her older brother Evan is flat-out abusive. Gretchen grew up in a household with everything money could buy, but no nurturing. As a result she’s devoted her life to working as an immigration attorney, struggling to get by and rejecting her family’s lavish world.

Those tense family dynamics are balanced by Colton trying to woo Gretchen, in part by getting her to enjoy the Christmas season. Gretchen normally ignores the holiday (again, crappy family memories), but Colton initially thinks she’s just being a Grinch and tries to get her to experience the magic of the holidays (when he learns how painful her childhood was, he pulls back on his earlier assertions of her being Grinch-y).

Colton is supported by other members of the Bromance Book Club from prior novels in his attempts to prove to Gretchen that he’s worth taking a chance on. I hadn’t read any of the prior books, and while it wasn’t necessary, the large collection of secondary characters was overwhelming at times.

The biggest problem I had was the massive change in overall tone. Colton and Gretchen’s romance shifts from her grudgingly dating him, to him supporting her as she comes to terms with how unhealthy her family is. As a result the book shifts from something very light hearted to more serious halfway through, which may throw readers looking for a cozier holiday read.

The family trauma in this book is pretty intense, so I would caution readers who might find narcissistic or emotionally abusive family dynamics triggering to read with caution. Evan was especially toxic and disgusting, and I was frustrated that we didn’t get a more definitive comeuppance for him by the end of the book.

Overall, while I enjoyed this second-chance romance, it felt like the book I started wasn’t the book I finished. The darker elements related to Gretchen’s family were not present (though hinted at) at the beginning of the book so it felt very much like a light-hearted Christmas contemporary. Later in the book, the Winthrops’ issues were heavily featured and it became a book more about healing from trauma and embracing found family. It was a little disjointed and I felt like I was getting a little more darkness than I thought I signed up for.