Stepbrother Dearest by Penelope Ward

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Title: Stepbrother Dearest
Author: Penelope Ward
Published by: Indie
Release Date: September 23, 2014
Format: ebook
Pages: 246
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

You’re not supposed to want the one who torments you.

When my stepbrother, Elec, came to live with us my senior year, I wasn’t prepared for how much of a jerk he’d be.

I hated that he took it out on me because he didn’t want to be here. I hated that he brought girls from our high school back to his room. But what I hated the most was the unwanted way my body reacted to him.

At first, I thought all he had going for him were his rock-hard tattooed abs and chiseled face. Then, things started changing between us, and it all came to a head one night.

Just as quickly as he’d come into my life, he was gone back to California.

It had been years since I’d seen Elec.

When tragedy struck our family, I’d have to face him again.

And holy hell, the teenager who made me crazy was now a man that drove me insane.

I had a feeling my heart was about to get broken again.

Stepbrother Dearest is a standalone novel.

**Contains graphic sexual content and harsh language. It is only appropriate for adult readers age 18+

DNF @ chapter 8 (24%) — Okay, I’ll be honest…this one was always likely to be a stretch for me, since I’m not actually into alpha assholes or bad boys.  But I was intrigued by the blurb, and every once in a while I want to give books outside of my wheelhouse a try just in case they’re exceptions.  Alas, this was not an exception for me.

Reasons that had everything to do with me: I don’t get turned on by physical appearance alone, and Elec’s behavior/attitude was not attractive at all.  Now, I’m sure that there was “more to him” and all that…but there’s a line of behavior that I just can’t get over, and he was kind of straddling it with the way he spoke to Greta, and how mean he was.  I’m also not big on the back and forth shiznit, and even at 24% I could tell there was going to be a lot of that (meaning he’s mean, he’s nice, he’s mean, he’s nice).  Also, I’m not a fan of slut-shaming (even if it’s really subtle), and this book had a lot of judgement to it already.  I don’t understand Greta’s friendship with her best friend, she didn’t always feel that nice to her in her head.  And while it wasn’t overt, the way both Greta and Elec spoke about the “easy” girls was already rubbing me the wrong way.  And after a few books by this author (some co-authored), I can confidently say that she has a problem with women who don’t have natural boobs.  This is the 4th book where fake boobs have been mentioned disparagingly, while natural boobs have been touted as glorious.  I just don’t understand why the qualities the hero is attracted to in a heroine have to be compared disparagingly to other women’s features.  Why we gotta put down other girls to make ourselves (or in this case our heroine) look good?  *sigh*  I’m really tired of that…  It’s not that I didn’t probably do that when I was younger, but now that I’ve opened my eyes, it’s hard not to notice it all the time.

As one last aside, I didn’t really like the writing style in this one.  It felt…well, it felt like the author’s first book.  I never know how to describe it, but it was just very perfunctory (this happened, then this happened), without much emotion or depth.  I’m also not a fan when authors leave the end of chapters with leading sentences (like “but nothing could prepare me for what happened next.”).  It kinda felt like I was reading a straight up erotica instead of an erotic romance (there is a difference).

So yeah.  Gonna give up on that.  No judgement on anyone who loved this book, it just hits buttons for me, so I knew to get out before I got genuinely cranky.