The Parolee

My Brother Torin

by Kate Rivenhall

Cupcake baker Laoise Reilly tries to escape from her deviant, murderous stalker. . .

Please check TWs carefully

Genres: Novella, Dark, Dark Romance, Contemporary, Erotica, Smut, Ebooks

149 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 10, 2024

About the author

I write dark horror about women escaping abusive cults and other dystopian stories.

Reviews

[Isabella. R · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Between Me and What Would Hurt Me Stars ⭐

♠️Yes another book with a gorgeous cover.
♠️Yes I really enjoyed it.
♠️Yes it's about an ex con, his sister and incest.
♠️Yes I have considered getting my head read.
♠️Yes I would love a book by this author without incest.
♠️Yes the trope makes me uncomfortable.
♠️Yes it was extremely steamy.

🖤🖤No I will not stop reading these fucked up books.

[Jenn (The Book Refuge) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ummm.. no. Just no. 🤣

And not the reasons I thought it might be a nope.

So poorly written and overuse of certain words.

We are aware of their relation to each other. It doesn't need to be in every sentence spoken. 🙃😬

I'm just tired now

2 stars
4 on the spice scale

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

He called her sister 58 times.. in a 149 page novella 😒

[Alyssa Brannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah, I’m back at it again.
3.5 🌶️
The covers are just *chef kiss*

Felon brother just released from prison for unaliving dear old dad (who was abusive) and he’s down bad for his sister?? 😫

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

[spicy_book_nook · Rating 4 out of 5]

extreme taboo… BUT amazing

Lele and Torin are brother and sister. Both are physically abuse when they are kids by their father and uncle. Torin tries to protect Lele from the abuse ever since they were little and he physically cant stand to be away from her.

***spoilers
When she was 16 and he almost 18, he unalives their father. He is convicted and sentenced to 10 years.
At the end of the trial, he demands that Lele does not contact or visit him.
10 years later, Lele is now engaged and running a failing bakery. She didn’t really want to start the storefront business but her bf, Drew, manipulated her into doing so. Everyone thinks Torin is a psycho and should’ve stayed in jail but Lele just wants him to stay by her side. Right before they leave, Drew fights Lele and Torin wants to unalive him but Lele convinces him not to.
They go to a cabin in the mountains and fix it up. Drew comes for them but Torin and Lele get rid of him.

Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot: 👩🏻‍💻📑📑📑📑
Burn: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Darkness: 🖤🖤🖤🖤
Red Flags: 🚩🚩🚩
Kinks: 🫦🫦🫦
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Range of Emotions: 😂😫😳🥵😍
Ending: 👩🏻‍❤️‍👨🏻 {HEA}
POV: 👫🏻 {Dual}

[Audi♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooooouuu weeeeeee tickled my pickle 🌶🔥
My brother Torin is the same couple with a different story. both short but tingly asf.

Ps- you can buy this on eden books

[Mariana | By Any Medium · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plot/Storyline : ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Spice : 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Editing (typos, grammar, etc) : ✏️✏️✏️✏️.5

THIS STORY WILL NOT BE FOR EVERYONE and that’s okay, but don’t come shit on the author when the book is CLEARLY labeled as a TABOO HORROR romance and isn’t what the consumer was expecting.

This novella is a quick read with a little mystery that follows Laoise from her life in suburbia back to her roots in the mountains.

Although I do like Torin, I feel like his character lacked depth and wasn’t really considered other than being Laoise’s brother who is recently released from prison.

I did appreciate the role reversal of the MMC being a virgin (inexperienced, untouched) and y’all… did Torin make up for it lol

The author has indicated there is more to come for these two so I am eager and look forward to the next adventure of Lele and Torin.

[Angie Fassel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me preface this by saying that I did not read this book. I'm just so disturbed by the content matter and that there are good reviews for a book glorifying incest. Like, what world are we living in right now. This feels like actual grooming for a cult.

[thebeespot72 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being in jail for ten years for unaliving their father to protect her, Torin has been released only to find his sister is engaged. He tells her how he feels and shares that he waited for her until she was 18. Lele’s fiancé is the straight-laced kind of guy and a therapist, whereas Torin is the type that will do anything for her. Lele’s fiancé is picking up on some tab00 vibes from Torin and shares with Lele that he is concerned, but she denies everything.

“The Parolee” is not one of those insta-lust where the schmex happens in the first ten pages. The schmexual tension builds up with tab00 touches here and there. Things don’t start happening until about the 60-ish percent mark. Then it takes off! It does leave on a cliffhanger. Book 2 comes out on March 9th.

[Gemma Bishop · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads like a first draft rushed out to ride a popularity wave from the equally terrible Eclipse Ritual.
Very simplistic, no nuance or detail or care given. Made it 32% when she's suddenly blowing him with literally no build up and gave up. Where's the push and pull of blowing your brother and cheating on your fiancé?

[Tina the Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This man is unhinged! 😂😂😂

[LaBlue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was amazing but it left me with questions. Like we don’t see any of their history together, so we don’t know when they started messing around with each other. The MMC states somewhere that he had promised the FMC he would wait until she was 18 but in the very first sex scene between these siblings the FMC gives him a BJ like she has always done it for him with very little persuasion from the MMC.

Next, there is no way that the MMC could get away with that many murders and assaults and have only been pinched for one of them. Smh. It needed more clarity. I also saw this book is labeled as a horror romance but I didn’t see any horror in it anywhere. Some blood play and of course the murders with some on page disposal was all the horror in it. Maybe I’m equating horror with like monsters or something but I just didn’t see it here.

Major gripe (for me anyway), no birth control was mentioned. How is the FMC not pregnant in the epilogue? Also, are they never going to have a family? I prefer breeding in all my romances. I just do. It makes the HEA more complete for me. So where are the babies or BC convo?

The author posted a a sequel book about the MMC chasing a serial killer out of their mountain, but where is this story? I started reading “My Torin” duet thinking this was part two or continuation of this story but it’s not. So where is this other book with these same characters in the same universe as well?? I hate cliffy type promo’s.

And a P.S., why is there a duet with these same characters but with an alternate plotline and background? In “My Torin” it’s the same brother-sister characters but raised separately as they are half siblings, instead or full like in this book. While also being only 2 days apart in age instead of the 2 years age gap like in this book has it. I’m really confused on this part at the very least.

So this author is similar to K. Webster and HJ Stallard if you want taboo couple focused smutty romance and a few others I can’t think of right now. I loved this book despite my above listed questions. I was very interested in seeing how they got their HEA together. The book had an underlying tone that these characters were going to end in misery. But I was pleasantly surprised it had an HEA.

Anyway, I loved it and I’m looking forward to more by this author.

[Sammie Bow · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 ⭐️

This didn’t work for me. At least the Eclipse Ritual had context, plot and a reasoning for the taboo nature of the story but this was not done well.

POV: Dual, 1st person.
SERIES or STANDALONE: 1st in series, can be read as a standalone.
TROPES: M/F adult, taboo forbidden, small town romance.
SIZE: 148 (last page) Kindle pages.
CHARACTERS: Torin (28) & Lele (26).

PLOT: 2 📚
ROMANCE: 2 ❤️
SPICE/STEAM: 3 🌶
DARKNESS/TRIGGERS: 3 😈 (incest brother/sister, murder, violence, past child abuse)

⚠️ My bookshelves can contain spoilers.

[BeckyisBookish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably closer to 3.5 stars. I didn't enjoy this as much as Eclipse Ritual but still found it compulsively readable. It was a little too obsessed with the taboo nature of the relationship (I think 'wrong' was used 400 times) and less on beefing up the actual story but if you can get past the b/s trope (or maybe you like that no judgement boo) there's a fast paced, enjoyable smutty story here that's even dare I say cute in parts. Will defo read the sequel.

3.5 psychotic murderer brothers who love you a lil too much out of 5 sprinkle coffees (can someone explain what those are thanks)

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent taboo novella, not sure I was in the best mood for it but I can see reading it again at another time. The H is OTT obsessive/protective which causes dark actions in and of themselves but the overall tone to the book is not dark, in my opinion. All of the emotional development between the couple happens off-page so I never really felt that and it doesn't have much tension but I liked the steamy bits and the general story well enough.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed more from this one. More darkness (especially if it's going to be classified in the horror genre) and more of a love story. This was all too one-sided for me to believe in their romance. They end up together, but it felt more like obligation than anything else. And the ending felt too rushed, both them being together and the resolution of her previous relationship. I needed more on-page to believe the outcomes.

[Marcie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastically taboo romance from Kate!! I gobbled this up with a ferocity that I am not ashamed to admit.

Don’t let this cute as hell cover fool you because the story itself may not be all that dark (more gray) but it is taboo as they come. My twisted self thought it was actually pretty sweet with how far Torin will go to keep his LeLe safe.

I loved the push from Laoise until she gave into what her heart was truly wanting all the while Torin never backed down. I adore Torin’s psychotic self, he had me chuckling more than once. This couple is the perfect balance.

I am finding myself falling more in love with Kate’s writing after each book I read and this one is my favorite so far. She ended it on a happy note but left the teaser of another book and I am over the moon about it. I can’t wait to see more of Torin and Lele!

[Ashley ADirtyRead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big brother is finally out after taking their dad out. Some people think he's dAngErOus 😒 but big brother is ready to bring his baby sister home and love her right 😌 if you don't like the word c*nt - skip this story lol

[Laura V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un poco perturbante pero aún así me entretuvo lo suficiente.

[Reading Raccoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fun, little read. It would have been 5🌟 had it been equal part Torin's POV.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, this was a choice. The writing was so clunky and repetitive and I hated all the characters. And the third act conflict was completely out of nowhere and didn't make sense at all.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate that I had to read that. The plot had so much potential to develop and it just didn’t and I normally like KR’s work but this was not enjoyable to read and when the smut came it came from now where. Genuinely thought I had missed something. Just all over the shop and whilst I don’t need the parole system etc to be factually accurate. It just threw the realism out for me. Finally Drew losing his shit in the third act from nowhere just seemed even more far fetched. I wish I could have enjoyed it

[aromanticshelf · Rating 1 out of 5]

the writing is awful omg. so much repetition, the amount of times the words “sister” and “brother” were used is ridiculous, like yes thank you we know how they’re related. also the way the mmc spoke made me feel like he didn’t go past 3rd grade.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I saw this taboo romance floating around on the fb groups, I, of course, had to check it out.

I was not impressed. The writing felt lazy. The MMC is described as "big" on every page. There's no real plot here.. just a bunch of sex scenes. Way too fast-paced, and the characters were just so bland. I honestly didnt care what happened to the characters bc they had no depth. I also found myself skipping over the smut bc there was honestly too much of it 🙃.
If that's your jam, you'll love this. It just fell so flat for me.
Another issue I had was the constant reiterating of their relationship.

[♡kitten♡]

DNF @ 45%
The heroine annoys me. It's like theres an exclamation (!) every time she has a dialogue. 😩 In my head I picture her shouting all the time lol.

[Mo · Rating 2 out of 5]

oof. Not starting off strong for my first read of 2025.

I was intrigued enough by The Eclipse Ritual by the same author to pick this one up. After reading The Eclipse Ritual, I wasn't expecting great literature, but the premise sounded like a fun, taboo time.

I did not have fun.

The writing in this one was weaker than the first book I read from Kate, which hadn't set a high bar in the first place. But this one just felt . . . lazy? It could have benefitted from a thorough edit. I understand that these books aren't big money-makers, and they're written with the knowledge they'll be banned almost immediately, making it harder to make sales given it's only available direct from the author or on lesser-known platforms such as Eden Books.

However.

I'm of the belief that if you're going to write a book you want people to pay for, you should present the best, most readable book you can. With some TLC, this book could have been a lot more impactful and enjoyable, but instead it felt very surface-level, something hastily thrown together to make taboo readers shiver.

I fear this is the end of the road for Kate and me.

[Midnight Dahlia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I don't know why the author made Drew a psycho and abusive in the end, the advice he gave Lele was right. All of a sudden, everything he did in the past was considered wrong and manipulative. Why he suddenly attacked her, I have no idea.

Even though I have read many incestuous siblings romance books, for some reason I just don't find the connection between them at all. I don't feel like they truly love each other. More so, they were dependent on each other due to the abusive father they had in the past. Even when Torin said "I love you" to Lele and she said it at the end, I couldn't connect to it.

They are leading an unusual life, so why would they want to live in a place where everyone knows them? What if someone catches them? They murder people here and there, but the cops never find a clue at all. They arrived at a store while bleeding, but the store manager never doubted anything.

It would be more interesting if the lead characters had a more genuine connection, emotions, and love for each other than this. They don't have anyone to rely on, so they depend on each other.


3/5

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

*hides behind hands* Look away!!!!
Okaay, this was exactly what I thought it was gonna be when I found it, and I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse? When I read the synopsis, I busted out laughing. Yeah, I laughed because I was like, "There's no way," but where there is will, there IS a way and ooooh boy...

I didn't hate this. It didn't suck although every time Torin spoke, I heavily cringed. It wasn't unreadable... and that fact has made me question my sanity, not for the first time (but then I reminded myself I've read worse. Maybe. Depends on who you ask.) All I can say is that what you see is absolutely what you get with this... book? Whatever this story was.

That being said, what you get is incest, dubcon, and a heaping spoonful of murder. Simple.

Do these characters need therapy? Yes.

Do I think it would help? Um, that's gonna be a solid no.

Do I need therapy? Well, yeah, but I needed it before I started this book, so it's moot point.

Anyhow, I'm gonna go repent now (I'm not, but let's pretend that I am). Bye!

[Kirsten_BookRants · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I get to heaven and God shows me my reading history, this book is the one where I will immediately just going to start walking towards Hell. 😅

I must admit I thought this book was going to be cover to cover spice, and it wasn't. There was a nice build up and slight character development.

Mr. Martin really said 🙈, and I laughed out loud.

I came for the smut, but stayed for plot. Eagerly on the edge of my seats, waiting for something to happen.

And I'll be real Torin gave me the ick, from the beginning. But I really couldn't stop reading

I shouldn't have enjoyed reading this..but I did 🫣

4 stars because as a therapist I think I need to rethink some life choices, starting with reading this book 😂😂. But trust and believe I will be reading more from this author. Also even in fiction for me consent is a must, and I'm pretty sure 90% of the sex in this book was nonconsensual... though I suppose it might could be considered dubcon. But even then that's not really my cup on tea.

The book ends on a slight cliffhanger, more of teaser for a follow up book with the MCs.