MM Romance
Stepbrothers 🙄
1 Star ⭐️
I don’t know what to rate this book. It’s absolutely one of the worst I’ve ever read not just the plot but all of the twists and turns this had near the end. Holy shit, it was a train wreck of epic proportions and I thought I knew what to expect which is why I picked it up against my better judgement because who cares about a few MF sex scenes but this had a lot more in store for me than just MF sex scenes. A whole lot more! So, slapping a big 1 star on this should be easy right? Not exactly, because despite how bad this was I could not put it down even during the 476387 different plot twists that I saw coming a mile away and while I admit 40-60% did drag a bit and make me consider DNFing, I picked this shit back up and kept at it. Usually I’d at least 3 star this shit and put it in my guilty pleasures shelf but there are a few things I’m have trouble getting past.
1. ATTN: MF Romance authors. When it’s 2 men, using the phrase “back hole” is unnecessary and totally cringy! This book used it both correctly and incorrectly. During one of the MFM scenes, Blaise’s inner monologue said he was lining his dick up to his ex girlfriend’s back hole! Congratulations 🥳 This is the correct usage as women have both a front and back hole. However, when Cole and Blaise are stuffing their dicks and fingers inside each other’s asses, “back hole” does NOT need to be used because there is no front hole. It was used a whopping 10 times between the two of them and each time I wanted to die. I have only ever seen this in For The Love Of Kane and it was also cringy as all fuck. Please stop ✋🛑
2. The random POV of Jackson halfway through the book. WHY? It literally did nothing for the book. Do you think your readers are idiots? Because it was so obvious he knew about Cole & Blaise and was planning something behind their back. We didn’t need his POV. This book was way too long at 438 pages and this could have been cut out. It added nothing and what did happen was so anti-climatic it hurt. Like Allie will prevent someone from doing anything? 🙄 Speaking of Allie, wtf was she doing near the end of this book? That was completely unnecessary 🙄
3. The repetitive and cringy sex scenes not just with the women but between the two boys as well. Now, some scenes were hot af not even going to lie but as time went on my enthusiasm waned. As much as I love primal play, we didn’t need more than 2 scenes at most especially when it turned into a super violent brawl every single time. The fact these two never had to go to the hospital after what they did to each other was mind blowing 🤯 The number of times they made the other bleed, cracked each other’s ribs, broke each other’s noses, and even drugged the other was too much! And they used hockey sticks and baseball bats to inflict maximum damage. Whenever I read “dark” MM romance by authors who usually write MF romance, they have the men beat the absolute shit out of each other and while I like a good fighting to fucking scene this was straight up domestic violence. And here we have fucking Cole thinking that Blaise is his soulmate and the only one who ever truly loved him even more than his own mom‼️when he knew Blaise had drugged him and forced him to have sex with his girlfriend while he recorded them was just sad. Have some self respect FFS. Even in the epilogue these two are beating the absolute fuck out of each other. It never stopped.
Which brings me to 80%…
4. At 80% this book went off the rails and it was so insane that it left me cackling and absolutely hysterical. I cried from laughing because what in the actual fuck? The entire book I knew that Cole’s bio dad, who is a corrupt drunk cop, was going to show up and cause havoc at some point. It was obvious. And he does. However, it was so OTT that I felt like someone was crossing off items on a bingo card like if you can fit all of this batshit crazy stuff in one scene, you’ll win a million dollars because WTAF. We have:
✅Cole getting shot
✅kidnapping
✅septic shock and infection from shooting
✅pistol whippings
✅torrential rain storm
✅car used as a deadly weapon
✅car crash against tree, wrapped around it
✅car bursts into flames described as an inferno
✅18 yr old Blaise somehow turns into the hulk with his super strength and drags Cole from the crash
✅shitty stepmom antics-leaving Blaise behind in torrential storm 🙄🙄
✅bio dad survives crash!
✅knock down drag out fight near flaming car
✅Blaise gets shot
✅click click…gun runs out of ammo
✅Blaise saves the day despite his broken nose, ribs, shot arm, and bloody body (don’t forget he was just fucked for the first time right before all this happened with only blood as lube after being hit in the head with a baseball bat) by rugby tackling bio dad into the flaming car and bio dad magically falls into the open passenger door and gets burned alive, while soaking wet. HOW the fuck did the passenger door get open? It was wrapped around the tree and Blaise had to kick the window out to get Cole and his mom out???
✅Blaise passes out to sirens and the smell of burning flesh. His words.
Next scene we are magically in the hospital…
✅Cole & Blaise pull out their IVs and tubes to find the other in the hospital. WTAF how were they even walking? They are both royally fucked up. 🙄🙄🙄
Epilogue 5 years later & they’re married. Because of course they are. Cole got drafted for the NFL when this was never discussed anywhere in the book? I didn’t know he even cared about the NFL and how did he play well when he was beat the fuck up all the time?? AND I’m supposed to believe that after he got drafted these two did long distance for 2 years until Blaise graduated? HAHAHAHAH no fucking way. Blaise was wayyy too obsessive, possessive and jealous to survive that. Make it make sense. Homeboy woulda moved to wherever Cole was and gone to school there. Please stop 🛑✋
It was quite the choice to have each author write a different character. Sometimes it felt like the authors just slapped their various parts together without looking to see if their part made sense. It would be daytime in one POV and in the next one it was talking about the moonlight on their bodies but it was the same scene just a few minutes later. This is also why 80-92% (chapters 34-39) were so unintentionally hilarious because some of it felt out of place like the car colliding with the tree scene. Obviously one of the authors didn’t realize the other said the passenger doors were jammed and Cole and his mom had to be dragged through the window which is why bio dad’s epic fall into that side of the car made me laugh out loud.
And can I say what a shit person Cole’s mom was? Her taste in men sucked because Blaise’s dad wasn’t much better than his psycho bio dad especially the way he treated Cole the entire time and his reason for doing that was so dumb. The fact he thought that because Cole had his bio dad’s blood he would corrupt his own son?? WTF 🤦🏻♀️ He was fucking 14 and the fact his mom rarely stood up for him? 🙄🙄🙄 Stop 🛑✋
And lastly, why in the hell did the authors feel like it was necessary to break the 4th wall in the epilogue and talk to me? 💀🤦🏻♀️
All this fuckery and yet I feel like my one star rating is too harsh? WTAF. Also totally giving the side eye 👀 to anyone who 5 starred this? 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 yet I completely understand at the same time 🤣🤣🤣🤣 & I’ll turn my highlights on. 😘