Forbidden Steps

Boys on the Brink #2

by Jamie Deacon

From the award-winning author of Caught Inside comes a compulsive novel of family, forgiveness and forbidden love.

Desire draws them together; their family threatens to tear them apart…

The past months have been rough on Taylor. His parents’ marriage imploded, his boyfriend dumped him, and he feels like an interloper in his stepdad’s home. He’s counting down the days until he leaves for university. If not for his sister, he’d put all this behind him and never look back. Then Taylor’s stepbrother returns from Australia, and keeping his distance becomes far harder than he expected.

A year ago, Ben fled across the world with only his backpack and a battered heart. Now he’s home for the summer and everything’s changed. A new stepmother occupies the space where his mum should be, and his friends are in Thailand without him. There’s also a boy sharing his bedroom—a beautiful, belligerent boy who Ben can’t stay away from, even though their relationship could shatter their already fragile family.

Genres: LGBT, M M Romance

320 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2022

About the author

Born in 1982, Jamie Deacon lives close to the River Thames in Berkshire, England, and is a full-time author of young adult fiction featuring characters across the gender and sexuality spectrums. When not writing, Jamie loves to read, play board games, and solve cryptic crosswords.

Jamie’s debut novel, Caught Inside, was published in 2016 to much acclaim, including two Rainbow Awards. It was also nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, a Bisexual Book Award, and a Next Generation Indie Book Award.

Reviews

[True Loveislovereview · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a year of being away (read: run away to another continent with a broken heart) Ben is back, only, nothing is the same. His father married his secretary and she moved in with her two kids. The house is not his home anymore, everything is different. Ben never met these people before now.

Taylor isn’t happy, he sits out his time with this new family, he just has to keep it together until he can leave and go to University.
Another member of this ‘cozy’ family arrives. A good-looking guy for sure, that’s all there is of course.

It took some time but Ben and Taylor are getting closer, real close. Something impossible, for the outside world.
Both have a story to tell, not the easy ones. There’s an amount of hurt to overcome.

Watching this broken family, with certain people keeping up appearance, made me grind my teeth.
I wanted to smack someone, hard, I’m not a violent person but oh boy, how wrong can you be, how hard, full of cliché, small-minded! Those are just the situations I can’t handle well. I almost wanted to stop reading, that’s me of course, I can’t handle fake people, it was not the story, the story was excellent!!

It was quite a realistic display of what young adults go through when parents divorce, find a new partner, and start a new ‘happy’ family.
There’s hurt, jealousy, competitive, numbness, and sickness of all the comparison.
Thank goodness there was a refuge they could retreat to.

A fragile broken family, disturbing relationships, voices like sharp knives, bullies, homophobia, manipulative characters, you can find it all here. Putting it in one line it looks like a hard read, maybe it was, but it’s bearably portioned. There’s sweetness and healing, a blooming love, a sweet romance, healing, mending the broken, acceptance (to a certain point).

I was mesmerized by this story, it was utterly realistic, with maybe just some extra drama for extra juice. I forgot it was fiction, it felt so recognizable. The end was a hfn, not my favorite one, my romantic heart wanted some closure. Still, for the whole story it was probably the right one.
An enthralling narrative, I couldn’t put down.
Recommendation worthy!

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one didn't work as well as the previous book for me

[Penumbra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forbidden Steps is the second book in the ‘Boys on the Brink’ series. It stars two step-brothers, Taylor, and Ben. This story is told in first-person, present tense from both Taylor and Ben’s povs.



I’ll first start my review with the cover. I like the colors and the model image. However, the models on the cover are too old to be Taylor and Ben. The models on the cover look like they’re in their mid to late twenties. I think the step-brothers are about eighteen because they’re still living at home and haven’t gone off to university yet. So, the cover doesn’t match the characters.

It’s difficult for me to rate this book because there are a few things that I don’t like when I read a story and I can’t be objective about them. Two of them are first person narration, and present tense. I don’t like reading present tense. Luckily enough the author did a pretty good job so that I didn’t really notice the tense until a couple chapters into the book. But after I noticed, I couldn’t stop noticing. The present tense ended up shadowing the whole story after that for me. Maybe most readers won’t mind, but if you’re someone who doesn’t like present tense, then the writing may bother you especially as this is a long book.

Speaking of book length. I think it was too long. By the time I got to sixty percent, I was putting it down every ten minutes to take a break. It wasn’t because of the realistic family interactions which the author did exceptionally well, but I had to think about why I was getting tired of reading the story. It finally hit me. There is a lot, and I mean a lot, of description. Of everything. Emotions, places, the way the environment looks around the characters, and what those things evoke. I didn’t notice it at first, in fact I sort of liked it. I loved many of the analogies the author used. Unfortunately, after sixty percent, even without knowing why, it was making me tired. I decided to try an experiment. Every so often I’d read a scene, then I would re-read it without all the added description of analogies and environment etc., that was added between the musings when one of the characters was analyzing their thoughts or feelings. And voila! Suddenly the scene and emotions of the characters were more intense and immediate. I was drawn deeper into what was happening because there was so much less added filler between the important lines. I’m sure most readers won’t mind or won’t even notice, but I did and figuring out why helped me understand why I had trouble staying interested in the story. In my opinion, there is way too much description that kept me distanced from the characters and what was happening.

The author did a terrific job of giving each of the characters distinct personalities and having them grow. Except for Taylor’s mother. She was a tremendous *itch, use the first letter of your choice, and I didn’t believe she’d changed her behavior by the end of the book. I also didn’t believe the sudden change in behavior of Ben’s sister once she found out that Taylor was telling the truth about her boyfriend. I also didn’t believe in Taylor being suddenly all cool about everyone since Taylor had a huge capacity for holding grudges and resentment. So, there is some rather quick behavior and personality changes that didn’t ring true to me. I do think both parents were rather controlling in that they didn’t want the boys to date. They’re of legal age I think, and they aren’t doing anything illegal. I can understand the parents setting the rules about not under their roof, but forbidding it all together so as Taylor and Ben can’t even mention dating was ridiculous.

There was also a continuity error that bugged me. Ben is remembering back when he had the chicken pox and his dad was taking care of him. I’m guessing Ben is about eighteen since he hasn’t gone away to college yet. The vaccine for chicken pox came out about ten years before he was born if I calculated it correctly. Ben’s mother was a nurse, she would’ve had her kids vaccinated. If Ben had a bad flu instead of chicken pox and his dad looked after him, I’d believe the scene. But no, not chicken pox.

I was disappointed with the ending because it felt unfinished. The ending was just the two of them going off to university without readers finding out if they ended up staying together. They’re very young and the chances of them staying a couple if reality based, seems rather slim once they attend separate schools. I hope the author writes a short story about the two of them after they leave home.

Overall, the author created a very realistic story about divorced families, their merging together, and the resentment such events can create. The characters had distinct personalities although some of the problems between the members seemed too easily solved at times. The overuse of description tired me out after a while and I had to put the book down frequently before I could continue. I give Forbidden Steps, 4 Stars.



I received an ARC from the author. And I am giving my honest and unbiased opinion.

[Clarissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The romance in this novel is sweet and comforting, but it takes place amidst a background of what happens when love gets broken. The two leads, Ben and Taylor, are coping to varying degrees and indifferent ways with their parents splitting up and remarrying making them stepbrothers. The importance of this theme is emphasised by the author's touching dedication:

'To all my readers who have lived through divorce, and who understand just how messy and complicated families can be, this one's for you."

Jamie Deacon doesn't shy away from showing the hurt and betrayal that young people feel when their lives are plunged into chaos beyond their control by their parents' decisions. All the characters are presented as real flawed individuals struggling to do their best in difficult situations.

I will definitely seek out more books by this author and would love to see more of Ben and Taylor's romance if there is a continuation of this series.

[Elaine Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben and Taylor are dealing with family issues, exes, and the attraction that they feel for each other. Ben left home after a difficult breakup with a married man and return home after a year. Taylor is dealing with an abusive jerk and his mother's new husband. His stepfather happens to be Ben's father. They are fighting their attraction toward one another and once they get to know each other they develop a relationship. The book is very emotional and I enjoyed it.

[Peter Cloutier · Rating 4 out of 5]

good job

I’m new to this author, and I really enjoyed this novel. Divorce is always hard on the kids, and it gets complicated when families are mixed. This novel put it all out there.

1 mother was cool, the other was a total witch. I don’t know if I really bought her turnaround towards the end, but anyway….

I enjoyed the 2 MC’s, with good writing and a slow burn for their attractions.

[Amanda Reeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a new to me author and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read this. This is a really good slow comforting kind of sweet love. The way the two MC's come together is really great to read. This was a book that once you start you don't want to put it down, even if you want to slap a character or two.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I liked this, but I wanted more. It didn’t have any steam, and I expect that with step tropes. I was also disappointed when we didn’t get to see the boys at college, and how their life was there.

[Christian Charette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forbidden love

I truly enjoyed reading Ben and Taylor‘s story. The premise of the book was interesting especially the family dynamics. The end makes you wonder if there will be another book. Since the intended audience is YA, the sex scenes have been overly sanitized.

[Cristy Elizondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahh, Ben and Taylor. What a sweet romance once the walls came down. This is a new to me author and I really enjoyed this book.