Himbro by Honey London

Title: ⟫ Himbro

Author: ⟫ Honey London

Rating: ⟫ 3.5/5

Blurb: ⟫ Devon got dumped.

My tragic taste in men has left me in the lurch… again. This time it’s the day before I’m supposed to leave for a destination wedding. When my ridiculously hot older stepbrother volunteers to be my travel buddy, I’m ready for five days of brotherly fun in the sun. What I’m not prepared for? My very straight stepbrother introducing himself as my boyfriend to shut up my manipulative, evil ex.

Jesse saves the day.

I’ve spent my entire life protecting my nerdy little stepbrother. If spending a few days holding his hand and calling him baby is going to help him stand up for himself, I’m ready to give an Oscar-worthy performance in my role of fake boyfriend. What I’m not prepared for? A game of spin the bottle that changes everything.

Himbro is a steamy stepbrothers to lovers, jock and nerd, opposites attract, fake relationship, forbidden romance novel with a sweet happy ever after.

Review: ⟫ This was a funny, sweet read, with Jesse stepping up to help his stepbrother when his boyfriend dumps him just before Devon is going to a wedding. The worst part? His evil ex is going to be there and the thought of having to face him sans partner is enough to make Devon want to leave the country.

Bryce is a fantastic villain, upsetting and alienating everyone whilst Jesse steps up and is the hit of the wedding. He appears to be the picture-perfect boyfriend and everyone falls in love with him. Including Devon.

My favourite part was the quiz night when Jesse and Devon handed everyone their butts simply because they had known each other for so long and could use that to get the answers. The stepbrother aspect was kinda strange – I guess it could be viewed as a bit taboo, especially as they essentially did grow up together – but there wasn’t a lot made of it throughout most of the book. The fact that it slipped into the sex part of things was – a little weird. Simply because I would have thought they’d want to avoid those connotations and it wasn’t discussed or appeared to be a kink for them until then.

I’m not sure how steamy I would describe this story to be – until quite near the end anyway – but I laughed a lot and enjoyed reading it, so I don’t mind.

I received an ARC from GRR.

Dirty Love by Bethany Winters

Title: ⟫ Dirty Love

Author: ⟫ Bethany Winters

Rating: ⟫ 5/5

Blurb: ⟫ In a small town like ours, you’re either straight or you keep your mouth shut.

Being gay would be dirty.

Touching the guy who’s been your little brother since you were three would be dirty.

Falling in love with him would be even worse.

I protect him because it’s my job.

I resist him because I have to.

But when one night leads to two and two nights lead to more, lines are blurred and morals are tossed and my sanity takes a walk.

Now we’re risking everything we have for something we know we shouldn’t want.

And the only thing we’ll have left is each other.

This is a 60,000 word, M/M, dark high school, stepbrothers-to-lovers romance with themes some readers might find offensive.

Complete standalone with a HEA and no cliffhanger. 

Review: ⟫ Have you ever had the hankering to read something dirty/bad/wrong? Like, the kind of book that you’d hide from your Mom even at the grand old age of *well over 21*, full of red flags, drugs and just downright WTF? Okay, then you might be looking for this book.

To be fair, our male leads are stepbrothers so the whole incest thing isn’t quite there, but they were brought up together from the age of three so there’s that.

Kade is the older brother – by a whole three months I believe – and has been protecting Nicky from everything from a young age. Everything includes a father who murdered their mother and regularly beats Kade – adding being gay to that would paint a target on Nicky’s back that even Kade couldn’t protect him from. Kade is protective, possessive, obsessive and sounds hot in all the wrong ways, including how he treats his on-again/off-again girlfriend and the animalistic way he makes money by bare-knuckle fighting on the weekends.

Nicky isn’t a dreamer – life would have beaten that out of him years ago – but he is much more in touch with his emotions than Kade. And from a young age, his emotions have fixed on Kade as his safe place. His everything. He’s not ashamed of being gay or being in love with his brother, but he is understandably scared.

The warnings about this book being dark were not kidding – there is no fade to black when it comes to the violence and drug-taking, and that might not be to everyone’s taste.

I was so in the mood for this book and it didn’t fail to deliver in any way. I didn’t care about things that I might ordinarily nit-pick because I was too busy devouring the whole book in one sitting. I picked it up this morning and read it immediately and when I finished, I was literally sitting there with a huge grin of satisfaction on my face. The sex scenes were hot and steamy; the whole bantering, snarky vibe between Kade and Nicky was so my cup of tea, and how the story was handled worked for me on every level.

Especially when we meet the boys’ uncle.

I’ve grabbed the other book by the author that I could find even though it’s M/F which I haven’t really had any luck with this year because I really loved the style of writing and wanted to read more.

If after reading the warnings – and other reviews – you think you might want to take a chance on this book, I don’t think you’ll regret it!