Stepbrother Dearest by Willow Dixon: My Review 

I enjoyed Stepbrother Dearest. This book gives us estranged and angry stepbrothers learning how to mend old hurts and fall in love. One of the men is a nurse, and the other is a stripper. 

There are also a ton of interesting side characters. In fact, the whole crew from the Crimson Club is hilarious and so fun. I can’t wait for the subsequent stories to come from this group. There is a set of twins that I am really hoping spell out a future M/M/M book to follow the taboo trend. 🤞

Gray, the stripper, and Caleb, the nurse, were thrown together early in the book. They then have to learn how to let go of the massive amount of animosity that they carry for each other. This leads to a lot of tension. Hot, steamy tension. 

I do feel like I wanted more backstory for both of the men. I think that this book was written assuming you have read Gray’s brother Eli’s story, Never Have I Ever: Wanted My Brother’s Rival. It felt like there were a lot of references to this fourth book from the Never Have I Ever series. 

That being said, both men were likeable and both men experienced a lot of personal growth throughout the story. They go from hating each others guts and treating each other like a cheap booty call to deep understanding and love. 

This was a hard fought love story. They genuinely start out the story as two men who have every reason to dislike the other. That dislike turns to aggression. The aggression takes a turn when they realize that it also contains a lot of mutual attraction. They take that mutual attraction and it slowly develops to into true love. 

I will be completely honest and say that this book got four peppers because there is a ton of on-page sex. So much that I skimmed a decent amount of it. I understand that the author was using it to develop their relationship, but the book felt to be nearly 50% sex. Which, sometimes works! But here it felt like a lot. The pacing of the story felt very rushed between the steamy scenes. 

It felt like there was something missing here. Maybe it was how these two are billed as being stepbrothers, but they did not grow up together or even live in the same house. Their overlapping history is minimal. 

I’m not sure what this says about me, but the fact that they were only stepbrothers in name and not in practice was disappointing to me. I wanted that taboo to be more present in the story. 

Overall, I know that there are many people who will love this book for its super-likable characters, witty banter, steam, and potential as the start of a brand new series. 

What did you think of this one? Let me know in the comments below! I would love to chat.