My Not So Wicked Stepbrother

Jennifer
Peel
Genre: 
Contemporary

Emma Loveless is always the friend, and never the girlfriend. Her well-meaning mother fixed her up with endless “Mr. Right” dates that always turned out disastrous. Now she has decided the new optometrist, Dr. Sawyer King, is the one. Emma isn’t so convinced, until she meets the good Doctor King. He’s Mr. Right and then some. Then she learns he’s also her stepbrother and has a mom—her new wicked stepmother—who is determined to keep Sawyer and Emma apart. With Mr. Right firmly planted in the off-limits, stepbrother, friend zone, Emma must face facts: her last name isn’t just a name, it’s also her personal curse.

Humor abounds in this mashed up romantic comedy! It scores high marks for sheer entertainment and laugh-ability mixed with moments of true feeling and depth. There seems to be a large leap from mom’s helpful interference in Emma’s dating life and her sudden death and the next page that picked up one year later and description of characters were limited to “his amber eyes” and “the goddess”. Shelby, a secondary character, saves the story on more than one occasion with her lively innocence. Meanwhile Emma is clueless to how Sawyer really feels about her and is locked on the step-sibling issue and cannot see a future for them beyond that. Sawyer is a paragon of patience as he shows his feelings repeatedly but is also reluctant to voice them. The conclusion, provides a heart-warming wrap up to a long-building relationship that leaves a reader sighing and satisfied with the enjoyable and sweet HFN. 

Emerson Matthews