Step-Lover By Bella Jewel

You’ll only ever have one forbidden love.

Care to know why?

Because when you find it, forbidden love that is, you’ll forget everything else. You’ll forget your first kiss. You’ll forget the first boy who made you smile. You’ll forget all the bad, and remember all the good. You’ll forget that it’s wrong. You’ll forget that it hurts. You’ll forget everything that came before him.

Forbidden love, it has a way of changing you. The secrets. The lies. The guilt. You want something so much you no longer care about the world around you. The passion takes away the pain. I’ve felt it. I’ve lived it. I didn’t need it, but it chose me.

I met him before I knew. I loved him before I knew.

I didn’t know that he was my stepbrother. I knew I had stepbrothers, but I didn’t know he was one of them. Now I know, I have to walk away. My mom, she deserves this happiness so much more than I do. If she ever knew…it would destroy her.

You have to understand why.

I saw my father die right in front of my tiny, eight year old eyes. He took my sister with him. All that’s left is my mother and I. She’s found her happy place, the only place she’s had since our worlds were destroyed.

So you see, I can’t have him.

I can’t want him.

But there’s this problem with passion, and love, and destiny.

It doesn’t give you a damned choice.

Because I didn’t know what all the hype was over the recent “step-brother” craze I decided to try it out for myself. What better way than to check out a book by an author whose books I have enjoyed in the past. Bella Jewel’s Step-lover is not necessarily taboo but more so two people who found themselves in a very precarious situation of being related through marriage and having an affair.

I had so many questions about this book. It’s not that I didn’t like the book just that there were some missing parts for me that needed filling in. Not to mention the back and forth business between the two characters Blade and Aria.

Here’s the low down…..

Blade and Aria meet without exchanging names have an affair that changes them both and ruins them at the same time. Aria has suffered much trauma and has yet to let go of the pain. Blade well he is a jerk and has his own set of issues. Her mom and his dad are married and they finally meet and it all goes to hell from there.

There is a lot of back and forth in this book. Too much of I love you but I like her. Or we can’t do this it’s our family we can’t hurt them but let’s wreck each other. And honestly the only people who had such a big issue with their relationship were the two and Blade’s brother. They play this cat and mouse game for a good portion of the story. I don’t know what Aria saw in Blade because it was never told in depth in the story and the few raw emotional scenes about her traumatic experiences and her relationship with his brother made me really enjoy this story but their relationship was just too much.

I know the author isn’t American and some of the language used in the story reflects that. The author hardly explains why they have this connection except he awakens something in her and she doesn't have any nightmares when she is with him. Readers are told a lot versus seeing it. The magical weekend seemed nothing more than a fling and its love that fast. Just a little cliché for me. He strings her along and she allows it. It was so many contradictions with these two one minute they are having these long speeches about not being with each other which is the same argument and excuses given throughout the entire book and then one look and they are grinding all over each other.

The author keeps mentioning they aren't related and it isn't wrong. I guess to make it seem less taboo? This story was inconsistent i.e. they agreed to stay away from each other but he offers her a job where they work together day in and out. She suffers verbal abuse and his constant bipolar behavior and still stays.

Not to give anything away but something happens between Blade and Peyton ( His Girlfriend) and his solution is to sleep with Aria (step-sister). It's like he wants her body? She confesses her love his response is I want to sleep with you. After all her trauma about cars and accidents the car game they play doesn't make sense. She says we don't want to have an accident but proceeds to distract him sexually. I guess she got over that 11 year trauma. The twist with Peyton. Why? If what happened to Peyton didn’t happen would he have chosen Aria? He always put’s Aria last as demonstrated throughout the whole book. I'm annoyed with the game it lasted the entire book and the ending left a lot to be desired. I did enjoy the family dynamic with the brothers that was the best part. This book does touch on some very heavy subjects like date rape, bullying, gay bashing that was the best part of the story because it was so raw and emotional the stepbrother storyline just was annoying. Brody (brother) reaction to their “relationship” was odd considering he and Aria had such an emotional connection. I do look forward to reading about the rest of the family in the next book. Please judge this book for yourselves and not based on this one review.