Laura’s Review of Monster Stepbrother by Harlow Grace

Synopsis

*** Standalone Novel ***

His dark obsession runs deep.

He's obsessed with her.
She's addicted to him.
Two damaged souls.
Will they heal or ruin one another?

How does a girl go from being Daddy's precious doll to a different kind of toy?
Easy really. When my father remarries it changes the course of my life and everything becomes . . . complicated.

My new stepbrother is a monster who hates me. Unapologetic, controlling, and brazen, he's intent on making my life a living hell.
Oliver King makes the rules. Whenever he wants. However he wants. Wherever he wants.
My head screams this is wrong, but I can't resist giving in to forbidden desires.
I want it as much as he does.

I'm his possession, his ultimate pleasure, his dark obsession.
My addiction to him grows to a dangerous level. I can't stop craving more from the man who has made me his and ruined me for anyone else.
Can what starts out as lust and vengeance end as love?
Can we take away one another's pain and ease one another's fears?

Nobody said life or love was easy.
My name is Maya Childs, and this is my story.

*** Standalone ***

*** No Cliffhanger ***

*** HEA ***

18+


A NOTE from the Author:

This book is NOT for everyone and may have triggers that make some readers uncomfortable. Please be aware of that before you read this book! If you do decide to go ahead, please keep an open mind.

Inside each of us lurks a monster. We all have demons we hide from the world. We all need that one special person to look beyond the surface of the mask we wear and deep into our souls. I hope you enjoy Oliver and Maya's story--that you will indeed peel back the layers and look beneath the surface.

Dark erotic novel that contains sensitive subject matter that may make readers uncomfortable. Not appropriate for readers under 18. Contains explicit language and descriptions of sexual situations and violence. 

What I Loved

            Well it’s sad to say there was very little about this book I liked.  I will say the characters themselves weren’t that bad.  I liked the character of Oliver in the beginning. He’s very much a tortured soul, who has massive issues with not having control, and not being to control his feelings for Maya is his weak spot.  Oliver is the type of man that instead of trying to hide his feelings he apparently channels it into anger.  I get that a lot of people were mad about how mean he was to Maya and trust me he is a monster at times.  But as a reader we were warned that this books contains sensitive subjects and his mental abuse towards Maya is definitely a touchy subject.  I enjoyed the sexual tension in the beginning of the story between Maya and Oliver, and how they both would egg each other on with stripping naked at the pool or masturbating in front of one another.  I will say as the story went on though the taunting became tiring and the constant calling Maya a slut was just mean and leant no purpose to the story, and made no sense at times.

Not So Much

          Okay first I’m going to start with my constant pet peeve, if you are not from America and you write a book that takes place in America take the time and research how we act and how we talk.  It became clear to me from the foreign colloquialisms and the lack of knowledge about California in general that the author is not from the US.   All I’m saying is, at least take the time and learn our sayings and actions so they make sense to the reader. 

          The plot had tons of potential to be amazing, and in the beginning I felt like a great foundation was being laid out. But after a while the overall plot of the story became very shallow. There’s no description of what any of the characters look like other than Oliver and Maya.  There were a lot of holes in the storyline at times which made the scenes choppy and not really make sense.  No relationships were really explored, there was so much opportunity when it came to Oliver and his mother and Maya and her father to lay more of a foundation for the story.  I seriously don’t think there was one scene where Maya and her own father were ever alone together. 

          The constant disrespect of Maya became irritating after a while, why Oliver kept calling Maya a slut made no sense whatsoever to me.  It became pretty freaking clear at a certain point that Maya was not a slut and he stilled called her it constantly.  It wasn’t sexy and it certainly wasn’t hot.  I’ve read plenty of dark abusive books before and even then there was more respect for the female lead if only from the point of view of the reader. 

To Sum It All Up!

          This book had so much potential to be awesome, this new taboo topic has started to become more popular and I couldn’t wait to dive right in.  But the plot was very shallow, with no real character descriptions or even background descriptions.  A lot of the sex scenes were hot and the tension in the beginning between Oliver and Maya was boiling.  Yet it was hard to become engrossed in a story that skipped around too much and didn’t follow through with scenes and explanations.  I love erotica but the book was on the border of just gross, especially the way it ended.  People love to read erotica not just because of the sex, but also because of the passion and love.  There was just too much sex and very lacking in any type of passion and love.