Book Summary: 

Kyran Harbor is everything I’m not.

Rich. Popular. A superstar football player who’s awfully broody for someone who has it all. Basically, he’s a preppy jock who hates me. Oh, and he’s also my stepbrother.

That’s right. We’re stuck together, sharing a school, a house… A bathroom. Honestly, I wouldn’t care… If he wasn’t such an uptight control-freak who messes with me just because we’re different.

I had every intention of avoiding him when we got to college… Until abrupt misfortune forces us both into a compromising position.

Now the grouchy jerk I was hoping to evade might be the only person who can help me out of it.

Avi Vega is everything I despise.

A dreamer. A flake. An artist who smokes too much weed and thinks aliens exist. And by some sick cosmic joke, he’s now my stepbrother, following me on what should’ve been my escape plan.

It was already a disaster. Add a sudden financial disruption to the mix, and let’s just say my options are heavily limited.

If I want to stay an all-star quarterback on the way to the NFL, I’ll need to do something drastic. Unfortunately for me, and my desperate desire for control, the perpetually smiling stoner has a plan.

Maybe we can stop hating each other just enough to pull this off. As long as we remember we’re only doing it… for the fans

Mini Review:

I can’t even with this book. I don’t know where to begin. First – I absolutely loved it, but that being said, I’m still a bit disturbed by the fact that they were stepbrothers! Yes, I know they’re not blood-related, but somewhere in my mind, I just couldn’t let that one little fact go! If that doesn’t bother you, then I’d say be ready to go all in with this book. I don’t ever yuck on anyone else’s yum, but this book definitely solidified a boundary for me when it comes to character connections – taboo is off the table.

With that being said, I’m so glad I forced myself to read this book – it was phenomenal! I laughed, I cried, and I desperately wanted everything to work out despite the havoc it wreaked on my moral compass (that stepbrother element… just no. Just no). You couldn’t have created two more polar-opposite characters if you tried.

On one hand, you have Avi: laid-back, go-with-the-flow, and doesn’t take life seriously. He never really fits in anywhere but always makes the best of his situation. Sure, he smokes pot… a lot, but it helps him stay out of his head and focus on his first passion – his art. Then you have Kyran, who is wound up so tight that his head might actually pop off – especially if Avi keeps messing with him. Kyran just wants to start over in college, far away from his father and the painful reminders of his past.

His plans go up in flames when he finds out his stepbrother is not only attending the same school but is now on the field as the team mascot! To make matters worse, an unexpected financial crisis threatens the new life he’s trying to create. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and an unexpected opportunity arises that could help Kyran stay in school, in the dorms, and on the team. The question is: how far is he willing to go to secure that future?

Amid all the antics between Avi and Kyran, the book also tackles a lot of serious issues. It isn’t all fun and games – there’s pain, trauma, and so much depth. As the story unfolds, you find yourself locked in, unable to stop reading. The summary doesn’t prepare you for how far this book will pull you in or how much you’ll end up loving these characters. Eventually, you forget they’re stepbrothers and focus on two people trying to find a way to just be, to exist, to survive. Nothing could have prepared me for the revelations and how everything wrapped up. I was left floored, speechless, and in awe. I think the speed at which I finished this book set a new personal record -especially considering its length (544 pages). 

I’ll preface this by saying I’ve read a lot of MM romances, and this is by far one of the hottest books I’ve ever come across! It felt like Nyla was on a mission to see if she could keep outdoing herself with each scene. They just kept getting hotter and hotter until I started questioning whether some of the things they were doing were even physically possible!

As much as Nyla enjoys walking the edge of forbidden romance (she uses terms like “dark, deviant, boundary-pushing”), I don’t think I’ll read anything else by her. It’s a shame because she’s an extremely talented writer, but the deviant subjects she writes about – like twincest, adoptive father/son relationships, foster brothers, etc. – are just too much for me. However, if you enjoy those kinds of storylines, I strongly recommend this book (this may be the mildest of them all – don’t quote me on that). It’s one that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading.

FYI: I’ll admit I’m not an audiobook person, but if you are, I highly recommend listening to this one. Someone recommended it, and I listened to a sample on Amazon. I nearly fell over laughing – I’m laughing now just thinking about it!