Stepbrother Thief ~ Violet Blaze

STEPBROTHER THIEF 

A Stand-Alone Second Chance Bad Boy Romance by Violet Blaze 

Thirty minutes ago, my stepbrother pulled off one of the biggest jewelry heists in history—and I helped him do it. 

Now we're on the run, and I don't know what to think. He says he'll protect me no matter what, but I'm not sure if I should believe him. After all, we tried that once and it did not turn out well for either of us. 

Besides, his father raised us both after my mother passed away. Gill can be lots of things to me, but he can't be my lover. 

Not again. 

When I turned twenty-one, he disappeared. Just disappeared without a word. Over a decade later, and now he's back and more ruthless than ever. 

He says the right things, does the right things, but the truth is … 

I'm afraid of him. 

I'm afraid for him.

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Elizabeth's Review

3.5 Stars - Worth a Reader's Time

Review Copy provided by Author

I am going to admit that I was hesitant to read this book because I honestly am not a big fan of the step-sibling trope. It's a personal preference thing, but I decided to give it a try anyway. The step-brother issue plays into how I rated this book a little bit, and I'll get to that in a minute, but first I want to talk about the rest of the story.

Regina and Gill met as teenagers and were each other's first everything. They were engaged and on the verge of starting a life together when he just disappeared one day. 10 years later he's back and they are involved in a jewel heist together. The story is told from Regi's point of view and it was fun to watch her handle the reality of Gill being back in her life. They each have secrets and things start out very adversarial between them. Stepbrother Thief is well written with great characters who go through a lot. There are emotionally charged moments, romance, sexy time, and a great suspense story that all play into the transition from enemies to a second chance at love.

I really wanted to give this book a full 4 stars based on the storytelling and the journey Gill, Regi and their family take during the story. The thing that made me hold back - the step brother thing. It's not the fact that they met by being introduced when their respective parents got married, it was the shear number of times Regi referred to Gill as her step brother. Early on in the book, it made sense that she would think of him in that term - they hadn't seen each other in 10 years and he hurt her terribly. Later on in the book, once they were reconnecting as a romantic couple, Regi thinking of Gill as her stepbrother just seemed weird. It may be my bias against the step-sibling story in general showing, but it seemed like a strange was for a woman to think of the man she loves and has been intimate with.

Even with my complaint, even though I couldn't give this the full 4 stars I wanted to, I will definitely be back to read more of Ms. Blaze's work.