This started off good, Lake is witty with a dry and pessimistic sense of humor. He definitely has child abandonment issues as he was abandoned by THREE parents.

He and Ryker are stepbrothers in the LOOSEST sense of the word. They are tied together by Ryker’s dead stepfather and Lake’s non-biological father who abandoned him when he found out the truth. So…not really stepbrothers.

The marriage gambit is a way to get money out of a trust, but really more likely a forced proximity or bi-awakening piece. It barely comes up again.

This is definitely a Grumpy/Sunshine, friends(enemies?) with benefits situation where they both catch feelings but also a hurt/comfort. I (personally) would not categorize this as a stepbrothers trope. Catfished on that one.

I had to keep bringing myself back to the book to finish and ended up skimming a lot, because Lake became obnoxious. His trauma over parental abandonment causes him to distance himself from Ryker and it became repetitive to me.

This was absolutely going to be a 3 star book, but this books fate was sealed at 2 stars for me at chapter 44. It didn’t matter if they reconciled or not, for me there was no coming back after that display of audacity by Lake. I am so disgusted.

The real hero’s of this story are Kelly, Rachel, and Sutton.