REVIEW: Stepbrother Billionaire by Colleen Masters

Stepbrother Billionaire by Colleen Masters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Description: 

I’ve hated him since middle school. 

The effortlessly popular, lacrosse superstar, beautiful, blue-eyed nightmare Emerson Sawyer. Funny thing is, he didn’t even know I existed until our senior year, when his mom started hooking up with my dad. 

Now he torments me in the hallways, calling me “Sis” whenever he gets the chance, relishing in the fact that I can’t hide my blushing whenever he’s around. Even though I can’t stand him, my body betrays me—and he loves it. 

Emerson and his mom just moved in with us, and as if crushing on him wasn’t weird enough, now our bedrooms share a wall. 

The sexual tension keeps building between us, but I know nothing can ever happen…especially now that our parents are engaged. I try to tell myself that I hate him, that he’s wrong for me, that we’ll never be together… 

So why did I agree to play Seven Minutes in Heaven at his girlfriend’s high school party? 

And why does Emerson suddenly have my panties in his hands?

Stepbrother Billionaire is a standalone novel. It contains adult themes, harsh language, and graphic sexual content.

I really enjoy books by Colleen Masters. She knows how to craft a story to draw you in and keep you hooked. Thank goodness I didn’t have to work today because I started this when I woke up this morning, intending to only read “for a little bit” and before I knew it, I was at 75% in the book and since I was that far, I went a finished the book. :D

I really enjoyed the set up of the story, the connection that was built between Emerson and Abby. They were high school seniors, just weeks before their 18th birthdays. Their parents were dating and living together, forcing them together. They had a clear cut plan…one night and then they go their separate ways because the next day, their parents are getting married. Well….things didn’t quite go as planned. They got their night, and the parents got married but…things blew up after that.

I wasn’t sure what was going to happen after the parents got married, but I can say I didn’t expect what did happen. My jaw dropped, I started laughing and had an OMG moment. Of all the things that could have happened, I never would have guessed that!

Where I started having a few issues was the present day/adult version of the characters. Emerson felt like an adult. He’d been through a lot with his mom after things blew up between her and Abby’s dad and he found something he loved and was good at, created a career, traveled and Abby…didn’t. She went to college and was looking for a job. That’s fine, I’m cool with that, heck, I’m living that! But she was stuck living in the past, under her the thumb of her grandparents. So when Emerson and Abby met up again, by chance, he acted like an adult and she acted like the high school girl she was last time they saw each other. Her response to seeing him was to run from him. I don’t really have an big issues with the story, but I wish that the adult time for the characters were longer, fleshed out more. With them having spent more time together.

Pretty early on in their reunion, Abby and Emerson face a challenge regarding work and their newly rekindled relationship. And true to her nature, Abby wants to run from Emerson. But she gets some advice from the last place I’d expect….her dad. He’s basically be absent from her life for the last 8 years and he barely acknowledged her before that…and after the way things went down 8 years ago, I had issues with him being the one to “make her see reason” (totally my words, but I can’t think of another way to phrase it).

My one other issue was Abby’s grandparents. At one point in the book, Abby takes Emerson to the tree house in the backyard. She says that her grandfather built it and that he’s a good man. They may be rich, but their good people. I had assumed that the grandparents in question were her dad’s parents since the grandpa built it for her dad when he was a kid, but…if that’s the case, I want to know what happened between that part of the book and actually meeting the grandparents. The people that were introduced during the wedding scene were the furthest thing from “good people”. They were snobby and rude and just plain horrible. And the way the later treated Abby was awful. So I was left wondering if the grandparents were the same “good people” she had referred to.

Other than those few issues, I did enjoy the story. I loved the connection & chemistry between Emerson and Abby. The book was entertaining and kept me hooked to read it in one sitting,


View all my reviews on Goodreads