REVIEW: Stepbrother Fallen by Aya Fukunishi

Stepbrother Fallen by Aya Fukunishi
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Book Description: 

Madison Moriarty gets good grades, and she keeps her nose clean. She may dress like she survived an explosion at a Martha's Vineyard branch of Tommy Hilfiger, but she's a good girl, damn it, from her boring top-siders to her preppy sweaters right down to her My Little Pony laundry day panties. 

Rafe Stone... well, Rafe Stone is an asshole, and he's going to f*****g jail. That's what happens when you steal your foster parents' Camry and drive it halfway across Colorado. He's been lucky so far, but this time the judge won't be satisfied with a slap on the wrist. 

Unless...

Stepbrother Fallen tells the story of what happens when two worlds collide; what happens when a nice, polite little princess gets thrown in with the stepbrother she never knew she had, a tattooed thug with a tight t-shirt, torn jeans, a pack of smokes and a bad attitude. 

Stepbrother Fallen is a story of love, hate and David F*****g Bowie. 

I found this to be quite enjoyable. But I didn’t love it. I thought the buildup was good, setting up the “problem child”/previously unknown step brother…and setting up the distant relationship filled with animosity and attraction. But where I had issues was also at the distant relationship filled with animosity and attraction. This book is solely from Maddy’s POV. You only know as much as she does. So I never got a real sense of Rafe…to the point that even after finishing the book, I have trouble remembering his name.

Like I said, the buildup was good. The set up was good. But I needed more interaction between them to really feel like there was a connection…a mutual attraction. Maddy was definitely into him. That was more than obvious, but we also had her POV. There may have been a few hints with Rafe, but they spent so little time together that when they finally hooked up, I was left scratching my head wondering when the attraction started for him. Was it right away? The party where the bitch pushed Maddy down? The second party where he fought some jerks who hit and kicked Maddy? I just wasn’t sure.

My other issue came with the drama that separated Rafe and Maddy. It wasn’t so much the drama itself, but Maddy’s mother. Maddy was 18 years old. An adult. Yet when her mother refused to let Maddy help Rafe, insuring he went to prison. Maddy just rolled over and did as she was told. She never stopped to think for herself or fight for Rafe after he fought for her and got in trouble because of that fight. And then seven years passed. It just kind of pissed me off. Maddy went from smart to TSTL very quickly and that just made me lose interest in her as a character.

The book did have some very good high points. The initial meeting between Maddy and Rafe was awesome! Fully of embarrassment and humor. They did have a few encounters like that. And I wish there had been more because that would have meant more time Maddy and Rafe were together and that would have meant more of a connection.

Basically, there beginning was awesome, the end was great but the middle was missing for me.

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