Stepbrother's Rules by Renee Rose Review

This book is great if you want some quick release. Other than that, there's nothing much to see unless you set the bar high for suspension of disbelief.

Title: Stepbrother's Rules
Author: Renee Rose
Date Published: December 15, 2015
Publisher: Romance Beckons
Language: English
Genre: Erotica, BDSM
ISBN-13: 9781010101010
Edition: eBook (I got an ARC at Netgalley for an honest review)
Size: 96

LuAnn’s had a crush on her older, rebellious stepbrother since the year he lived with them—his last year of high school. Now, four weeks before graduating from Sarah Wharton Women’s College, she’s been kicked out for having boys in her dormitory, and he’s the one who shows up to collect her. With her parents away in Europe, he brings her to his place, because leaving a young woman unchaperoned isn’t done in 1957.

Brad makes it clear she is not to emulate the wild behavior of his youth, and he starts things out with a long, bare-bottomed punishment. Soon, though, he discovers his stepsister is all grown up, and having her under his authority makes her a temptation too delicious to resist. Before long, he’s strayed way past what is acceptable, turning her into his little girl and bringing her to the peaks of pleasure during her numerous punishments. LuAnn brings out the dominant side of him, but with it comes the desire to take care of her and nurture the sweet innocence she’s been trying to cover up. He wants her for keeps, which means risking their parents’ disapproval and leaving his rebellious side behind forever.

Publisher’s Note: The book contains spanking, elements of ageplay and graphic sexual scenes. If such content offends you, please do not buy this book.

Review

There's LuAnn and then there's Brad. Both are stepsiblings and then they fall in lust. Love comes later.

My problem about this book has nothing to do with cliches. I love cliches. It has nothing to do with character development either. This is a very small book so it's understandable if there's not much room for the characters to improve upon their characters. All you have to do is put your trust on the back story. Okay, okay. That's not the appropriate term, character background it is. It's on the background that the author fell short on. Not that the background is lacking, it's just way unbelievable.

First, Brad is sort of a rebel. You know, he's a very stereotypical rebellious bad boy: with a motorcycle and always wearing leather jacket. Again, not that I have a problem on that cliche, the only problem rather is with this description:

Brad had moved right after high school, preferring to work his way through an architecture degree, living on his own.

I don't know what kind of "rebelling" that Brad is doing but since the time is set on 1957, then perhaps living on your own is. But what difference does it make when you live in a dormitory like LuAnn did? That's living on your own too, right? Of course, the difference is the financial support. LuAnn depended on her father's wage to finish her two-year Associate's Degree with a teaching certificate. Remember that this is 1957, so there aren't that many options in one's education especially if you're female. Brad on the other hand supported himself throughout college all on his own.

In Luann's eyes, Brad has this devil-may-care personality. Perhaps that's where the mystery lies in her perspective: how this seemingly irresponsible dreamy stepbrother is doing in his life. Obviously, he's not a slob and that is good but the question still stands: How was he able to afford college all on his own? I bet he graduated at a low-category school.

I don't know how life was in Connecticut during the '50s but the author could have selected a better college degree for a rebel.

Architecture takes too much time. It's almost impossible to have time for socializing with all of the plates one has to do on a daily basis. Engineering would have been better when you can easily cram during the exams. Architecture is a tiresome course (the same goes for the Arts) that it's guaranteed you won't have much time for yourself. And that's why it's impossible that Brad will have so much time in his hands to use those very hands on squeaky gals' butts. Seriously, it's even hard imagining one making a living while going through college, how much more playing with one's sexuality on the side while taking Architecture.

If that isn't enough, while Brad doesn't have a car, he has a Ducati. Fine, maybe he got it after landing a job at a firm. But still, that's way over the top.

Now, I've read a handful of erotic books covering BDSM. And as usual, I only like one or two heroines. In my country, we have this big publishing house that releases short novels that you can finish in 2.5 hours. For cultural limitation, BDSM is not covered or any sort of play for that matter. But what's amazing is that in a very limited number of pages, the authors are able to cram in the kind of characters that readers will instantly love. For some reason, Westerners always manage to come up with a female character who doesn't have much of a personality except being "sweet" and boring. LuAnn managed to get into that category without fail.

I don't have anything against someone with an inner child but there are much better ways of depicting a submissive or a latent submissive when the bedroom is concerned.

So yes, I got so much to complain about. But then again, if you want instant gratification, this book is amazing. If you can let those details go over your head, you won't have a problem of letting every word across the pages trigger things down south for you. It delivers well on that regard.