Stepbrother romances. Yay or nay?

I've recently come across a growing sub-genre in the romance arena. Stepbrothers. Really, yes, you didn't read wrong, I did say stepbrothers. Apparently, it's a growing theme in romances right now - the forbidden love between a girl and her stepbrother. It seems Amazon even banned one of the books that was published. I kid you not when I say this is growing. Go search for the word "stepbrother" in the Kindle store. It comes back with 1,400+ titles. Wow!

I'll start with the book that was banned. It's called Monster Stepbrother by Harlow Grace. You won't find it on Amazon since it's been banned but you can read about it on Goodreads. They still have the information of the book up. As you can see, this book was not published that long ago. It was banned quickly. The author, Harlow Grace even talks about it in her Facebook page, where she posted this.


Title: Monster Stepbrother
Author: Harlow Grace
Published: 9 February 2015

His dark obsession runs deep.

How does a girl go from being her Daddy’s precious baby doll to feeling like a filthy whore?
Easy really. When my father remarries it changes the course of my life and everything becomes . . . complicated.

My new stepbrother is a monster who hates me. Unapologetic, controlling and brazen he’s intent on making my life a living hell. Blackmails me into doing things I never thought I’d do. Illicit things.

Oliver King makes the rules. He f*cks me whenever he wants. How he wants. Where he wants.
My head screams this is wrong, yet I can't resist giving in to forbidden desires.
I’m his possession, his toy — his ultimate pleasure.
He’s never letting me go. I’m his dark obsession.

My dirty addiction to my stepbrother grows to a dangerous level. Am I sick to crave more from the man who has made me his slut? Or should I escape and run as far away as possible?

My name is Maya Childs and this is my story.

Dark erotic novel that contains sensitive subject matter that may make readers uncomfortable. Not appropriate for readers under 18. Contains explicit language and descriptions of sexual situations and violence.

And how about this one? It combines the stepbrother theme with the ever popular billionaire theme, because if one trope is good, two is even better right? I can't say that I can agree with it, but it seems to be working for the authors. There are quite a few stepbrother / billionaire combos in the Kindle store. This one also looks like it combines those tropes with the ever growing serial in publishing. This is a short read of only 22 pages and looks to be the beginning of a series of shorts.


Title: Stepbrother: Claimed (Billionaire Stepbrother Romance)
Author: Lauren Landish
Published: 22 January 2015
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Total pages: 22

When nineteen-year-old Charity Jones's mother gets engaged to a billionaire stockbroker by the name of Charles Brownstone, Charity suddenly finds herself in the Hamptons for the summer. With dreams of Gucci, Prada and Armani shopping sprees, Charity could not be more thrilled.

I mean, what more could a girl ask for?

But when Charles's English-bred son, Mason, flies in for the wedding, Charity is thrown for a loop. Tall, fit and sandy-haired with a chiseled jaw that could cut glass, Mason is incredibly hot--almost too hot to be real.

Charity suddenly finds herself burning with fires of temptation, and even more shocking, Mason seems just as smitten by her!
There's just one problem - Mason will soon be Charity's stepbrother. So that means his hot and sexy body is totally off limits.

But will a forbidden rule come between the lust that they share for each other or will they both give in to their Taboo desires?

Then it gets really ridiculous and this author throws in so many tropes into 30 pages that you look at it and think "gee, all you need is for him to be a werewolf too!" There's a billionaire, he's her stepbrother, it's taboo, it's forbidden, he wants to get her pregnant .. oh my! Yes, I am being a bit cheeky about this one.

Have you noticed that all the books have been published very recently? I mean, very, very, recently. How do these trends even start?


Title: Stepbrother: Want of an Heir (A Billionaire Taboo Forbidden Pregnancy Romance)
Author: W Harlow
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Published: 10 February 2015
Total pages: 30

My name's Freya and I'm a self-proclaimed workaholic and dork with not much in the way of romantic prospects. I'm not attractive like the rest of the girls in this city all power suits and stilettos. But I have a chance tomorrow: A blind date I can't miss with a man who is way out of my league.

However, when staying late to finish up some work Friday evening, I accidentally catch my boss...a successful and devastatingly handsome billionaire of New York City, Jack Fox involved in some very naughty escapade. The catch? He's also the boy I grew up with which only makes it that much more mortifying!

He sees me watching him in the taboo act and now he's wanting to fill me with a gift...A gift we've both wanted for so long but something so forbidden I dare not mention it here.

Can I own up to these feelings I know I should keep secret from the world?

You'll have to look inside to find out...

And finally, if you made it this far in the post, this one is actually recommended by Harlow Grace because her book Monster Stepbrother is not available for purchase. This one seems meatier than the previous ones, sitting at a hefty 233 pages. My friend Bambi tells me that there are a lot out there that a full length novels, which I'm sure there are seeing there's 1,400+ of them out there. Probably by the time this post goes up, that number would have increased again. Move aside biker boys, it's now the time of the billionaire stepbrothers!


Title: Prick: A Stepbrother Romance
Author: Sabrina Paige
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Published: 10 February 2015
Total pages: 233

I can't stop thinking about that prick.

Caulter Sterling is a prick.

A filthy-mouthed, womanizing, crude, spoiled, arrogant prick.

The tattooed, pierced, panty-melting-hot son of a celebrity.

I hate him.

He's slept his way through practically every girl at Brighton Academy.

Except for me.

I'm the good girl. The responsible girl. The 4.0, class president, studied-so-much-she-never-lost-the-big-V girl.

And in celebration of graduation and adulthood, I just made the worst decision in the history of ever.

I lost my V-card to the devil himself.

It was just one night. So what if it was mind-blowing? Hit it and quit it.

Except I just found out that my father - the Senator, the Presidential hopeful - is marrying Caulter's mother. Oh, and this summer? We're hitting the campaign trail.

One big happy family.

I'm totally f**ked.

*This is a standalone novel with a HEA. Not part of a series.*

What do you think? Is this something in the romance genre that you would like to explore? Not your thing? To be honest, I'm not sure about it, myself. My very adventurous girlfriend Bambi, has bought Prick to try. She also says that if she can get her hands on Monster Stepbrother, she'd give it a go, but then she likes to read darker stuff than I do and she's a little broader in her reading tastes than I am. If you're curious though, Goodreads has a list that you can look through and pick something out to try. Some of them even have some pretty high star ratings.

If you do read any, let me know what you think.


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