My Brother's Girl
by Sienna Blake
Darren O'Sullivan
Reason #3 To Dislike Kayleigh Scott: she laughed far too loud.
Reason #2 To Really Dislike Kayleigh Scott: her giggle was even worse.
I didn't need her working for me, her damn strawberries and cream shampoo cutting through the smell of petrol oil in my mechanic garage. I liked being on my own in the darkness under the hood. I deserved to be alone.
I didn't need her fingers brushing mine as she passed me the wrench. Didn't need her trying to change things, fix things, to fix me.
I didn't want her around my family, enchanting them with her dimpled smile, her infectious laughter. Didn't need them to fall in love with her... especially not my baby brother, Eoin.
Reason #1 To Really, Really Dislike Kayleigh Scott:
She wasn't mine.
...she was my brother's girl.
Spice Level: 1.5/6 | Story Score: 7/10 | Rating: 3/5 |
After re-reading Fighter’s Kiss so I had my characters built up, I jumped to this one. I didn’t have a whole lot of expectation going into this. Obviously the name is straight forward. The Hero of this book is going to fall for his brother’s girl. And that’s just what happens.
After walking out of her job, away from her sexual harassing boss, Kayleigh stops a guy from getting hit by a car. He, Eoin, immediately declares that she is his soulmate. Two days later, he takes her home for Christmas break.
Darren, our hero, is Eoin’s brother. Where Eoin is the baby of the family: happy, playful, and a professional rugby player, Darren is the sullen, broken, mechanic of the family. It’s hinted at immediately from his side that there is a strong trauma that caused his sullenness.
When he goes to his mom’s for the holiday, he walks in on Kayleigh getting out of the shower…wet and naked. Neither of them move for the longest time, and cue the insta-love. (Note: I like insta-love; I’m not knocking it.)
When they get back downstairs, Kayleigh is introduced as Eoin’s girl.
The family lunch is a cacophony of joyous family times (for everyone except the turmoiled Darren) and Kayleigh falls in love with the family as well as Darren. After mentioning she doesn’t have a job, Eoin volunteer’s Darren’s garage as a place to work. They both hesitant and balk, but ultimately give in. As they begin working together, the tension only escalates. Using work as an excuse, Darren begins teaching Kayleigh how to work on cars with him. They establish a pretty awesome connection, but Darren is still shut off and Kayleigh is just, well, she’s weak.
The whole time, Eoin is charging ahead like a bull seeing red. By Christmas, he proposes, and Kayleigh says yes because he does it in front of his whole family (oh, the pressure!). Darren is obviously broken, and they fight.
Eventually all the traumas are brought to light and, needless to say, Kayleigh doesn’t marry Eoin.
Uhhhhhh, I feel like after that rundown (if not just the title), it should be obvious: If cheating is a trigger for you, don’t read this book.
Darren is well-written. He’s a broken hero. He has a pretty severe past trauma that made him that way and even as much of a tool as he is a lot of the time, you like him. You root for him. Eoin is honestly not enjoyable so it’s easy to play favorites. (I don’t know that I’ll get myself to read Eoin’s story.) Ma, the boys’ mom, is awesome. The other brother’s are enjoyable. Kaleigh is…frustrating as fuck. Are all Sienna Blake’s heroines weak? Did I miss that the first time I read these? Did I used to be weak enough that I didn’t notice weak characters? Those are some big soul-searching questions to be had, for sure.
Once again, the writing was well done. The story was complete. There aren’t loose ends, even if there are some questions. If you LIKE this type of story, the ‘You’re with the wrong guy’, ‘Oops, I fell for the wrong person’, and angsty-slow burn-cheating type of story, read this. It’s well done, I think. Lol. I just…Kayleigh’s weakness gave me a lot of anxiety. I was happy when it ended.
-SPOILERS-
Darren had a twin brother named Jaime. As a teen, when Darren tried to run away with his star-crossed girlfriend, Jaime got into a car accident and died before Darren could get to the hospital. Yeah…his best friend and twin brother died ten minutes before he made it to the hospital. After that, Darren said he would never put his happiness over his family’s…which basically equaled that he wouldn’t allow himself to be happy at all. I understood this. I’ve not lost a sibling, thank God, but my brother means the absolute world to me. He is in my favorite top 5 people on the planet. If I lost him, and I wasn’t able to see him before then because I was out being foolish, I wouldn’t forgive myself either.
Kayleigh was raised in an abusive household. Her dad abused her mom physically and orally, and her mom abused her orally and mentally. She was taught to sit down, shut up, and never make waves. Annnnnnd while I UNDERSTAND that sentiment, I don’t understand most of Kayleigh’s decisions. I get that she doesn’t want to break up Eoin and Darren’s family. I get that. She falls in love with the family. She also doesn’t want to lose them, and that makes her selfish and I’m not okay with it. She tells Darren that she had Eoin aren’t “together” because it’s only been a few days, but she NEVER tells Eoin that. Why didn’t she just say that she wanted to slow down. I get her super-freak-out moments about ruining his family, I do, but then: JUST REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE EQUATION. She could’ve easily stayed Aubrey’s friend if she’d just removed herself from the Eoin/Darren turmoil and then she could’ve pulled herself back in later or something. Something. Anything. Say fucking anything! Kayleigh was SO WEAK that I couldn’t deal with it. I wanted her to GROW and I guess she eventually did, but not until it was a giant clusterfuck. And the thing is, I’ve been a weak person in my life. I’ve been torn between telling the truth and losing everything or keeping my mouth shut and keeping the peace. And I’ve made the wrong decision. But I wasn’t telling one of those people that I just wanted to be with them and leading them both on. I wasn’t breaking the man’s heart that I claimed to love. I was being utterly selfish though and in the end, I lost a lot. Kayleigh…well…I don’t know that I’m okay with this story ending like it did.
I guess blood is thicker than water because Eoin figures out how to deal with it. Good for him. But also, Eoin was a shitshow of his own. I really wanted him to do something to deserve this. I didn’t like him, but he was nothing if not trying. Like, Kayleigh and Eoin never had sex…couldn’t he have been sneaking out to get some or something so that when Kayleigh chose Darren, it felt okay? Lol. But nope. Eoin was just annoying, he was never wrong. He was never cruel.
Book #5 in the Irish Kiss series | 328 Pages | Trope Challenge: You're With the Wrong Guy |
“You aren’t going to tell me why you don’t like me?” she called from behind the pickle jars.
I paused next to the tiny onions and bit my lips.
Because you make me nervous when you’re around. Because I feel like I’m not in control when you’re looking into my eyes. Because there’s a promise I haven’t broken in ten years, and it only took you a morning to make me want to shatter it.
- My Brother's Girl by Sienna Blake
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