Review: Saved by My Stepbrothers by A.K. Rose & Angel Lawson

Saved by My Stepbrothers by A.K. Rose & Angel Lawson

Series: Family Confessions #3

Publication date: November 28th, 2022

Pages: 214

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Who killed Olivia Davenport?

After years of being on the run, Kate Stevenson knows the only way to save her stepbrothers and their friends from a life of hunting, is to solve the crime that consumes them.

Using her investigative skills, Kate digs into the past, uncovering secrets and truths about the Davenport family that may destroy them. There's a darkness that follows the women at Davenport Manor and the closer she gets to solving the crime, the more danger she puts herself in.

But danger isn't unfamiliar to Kate. She feels the thrum of it in her blood, the taste of it on her tongue, and the men in her life have trained her to take care of herself.

How far will she go to solve this murder? And will the five of them survive the outcome?

Saved by my Stepbrothers is book three in the Family Confessions a dark, why choose, romance by Angel Lawson & A.K. Rose.

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Review:

If you can't beat them? Join them. Kate has decided that hunting with her stepbrothers and their friends is the way she wants to go when it is clear she will never be able to leave their sides. Putting all her skills to use she starts poking at old wounds and seeing what festers to the surface. While her stepbrothers may appreciate her holding them to their mission, she may be getting in deeper than she should. In addiction, the FBI is starting to recognize the influx of males going missing in the area and has an inkling that Detective Higgins and his friends may have a lot to do with it. Davis is under a lot of pressure to keep the FBI unaware of the Davenport mission while also fancying that maybe he could step up in the world of law enforcement but to betray his family would destroy him. When Kate starts to catch on to Davis's situation he punishes her harshly to the point where the family seems to be falling apart. But that isn't the only threat to the group. Olivia Davenport's murderer is still out there and if Kate doesn't find him soon, he might find her instead.

I like getting to see the men start to realize that Kate is more than just their favorite play toy to torture and manipulate. She became important to them and they became important to her. Whether that was Stockholm Syndrome or simply her realizing that she was a big a monster as them and embracing who she was, I don't know. I think this book brought all the frustrations to an end as well as tying up a lot of lose ends. There were a lot of red heron additions that could have been left out as they didn't really provide any real intel into the investigation that Kate was conducting, but I suppose adding more characters to be the potential big baddie she is hunting for would throw off some readers. I honestly felt that the person who killed Olivia was who they were from the start. From the minute the ointment was applied I had my finger pointed their way. But it was interesting to learn how petty such a massive crime actually was.

I still don't like Davis. In fact, if he had died at the end of this book, I would have celebrated. 

Paul will always be my favorite. He was the most calm and reasonable aside from Oliver and I loved how he derived comfort from tending to Kate and providing aftercare for her. I think he was one of those types who could let the beast off the leash at times but hid the animal well behind cool and collected bravado. 

This book was a nice end to the series but once again I struggled to really know who's side Kate was on. Was she with the guys? Was she out for herself? She had lied so many times and manipulated the situation over and over that I had a hard time knowing whether she was actually all in with the group or if she was just biding her time until she could throw another one of them under the bus and try to escape. I think if her loyalty was a little more defined in either her inner dialog or something then I would have been able to believe her when she said they were a family and she'd never leave them. 

While I would have liked a bit more from the two amazing authors, I can understand that sometimes not all series are as good as others. That doesn't make me love their work any less just don't think this series is their best works. It was on the low end of middle-of-the-road for me.