The Other Brother by Meghan Quinn

Category: Contemporary Romance 
Publication date: 11/02/2017
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No

There were a few things I absolutely ADORED about this book. Then there was the heroine...  

Plot overview: Amelia moves back to her small hometown to take care of her ailing father. She ends up living next door to the boy who broke her heart years ago, Aaron. Oh, and just for funsies, the new boyfriend Amelia left in the city when she moved but agreed to maintain a long-distance relationship with? Aaron’s brother. ​

I’ll start off with the stuff I liked because I don’t want to imply that the book sucked. It didn’t. It’s well-written and funny and heartwarming in spots. In most spots, actually. 

I loved Aaron. What a sweet, yummy, gooey cinnamon roll hero he was. He wanted Amelia back, but respected that she was in a relationship. He refused to make her a cheater, even though I suspect it would’ve been pretty easy for him to do so. He helped take care of his elderly neighbors, took care of his ungrateful and frankly pretty horrible mother, and still managed to look out for Amelia when she needed it. He was generous and kind and pretty messed up from his awful childhood. I understood his reluctance to open up and why he felt undeserving of love. He was flawed, but relatable.

Amelia on the other hand…

I had some major problems with Amelia. She was so wishy-washy! When she was with Aaron, she seemed like she loved Aaron. When she was with Trey (her boyfriend), she seemed to really love him. I think Amelia would’ve really benefited from some time alone where she could get to know herself and learn how to be an independent woman for once in her life. I mean, even at the end of the book, she was still torn between Trey and Aaron—just one night after telling Aaron that she was “his” and that she wanted a second chance with him. Sure, he made a stupid mistake and ran away from his feelings, but it took Amelia’s friend Amanda to tell her how she should be feeling and why she should give Aaron a second chance before she was able to her final choice. It was pretty damned annoying. If Amanda had said that Amelia should be with Trey, I feel like she would’ve gone that route. The woman had no spine and no independent thoughts of her own! I kinda wanted to throat-punch her. 

But other than wanting to fix Aaron up with a heroine from a different book, I enjoyed this one. As always, Meghan Quinn’s writing has a nice, easy flow to it, and there are some really funny parts, as well as some heartwarming ones. (There’s a nursing home scene with Aaron and Amelia and Amelia’s dad that was really touching, and that’s saying a lot because I don’t usually find things that don’t involve rescue dogs and/or babies to be touching/heartwarming.)

via GIPHY

Long-story-short, if you can overlook a wishy-washy heroine (that remains consistently wishy-washy for 400 pages), you’ll probably enjoy this one. It earns it’s 3.5 stars from me on poor Aaron’s back alone, though.         
  
Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s not stigma-y. The heroine’s just...very punchable.

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