- Book Title: Br0th3rly
- Book Series: Famous on the Internet #1
- Author: Alina Popescu
- Publisher: Wayward Ink Publishing (January 15, 2016)
- Book Length: 112 pages
- Genre: Contemporary, Romance
- Reviewed by: Scott
- Rating: 4 Star
- Posting Date: January 22, 2016
Alina is a very inventive author, her books are not the usual or norm, she takes chances and approaches things differently. In this book she has a story within a blog or vica versa, it starts out as a blog so that is why I stated it the way I did. You may be thinking because of the title that this book will be incestuous, it isn’t, so for some of you that will be a relief and others a little let down.
The story definitely has it’s positive moments and then some that sort of wore on me. Tristan has been in love with his ‘brother’ even before he even knew what that meant, which makes for a great basis for the story but OMG, his obsessive behavior over Trevor and his whining and running away was a bit abundant in the book. When Trevor follows Tristan, that is when the book really woke up and left you grasping at each page. Character development was really well done, the author always does such a great job of bringing characters to the reader that are well rounded.
I mentioned the blog earlier, I personally found it distracting. Tristan would write in his blog about what was going on in the story. The blog did allow the reader to get a better understanding of the emotional war that was going on over his love for Trevor, in that aspect it was good. I found the blog repetitious of the story and ended up skipping the blog about 1/2 way through. I’m not totally discounting the blog, this is book 1 in the series so I will make a final judgement on that once we get further into the series.
I think the author delivered a strong book, I just wish Tristan would have come across stronger.
Fighting his relentless love for Trevor, the guy he was raised to consider his brother, has been Tristan’s mission in life.
To distance himself from Trevor, even after discovering they weren’t really related, he left for college at sixteen. Moving into the city, building a new life, and running an anonymous blog about what he considers sick, twisted feelings might make Tristan famous on the Internet, but it isn’t enough to get over his obsession. Every time he goes home, a quick glance at Trevor brings it all flooding back.
When commitment-phobe Trevor announces he’s got a serious boyfriend during one of Tristan’s rare visits home, the adoring kid brother will be forced to run once again. This time, however, Trevor doesn’t stand back and watch him leave.
Instead, he follows him, making it nigh on impossible for Tristan to keep his love a secret for much longer.
Growing up, I never really had a role model. Well, I had plenty, but none of them of my own. My dad and my big brother were my superheroes, and then when I discovered just how I loved my brother, I was even less inclined to pick my own model to follow. I didn’t know of anyone who’d made their dreams come true in my situation, so what would have been the point? No, instead I went after my brother’s role models or, later on, his random crushes.
First there was Marat Safin. My brother was obsessed with him. He’d never watched a tennis match in his life, but after running across his photo, he became an aficionado. What did I do? Well, I picked up tennis and was fairly good at it. I made it to a few competitions and might have continued to do well. But then my brother saw this Japanese movie made after a manga, where two men fall in love. They’d met in high school and one of them was on the track team. Yup, you guessed it, as his obsession with runners got hold of him, so did mine. Track replaced tennis and I did soon make the school’s track team. That ended up helping a lot with my college admission.
Then there was David Beckham. I think that one’s one of my brother’s favorites to this day. Then some rock star or another, then the actors. I lost track of all of them. I do remember Keanu, Brad, Stuart Townsend, the lead singer of Thirty Seconds to Mars, Adam Lambert, and a few others. I had vast collections of photos of all of them. I knew everything they did, watched their movies or went to their concerts. Anything to figure out what it was in them that made my brother like them so I could try to emulate it.
I never managed to be anything but myself. And even if I had, I was his little brother despite everything, so he never once looked my way with a shred of interest. Yet I kept trying to copy whoever caught his eye, even after having left home. Play toys, fuck buddies, celebrity crushes, I got myself acquainted with all of them. In a twisted way, I never gave up hope of my brother suddenly realizing he wanted me. Bad? Maybe. But it kept me alive, pushed me forward.
Writer, traveler, and coffee addict, Alina Popescu has been in love with books all her life. She started writing when she was ten and she has always been drawn to sci-fi, fantasy, and the supernatural realm. Born and raised in Romania, she finds her inspiration in books of all genres, in movies, and the occasional manga comic book. She is a proud geek who needs her fast Internet and gadgets more than she needs air.
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