Review: Stepbrother Next Door (Meadowfall Professors #3) by Anna Wineheart



Content Warnings for book: Pregnancy complications, discussion of miscarriages, power imbalance, self-harm

Kink: Spanking, knotting, consensual somnophilia, exhibitionism, sex toys, DP, foodplay, forced orgasms

Stepbrother Next Door by Anna Wineheart is an omegaverse, stepbrothers age-gap romance - and throw in some professor/student for good fun. 

Hunter and Quentin were sweet together - they both have insecurities (though, Hunter's felt just a tad bit shallow to me?), and Quentin struggled with what felt like depression and evidently self-harm. I loved the praise from Hunter given to Quentin, how he clearly cared for him even though there was hurt and pain between them. The glimspes of their past we get is quite sweet, too. Overall, I enjoy the protective alpha/sweet and sad omega trope, so it's no surprise I enjoyed this.

However, I do have some nitpicks -- it wasn't such an issue I couldn't enjoy this but it does make it fall short to others I have read by Wineheart.

I love the sex scenes Wineheart writes, but I felt this book was 75% sex and 25% emotions and romance, which was unfortunate. It made it difficult to want to actually enjoy this one as a romance, you know? Wineheart has some angst come into it later and there is the expected whitefanging/pushing away, but I just wish there were was more emotions put into it earlier to make it feel invested. Add in the way I felt self-harm could've been handled better (a promise to a person doesn't always work, I think more discussion about a plan forward - coping skills, therapy, something). Also, there were a lot of elements so similar to Dad's Omega Best Friend, so maybe that's why it fell shorter, because I already loved that one and this felt like it was recycled in a couple of parts. 

That doesn't mean I don't recommend this - if you love smutty omegaverse, this is good.

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