Harlequin MIRA, $7.99, ISBN 978-0-373-86228-3
Contemporary Romance, 2013
A Brother’s Honor is the start of a new trilogy revolving around the Granger brothers. Of course, if the author’s track record is anything to go by, don’t be too surprised if sixteen long-lost cousins suddenly show up by the end of the third book and this series would continue until 2083, when it finally merges with the Madaris and Friends and Even More Friends and Then Some More and Yes, Some More, Have More, Some More, Here’s More, More, MORE, MOREMOREMOREMO-OOOO-ORE! series to create a chain reaction that finally destroys the whole universe.
So, the Granger brothers. They are all hot, of course, and women just swoon in their presence. To differentiate themselves from one another, they hold distinct jobs. Jace, the hero of this one, is an attorney, the middle one Caden is a musician, and Dalton has more properties than a romance hero’s pee-pee has inches. Alas, the sad thing is that their father, fifteen years ago, was convicted of murdering their mother. The three brothers were taken in by their very, very, very, very rich grandfather, who then left them huge trust funds. And because the trilogy needs a plot device to get these three brothers back together, he dies early in this story. Ah, but before he dies, he makes all three promise to take over the family business, which the old man conveniently left in shambles as an excuse for Jace to meet his future wife.
Granger Aeronautics, as I’ve mentioned, is on shaky financial grounds, but the current members of the board are not too keen on having three inexperienced newcomers swoop in on their territory, so they put up some resistance. Jace decides to bring on board Shana Bradford. a crisis management expert, and these two of course fall in love while leading a cast of sequel baits in a tepid soap opera that has all the dramatic evil bits taken out.
Don’t worry if you miss out on any detail about the Granger father killing the mother thing, because the details get repeated every page for the first few dozen pages that I quickly get sick and tired of reading about the whole thing. The author also loves to wade into unnecessary back stories of every single secondary character in this story, even the most minor ones, when she’s not describing their physical perfection to the point that everyone resembles a doll made from the same factory. Reading this story is like having to swim through a pond choked with weed and flotsam – there is too much unnecessary moving off track that ends up making the story seem like an aimless day-to-day diary of really boring people.
Jace is another typical hero by this author, and he’s unintentionally hilarious in how he often blasts others (predictably, mostly other women) for being concerned only about money. Of course he will say that, as he has a trust fund that sets him up for life, that douchebag hypocrite. Let’s see how well he will fare bagging groceries for a living. Shana is gorgeous, perfect, hot, and not much else. She and Jace meet, have sex, decide that they are in love, the end. If the romance seems short to you, well, it is. Shana and Jace meet only about 100 pages into this book, and most of the story is devoted to scenes of sequel baits pouting over their daddy issues and moments of B-grade “urban suspense” where the villain is so obvious the moment that person is introduced into the story. Oh, and Jace’s ex-wife shows up for some predictable cartoon moments too, the better to show everyone how right Shana is for Jace, as other women are, you know, such bitches and schemers and what not.
All in all, A Brother’s Honor reminds me of a novel by Jackie Collins. That is, if we take a novel by Jackie Collins, cut out all the interesting over-the-top salaciousness and sex stuff, make all the good guys uniformly bland and perfect-looking, and add in bad guys in a plot so predictable that even Shaggy and Scooby-Doo would get the guessing game right the first time around. Don’t worry if you have always wanted to read a book by this author and you are now hesitant to read this book – the author has 10 billion books flooding the market, and, judging from the promo material padding the back bits of this book, she has another 20 books coming out at around the same time as this book. Have fun!
