Five Brothers by Penelope Douglas Pages: 554
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Setting: Florida
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Also by this author: Next to Never, Corrupt , Nightfall
Goodreads
On the other side of town, in the dark glades, under the rain…
Macon is the oldest. Thirty-one. Ex-Marine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile.
Army is twenty-eight. A single dad with the most beautiful green eyes. He has no idea who he is, if not a Jaeger brother.
Iron will be in prison soon. You’d never think it to meet him. He’s a nice guy, actually. But he can’t stop reacting to everything.
Dallas is the one I hate. Twenty-one, cruel, and selfish. He takes and then throws away whatever’s left.
And Trace is mine. Or he was for about two seconds. No one can tame him for long.
Not that I ever wanted to. It was fun, but now I need to go home. Back to my side of the tracks. Away from the swamps and these men. To my parents’ big house. On my clean street. Where I’m never dirty or messy or hot. And I will. I’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning. I just want to crash on the couch tonight.
Their house is dark and quiet, everyone else is asleep. Except for one. He sees me crying and comes at me from behind. I let him wrap his arms around my body and hold me tightly. His breath is on my neck, his fingers are in my hair, and he doesn’t stop there.
Five Brothers is a classic Penelope Douglas read. This woman can manipulate your emotions like its nothing! Like all her books (in my opinion), there is a somber tone. The haves (Saints) and the have nots (Swamp) is a story as old a time, but Douglas puts her spin on it in a great way.
Krisjen is a Saint and the Jaeger boys are Swamps, but that doesn’t stop them from hanging out. Initially, Krisjen befriends Trace and they have a lot of fun together. She can be herself with the Jaegers. Krisjen may come from money, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t have problems and family issues (her mom is the WORST). I low key hated Trace. He was so immature and slutty. But, I get why he and Krisjen were hooking up. Now, as a fan of why choose, I wish this book went that way, but it doesn’t. Krisjen gets to know all the brothers as they work through various issues in the story (an upcoming prison sentence for Iron, single parent issues for Army, anger issues for Macon, and straight up hate for the saints from Dallas). I appreciated the individual relationships between Krisjen and the guys, but I certainly had my favorites.
Overall, if you like the wrong side of the tracks vibe with some serious family dysfunction, Five Brothers is a must read! It is emotional, gritty, and beautiful. This is a spin off of sorts of Tryst Six Venom, but if you have read Credence and liked that vibe, you will love Five Brothers.
Note: I am actually thinking of getting the audio because it is done by a multi cast! So, if you are an audio fan, maybe check that out as well!
- POV: 1st
- Tears: a few
- Trope: wrong side of the tracks, dysfunctional family
- Triggers: View Spoiler »
- Series/Standalone: stand alone (but it is apparently a spin off of Tryst Six Venom, which I haven’t read)
- Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
- HEA: View Spoiler »
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authors like Krista and Becca Ritchie, Claire Contreas, Helen Hardt…then you will probably like Five Brothers!
I had such conflicting feelings about this one. So much so that I decided not to review it on NetGalley. I loved Credence but this one just didn’t work as well for me. I found the characters to be so confusing. Even with it being first person POV i still felt like I never fully understand their actions or motivations a lot of the time. And so many things just didn’t make since. Like when Macon showed up at her house, busted down the door and they go at it while the security guys are there? Stuff like that just bothered me. Lol I found I couldn’t just go with it because it just seemed so nonsensical.