This Harlequin Romance, 'The Forbidden Brother' by Barbara McMahon was
released in Australia in August 2007. I'm embarrassed I've let some
books languish for that length of time on my TBR pile!
The Forbidden Brother is the story of Laura Parkerson and Jed Brodie.
Laura owns an art gallery and was engaged to Jed's twin brother, who
died three months prior to the start of the story. I'm not often a fan
of stories where the heroine ends up with the 'other' brother so rather
than for entertainment value, I bought this book as a study in handling
comparisons between two men from the perspective of the heroine having
cared for one only to then fall hard for the other, and I particularly
wanted to see how Barbara handled the issue of those brothers being
identical twins. I'm going to review the book on that basis. Perhaps if
you're an aspiring writer you might find it interesting from that
perspective too.
The Harlequin Romance line is known for its depth of emotion in a tight
word length. This book delivers on that promise on every page. The
heroine works through the gamut of emotions. I won't give away too much
of the plot. Suffice to say she is first shocked to see someone who
looks exactly like her ex-fiance, then has to deal with every emotion
that follows. Barbara deftly handled the differences between the men, I
felt empathetic towards Laura as she came to terms with being attracted
to a man who looked exactly like her ex-fiance but in reality was
nothing like him at all, and the hero Jed's feelings about his brother
were unique and interesting and to me as a reader, unexpected. I
learned heaps from reading this skillful book by Barbara McMahon.
Also - in the month of May the Book Challenge reader's mini-challenge is to encourage one other person to join the readathon. It's for a really good cause so if you haven't joined and you're reading -- go visit the Book Challenge thread (link in the line of links at the top of this page) and join up!
Jennie
Harlequin Books: 11 Non Harlequin Books: 10
To Love and To Cherish - Harlequin Romance March 08
The Boss's Unconventional Assistant - Harlequin Romance August 08
Promoted:Secretary to Wife! Harlequin Romance January 2009
http://www.jennieadams.net http://www.jennieadams.net/diary.htm
