4,5 stars

This was no masterpiece with an outstanding prose. However, as Goodreads keeps reminding me, the rating system it utilises is based on whether you enjoy a book or not.

And I immensely enjoyed "Stepbrother Dearest". I borderline loved it.

It made me feel things. Lots of them.

At first, I wasn't sure about reading this book, since I have been trying to avoid any kind of angst. I've been in a mushy, smexy fase lately. I am so glad I abandoned it, though.

THE DRAMA. THE SUFFERING. THE LOVE.

This book is anything but light. Most of the time you'll be in an internal turmoil of sadness and happiness. Because amidst the gigantic struggles you experience first-hand, lies a heart-breaking, epic tale of two people who fell in love so deeply that distance and time could do nothing to undo it.

Elec and Greta are stepbrother and stepsister, yet they don't meet until senior year of high school. They come across as polar opposites: the rude, hurt(ful) boy who wants nothing more than to leave the father who hates him behind for good, and the sweet, kind-hearted girl who keeps trying to get through to him, even though he keeps insulting her and isolating himself.

In time, things begin to change. Elec slowly begins to open the blinded doors to his mind and heart and allowing Greta to reach layers who had remained untouched. The attraction they share is evident and one night, after Elec announces he is leaving sooner than expected, everything changes between them.

They never see each other again until seven years later. Elec is in his first serious relationship since leaving Greta.

When they reunite, it's as if no time has passed and they're eighteen all over again. Their feelings and attraction for one another haven't waned in the slightest. Unlike the circumstances of their lives.

"The "one that got away" was supposed to stay away, not come back and leave you all over again."

One word to describe this book: ROLLERCOASTER.

Possibly dangerous speed. Watch your heart and lacrimal glands.