Stealing Her (Covet #1) by Rachel Van Dyken-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 5, 2019

My estranged twin brother, Julian, was always the wonder boy – and soon-to-be CEO of our ruthless father’s corporation. My mother and me? Left behind. Now, years after tearing our family apart, my father dares to ask “me” for a favor? Pretend to be Julian while he fights to survive a tragic accident. It can save the company. Nobody will be the wiser. It’ll be our secret.

I can play Dad’s favorite. I’ll do anything for Julian. And for my mother, who’ll want for nothing.

But this double life comes with a beauty of a hitch: my very real feelings for Julian’s fiancée, Isobel. Not only am I betraying Julian, I’m deceiving a woman I love. She doesn’t suspect a thing. As lies compound, lines are crossed and loyalties tested, all I can ask myself is. . .what have I done?

Because sooner or later something’s got to give. There’s no way I’m giving up Isobel. But once the truth is exposed, it might not be my choice at all.

•••••••••

REVIEW:STEALING HER is the first instalment in Rachel Van Dyken’s contemporary, adult COVET romance series. This is personal trainer Bridge Anderson Tennyson, and Isobel Cunningham’s story line.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Bridge and Isobel) STEALING HER follows the building relationship, predicated upon a lie, between personal trainer Bridge Anderson Tennyson, and Isobel Cunningham. At the age of fifteen, twins Bridge and Julian Tennyson were separated as a result of their parent’s divorce. Bridge had always promised Julian he would protect his brother but years of separation meant the two had become strangers until the fateful day when Bridge would be pulled back into his brother’s world. Having lived with his ailing mother, Bridge watched from the sidelines as his brother Julian excelled in the business of high finance, a business that was destroying Julian and the woman with whom he was about to marry. Enter Isobel Cunningham, and the woman with whom Bridge would fall in love. What ensues is the growing relationship and love between Bridge and Isobel, and the potential fall-out when the truth is revealed.

Bridge Tennyson had no idea what was about to happen in his well-ordered world. Having been abandoned by his father when his parents separated, Bridge is now commanded to pretend to be his brother Julian, in an effort to save Tennyson Financial, and the father he never knew. But things don’t go according to plan when Bridge falls in love with his brother’s fiancé, a woman who has suffered heart break and pain in the wake of Julian’s cheating and scandals. Isobel Cunningham struggled with the ‘new’ Julian Tennyson following a miraculous recovery from a near fatal motor vehicle accident but it wasn’t only the physical recovery but the change in personality that triggered something deep within our story line heroine. Little by little Isobel began to suspect that all was not right with the man she once loved, a man who was already stealing her heart.

The relationship between Isobel and Bridge is based upon a lie. Bridge must pretend to be his brother in order to help his brother, and his mother and her astronomical medical bills, but Bridge never expected to fall in love. Guilt will not be enough to push Isobel out of his life, but Bridge will make reparations including serving up his father, on the proverbial platter, in an effort to take down the once powerful Edward Tennyson. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

We are introduced to Bridge’s twin brother Julian Tennyson, their father Edward Tennyson, and their mother, as well as Julian’s PA Kelsey.

STEALING HER is a story of family dysfunction, power and control; a story of heart break and loss; of secrets, lies, love and happily ever after. The premise is entertaining and energetic; the romance is captivating and emotional: the characters are colorful and dynamic but I struggled with the missing backstory following the parents’ separation and divorce- I wish we saw some of the struggle and fallout of separating the once loving and close brothers.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

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Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she’s not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.

She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband, adorable son, and two snoring boxers! She loves to hear from readers!