Slade: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance by Sienna Valentine starts off with smarmy twenty-one year old Slade Jarvis lying and taking sexual advantage of his eighteen year old stepsister, Iris Walker, in an attempt to gain revenge on his father and stepmother. Sure he regrets it, but regret doesn’t redeem anyone. Fast forward seven years and Harvard graduate Slade is a egotistical womanizing ER doctor. Interior designer Iris wants her parents to reach out to Slade as a possible help to the youngest in the family, Kellen, who has gone the route of a drug addict. Her parents adamantly refuse and Iris decides she must find Slade and secretly enlist his aid in helping Kellen. There’s nothing subtle here, people say exactly what they’re thinking and react in stereotypical ways. Hushed family secrets are the cause of Kellen’s psychic wounds, Slade is an egomaniac and Iris can’t help having the hots for him. The story is a bit forced. Little of any character’s pain feels real or meaningful and, for me, the steamy scenes lacked authentic passion. Can anyone in this story be truly honest with anyone else? You’ll have to read to find out. I was relieved when Slade finally overcame his egotism, shared his man-pain with Iris and stepped up to the plate to help Kellen. In the end, I guess I did care what happened to the characters so I’ll give ‘Slade’ 4 stars.
