Author: Rachel van Dyken
Rating: 4/5
Thanks to Skyscape and NetGalley for letting me receive a digital copy of this book before its official release date.
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 it 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.
Let's start this review by saying what I am saying in every of my Rachel van Dyken reviews - I love this woman! You'd think her writing will lack any time soon considerung the huge amount of books she's publishing year after year. I know there are multiple authors out there, trying to aim for that goal and unfortunately, their quality suffers along with the pressure of getting as many books out as you can. But with Rachel, I feel like she's seeing this as her gift - never running out of story ideas, just writing them down and boom! There's a new book to publish, just as amazing as the ones before. I admire her for that, honestly.
So yes, there's a fair share of books out there, a CEO as the main characters and a girl, loving to wear heels and is hungry for sex out there already. I've read enough of them, grown tired and just seeing the word Manhattan written in a book gets me really angry and all red-eyed with rage. Same old story. All the time. And here comes Rachel, turning that original thought into something else entirely. It kind of reminded me of that Sandra Bullok movie where she pretends to be the girlfriend of a man in coma. I like that movie, but I loved this book even more. Because it's something else. And there's just that typical Rachel van Dyken humor in it that I'm always craving to read more about after finishing one of her books. Like, I want Rachel to constantly talk to me, see if she's just as funny as she writes. I'm sure she is, because I get to see glimpse of it whenever I check the posts in her Rachel's Rockin' Readers group on Facebook.
Back to the book... If you're expecting a big plot twist for this one, you're not getting it. The outcome it quite predictable at the beginning of the book, but I didn't mind that. I wanted to read about the development more so than a change of heart, something surprising jumping out of a cake or anything like that. I could feel Isobel and Bridge had so much to say, they both had such powerful voices during the story, I fell in love with both of them. And their strength, their chemistry and their minds. I mean, it wouldn't be a Rachel van Dyken book if she didn't made the heorine be a badass. And wow, Isobel was one of the best kind. Sure enough, she annoyed me sometimes and I'd get sick of her trying to sew up holes with Julian that just couldn't be repaired. And then, as the story went further, I felt sorry for Julian as well. So I was literally a mess. I felt sorry for each and everyone in the story, most of all Bridge's mom, to be honest. I'm sad we didn't get to read about her as much I as hoped we would.
The only person I didn't shed a tear for was Bridge and Julian's father. He's as evil as they come, only caring about money and impressions. Gosh, I hated him with all my heart. Not sure if Bridge hated him as much as me. And that's good, because this book brings up so many emotions, love and hate and rage and angst and so much more - I love when that happens. When one single author manages to squeeze it all into one story without it demanding to be too much, to strangle the reader. It felt so natural, the story felt so real to me, it wasn't just fiction at the time I read it.
There's one thing I'm going to complain about, still. And that's the rush toward the end of the story. I can see that many things were figured out, worked out, too. But it seemed to sudden to me. Like: "Okay, hey. Forgive and forget" and though I longed for a happy-end, I liked the epiloge for what it was - raw, not just that shiny, everything is great kind of thing. And I think in that moment, the other brother, Julian, stole my heart a little more than Bridge did. But I can only tell after reading the second book in the Covet series and I am so super excited when it's going to be published!
Oh, and something else - I'm a bit sad for Isobel wearing a white dress on the cover of Stealing Her. Red would have been more fitting and I think Bridge would agree with me on that one. You'll understand this once you start reading the amazing book, so just do it!
