Defiant Attraction

by V.K. Torston

• Publish Date: 2017
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[thebookdisciple]

Defiant Attraction is a little gem of a debut book. While not perfect, it was good and I enjoyed it! I think it worked as a shorter book as opposed to being 300+ pages.

You have lots of classic story tropes colliding: step-brother (ish), wrong side of the tracks, rich assholes, drunk/abusive parents. Sophia is a dynamic character who is at that age when her life is before her but she has no idea who she really is. As things start to heat up with Dan, her world becomes less black and white and she realizes that she doesn't have to be who everyone thinks or assumes she is. Dan is a great hero-kindhearted, protective, a bad boy with a heart of gold for Sophia.

The plot deals with some issues beyond just the taboo of the step-brother type relationship. Dan and Sophia's parents are abusive alcoholics, Sophia is cyber bullied and basically kicked out of school for it, and Sophia is also dealing with a crazy ex boyfriend who can't understand she isn't interested. Through all this though, Sophia is an honor's student, taking AP classes, and mastering the cello enough to get the Stanford orchestra to notice. So, while the tropes presented aren't new, the dichotomy of all this together creates a compelling story about 2 characters you will love.

The writing is compelling and Torston weaves words seamlessly to create vivid scenes and evoke a lot of emotion. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect with this story, but Defiant Attraction is one of the better debut books I have read!

 

• POV: 1st


• Tears: no


• Trope: step-brother, abusive parents


• Triggers: There is a scene where Sophia is assaulted by her ex (physically), and also a scene where Dan is physically beaten by his father.


• Series/Standalone: stand alone


• Cliffhanger: no


• HEA: yes with epilogue

Wicked Beginnings by LA Cotton, Paper Princess by Erin Watt, Deeper by Robin York...then you will probably like Defiant Attraction!

 

Defiant Attraction

 

See full review on The Book Disciple

[Eve1972]

So color me impressed because this is V.K. Torston's debut book and it was a very good debut indeed. It was a fairly quick read. It was very well written and well paced. The plot was engaging and had a lot more depth to it than I was anticipating. To be honest, I saw STEPBROTHER and figured it would be a light, flirty, skim the surface type of read. It was so much more than that. The journey of self-discovery both these characters take will break your heart one minute and have you smiling the next.

Although both these characters are young, this book wasn't young adult. We get some hot sex scenes between these two. Some angst. Some violence. I loved both Sophie and Dan. Both were strong characters with big hearts connected through a shared history of dysfunction. There wasn't a ton of secondary characters, but the ones that do feature added some excellent intensity to the story. There wasn't any OW/OM drama, and it was all wrapped up in a nice happy for now ending.



A couple of things kept this from being a complete hit. One, I wish we would have gotten a bit more background on both main characters. I would have liked to have seen some of their interactions before they transitioned into a "couple." It's mentioned briefly that Dan used to sell drugs and had a pretty checkered past. I think it would have given the characters an extra layer of development. My other issue is I would have liked to have seen a further into the future epilogue for these two. Marriage, babies, college degrees, etc. That said, yours truly was impressed with this one so I am giving it two solid thumbs up and I look forward to reading more from this author.