Stepbrother Bastard

The Hawthorne Brothers, Volume 1

By: Colleen Masters

Narrated by: Eli Walker

Length: 4 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

It started off as a dare...a harmless one-night-stand with a complete stranger. He was just another bad boy I met in a bar, a harmless fling to start my summer vacation. One unbelievable night of sex, and I'd never have to see him again. But the next morning as I pull up to the lake house my mom has rented for the summer, I get the feeling my world is about to crumble...it was just supposed to be us girls - me, my two sisters, and Mom...but we're not alone....

Apparently my mom's old high school sweetheart John owns the house, and he has three sons, all around the same age as me and my sisters. And they thought it would be a great idea to put us all together under the same roof for four weeks. We'll have to share bedroom walls, sit down for family dinners, and suffer through a million other forced, awkward, sexually confusing family activities I'm sure...and then I realize my mom's new boyfriend has a son a little older than me.

I see him barreling toward me on a four-wheeler, a lit cigarette between his lips, strangely familiar tattoos on his muscular forearms and chest. As he gets closer, I'm filled with dread as I begin to realize who he is...but he isn't slowing down. The f - king prick nearly runs into me. As he takes off his helmet, I'm instantly filled with horror and an undeniable twinge of excitement between my legs. It's him. The man who took me last night, used me every which way, stretched me more than any man I've ever been with before...and now he's ignoring me, acting like he's never seen me before in his life. I have a feeling it's going to be a fun summer.

This contemporary new adult stepbrother romance novel is the first book in the three book Hawthorne Brothers series. The ending is HFN. The book contains harsh language, sexual content, and adult situations that may offend some listeners.

©2015 Hearts Collective (P)2016 Hearts Collective

Was not impressed with Narration

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The book was good. Was not impressed with the narration. I listen to books at work so the book was fine. It was pretty typical story line and I really didn't need to concentrate to follow the story.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The ending was fine.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator read extremely fast and ran the sentences together. When I want to get through a book quickly, I increase the speed. This narrator read so fast it was actually daunting to keep up.

In addition to the speed reading, she would as if she was swallowing and then re-read the sentence prior before continuing. It was a little weird to hear the sentences constantly being repeated. Sometimes it wasn't just one sentence but several.

Do you think Stepbrother Bastard needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. I think the ending was good. The next books are about the brothers and I like that better than the books that end and you are forced to purchase the next book to find out what happens.

Narrator was bad

Did not care for the narrator of the book. She was making mistakes and read to slow.

bad narrator

The narrator was horrible, but loved the story. Narrator read the story too fast and missed up on part of the recordings. Almost stopped listening because of narrator.

what happened to the editor

I can't believe audible released this for purchase, I could have recorded myself reading better than this.

Editor needs a new job

Although the story is really a good one, whoever edited this book has no idea what the terrible job they did. There are so many many repeats that needed to be edited out that I found it hard to listen to.

Do audio books go thru edit?

this was an ok story - H not really "bastardly" and h very wishy washy

This book must have missed the editing line. ALL thru the book lines were repeated lines were repeated. The narrator also stumbled quite a bit over words. Maybe had she slowed down instead of speed reading she could have been better. I might have even enjoyed the book more if it weren't for these distractions. If you want to read this book, save the credit and READ the book, don't listen...don't listen...don't listen.

bad narrator

she barely takes a breath between reading and the story which could be enticing is generally predictable and lame flirting

No editing!!!

There was no editing done on this book. The narrator mispronounced words and read incredibly fast in some areas.

Very Dissapointed

Not worth a credit!The story itself was ok. Short and quick. The quality of the audio book was the worst I have listened to. Sentences were repeated several times during the book. Sounded like the narrator was in a tunnel while reading. The narrator itself was distracting. She rushed the whole time.

My Ears are Bleeding!

This is a terrible listen. There is no editing which means every time the narrator notices a mistake she rereads it leaving in the portions that are read incorrectly. She cannot pronounce many words, including common proper nouns. I had a hard time getting to chapter 3. The word "Scathing" was mispronounced so many times I can't even believe it's in there so much!

It may be a good read but I sure couldn't listen to it and I want my $1.99 back....should have been less than free. Totally disgusted!