Stealing Her

(Covet #1) 

Rachel Van Dyken
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Release Date November 5, 2019

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes an unexpected love story of family, secrets, and the most intimate of deceptions.

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.

This book's blurb had me from "twins" and I was immediately sucked into this world.

Twin brothers that shared a bond: Bridge was always the bigger, stronger, protective brother, and Julian was the one who always needed protection and was searching for approval. But one day in their early teens, they are split apart by their parents. Julian was chosen to stay with his wealthy, controlling father and be groomed to run the family business, while Bridge was sent off with his mother to lead a much harder life.

As adults, they have no contact. Bridge is resentful as he struggles to work and take care of his mom. Julian seems to have everything he ever wanted. including the perfect fiancee'. And one tragic event changes everything and their worlds are colliding again. Bridge is enlisted by his estranged father to impersonate his brother and smoothe things over at the company until Julian can recover.

But now Bridge is walking into his brother's life and relationship. And he finds Izzy to be a wounded bird who is also angry and distrustful. It seems Julian has pushed to her to almost the point of no return. But she begins to respond to this improved version of "Julian" while Bridge does his best to resist. He struggles under the weight of the lies he is being forced to tell. But it is just a matter of time before sexual tension boils over things get even more complicated.

Secrets, lies, lust, love, betrayal, manipulation, greed, and heartbreak cause layers of guilt and fear of consequences. They know they are on borrowed time.

Eventually, secrets will be revealed and the whole messy situation will all come out in the open. There are many variables and layers to the truth. Someone is bound to get hurt. And the instigator of it all is their cold, manipulative father. This book brings the angst, and had me biting my fingernails, totally tense, and just waiting for the big moments I knew were coming. For much of the book, I could not let myself get emotionally attached to Julian because I really loved Bridge. So I was wanting Bridge and Izzy to keep progressing and for them to have a way to find their happiness in the midst of the mess. But I did feel bad for Julian at times as well.

I am not a person that usually enjoys books about love triangles, but this one is different and was carefully constructed to avoid things that might bother some readers. I appreciated how things were handled. This book does not end on a cliffhanger and is a complete story for the couple, but I cannot wait to see more with these characters in book two of the Covet series.