My Brother’s Lover (Twin Ties #1), Lynn Kelling
Rating: 4 Stars
Publisher: Fantastic Fiction Publishing
Genre: Gay Erotic Romance
Tags: Double Bio Twincest, Psychological, Contemporary Setting, Series, Taboo, Kink
Length: 267 Pages
Reviewer: Kazza K
Purchase At: Fantastic Fiction, amazon.com
**SPOILER REVIEW**
Blurb:
Growing up gay in a small town with no mother, Evan Savage learned the hard way to cherish his secrets above all else. Now he’s 18, not even his father can hurt him anymore. When his long-lost twin brother Brennan shows up out of nowhere looking for a new home, Evan’s world, and his very identity, comes crashing down around him all over again. Brennan treats nothing as sacred in his search for a family connection after their mother’s death.
Frustrated and reckless, anonymous sexual encounters are just the first step on a journey of self-discovery for both Evan and Brennan. The sweetness of first love with twin brothers Alek and Luka leads them find in each other things they never knew they had lost…
…and lures them all into danger.
My Review: NOTE -**SPOLIER ALERT**
Evan gets to meet and know about his twin brother, Brennan, for the first time when
they are both eighteen. Acrimonious separation and divorce saw the boys split up – rather King Solomon-esque of mum and dad – when they were very young. So young, neither knew they had a twin until their mother dies, their father reaches out to the son he let go, and Brennan comes to live with Evan. I do stress living with Evan because Charlie is never at home. Things don’t run smoothly at first, Brennan is more white collar, having obviously lived a life with a bit more money and a close relationship with his mum; their mum. Where Evan is a mechanic, likes to hunt and eat his kill, and drink beer, even though he’s underage, Brennan’s a student, likes to practice yoga, doesn’t drink, and is a pescatarian. He’s also fully out and proud.
Evan is a troubled and insular young man. He was the victim of intense childhood bullying at school – was called faggot, even though he never did a thing that would indicate his sexual orientation, wore glasses, was quiet and 
smaller and bore the brunt of teen cruelty. Things became so bad he attempted suicide – actually died outside Jimmy’s place. Jimmy is an ex pastor who has been a constant source of support for Evan because Evan’s father, Charlie, is often gone for extended periods. It was Jimmy who found Evan when he overdosed at fourteen and made sure he had purpose later on, including volunteering at a local homeless shelter. Although Charlie came back to make sure Evan was admitted to a psych ward, Jimmy’s always there for Evan and is his regular confidant. He knows Evan likes men even when Evan remains firmly closeted. When Evan is out one night at a bar in the nearby but bigger town of Mitchellsburg, he hooks up with a sexy guy who blatantly wants him.
Alek Popovic is also a twin who is very much in a relationship – with his twin brother, Luka. He only means for the hook-up in the toilet of the bar he works at to be a one off. However, he’s all but smitten with the blonde, closed-off and obviously virginal twink, Evan. Evan has a work shirt tucked into his jeans and during a blowjob and some arse play, Alek makes sure he takes the shirt.
Alek turned the worn fabric of the work shirt over and over in his hands as he sat in his truck, parked in the front lot of Mike’s Garage. He could see people moving around inside, and someone that could have very well been the person he was looking for. Those lips, that haunted look in his blue eyes, the way he whimpered, like he was scared by how good it felt, the way he tasted, how goddamned tight he was…
Meanwhile, Brennan is finding Whippoorwill an… adjustment. He and Evan don’t dislike each other but Evan is distant and seems edgy that Brennan is now living in his house. That he has a twin. Brennan wants to be close to family and Evan and Charlie are all the family he has left. He misses his mother and cries most mornings when he wakes up in a strange place feeling disoriented and lonely. It’s only been two weeks since her death from cancer, and because he was her carer and they were so close, he misses her terribly. Not too long after landing in Whippoorwill he has to get out of the house. He heads to the local gym where he meets the intense and hot Luka who works there. It takes a little while but in a whoa, really?! moment, when Evan and Brennan and Alek and Luka discover they are all dating each other’s twin, things start to fall into place and desires keep building.
Both Evan and Brennan have issues that affect them profoundly. Both boys 
knew something was missing, not definitively, but at a soul-deep level, particularly Evan. That they are identical twins who were separated by feuding parent’s has left a mark on them both. As the book progresses they are starting to feel more whole, but in the beginning they seemed poles apart. It isn’t long, though, before both boys desire each other and the Popovic twins support that ‘want’ – it’s what they know and do themselves. Brennan is more overt about his wants but Evan fights them. He fights his homosexuality as well, but with dirty-talking Alek as his partner walls start to slowly, painfully, but sexily, vanish.
Twenty five year old Alek and Luka have their own issues fuelled by their mother’s uncaring parenting, which Luka still finds difficult. Alek was involved in a bad scene with Luka and another guy when Alek was high and he continually punishes himself for it. Alek has an overprotective streak and he now stretches that overprotective nature to Evan. He is gentle on Evan and worries about him, as well as Luka – who likes to sleep next to his brother for comfort. Both Alek and Luka fall hard and quickly for Evan and Brennan, but Evan is the tie that binds. His tough-guy veneer but inner and actual life-experience innocence is like a flame to Alek’s and Luca’s moths, for different reasons.
Okay, the sex. There is a fair bit of it. Okay, a lot of it. There is some major three-finger lube action in this book, so arse play is right up there. Toys join the scene as well. Initially the sex is concentrated on the partners but it grows to include everyone, because Brennan is dying to fuck/be fucked by his brother. Evan wants it too but feels wrong about it and just having started being sexually active, having a boyfriend, is a huge deal for him already. But there ends up being multiple combinations – although partners technically stay faithful they mix and match. Any play is agreed on by the collective in a loose manner. The whole idea is transparency. Everyone is tested and clean, bare-backing abounds so it has to stay within the four of them.
This is book one in the series and while it ends well you know a lot is coming.
Charlie hasn’t been home since before Brennan came to live in Whippoorwill. Brennan knows he is due back but Evan doesn’t. There are threads left open. I want to know more about these guys and I look forward to more character and relationship development in the next book. Something tells me that having to prop up a few people will test Alek, and Evan’s emotions are tenuous, followed closely by Brennan’s. Brennan has a voracious sexual appetite and Luka has a bit of a… devilish side. There are also some very interesting side characters in Carter and Presley, who are housemates of Alek and Luka. I also look forward to more incendiary and taboo sex/kink as well.
Overall:
This is without a doubt my favourite twincest book. Because, yes, it’s plenty sexy – it really is H.O.T – but it also has a decent and building storyline, something harder to find with twincest. I love flawed and damaged characters and Lynn Kelling delivers again. The basis of the emotions and connections are pretty much rooted in the psychological twin bond. But there is more – difficult family environments/dynamics, isolation, the individual characters’ historical experiences, plus love that is different. Lynn Kelling is beautifully unapologetic in her writing of these incredibly sexy and flawed guys, and that makes for genuinely good reading. Highly recommended for fellow kinksters and twincest lovers. On to book #2 now. 4 Deliciously Naughty Stars!
If you would like some extra spice in the form of quotes and GIFS for this review and more, visit our 18+ tumblr
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This looks like a hot book. I can tell I’d love Evan from his introduction.
Love the review. LOVE the pics and GIFs. Really love the Tumblr page. 😉
Great review. I really want to read this.
Oh yes, hot potato. I’m off to be with the guys again in a moment. I shall fall to sleep with them… or lie awake all night 🙂
Thanks, Cindi. I know you would REALLY enjoy this book… and I do love tumblr 😀
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