READING: Bewitched by Bella's Brother by Amy Lane

Publication date: August 11 2010
Published by: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: MM, Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit
Rating: 

Sebastian Craig and Isabella Bryne have been best friends for five years in the Neverland of academia, and that's where they're planning to stay. So when Bella's brother, Asa, offers them a rent-free summer in his gorgeous home before they move to their next college and degree, they jump at the chance. It looks like a good deal at first... but there's more to Asa than meets the eye, and Sebastian finds himself suddenly hip-deep in complicated, grown-up problems and the frightening, bemusing prospect of having a family that will miss him when he's gone.

When the best summer of his life finally ends, Sebastian has to make a difficult decision between staying in perpetual childhood forever, and facing adulthood—with all of its joys and fears. It seems that when Sebastian and Bella came up with a master plan for the future, they didn't count on Sebastian being bewitched by Bella's brother.

Kinda cute, but not quite.

Lane is a much beloved author in the mm community and this is the first book of hers I pick up, for the sole reason it was mentioned in another book as an inspiration for a dog's name of all things.
Obviously, this is one of Lane's earliest books and her story telling only gets better later, if the ratings are any indication. And don't get me wrong, her writing was good and the story was interesting-gay friend meets best friend's brother and they spent a tumultuous summer together, but it was all a bit much. 
Sebastian, Bella (taken after band Bell&Sebastian, that was pretty cool) and Asa were all extremely beautiful. Breathtakingly so. Sebastian was 27 years old, was about to do his second PhD and he worked at Barnes&Noble (and too pretentious for my taste). Him and Bella have been the best of friends for 5 years and he has never met her brother, Asa, until now. Asa's house, where B&S would spent their summer, was of course mansion-like. 

You see the pattern here? It was all too extravagant and not believable. It was hard to relate to their "real world" problems when they themselves were so unrealistic. The book read more like a romance from another era, than a (relatively) modern mm romance. 
Asa and Sebastian's relationship was pretty quick and straightforward-angst free, which I liked. All the "problems" in their lives came from other stuff, which were resolved very easily. Bella and Sebastian's relationship was also nice, even though I couldn't bring myself to like Bella. 

Also, Asa has a 7 year old, and I am usually not fond of kids in romance books, but this one was alright.
To be honest, I wanted to drop BBBB after page 10. But because of my obsession to not ever leave a book unfinished, I pushed through and I actually finished it all in one sitting. I kinda got in the flow after a while and I was curious to see what would happen. 

A couple of sex scenes just to spice things up, but nothing you haven't read before if you're a hardcore mm reader.

I guess I would recommend this book to those who are into Fabio/harlequin-like romances, but in the modern world.