Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings

Love Thy Brother by Garrett Leigh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I swear every time I think Garrett Leigh has delivered her best book yet, she releases another one which blows me away.

With the Rebel Kings series I think she’s gone off into the stratosphere with just how amazingly absorbing the narratives are. When I read, I’m fearful I’ll miss something if I blink too long!

In Rubi she’s crafted such an amazing giant of a man with the heart of a lion and the soul of an angel. He’s a King until death, even though being a member of the club has cost him the one thing he loves beyond all else – his president Cam’s younger brother River.

River though, my heart broke for River. He’s turned his back on the club that took his parents, some of his friends, and which threatens the safety of the guy he’s been in love with for years.

He’s also storing up some pretty big pain from an event that Rubi can’t even remember, when he turned to River in the aftermath of the attack on the club and they spent the night together before Rubi left him alone in his bed.

River’s all piss and vinegar, he snaps and snarls, but he’s hiding his truth deep inside him and he’s too stubborn to admit that when he ran from the motorcycle club five years previous, he left his heart behind him.

But Rubi, the strength of character of the man shines through. He’s been such a presence in the series so far and now he gets the chance to fight for his own happy ending. When the book starts he’s not in a good place and we get to see what a world might be like without Rubi in it.

The hurt/comfort in this book is pitched so beautifully it will have you aching to grab both men and wrap them up in a warm blanket and tell them all will be well. They fight and fratch, hurting each other both deliberately and without meaning too, but underlying all is a connection tying them together in ways which won’t ever be untangled.

I’m not spoiling the plot, suffice it to say, Garrett delivers there on a two-front element which brings danger to the club and to River directly.

It’s not quite as adrenaline rushed as the first three books, but there’s still enough tension to make the reader want to dive through the pages to get to the end and the hopeful conclusion we’re all wishing for.

With complex relationships with other members of their family, and the wider club members, there’s plenty to keep the story driving onward and we get some lovely guest appearances from Garrett’s expanded universe which I loved seeing.

The Epilogue is simply gorgeous and I am now absolutely dying for book five because, if she carries on like she has done so far in this series, I’m going to be searching for more superlatives with which to describe her work.

Garrett Leigh writes people like no other, imho, she can bring the depths of despair and then turn it into the highest hopes, she gives realness to everything she crafts, her characters live in my head rent free and I can only dream of them stepping off the pages and into our world.

I’d love to spend time just watching them shoot the breeze and take the mickey out of each other, ride the roads with them and listen to The Levellers on a hot summer night.

#ARC kindly received from the author via GRR in return for an honest and unbiased review

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