A review by booksafety
Dirty Love by Bethany Winters

5.0

Book safety, content warnings, and tropes & tags down below.

“Don’t let em’ see you, baby brother,” he whispers, slowly trailing his cold thumb over the skin beneath my eye. “No one but me, remember?”

This was deliciously violent, hot and forbidden. I don’t know what’s happened to me, but this is the third book set in high school I’ve read in a short amount of time. I loved all of them, but I need a dose of grown-ups, lol. The list of content warnings for this one is definitely long, but not the kind that bothers me. I am always down for violence and action in books, and there was a satisfying amount of it.

I adored how protective Kade was of Nicky, all his possessive holds and the cuddling/cradling. The way they were completely codependent and slightly toxic really hit the spot for me this time.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read something where most characters were openly homophobic, instead of ‘that one homophobic dude’ a lot of books have, and it was a little uncomfortable, which added to the darkness in the book. Just an unpleasant town overall, where the cops and homophobes protect each other.

I’m fully aware my obsession with my own brother isn’t normal or healthy, but I’ve been like this for years now and I can’t seem to stop it. Nicky, Nicky, Nicky. He’s all I fucking think about.

I usually avoid books that include detailed scenes with men or women other than the MCs, but thankfully it didn’t last long, and it was very early on in the book. The obsessive, possessive and protective vibes between Kade and Nicky quickly overshadowed any worry about other people.

I loved it.

Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Stepbrothers, taboo, size difference, protective and possessive, toxic, codependency, fight club, abuse parent, dark high school

⚠️⚠️ Content warning ⚠️⚠️
Explicit sexual content
Underage drinking
Drug abuse
Homophobia
Abuse
Murder
Self harm
Sexual assault
Mental health issues
Brief mentions of animal abuse
Violent hate crime (main character)
Group hate crime/rape (side character)

⚠️⚠️⚠️ Book safety ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Cheating: No
OM drama: Yes, on-page sexual content between MC and a woman. Brief and early on in the book.
Third-act breakup: No
POV: 1st person, dual POV
Strict roles or versatile: Strict roles