Never Have I Ever: Wanted My Brother's Rival

Kindle Edition, 359 pages

Published May 18, 2023

(2 reviews)

“Why is the one person I hate the only guy I can’t stop thinking about?”

West, my older brother’s high school rival. The rich kid who has it all. The guy who disappeared six years ago and destroyed my brother’s life.

I thought West and I were friends. I trusted him, but he showed me I was nothing more to him than a means to an end.

Being twenty and in my last year of college isn’t easy. Neither is being a virgin. I’ve never been normal or felt like I fit in, and I don’t feel what I’m supposed to.

My online job has given me the perfect way to solve my virginity problem, but then the last person I ever wanted to see again shows up on my doorstep. Not only has West learned what I do for a living, he’s essentially my landlord.

I hate him. So …

“Why is the one person I hate the only guy I can’t stop thinking about?”

West, my older brother’s high school rival. The rich kid who has it all. The guy who disappeared six years ago and destroyed my brother’s life.

I thought West and I were friends. I trusted him, but he showed me I was nothing more to him than a means to an end.

Being twenty and in my last year of college isn’t easy. Neither is being a virgin. I’ve never been normal or felt like I fit in, and I don’t feel what I’m supposed to.

My online job has given me the perfect way to solve my virginity problem, but then the last person I ever wanted to see again shows up on my doorstep. Not only has West learned what I do for a living, he’s essentially my landlord.

I hate him. So why can’t I stay away from him? Why is he the only person I’ve ever felt a connection with, who makes me feel like there’s something in me worth wanting?

Eli and West’s story is an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance between a former bad boy who seemingly has it all and an awkward genius who’s never felt like he fits in. Expect lots of banter and hot first times as these two try (and fail) to stay away from each other. It is the fourth novel in the steamy Never Have I Ever series but can be read as a standalone.

1 edition

MsJessC reviewed Never Have I Ever: Wanted My Brother's Rival by Willow Dixon (Never Have I Ever, #4)

Review of "Never Have I Ever: Wanted My Brother's Rival" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

So I adore NHIE: Punched my Roommates V-card, but I skipped the second and third book in this series because they were tropes I don't enjoy. However, I decided to read this one even though it is my least fav of enemies to lovers, because I had fallen so in love with Eli in the first book. So what the heck happened between the first book and this one???
In the first book Eli is calm, cool, collected, unflappable, never awkward- this is not even the same character. I understand people are nuanced, and I love when someone emotional and needy hides behind a facade only the other MC can break through- that is not this case. Eli is all over the place, constantly. In how he talks, how he feels, how he's intimate. Serious kudos for the cam scene with the gifted dildo though. That was excellent. Thank goodness …

So I adore NHIE: Punched my Roommates V-card, but I skipped the second and third book in this series because they were tropes I don't enjoy. However, I decided to read this one even though it is my least fav of enemies to lovers, because I had fallen so in love with Eli in the first book. So what the heck happened between the first book and this one???
In the first book Eli is calm, cool, collected, unflappable, never awkward- this is not even the same character. I understand people are nuanced, and I love when someone emotional and needy hides behind a facade only the other MC can break through- that is not this case. Eli is all over the place, constantly. In how he talks, how he feels, how he's intimate. Serious kudos for the cam scene with the gifted dildo though. That was excellent. Thank goodness no matter Eli does West just thinks this aspect of Eli is "so sexy".
I tried to forget any preconceived ideas I had about Eli and get on with the book. Then I ran into the issue of suspension of disbelief. Could everything that happened in this book have gone down that way? Eh, Possibly... but also not probably. It felt forced.
I guess the whole book just felt chaotic and I was left unsettled and somewhat confused. Not with what happened, but just ..why it happened that way.

earnest ma

rated it

June 17, 2023