Review: My Brother's Forbidden Friend by Piper Rayne (The Greene Family #9)

October 03, 2022

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the authors via Valentine PR.

I can't believe we've reached the final full-length novel in the Greene Family series from the writing duo of Piper Rayne! My Brother's Forbidden Friend is the ninth full-length book and the twelfth release in the series overall. Although there's one more novella that will wrap the series up in December, this frenemies-to-lovers and falling-for-your-sibling's-best-friend romance has the lone single Greene sibling finally finding her happily-ever-after. Yup, I'm talking about none other than thirty-year-old Chevelle, the third youngest among the ten combined siblings and the one who's got one heck of a secret crush on her older brother, Fisher's, best friend, thirty-five-year-old Cameron Baker. She runs water boat tours, and he's the heir apparent of the family-owned marina. Her family may be well-known in their town of Sunrise Bay, but the Bakers are the richest family around. But change is in the air because Cam's been cut off and told to make a new business a success--one that competes with Chevelle's--in order to make prove himself. Oh, and she's got a new roommate: Cam (and his dog, Gunner). Can you say complicated?

I'll be honest, early on in the series, I'd hoped that the series would end with Xavier and Clara, all the more when these two best friends stopped talking to each other. Consider me totally intrigued, plus who wouldn't want a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romance? But Piper and Rayne decided to do things differently, and suffice it to say, it all paid off in the end. Chevelle and Cam were that other couple who had an underlying something-something going on, which was ramped up over the last few books. I loved the back and forth between these two. Underneath Chevelle's snark, her crush on her brother's bestie was a clear and present thing. That being said, Cam wasn't merely protective of Chevelle because he's known her since they were kids and she was Fisher's sister but because he cared about and loved her. Seeing these two come into their own and deal with their respective baggage and issues was satistfying, and opening to their feelings had me loudly saying "FINALLY!" There's also a bit of angst courtesy of what happened when Chevelle's mom passed away--and yes, there were tears on my end. I've loved getting to know the Greenes, and I'm so happy almost all of them (totally excited for Rylan and Calista's spin-off next year!) have their HEAs. Five stars for My Brother's Forbidden Friend.

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Read my reviews for the Greene Family series: