My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret Review

Our My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret review covers the first four chapters of My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret by Janedoewritings, a completed 998-chapter book on GoodNovel. It is trending on repost sites under other names; please read it on the official platform.

The title sounds like pure fluff. The opening is a tight little thriller with a romance attached.

The setup

Gianna Kinsley studies machine learning and a former ballet dancer. Her father, a senator, died leaving the family in debt; her mother needed spine surgery; her little sister Jules is ten. Gianna owes money to Cole Mercer, the leader of a Chicago gang called the Lake Street Reapers, and he does not wait.

So she has a second life. At sixteen she ran away and was taken in by Mama D and the women of the Rose Garden, a strict agency whose dancers are absolutely off limits to clients. To pay Cole, Gianna dances at private events in a mask and a silver wig, where nobody can recognise her.

The tip

At one party a tattooed man with light-brown eyes can't take his eyes off her. He leaves a five-thousand-dollar tip.

The next evening her mother takes her to meet her new fiancé, Salvatore Capone, patriarch of a Chicago crime family, and his sons. Gianna sits down at the table and recognises one of them. Raphael Capone, the stranger from the party, is about to become her stepbrother.

What works

• Raphael's chapter. He runs a legitimate tech company by day and the family's digital operations by night. His father and his brother Vincenzo forbid him to dig into the new family. He tells his men to find the masked dancer anyway.
• The found family. Brianna, Tasha, Morgan and the others at the Rose Garden give the book a warm centre, and Gianna's loyalty to them drives the plot.
• The stakes. By chapter 4 Cole has wrecked the Rose Garden, and Gianna hands over the last of her tuition money to protect the youngest girl.

What to know before you start

This is dark mafia romance for adults: crime families, a club setting and a step-sibling relationship. At 998 chapters it is a commitment, but it is finished, so you can read at your own pace.

Who it's for

Readers of mafia romance, secret-identity stories, forbidden romance and big family sagas like the Capones.

Our first impression: much smarter than its title, with a heroine whose brain is her best asset. One of the most-read books on this list for a reason.

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