Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Learn to fly. Fly away.

Isaac: After one quarrel too many with our wealthy father, my eighteen-year-old brother, Ezra Fitz-Henry, does exactly that. He flies away, leaving me behind to play the part of the perfect and dutiful son. When our cold, heartless father dies a decade later, Ezra strolls back into my life—as difficult and secretive as he is beautiful. I’m not prepared. You’re not supposed to want the one you can’t have.

Ezra: I only go back for the money. I have a three-point plan: take what’s mine, use it to escape my lousy flat, and never have anything to do with the Fitz-Henrys ever again. But that’s before I see Isaac, with his solemn frowns and disapproving lips—the best of things and the worst of things. My friend. My enemy. My sinful fantasy.

My younger brother.

Maybe is a standalone M/M romance featuring a relationship between adopted brothers.

 

Book Review

If one could trust appearances, Isaac Fitz-Henry has it all. He’s a fairly good-looking young doctor, living in a huge flat in a ritzy part of London, and his family is loaded. He wants to specialize in cardiology, a goal he’s actively pursuing in the rare hours he’s not working shifts in the emergency department of a hospital. That’s when his father, renowned heart surgeon Sir Henry Fitz-Henry, dies all of a sudden. And someone whom he hasn’t seen for years shows up at the reading of the will: his “brother” Ezra, four years older than he, who was the most important man during his teenage years. Isaac might even have had a crush on him, but shush! That’s a secret not to be said out loud. For the record, they’re not blood-related, anyway—Sir Henry’s first wife brought Ezra into her mariage, and her husband dutifully adopted the boy. After her death in an accident, Sir Henry married his former PA and long-time mistress, Isaac’s mother. No wonder young Ezra has always been a moody, difficult boy, and unsurprisingly, his step-father and he fell out ten years earlier.

 

After this first chance meeting of the two estranged “brothers” in the solicitor’s office, Ezra promptly disappears again. But destiny is a fickle thing. Which means Isaac stumbles upon him a few weeks later, and the younger man decides he won’t let him go so easily. The road to a new-found relationship is long and bumpy, but little by little, they get to know each other again and learn what each one has been up to all those years. Little by little, it becomes obvious, too, that brotherly love isn’t what really draws them to each other. The problem is, Isaac has no time. And he still feels swooning over a “sibling,” even one who doesn’t share a drop of blood with him, is wrong, oh so wrong…

 

To be honest, I’m not into taboo romances. Second confession: I didn’t know this would be one because I never glanced at its blurb. ‘Maybe’ was gracefully provided by the author as part of a two-book package—the first in the ‘Mis-shapen’ series, with the second to be published at the end of February. As I was given the choice, and although the two novels are stand-alones, I requested both (duh! for any avid reader, I think that’s a no-brainer). It wasn’t until I started reading it that I realized what I had signed up for. My first reaction was to feel ill at ease because, of course, the author waited a couple of chapters before explaining the true family links (or rather, the absence of any biological link) between the two main characters. Their mutual attraction was pretty obvious by then, too, so when I found out what was what and who was who, I started questioning why I had reacted so strongly at the beginning.

 

But let’s leave that aside for a second. I enjoyed the book and the characters. I even applauded the happy ending (no surprise there—Lambda-Award-winner Fearne Hill is known to always provide satisfying happy endings, and I for one won’t complain). If I had to choose, I’d say Isaac was my favorite. He was sweet, considerate, capable of loads of empathy, bruised and lost, yet strong and decisive when it mattered. Ezra turned out a bit harder to like at first, but Fearne Hill wouldn’t be Fearne Hill if she didn’t manage to slip in some actions and reactions and flashbacks that made me change my mind after a few chapters. The plot with its ups and downs and twists as well as the decision to tell the story from both protagonists’ viewpoints enabled me to embrace their characters and understand them better. That was what made the romance so sweet, too. The two men make each other complete, help each other deal with life, show each other they are worthy of love.

 

The secondary characters were a hoot. I loved Alaric, Isaac’s extrovert and fanciful colleague, and Isaac’s twin siblings (real, blood-related siblings). I suffered with his other colleague, heavily depressed Luke. I winced whenever meeting his unhappy one-time-date, nerdy Gerald. I was glad Isaac’s alcoholic mom was given the necessary not-so-gentle push from an unexpected person to address her drinking problem. All in all, I thoroughly loved the story and finally came to terms with my uneasiness regarding the trope of two brothers (who aren’t really brothers) falling in love with each other. That each one was so perfect for the other one might have helped, as did the author’s solid, effective writing style, her to-the-point character painting, her ability to transport me to London (I love it when a book makes me forget where I am and offers me the cheapest means possible to travel to other places), and her choices where the plot was concerned.

 

Now I can’t wait to open book number two of the series to find out what Fearne Hill has in store for her readers…

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the author. This book has been provided by the author for the purpose of a review.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 295 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	19-August-2025
Price	$5.99 ebook, $11.99 paperback
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FKLYQMLP