A review by magnafeana
Claim & Don't Tell by Rory Miles

RTC, here are my disorganized notes:

  • * LOVE stepbrother romances, and this was why-choose PLUS no MM PLUS no pregnancy? Sign me up! 🥵
  • * Dylan and Quinn remind me of Derek and Casey from “This is Life with Derek”. Literally the show that got me into stepsiblings romances okay bye 💨💨💨💨💨🏃🏿‍♀️‍➡️
  • * Agree with other reviews about the amount of plot conveniences. This “descenting” shit would’ve never worked 24/7.
  • * I kinda think Austin should’ve been a beta. It made no sense for him to be an alpha and all the sense for him to be a beta, given how often he stopped Brady and Dylan’s fighting
  • * The whole 6 YEARS AGO and 4 YEARS AGO stuff—I like flashbacks, but flashbacks can be overly abused. I understand the intention was to show us what went down. But I really think this book would’ve benefited from a small Part I where we focus on “Then” and the rest “Now”. A lot of the flashback stuff was explained in present chapters, so I hardly felt pressed to commit to any flashbacks
  • * So weird how all this fanfare about worrying over pseudo-incest was…never really going anywhere
  • * Quinn, Austin, and Dylan waaaay too easily forgave Brady for his years of being dick. But el pan pan y vino vino.
  • * the Mosley plot was dumb. Sorry 🤷🏾‍♀️ It definitely happens to people regardless of gender where superiors try to pressure us into inappropriate behaviors, but this felt more like a plot that didn’t need to be the third act. Why did Brady do nothing?! He’s a lawyer, yes? Why not have him act like it?
  • * It was stupid Quinn was so self-aware she was a people pleasure that she goes “Haha I’m such a people pleaser 🤪”. Just stupid.
  • * I wish Daria hadn’t been made The Bestie© and, instead, she’d been given actual characterization.
  • * All the brothers had distinct personalities and dynamics with each other, kinda. So nice.
  • * Quinn was a female failure, which I do like.
  • * This really could’ve gone in a better direction. When the introduction says “There’s no third act breakup”, that now makes me worried that nothing happens. And I was right. Internal conflict was sparsely there. I really enjoy seeing the growing pains and mistakes. This doesn’t need to result in a third act break up, but there should be notable growth. How did…ANY of these characters grow by the end? 
  • * Dylan’s dirty talk about “Want stepbrother’s cock” was ✋🏾🫠🥵💦💦💦💦💦💦
  • * If the author basically copy and pasted Dylan’s character into another alpha, I’d read. I love MMCs like Dylan: jerks but not really, playful, touchy-feely. He wasn’t really wild and crazy though but he was good for me 🤗

All in all, solid 3 ⭐️ read. 

What would’ve increased my rating?

Honestly, just make something happen. I wanted to see more struggle with accepting Quinn’s the brothers’ scent match and she’s known since they were teenagers. I wanted to see the growing pains that come with sharing a lady and being shared by men. I wanted a little bit of hesitation from the parents, but nothing major. Make Brady be the one to serve Mr Mosley or something. Give the characters room to grow instead of stagnate.