Book Review: Brutal Arrangement by Laurelin Paige

Laurelin Paige

BOOK DETAILS

📆 Release Date: March 13, 2024

📖 Pages: 462

✒️ Genre: erotic romance

👀 POV: 1st person, multiple

⚠️ Trigger Warnings: (from the author’s website) child abuse (off page), death of parent (off page), parent abandonment (off page), debasement, humiliation, feels like cheating, misogynistic environment, toxic relationships

📖 BOOK DESCRIPTION

He can have any woman he wants.
He wants his brother’s.

Alex Sebastian is the billionaire who knows exactly how to re-launch the pop career I walked away from to raise my little sister.

He knows everything, apparently, about what’s good for me. For my image. Even for my lingerie. Everywhere I turn, he’s there, smirking. I cannot stand him.

So why can’t we stop sneaking around?

Maybe it’s his filthy, bossy mouth that does things more wicked than his insults.

Maybe it’s that he does know what’s good for me when he uses it—backstage before my show, during a black tie event, in another man’s living room.

Because maybe deep down, I’ve never been the good girl the world sees, and the dirty, shameful things he makes me do are exactly what I crave.

The problem? Alex isn’t the Sebastian billionaire I’m dating––I’m dating his brother.

Nicole's Review

Rating Scale

NAUGHTY LEVEL

STAR RATINGS

Prose

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Story Depth

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Character Development

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

OVERALL

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ELEMENT RATINGS

HEAT

🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️🌶️

LOL

🚫

Angst

😬😬😬

Tears

🚫

HIGHLIGHT OF THE STORY FOR ME

Alex Sebastian. Damn.

Let me first say that Laurelin Paige is my just-one-more-chapter author. Whenever I read a book by her, I end up staying up way too late because I can’t put it down. I have read almost every single thing she’s written and I only learned about her a couple of years ago. The Brutal Billionaires series is one of my absolute favorites, so when I saw this book was out, I knew I had to dive in.

The naughty rating…

There was no question that this book should be rated “filthy” on my scale, and let me just say I loved every single raunchy word. The sex was off the charts, and it played a very large (intentional) part of the overall story.

There are a couple of taboo elements that some readers might not care for (humiliation and degradation) but I loved it. It absolutely worked for Alex and Riah.

Overview…

Mariah Watson, a.k.a. Riah, a.k.a. Zyah, is a singer who’s making a name for herself after taking a break from her music to raise her younger sister. Much of her success has come with the help of her billionaire boyfriend’s connections. Too bad Hunter Sebastian is a misogynistic, cheating asshole who’s dating Riah in order to improve his image during his pursuit of the CEO position. When Riah finds out about his latest tryst, she dumps him (Yay!) but then agrees to keep up appearances since they both benefit from the ruse.

Enter Hunter’s brother, Alex, the guy Hunter puts in place as first her babysitter and then as her brand manager.

Like all the Sebastians, Alex has his own personal demons, but he’s likable in a love to hate him kinda way. Plus, his dirty mouth just makes me all squishy inside.

Unlike Hunter, we see some of Alex’s redeeming qualities despite the fact he’s “cheating” with his brother’s girl because he’s unaware the pair have broken up.

My thoughts…

The author has clearly put a lot of thought into developing the Sebastian family. In every book, we see them at their core – the good, the bad, and the ugly. I didn’t need to read any other book to read this one because Alex and Riah were new to me. Perhaps it’s just been that long since I read the previous book, but I did not remember them.

I did, however, remember Hunter, and should Laurelin write his book, I might have to pass on it. Up to this point, I have found nothing likable about the man. At all. And that includes the tidbit of insight we saw of his childhood in this book. It felt very weak as justification for his actions. I can’t imagine any woman putting up with him.

The push and pull between Riah and Alex was hot. Their interactions were hot. You could feel their connection and I found myself rooting for them early on. The pacing of their story was perfection.

Some say falling in love is weightless, but to me it feels heavy. Not so heavy it can’t be carried, but there’s a heft to it, like an anchor. A pull that doesn’t go unnoticed.

The only negative for me was Riah’s inability to stand up for herself. She let everyone around her make the decisions, push her around, and use her for their benefit. For whatever reason, I liked her enough, or maybe I could see how overbearing the Sebastians were and sympathized with her.

To sum it up…

I am ready for the next book, so if you’ve got an in with Laurelin Paige, could you tell her? 😆 I appreciate it.

Thursday

April 30, 2026

4:20 am

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Book Review: Brutal Arrangement by Laurelin Paige

Nicole's Review

STAR RATINGS

Prose

Story Depth

Character Development

OVERALL

ELEMENT RATINGS

HEAT

LOL

Angst

Tears

HIGHLIGHT OF THE STORY FOR ME

The naughty rating…

Overview…

My thoughts…

To sum it up…

Recent Releases

Nicole's bookshelf: currently-reading

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