My Brother My Rival by Eve Rabi : The Blog Tour

Book: My Brother My Rival #1

Synopsis:
Cody Garrett, a former Navy SEAL, has never met a skirt he didn’t fancy. His six-pack, rugged looks and bad boy image ensures a steady stream of hot babes waiting to slip him their phone numbers wherever he goes. 
So, he is confused when Bridie Barker refuses to go on a date with him. 
It’s not like she’s a stunning beauty or something. According to him, her ears are big, she’s well-rounded and she’s not even a D-cup. 
In spite of her shortcomings, the more she pushes him away, the more he finds himself thinking of her. 

Twenty-year-old Bridie Barker has control issues. Every detail in her life is planned. 
Her closet is color-coded and she has an array of storage containers, to ensure that everything is in its correct place. 
Her whole world is black and white, and grey areas are a no-no. 

When she meets the warm and grounded Scott Garrett, she thinks she has found her soul mate. Unfortunately, and to her disappointment, things don’t pan out with Scott. 
While waiting tables, she has a disastrous run-in with his brother, Wild Boy Cody Garrett, King of Body Shots, who parties every night with a different girl. 
Even though he’s good to look at and makes her laugh, she turns down his advances as he’s clearly the tag-and-release kind of guy. 
Besides, she is pretty sure he owns not a single storage container, and she’s certain that his closet is not color-coded.
Problem is, Cody Garrett finds her rejection an aphrodisiac and pursues her.

My Review:

First, I would like to state that this book was hard for me to review. My opinion always changed, to be honest.

 On the one hand, I liked the lovestory between Cody and Birdie and all their differences. I enjoyed Cody pursuing her so relentlessly. Generally I enjoyed the whole book except the ending.

On the other hand, I found many things infuriating. I understand that Cody is a player and he likes having crazy fun. I understand all that. But what I don’t understand is why we had to read about so many body shots. It was like he was a teenager and he hasn’t seen a woman’s body before. All these shots really brought me down. However, the most infuriating thing was the ending.  There was absolutely no loyalty to Cody. No matter how good or bad boyfriend/fiancée he was, having a child is an entire different issue. No one has the right to take that away from him. And no one seemed to understand that or think about Cody and his feelings. His parents were unacceptable. Scott acted like a thief. And Birdie made one mistake after the other. Seriously, what were people thinking?

After I finished the book, I was left mad and thinking “What the hell just happened? What is wrong with people?”.

I liked the general concept with the 2 brothers who were rivals for Birdie’s affections. I liked that they were coming from different childhoods and that Cody’s family created problems. However, I don’t really get how the ending happened. I understand why, I guess.

I’m just very ambivalent about it. The second book is much much better and I actually enjoyed it!

Book: My Brother My Rival #2

Synopsis:
Years ago, Cody Garrett’s heart was ripped to shreds when Bridie ditched him and married his brother, Scott. 
With great difficulty, he moved on and rebuilt his life without her, severing all ties with his brother because of their betrayal. 
Now, Scott, his brother, is ill and a threat to his wife and children. 
Cody is forced to step in and move them into his house. 
Being physically so close to Bridie, and spending time alone with her, brings back a flood of memories, and he finds it a daily struggle to contain his feelings for his brother’s wife.

To Bridie, who likes to put things (and people) in perspective, Cody Garrett was filed under ‘Cheat’ and she too moved on with her life. 
But while living with him, she stumbles upon secrets involving Cody and her, that changes everything.
Now, she must fight her feeling for Cody and remain true to her marriage. 

My Review:

After reading the first book, I was really anxious to read this one. But it surpassed the first book by far..And I’m very glad about it!

It was so very mysterious!! I was giddy just by reading it!

I loved the fact that Scott suddenly got turned to the bad guy (In my opinion he is! Cody was right! The dude stole his life!!). Anyway, I loved how the roles got reversed!

I just loved everyone’s reactions to everything…I’m not going to claim that they have morals because none of them has. Except Jenna maybe. She hid the truth, but at least everyone knew where they stand with her. But I did like that Cody grew up. Generally I liked all the mystery this book had.

Again, I didn’t like the ending. Cody honestly deserves a break and the poor guy never got it. Yeah he kinda won the war, but the circumstances sucked.

It was a book that revealed all the dirty secrets and who everyone really was. I liked the truth of it!

Buy Links:

 Amazon Link for Book 1  |   Amazon Link for Book 2

Author bio:

Eve Rabi lives in Australia, but she was born in South Africa.
She is the author of 20 books and is known for her kick-ass leading ladies, alpha males and no holes-barred love stories.
Oh, and let’s not forget about humour, it’s a must in her books. 
To quote a smashwords.com  reviewer: “When you pick up an Eve Rabi book, forget sleep. She writes gripping page turners that will keep you reading till the very end.”

Social Links:

Amazon Author Page  | Smashwords | Website/Blog 

Facebook  |  Twitter  | Goodreads 

Giveaway:

Enter here-> http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/99442517/  
to win : 5 Copies Book 1  and 5 Copies Book 2 

My Character Interview with Cody!!

Hello Cody! It’s nice to have you here with me today!

·        Let’s start with an easy question..What was your first impression of Bridie?

         Mmm, let’s see…stuck up…moody …a ball buster…but sexy with nice tits. I mean hips.      And legs. And lips. Hey, I’m being honest here.

·      When you found out about Bridie’s date with your brother, how did you feel? What was going on in your mind?

“Frowns*Of course I was troubled a bit. A  lot.

I hadn’t realized it before, but after meeting Bridie, I came to the conclusion that I’m the jealous type.

If Scott wasn’t my li’l brother, man, things would have got ugly. I would have kicked the shit out of him. Seriously. Didn’t need any solid reason, I just would have.But Scotty, he had his shit together and he pulled chicks like crazy, so I was always a little concerned when I saw him and Bridie with their heads together, laughing...

I always believed that he could take Bridie away from me.

He was always a threat. Always my rival. 

·     After reading your story, I came to the conclusion that you were never very close to Scott, despite the fact you were both Navy Seals. Is that correct? How was your relationship with him before you both met Birdie?

Actually, Scott and I were close.

We got drunk together and had a blast whenever we went out. I loved him. I really did.But he was closer to Jenna ’cause they were twins.

He knew when to play and when to be serious. Something I’m still working on.   

·      I have to admit that your family is 50 shades of crazy. But you all remained together even after many revelations came to light(especially in the second book)..How would you describe each member of your family?

My mother – fussy, unfair at times, scheming for sure. Unfair in that I am her favorite son. But years later, after I met my grandfather, I understood my mother a little more. She was fleeing her past and fighting her demons. Then I was glad I wasn’t too hard on her.

My father – a man of few words, but he’ my pillar of strength.

A decent human being.

Scott – A wonderful man, a true hero who didn’t deserve what life churned him.

Jenna – fucking nuts. You have to ask, Mia? No filter, a grenade with a loose pin. That’s Jenna.

But she has our backs and she’s got integrity. She has two personas; one that other people see and one that our family sees. She’s deep. Fair and has a strong need for justice.

But I’m curious as to why you’re calling my family crazy. Have you taken a good look at Bridie’s family? They’re cuckoo, you know. Seriously.

·        Let’s stay a bit longer on your mother. It was painfully clear that she didn’t like and couldn’t even tolerate Birdie, since she found out about her background. She was always quite mean to her, but no one seemed to put her in her place. My question is why didn’t you defend Birdie towards your mother? Why didn’t you stand up for her more?..

 I agree with you about not defending Bridie. I should have, but …I didn’t know how without being disrespectful towards my mother. 

       You see, I really loved my mother and in spite of her behavior, I didn’t want to hurt her in any way.
But if you remember, I gave Bridie permission to handle my mother as she saw fit. Hey, what kind of a man would I be if I fought with my mother over my girlfriend? I wasn’t disrespectful in any way towards my mother because growing up, I was taught to respect my parents and I always did. I would hate for Samuel to disrespect Bridie because of his girlfriend. I wouldn’t allow it.

·        Let’s return to you now. You said that after being months away for your assignments, when you finally came back you just wanted to live it up. So you kept going out, partying. Sleeping around, drinking. I understand that after everything you went through there, you would like to have fun..Much fun..But all those damn body shots were they really necessary? Would you like to explain that a bit more?

 Hey, Mia, body shots were the in thing at that time and I took full advantage of it. I never said “No” to girls asking to take a shot off my six-pack. I just couldn’t. I was weak when it came to women, but I got put in my place by Bridie.      

·     Ok..So I liked the fact that you were very relentless and kept pursuing Birdie from the beginning..But when was the first time you realized that you loved her? That she was your IT girl?

·     Looking back, I think it was when Bridie said “No” to me. When she told me off. Most girls go gaga over me. She didn’t and I couldn’t understand it. I found that a real turn-on, even intriguing. When she wouldn’t fall into my bed, I saw my unborn children in her eyes. I wanted to marry her and grow old with her.

·        OK now for a last question..I’m just curious..How is the name Samuel significant to you?

I lost a dear friend, a former Navy Seal years ago. We were in a compromising position and somehow, he managed to escape. But he came back for me.As we escaped, we both were shot. I made it, he didn’t. I was cut when he died. By naming my son, Samuel, I felt his legacy would continue living. Somewhat.   

Thank you for coming Cody!

You are welcome, Mia. You’re really pretty. Anytime you want to take a body shot of               me, feel free to. Kidding! Kidding!

Eh, let’s not tell Bridie about it though, okay? 

I value my nuts. Know what I mean?