Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: My Stepbrother is an Alien
AUTHOR: Sterling Rivers
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 92 Pages
BLURB:
They came to Earth to secure their species’ future… and found the urge to mate too tempting to ignore.
Apollo Antonopoulos was bred from birth to serve his race’s agenda. As Captain of the Kansas Operative, it is his duty to ensure the Harram have enough food for the journey to their new planet. After his hybrid-brother, Zeus secures a marriage with a wealthy woman, Apollo plays the dutiful son. But as a human-alien hybrid, he secretly harbors an attraction to his new human stepbrother. Torn between his oath to his people and his attraction to Devin, he must decide which he cherishes more.
Devin is suspicious of the Antonopoulos family from the beginning. After his father’s affairs came out in the divorce, he vowed to never let his mother be hurt again. Spying on Apollo leads him to a briefcase loaded with what appears to be drugs. Determined to protect his mother, he follows Apollo to a remote field, but he never expected to find aliens putting down roots… literally. Apollo convinces Devin to keep their secret and a night out in an effort to get to know each other leads to other things. He knows he shouldn’t get involved with an alien with questionable motives, but he can’t help himself.
REVIEW:
I felt this book picked up in mid-stream on the story. I did see that there was a Prequel released a few days after this novella, so I’m thinking that might give more background? A lot of the story was told through references to things that had already happened, like Devin’s mother meeting Zeus and marrying her, then spending her money to buy land for the aliens to plant their hybrid crops, all unbeknownst to her of course. I also had some questions of time frame, and ages. It appeared from the story that the aliens had been on Earth for at least 100 years, and Apollo was born on the moon, a product of a human/alien mating prior to that time. But I never got a clear picture of the actual alien timeframe.
Apollo Antonopoulos VI is an alien/human hybrid who is in charge of the Kansas Operative, tasked with overseeing all operations related to growing food for his species migration to a new star. Because their planet is dying, the Harram came to Earth to grow the food. To do that they intermarried into human families with money and power so that they could build the industrial and agricultural base they needed.
One of Apollo’s brethren, Zeus, posing as Apollo’s father is married to Devin Chesterfield’s mother. Devin believes that the father and son are tied to some sort of drug ring and using his mother for her money. One day he decides to find out what is really going on, so he hides in Apollo’s back seat and finds himself at a secret facility. But will happen when he finds out his Stepbrother is an Alien?
The concept of the book was good, the execution was average. There were a few incorrect words (i.e composer instead of composure), but overall the book was well enough written. I don’t mind a short book when it has a clear opening, middle and ending, but this book lacked both the background for the opening, and also the book ended mid-stream. I understand there is a book 2, 3, and 4 coming, but the ending left me feeling like a longer book had just been chopped into pieces.
I will have to give the book a rating of good/average. It was a good story, but as I’ve alluded to above, it seemed like a chapter from the middle of a book rather than a standalone novella.
RATING: 
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