Five Brothers by Penelope Douglas
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Web ID: 198760019 reviews
The levels
This is a fantastic story. The levels that this story has is amazing. I love the complexities that this story has. The characters are vibrant and wonderfully flawed. I really enjoyed the dynamics and banter between the characters. Watching the plot unfold was truly beautiful. I want to read this for the first time all over again.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Wow! Don't get excited...
Check the trigger warnings before reading, and don't get too excited. The world building of the Swamps was great, and I really felt like it came to life in the storytelling. Then you have the other side of the tracks where it's expensive houses, country clubs, and all influence/who you know. The brothers are all great together. They somehow hold each other together despite all the bad they have going on and have to put up with. They all started out with a chip on their shoulder. By the end, they all seemed to grow. The characters' names were rather interesting - then main characters being Macon, Army, Iron, Dallas, Trace, and Krisjen. Krisjen was with Trace and then was with a mystery brother that night in the dark when the book started out. Then Krisjen moves to Iron before he gets locked up, then to Army, then almost with Dallas and Army, and then onto Macon all while her mother was arranging to marry her off to someone else just so her mother could keep up her social status. Each of the characters had a pretty messed-up childhood. Krisjen and Macon, being the oldest, had to grow up fast in order to take care of their younger siblings. Even doing things they regret. Even though they're from different sides of the tracks, they all have something more in common than they want to admit. Krisjen learns the meaning and value of family with the Jaeger brothers. The Jaeger brothers learn what they've been missing by being taken care of. Honestly, the plot itself would have made a good book on its own without the smut. And the smut itself was good, don't get me wrong! But jeez, the author had Krisjen with every single adult male in that house in such a short time frame. Krisjen was even referred to as a "barrack bunny" at one point. I know adults usually tell siblings to share but, gosh! Krisjen was passed around, treated as a belonging that is owned, had to be a mother to her siblings, fight off s*xu*l harra**ment and an abus*ve ex, being insulted and degr*ded frequently, and even play therapist. The story and world building, along with a handful of laugh out loud moments, got this book to 2 stars. The level of spice and just the smut alone in this book was really the only thing that got my review to 3 stars.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
🔥 plot!
Once again, Penelope brings us a can’t-put-down book that I almost finished in one day. If you’re looking for a good balance of plot line & steaminess, this is for you!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Deliciously scandalous!
4 stars. "Five Brothers" is the first Penelope Douglas book that I have read, but it certainly won't be my last because, their writing? Their spice? Their scandal? Their mind?! DANG!!! It's something else! Wooooooooweeeee, I wasn't sure what to expect, and this was quite a journey, an emotional roller coaster of highs, lows, and eyeball-widening happenings. Long before I read this book, I knew Douglas's name. They are huge on TikTok and other bookish places online, so I knew I was in for some sort of a dark romance. All I can say is......sharing is caring, ehhhh????? I liked the characters in this book, as much as you can when some of them are extra morally gray. Each of the brothers has something redeemable about them despite the bad things they may have done in their lives. Some readers will struggle through the subject matter here, but I think Douglas balances the spice with the struggle, the mental health representation with the darkness, and the pining with the slight mystery. Speaking of mystery, I really liked the "figuring out who Krisjen will end up with" angle of the story. I had a hunch that I knew which brother she would end up with from the start, but it was still fun watching her figure it out throughout the rest of the happenings of the story. Krisjen... oh boy, what to say about her? I hated her a lot of the time, but I was also shockingly drawn to her? The girl has A LOT going on, a lot of trauma to go through and to deal with at such a young age. I say this with the best intentions: this book is a MESS. Like, you know that Marie Kondo gif where she says "I like mess"? THAT kind of mess... and I ate up every single syllable and vowel of it. The spice do be spicin' and the angst do be angstin', as the kids might say (probably not, I am an old person now). Though this is a standalone book, I feel like I would have been better suited had I read "Tryst Six Venom" before since some of the characters from that book make appearances here. No matter, I still had a wonderful time reading this book. It took me far out of my comfort zone.... and dare I say, I am in and on board the Penelope Douglas hype train?? Great for readers who like morally gray dark romances featuring multiple partners!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Saint versus Swamp!
The following ratings are out of 5: Romance: 💙❤️💚💜🖤 Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙📔 World building: 🌏🌍🌏🌎🌎 Character development: 😊😄😘😍🥰 The heroine: Krisjen - She lives on the wealthy side of the tracks in St. Carmen. Though her parents are going through a nasty divorce and their father has all the money until everything is settled. Meanwhile her mom is trying to force her to marry a rich lawyer named Jerome Watson, though she is basically selling Krisjen to him to secure the lifestyle she wants to live. Krisjen told her mother to just marry him, but she doesn’t want to have more children, so she is forcing Krisjen to do it. Krisjen is eighteen and out of high school, all her friends left for college, and she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She has a younger Brother named Marshall and a five-year-old sister named Paisleigh, whom she loves and wants to stay near rather than leaving them on their own with her mother. The Heroes: Macon, Army, Iron, Dallas, Trace - The Jaeger brothers. They live in a dilapidated mansion on the bay, the poor part of St. Carmen. The people from the wrong side of the tracks in St. Carmen are known as the Swamp. They own and operate a family landscaping and pool cleaning business. Macon - The oldest of the brothers at 31 years old. He was in the military when his parents died eight years ago, and he got out to take care of his five younger siblings and has been angry at the world ever since. He runs their business from home and rarely crosses to the other side of the tracks. Army - He is twenty-eight years old and a single father of a one-year-old son Dex. He is the boss of their business that everyone sees. Iron - He is really a good guy, but he has a habit of getting in trouble with the law. He was convicted of his last offense and will soon have to go to jail for 3 ½ years. Dallas - He hates the Saints (the wealthy people of St. Carmen) with a passion. He is twenty-one and lives for instant gratification. Trace - He is twenty and a nice guy, but lives like a twenty-year-old. He loves to party, and he loves all females. He and Krisjen were hooking up for the last six months, but she wasn’t the only one. The Story: Krisjen is in a time in her life when things are supposed to change, but she is also deciding what she wants out of life and for her future. She grew up wealthy, in a world that is clean and pretty on the outside but often dirty and ugly on the inside. While her friends on the other side of town seem to live a life that is happier and freer, despite the fact that many of them have issues. Such as Iron, who has to go to prison for the next 42 months, and Macon who doesn’t open up to his family and seems to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. I loved this book from the start. I read some other reviews which compared it Credence another Penelope Douglas book about a family with issues and the girl that changes everything for them. That was a book that a lot of people either loved or hated. I loved it and agreed that this one has a lot in common with that book. Especially the fact that the men are all super-sexy and they all have the kind of personalities that you just want to know. Whether it be the dark and broody or the happy and life of the party types, they all seem to be the kinds of guys that you just want to know all of their secrets and spend time with. Each of the guys was so great in their own way. You could tell that Krisjen had feelings for each of the guys and they her, but she was looking for something and didn’t quite know how to find it. The plot had me from the start and kept me interested the entire way through. The world building was on point, you could almost feel the sultry Florida heat, the rain. I loved the descriptions of Krisjen’s clean and bright Florida mansion, like a Palm Beach Estate, and the Jaeger’s neglected mansion in the swamplands slowly being taken back by nature. The character development was great as well, I had clear pictures of them in my head, and they all grew and changed throughout the story. The intimate scenes were sizzling hot, and I loved the way the characters all felt for each other and for family. I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Macon and Krisjen
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I did not read the book before this. I found this novel very boring through the first half and then it picked up. Some times I felt it went into TOO much detail on things that were not important to the plot. But by the second half I finally got into the story. The relationship between Macon and Krisjen was truly a beautiful love affair.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
5-stars: 'Five Brothers' by Penelope Douglas
I read Tryst Six Venom this year (2024) and enjoyed reading Clay and Liv’s story, but when I found out that Penelope was writing a book with the Jaeger brothers (Liv’s brothers), I was beyond excited. I had a hard time putting down Five Brothers when I started reading it. I was fully invested in learning about the Jaeger Brothers: Macon, Army, Iron, Dallas, and Trace. They played an intricate part in Tryst Six Venom. You don’t have to read that book to read Five Brothers, but it would be beneficial if you did. I know Five Brothers is being compared to Credence, which I have not read yet. I’ve had it on my TBR and need to bump it up to read soon. I’ve read the mixed reviews on Credence, but that won’t stop me because I friggin’ love Penelope Douglas’s writing style, character development, and storytelling. She makes my emotions go haywire with their books whenever I read them. They make me feel for the characters and what they are going through, and this is precisely what I felt while reading Five Brothers, which is told mainly in Krisjen but with the brothers having POVs, too. This book is an Opposite Sides of the Track story where the FMC, Krisjen, has grown up as a Saint from the wealthy side of St. Carmen, while the Jaeger brothers have grown up as a Swamp on the poor side of the Bay. The Saints and Swamp don’t get along. The rich want what the Jaegers and the Bay have and will do anything to have it, but the Jaeger brothers are not someone you want to mess with, especially the older brother, Macon, who has done things to protect not only his family but the Bay from the rich. I loved getting to know each of the Jaeger brothers individually. Trace is the youngest brother, and he was the first person to be with Krisjen, but it wasn’t a relationship between the two; it was just fun. Dallas is the brother who despised Saints with a lot of passion, and he even had issues with Krisjen at first. Iron was the brother who was always getting in trouble, and he ended up going to jail in this book, but I loved getting to know him, even for a short period. Army is the only brother who has a child, and out of all the brothers, he has the most caring heart, and he’s the face of the businesses that the brothers run. Macon is the oldest who served in the Marines and had to come back home after his parents passed away so that he could take care of his siblings. He was the one that everyone was scared of, and he had a lot of anger built up in him, and there was a reason for it. I felt for his character the most. It broke my heart to find out what he had to do in order to keep his family afloat. He endured a lot that his younger siblings didn’t know about and he was dealing with the most. I loved the FMC, Krisjen because there was a girl who didn’t know what she wanted out of life. She stepped up to take care of her siblings when her parents weren’t. She also stepped up to take care of the Jaeger brothers and learned all their secrets. The brothers didn’t like her at first since she was a Saint, but once they got to know the real her, they were very protective of her. No, this is not a Why Choose storyline because, in the end, Krisjen’s meant to be one of the Jaeger brothers. I think the one she ends up with was definitely the one she was meant to be with because he saw things about her, that the others didn’t. She also ends up helping the one who she ends up with, and I was there for it. This book touches on some tough, emotional topics, especially those related to the Jaeger brothers. Krisjen, an outsider from the family, sees everything and what is happening and takes matters into her own hands to help the family. I loved how she handled things with the Jaegers, even when she was dealing with her own problems. I could go on and on talking about this book, but I don’t want to risk spoiling it for readers who have been anticipating this book. Yes, this book may be comparable to Credence, but for someone who hasn’t read that book yet, I can’t compare it. I just know I loved Five Brothers so much that I’m still thinking about the story and characters days later after I finished reading it. This is why I’m giving it 5-stars. I can’t stop thinking about it. Penelope’s world-building and character development in this book gripped me in a way that I definitely need to reread this book over and over again. Every book Penelope writes has been that way for me, which is why they are an auto-buy author. I really hope Penelope writes more books in this world. I need more of the Jaeger brothers because, after reading this book, all the brothers deserve an HEA.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A Coming-of-Age Theme
Krisjen Conroy may live on the privileged side of town with a mansion and swimming pool, but she comes to life on the other side of the tracks where the Jaegers live. If you’ve read any titles by Penelope Douglas, you know she weaves in plenty of high-octane heat into her storylines. Five Brothers is no different. All of the brothers have their unique quirks, from Macon to Trace. Iron’s got the bad-boy attitude, complete with an impending jail sentence. Army is more steady and Dallas is grouchy. However, Krisjen had a mysterious tryst with one and can’t seem to figure out which brother rocked her world. Meanwhile, Krisjen’s home life is starting to fall apart since her father moved out. She’s been waitressing across the tracks, but she may find herself stuck on the arm of the highest bidder if her society-driven mother gets her way. Five Brothers centers around a coming-of-age theme where life seems full of Jaeger secrets ready to be unraveled. ~ Amy for Novels Alive
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com