The Nora Theory

I adore Sara Cate. Anything she writes, I will read immediately. I downloaded The Home-wrecker on Kindle Unlimited within hours of its release, and fully devoured it by the following afternoon. I am fairly certain I’ve read every Sara Cate book out there, and while I love them all, this one might just be my favorite yet.

The Home-wrecker is the second in The Goode Brothers series, a series of interconnected standalones following a family of brothers as they find themselves amid religious trauma, family drama, and of course, love.

This book follows the middle brother in the family, Caleb, and his wife Briar. And then there’s Dean, a younger sex worker who finds himself suddenly caught between this married couple. Caleb and Briar are the classic good Christian couple. He’s a lawyer, she’s a housewife, and they have a six-year-old daughter.

From the outside, everything seems perfect, but on the inside, everything is not as rosy as it seems. When Dean, a younger man from Caleb’s past finds himself in need of a place to stay, and Caleb and Briar have an empty apartment, he comes in and turns everything upside down.

It’s an unusual opening for a romance novel, a marriage where the love and respect are very much still present but the spark has gone out. Generally, when a romance novel opens with two characters already married, that marriage is bound to be a disaster. But this one, while broken, is built on a foundation of love. Love that turns out to be balanced with a third.

The characters in The Home-wrecker are very well-written. All three main characters are very nuanced from the beginning of the story, and flashbacks give us hints of the character’s pasts. While each and every one of these three main characters is so different from me and my own experiences, I feel connected to them anyway and that is something really special.

Briar craves attention, and while she’s not necessarily comfortable with that facet of herself, the narrative doesn’t shy away from it. I love that romance novels are acknowledging that it’s not a bad thing for a woman to want after a lifetime of society telling us that looking for attention is somehow shameful. It feels a little like representation for us attention whores out there and I am here for it.

While this story is kinky, bisexual fun, it also doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations. Religious trauma, homophobia, and marital difficulties all play a significant role. Much of the book involves exploring difficult conversations in a marriage and in relationships. It’s a very real look at what I suspect is a common problem, how it’s hard to tell someone you’ve been with for ten years that you want to explore new kinks.

The Home-wrecker also doesn’t shy away from the awkward moments, something that is inevitable in such a transitional time in all the character’s relationships. The presence of these awkward feelings makes the story feel very real.

Readers will have to wait a little bit for the spice to kick in, but once it does, it will blow you away. The slow burn makes for a delicious build of tension, and it’s so satisfying when these three give in to their desires.

Sara Cate’s books are usually fairly short, but The Home-wrecker is longer than the rest of her works, and I was so glad for it. Despite its length, I still read it in a single afternoon. Polyamorous romances are the best, and I loved everything about this story.

Spice: 4

Writing: 5

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