Quid Pro Quo by Nenia Campbell is a dark, stepbrother romance, which is not normally my favorite of tropes, but this author does an artful job of posting teasers on Threads. These little snippets were so delicious that I simply couldn’t resist giving this book a try.
Jay escaped. She’s living a quiet life in San Francisco, working as an administrative assistant, and she tries very hard not to think about the past. But then that past comes knocking at her office door one day in the form of her stepbrother, Nick.
Nick can have anything he wants, except the one thing he can’t have, his stepsister Jay. But he’s concocted an elaborate plan, one that includes stalking and blackmail to change that. He’s never going to let her go, but the past they share might be too much for Jay to ever forgive.
Quid Pro Quo is structured in a bit of a different way. Throughout the first half of the story, the author gives us just enough vague clues to know there’s something salacious in Nick and Jay’s shared history. There are extensive flashbacks, and as much as I love a flashback, I could have done with these being a little shorter, or having less of them.
Little details like Jay’s rock collection and Nick’s interior decorating choices give readers a good sense of these characters early on, even with all the missing pieces to their backstories readers are waiting to find.
The relationship between these two is definitely unhealthy and toxic, which is not in and of itself a deal breaker. However, at times, they are super frustrating to read. Their decisions are completely nonsensical.
The spice in Quid Pro Quo is very taboo. She’s his stepsister and she (with dubious consent) calls him “Daddy”. Again, it was not a deal breaker, but the spice scenes were more focused on the depravity of it rather than the physicality or chemistry between the two of them, which made it hard to connect with.
My most significant complaint is that this book is way too long. There is such a focus on flashbacks that the present story feels lacking, which doesn’t make sense for an approximately 500 page book.
The ending of Quid Pro Quo was sweet, which was a nice balm after all the dark, tortured pieces, but after all the elaborate build-up, it felt too quick and easy. I know I say this all the time, but I was so prepared to love this book, and I hate that I just didn’t. A few things done differently could have made this book spectacular.
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