Raising Siblings
My favorite accidental parenthood trope
As an elder sibling who always bemoaned that I wasn’t elder enough (20 months- enough to be two grades apart in school but not enough to have significant puberty/wisdom progress to impart), I’m always fascinated by sibling dynamics with larger age gaps, especially when the elder siblings are more concretely parentified. So these are three of my favorite parentified-elder-sibling romances, which I find to be a nice alternative to single parent romances which aren’t so much my thing.
Next of Kin by Hannah Bonam-Young. The most straightforwardly raising-siblings of this roundup is about two young twenty-somethings who, for a variety of reasons, are attempting to get full custody of their siblings. In Chloe’s case, it’s the newborn sister her birth mother unexpectedly had late in life. In Warren’s case, it’s his deaf 15-year-old brother. After Chloe fails CPS’s financial eval and Warren fails their housing eval, a new program called TeamUp pairs these two strangers together, as Chloe has space in her apartment after her roommate moved out, and Warren’s work can stabilize the household’s expenses while Chloe works to grow her freelancing business.
Though they’re both strangers, and both have a lot of opinions about the other person, they’re united by their shared goal in keeping their at-risk siblings who they’re unexpectedly raising out of foster care. And soon, they’re united by even more than that.
I love this author and this book was no different; she manages to punch you in the throat with feelings, tantalize you with real, genuine stakes despite the humorous tone, and utterly seduce you with how romantic even the least romantic set ups can be.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
The Duke of Dark Desires by Miranda Neville. I read this book about 600+ books ago, so forgive me if I don’t have an overly personalized review of it beyond that it was tagged in my spreadsheet as “raising siblings,” I rated it over 4 stars, and I know I enjoyed every Miranda Neville book I devoured in about a two week period. That being said, reminding myself of this book through various online recaps has definitely underscored that it’s the kind of book I’d like, so I’m trusting the system (which clearly exists for a reason!) and you should too!
This book is later in a series and follows the surprise inheritance of Julian Fortescue, newly duked and, more importantly, the guardian of three younger half-sisters. He needs a governess, STAT, because, what, he’s supposed to suddenly learn to run a dukedom AND deal with small children? Nah. But of course the governess he hires, Jane Grey, he’s got more interesting immediate ideas for… of the horizontal variety.
And frankly Jane, aka the in-disguise Lady Jeanne de Falleron, has more interesting ideas for Julian too… because he might be responsible for the death of her family and she’s out for REVENGE. She’s on the HUNT. And also here are precocious children who must be cared for.
Revenge, an instantly horned up surprise duke… what’s not to like? Looks like this book’s going back on my TBR!
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
Nocticadia by Keri Lake. You might argue that this book isn’t quite the same as the first two because our girl Lilia Vespertine isn’t fully RAISING her sister, she’s just the primary financial breadwinner with minimal help from her sister’s burnout father. The little sister’s in a particularly expensive boarding school because of trauma so there’s not much RAISING raising as it is being responsible for her sister instead of a parent, which I think counts.
I also wanted to talk about this book, and it’s my newsletter, so there. Anyways, Lilia’s mom died in a really strange and traumatic way a few years back, and this is one of the reasons Lilia is interested in science and medicine, though due to her sister’s father being a burnout with increasingly dangerous friends, she hasn’t been able to pursue that. She’s gotta pay for her sister’s school, so she’s taking night community college classes and is hoping eventually that’ll get her where she wants to be.
But after she submits a case study of a “fake” disease (aka what she remembers of her mom’s mysterious condition), it’s flagged because it’s actually real despite how she’s been gaslit about it for years, and she ends up with a super special, full-ride scholarship to Dracadia University (for at least a semester… tbd if she’ll get to stay longer). There, on a maybe haunted island off the coast of Maine, she meets the mysterious and forbidding Devryck Bramwell, who teaches one of her labs and is the foremost expert on the disease she is desperate for a chance to study.
This is a dark and melodramatic gothic academia read which is as erotic as it is taboo. I had fun with it, but I’ll be honest, I went into it thinking it was, at least, a duology, because there’s a LOT of plot and science to resolve. But, nope! It’s a standalone! Even with the insane [redacted] twist at the 85% mark! So pacing wise I have thoughts, but overall, an interesting twist on this trope and a story I enjoyed as much as I raised my eyebrows.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next time, I’ll be recommending books where our characters are falling in love while on the run!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
Follow me on social: Instagram | Bluesky
Are you a writer? Make sure you’re subscribed to my other publication, The Rogue MFA, where we share university-level writing support without university-level debt!
Available now: my debut marriage of convenience romance Rehabbing the Billionaire! Buy your copy on Amazon, or snag it on Kindle Unlimited! Then, rate it on Goodreads to help more people discover it!