Book Review

Guest Review: Her Best Friend’s Sister by Meghan O’Brien

NB: We have another lesbian romance guest review! If you like your romances more on the erotic side, you might like this one! This review is from Reader Tara Scott! If you want to read her previous guest reviews (and we highly recommend that you do), you can see them all here.

Tara reads a lot of lesbian romances. You can catch her regularly reviewing at The Lesbian Review and Curve Magazine and hear her talk about lesbian fiction (including romance) on her podcast Les Do Books. You can also hit her up for recommendations on Twitter (@taramdscott).

Apropos of nothing, my husband asked me last week what the hottest thing I’ve read or seen recently was. Without even thinking about it I said “Her Best Friend’s Sister by Meghan O’Brien. Why?” He never did tell me why, but that made me think I should let all of you know about this book.

Meghan O’Brien is hands down my favourite author when it comes to lesbian erotic romance. The Night Off was the first I’d read by her and it blew my mind with its positive, non-judgemental portrayal of a sex worker falling in love with a client. When Camp Rewind was released last year, I was thrilled to see a book that dealt with serious issues like anxiety disorders and online harassment that still celebrated enthusiastic consent in its sex scenes (and also has possibly one of the best making out scenes in existence). With Her Best Friend’s Sister, I was happy to see that it’s exactly the kind of escapism I love because it’s filthy in all the best ways.

Claire Dalton’s life is pretty good. She and her best friend, Sarah, have a wildly successful app that encourages girls towards STEM, she’s been featured in Wired, and they’re going to speak at a TED conference soon. If she could find a girlfriend, that would be even better, except dating hasn’t worked so well and she only has eyes for Sarah’s sister, Alex, who Claire has had a massive crush on since she was 12 years old. Alex is a fashion and artistic photographer who’s spent years on the road with who even knows how many models in her bed, and Claire knows there’s no way Alex will ever think of her romantically. Except too much wine one night leads to some pretty incredible sex and a major shift in their relationship.

Camp Rewind
A | BN
Claire is big-time introverted. She’s a homebody, doesn’t like parties or crowds, and loves hanging out and playing video games. Basically, she’s me or should be my best friend. It’s no wonder she can’t understand why Alex would be interested in her, given the differences in their experiences both in life and sex. And yet, she is! Alex is completely smitten with Claire and is the most adorable, hunky butch who’s ready to settle down with the brainy girl of her dreams now that she’s managed to catch her, even if she wonders if Claire is intellectually out of her league.

I loved that these two women are equally accomplished in their fields and that those fields are so different. It lets them complement each other, even as they worry about not being enough. They each work through their insecurities and as they grow in ways that make them better both for themselves and for each other, the sex changes too. And speaking of the sex… whoo, did Meghan O’Brien ever deliver some fabulous sex writing. It’s varied, plentiful, and has that same enthusiastic consent that she has in many of her other books. If you’ve ever questioned whether it’s possible to write a check-in for explicit consent in a way that’s sexy and isn’t jarring, definitely check out her last several books. It works very well, and in the case of Her Best Friend’s Sister, it blends in with the deliciously gender-bending dirty talk.

The other thing I love about this book is where it came from in the first place. Meghan O’Brien actually wrote it as a birthday gift to her wife, Angie. Meghan told her she would write any short story she wanted, so Angie supplied the characters and their history. I don’t know what that first story looked like exactly (I’m assuming it’s Claire and Alex’s first night together) but am I ever glad that Angie loved it so much she encouraged her talented wife to give Claire and Alex a full-length novel and share it with the rest of us.

Her Best Friend’s Sister is definitely one of the hottest lesfic books to come out this year, if not THE hottest. If you like your erotic romances to equally balance the erotic and romantic sides, definitely check this one out. It’s as sweet as it is sexy and is definitely on my to-reread list.

This book is available from:
  • Available at Amazon
  • Order this book from apple books

  • Order this book from Barnes & Noble
  • Order this book from Kobo

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!

Her Best Friend’s Sister by Meghan O'Brien

View Book Info Page

Add Your Comment →

  1. Megan M. says:

    Aww, I love the backstory behind this! Thank you for sharing! I’m definitely going to have to read this one!

  2. Ans says:

    Aw, that’s the most adorable backstory for a book! Thank you for the review, and for including this tidbit.

  3. Berry says:

    This sounds like the perfect summer break story, super hot with minimal angst. Must buy now.

  4. Evaine says:

    Great review! The book sounds terrific! I go to the book page to check it out…. $13.31 Cdn. Bold Strokes Books are way out of my price range sadly. 🙁

Add Your Comment

Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

↑ Back to Top