Make You Love Me by Shae Michaels

If you think you've read author Shae Michaels before, you definitely haven't read them like their newest standalone book, Make You Love Me. You can expect a romance between adoptive brothers containing lots of pining, with more than a healthy dose of obsession thrown in for good measure in this somewhat taboo tale. 

From the blurb:

My adoption made us brothers. My obsession makes him mine.

Love. Lust. Obsession. There’s no telling which of my feelings for Noah came first.

What do I have to do—who do I have to be—to make him feel the same? To want me. To love me.

Even though it will mean the destruction of our precariously constructed family, who the fuck cares? I certainly don’t. Not if I can make Noah mine.

Make You Love Me is a 75K MM romance with angst and heat. Please refer to the beginning of this book for the content warning and possible triggers.

SNik's Review:

Standalone. Adopted brother. Slight age gap. Slow burn. Dual POV. Heed content warnings. 

Jase is obsessed with his older, non-related brother, and so creating a fake dating profile to hide his identity while talking to Noah seems to be his only recourse in his unrequited love. Inevitably Noah will have to find out, and Jase will for sure be heartbroken, because there is no way Jase can ever hope that Noah will return his feelings. 

There is a moderate amount of angst surrounding the taboo and the horrible family environment that Jase lives in (he’s still in high school), but once the truth comes out all the interactions between Jase and Noah end up being sweet, with a side of steam. 

This isn’t a standard obsession story nor a standard start to a relationship, but it ends up working since something absolutely committed Jase to being with Noah. There are a couple of secondary characters that I appreciated being super supportive of Jase, and he and Noah definitely get their HFN.

Rating: 4 Stars

Jacqueleen the Reading Queen's Review:

"I'd known. I'd known this would end badly.

But I'd always thought I would be the one who'd be destroyed and devastated."

Well, this slightly taboo romance was certainly a large detour from Shae Michaels usual sweet writings. I've read plenty of stepbrother romances, but never adoptive brothers. For some reason, that seems a little more risqué, for lack of a better word. Maybe because of the essentially legal binding of them as siblings, I guess. Though I don't know if I could ever really think of Noah and Jase as sharing parents. Those people should never have been given that moniker. They are hateful, terrible, trash human beings, and I honestly wished that something more terrible happened to them than losing the one child they considered their son. I hope Noah goes through with his idea and ends up pissing on his father's grave some day in the hopefully near future. They were that awful.

I did feel somewhat uncomfortable with the whole catfishing part of the book. I think the fact that their interactions included actual sexting and Noah unknowingly falling in love for the first time in his life with someone he considered his little brother was what was harder for me take. Noah was just such a genuine and sunshiney sweet man. It broke my heart so hard the way he reacted when he found out who he'd been messing around with. I swear I felt gutted right along with him. It did make me feel better that Jase seemed just as disgusted with his own actions as everyone else once he finally looked at things from Noah's point of view.

"Nothing would change what I felt for Noah.

My love. My want. My need. My obsession.

Mine. Always and ever mine."

This was very much a romance brought on by obsession. Luckily for Jase, that was something that Noah ended up liking. The steam between these two was riddled with lots of delicious, dirty talk. I also liked how it was the younger of the two who ended up being the dominant in their partnership. It made for an interesting dynamic. The book ended with a pretty solid HFN ending, leaving it open for a possible future book featuring Jase's best friend Early, even though this book is marketed as a standalone. I don't know if I want to know what happened to that poor kid during his 4 months of silence. I don't know if my heart can take it, but if Michaels writes it, I'll likely end up reading it anyways. 

I've read every book by this author since their first debut novel and I'm also a nosey fuck who needs to know Early's secrets, whether or not they are going to break my heart.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Reedkaye's Review:

Jase is an adopted kid that is obsessed with his older “brother." He has been since he was small and had problems learning. Being dyslexic is something his adopted parents refuse to admit. They only have a perfect family and an adopted son has to fit. Noah helped Jase with homework and other things until he went to college. Noah didn’t see the way his parents treated Jase. Unbelievable.  

Jase is now in his final year at school and his obsession with the grown-up Noah has only grown. Jase takes drastic steps to get Noah’s attention. Things don’t go as planned and the family relationships take a surprising turn.  

This story has a lot of heartache in it. There are also some triggers, but I found they were needed for the story. I hope there will be another book, maybe about Early and more about where these two lives settle.

Rating: 4 Stars

Heather's Review:

Shae Michaels deviates from traditional and sweet romance to 'taboo' and stalkerish in Make You Love Me.  There is a lot of toxic behavior in this book - from Jase's online stalking to the terrible homelife that he's had to endure from his adoptive parents, and Noah is oblivious...

This was a well crafted story with lots of angst, emotion and a few surprises.  I hope that the author decides to expand this universe so we can see Jase and Noah continue on their path to HEA and we get Early's story!

Rating: 4 Stars

Make You Love Me is available to buy as an ebook, paperback, or to read with Kindle Unlimited subscription.