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The Wrong Obsession by E.L. Sparrow
Sep. 4th, 2025 08:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
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The Al Gore Rhythm got me.
Recently, I’ve been receiving algorithmic ads for serial romances, where you pay to unlock chapters. Typically, Instagram or Facebook will show you the first few chapters to hook you and then send you to one of the gazillion romance novel apps out there.
The excerpt grabbed me, but I was not about to pay per chapter for a serial that, while thankfully completed, was over 150 chapters. Lucky for me, the author decided to release the entire thing as a duology. Book one just came out and book two is out in September. Great timing, if you ask me. As of right now, it’s only available on Kobo.
Originally titled Craving the Wrong Brother, this is an erotic contemporary romance with BDSM elements. It hits all the ridiculous, soapy high notes of a 2010s release: a wealthy hero who uses BDSM to treat PTSD instead of going to therapy (but really everyone in this damn book needs therapy) playrooms with an obvious red aesthetic, underground prizefighting, family members and friends scheming to keep the couple apart, SO MANY SECRETS. I literally cannot list all the secrets or we’ll be here for ages.
Okay, stop yelling at me. I’ll get to the summary.
Finn and Sloane have been BFFs for a decade. Sloane has been hopelessly in love with him, but he can’t get over his high school girlfriend Delilah and is addicted to their on again, off again toxic relationship. During one of their off again stints, Delilah gets engaged and Finn comes up with the grand idea to ruin her wedding and convince her to be with him again. To complicate matters, Finn’s older brother Knox (uh oh, he’s hot and mysterious) is the best man.
Sloane agrees because she’s a teensy bit of a doormat and Finn is manipulative with her feelings. He quite literally will throw himself at her feet and cry about how she’s the only one who understands him.
Knox and Finn have a Very Bad relationship, which is only made worse by Sloane’s attraction to Knox. Finn goes absolutely bananas when Sloane’s attention isn’t fully on him. Sloane is frequently put in the middle between the brothers, but also has family trauma around a similar situation with her divorced parents that has continued well into adulthood.
One of the craziest moments in the book is when Finn has Delilah break his arm with a hammer so he can go to the hospital and guilt Sloane into reestablishing a connection with her after she starts dating his brother.
Like I said, therapy for everyone.
However, the serialized nature of the original hinders this book when packaged as a full-length romance. With serials, stories come out in chunks and typically end on a little cliffhanger to bring you back for the next update. That’s exactly how the book felt. Every few chapters formed a little vignette with a “to be continued” sort of ending. They were set up typically like: dramatic scene between brothers, hot sex, big reveal. Rinse and repeat. After a while, you forget what the hell the characters are even working toward. They’re just endlessly circling the drain and the book, as a whole, really lacks cohesion. It’s like when a sitcom doesn’t know when to end and they just keep putting out season after season with no real direction.
The Wrong Obsession is a potato chip book. You keep going back for more and before you know it, the bag is empty, your tummy hurts, and you’re full but not satisfied. You bet your ass you’ll be buying another bag next time you go grocery shopping though.
It’s bonkers and I sped through, but I hesitate to say it’s something I’d recommend to just any romance reader. This is a romance for a specific kind of person. If you’re nostalgic for the heyday of erotic romances and have a soft spot for Fifty Shades of Grey (no judgement!), you might consider picking this up. It really made me remember the fondness I had for those kinds of books and authors like Shayla Black and Cherise Sinclair. In my brain, I dub these “toxic cornball” books. They’re melodramatic, you aren’t sure if you even like any of the characters, but goddammit you’re invested and you can usually put your brain on autopilot for the duration.
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