Book Review: Brianna, My Brother, and the Blog

Oct 2009 Issue

Jack Weyland, a pioneer in the LDS fiction genre, is back with his 27th novel, Brianna, My Brother, and the Blog (Deseret Book; Publication Date; Sept. 2009; ISBN: 978-1-60641-140-7; Paperback, $14.95), an amusing look at dating in the digital age.

Moments after stepping off the plane from his mission, Austin Winchester is shocked when a strange woman throws her arms around him for an enthusiastic hug. He soon learns that this pretty, friendly, funny woman is his brother Robbie’s girlfriend, Brianna—Austin’s future sister-in-law.

Away at BYU, Brianna needs a friend to keep her company on weekends while her roommates are on dates and she’s waiting for Robbie to come home. Austin quickly volunteers for the job, and soon finds himself spending most of his free time with his brother’s girlfriend. Since there’s no romantic involvement between Brianna and Austin—of course not, since she’s waiting for his brother—Austin is free to learn what it means to be a “true and faithful” friend with a girl. He begins posting his findings in blog entries that will become a useful (and sometimes hilarious) blueprint for anyone trying to figure out the opposite sex.

Over the course of a year, Austin helps Brianna haul her harp to-and-from wedding receptions, coax her best friend Sophie out of her shell, and knock ‘em dead at the ward talent show. Meanwhile, he’s offering bits of relationship advice under the pseudonym “Steve-O from Schenectady” to his loyal readers in the blogosphere. But with Robbie’s homecoming fast approaching, Austin is presented with a problem to which Steve-O doesn’t know the answer: How to tell his brother that he’s fallen for Robbie’s girlfriend.

Brianna, My Brother, and the Blog is available at Deseret Book, Deseretbook.com, and wherever books are sold.