The Brothers Torres By Coert Voorhees

Frankie’s brother Steve, is everything he’s not—popular, the star soccer player at their high school in New Mexico, and the guy that can get any girl he wants. Frankie waits tables at his family’s restaurant, Les Torres, passes time by setting off explosives with his best friend Zach, and tries to gather the courage to ask his long-time friend and crush, Rebecca out.

Frankie may look up to his brother, but he still resents the fact that Steve has never had to wait a table in his life, has all the girls throwing themselves at him, and is not too happy with the fact that Steve is trying to earn the respect, and possibly join the local cholos, a group of dangerous teens in town. Yet Frankie lies and covers for Steve when he mysteriously doesn’t come home some nights and comes home looking a little banged up.

The prospects for Frankie don’t look that promising as he continues to spend his time lower on the food chain than his brother and watches as his crush gets asked to homecoming but rich boy John Dalton. John Dalton is the son of the local businessman responsible for the Tortilla Emporium; the huge enterprise that bought Rebecca’s family secret recipe for their tortillas, mass produced it and became rich. Dalton is also on the soccer team with Steve, but the two aren’t friends since Dalton’s arrogant despite being quite an awful player.

But when Frankie gets into several confrontations with Dalton, eventually ending in a fight where Frankie gets beat up, Steve steps in. Helping his brother out and actually acknowledging Frankie in school, Steve promises to help Frankie get revenge on Dalton. But just how far will Steve go for revenge? Is it all just for show for the cholos? Frankie isn’t nearly as tough or brutal as Steve; but can he stop his brother if he goes too far? Can Frankie stand up for what’s right, or will he be unable to stop his brother and the rising conflict?

The Brothers Torres had a very honest and sincere tone throughout the whole book, and the characters, especially Frankie’s was very well developed. The honesty of this book really kept my attention and made The Brothers Torres an extremely realistic and captivating read. The Brother Torres reminded me that books don’t need to have some fantastically stunning supernatural element or shock you and grab your attention—a well written story with a honest and believable tone can hold your attention just as well as any fantasy book!
Unfortunately, I do not take Spanish and so the some of the little phrases in this book were lost on me, but other than that, I recommend The Brother Torres to all readers, Spanish student or not, looking for a meaningful and honest book.