Craving My Brother’s Best Friend
starring: CAYLA BRADY & EVAN ADAMS
Alison accidentally sends a steamy fanfiction to her older brother’s best friend Brett, who becomes her new roommate. He’s her longtime secret crush and off-limits. As they live together, tension builds between forbidden attraction and loyalty.
REVIEW
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is kind of the closest verticals come to mega star casting - the pairing of YA Queen @caylatbrady and YA King @evanadams_official
And there is a reason both are such popular choices in YA verts, they make these roles look effortless, but add so much more.
Cayla has the ability to portray someone vulnerable who is never weak - this is really really hard to do. She takes you to the core of the emotion, and then in an instant can turn it to comedy. She is light years ahead of most other people in this genre - and it is a gift that we have someone of her talent working in verticals
And Evan Adams is so in demand because he is so good - yes he has the look, but he gives his bad boys depth and nuance. He can switch from teasing to explosive anger to tenderness.
And thank goodness this vertical gives them a good script to work with - because they get lots of scenes together where they push each other as Alison tries to force Brett to say he cares about her. This is something a lot of lesser YA verts miss, they focus on the bullying which is a massive mistake. The best YA stories focus on the flash points between the leads as they fall in love
Think 10 Things I Hate About You and the poem
She's All That and 'I was a bet'
And Cayla and Evan smash it out the park when given just a hint of substance to work with
We are also helped by the casting of @emmadusenbury who makes Rita memorable, interesting and has a strong motive to work with. YA villainesses can merge into one, but the performance and stronger story means that Rita stands out.
It's not perfect, a bit too much bullying nonsense
But overall good strong YA from @dramabox_us and director @thedchen that is made by the performances of the 3 leads.
💖 Top swoonworthy moment:
There are lots of steamy moments. But the best bits are when our two leads have big emotional confrontations, like when Brett is trying to protect Alison but she breaks down that she doesn’t know what she is doing and trying to figure it out. That’s what made this so good.
🦹🏼♂️ Top villain award:
Rita is hideous, and we do veer a bit too close to the hideous school bullying, but this vertical is rescued by the final act where we learn more about why Rita has such a control over the Cheerleading Squad, and the fact that Emma Dusenbury is superb and keeps your attention.
😂 Comedy gold:
It’s always funny when a high school male lead gets jealous, cue the scene where Brett drags a chair across the floor, sits down and offers Alison mozzarella sticks.
🎺 Unsung hero:
The Cheerleading coach who is a bit dim letting all that drug taking go on under her watch but at least doesn’t hesitate to take action when she does see bad behaviour.
✍🏼 DETAILS
Director: Dan Chen | 2026
Available on Dramabox
