2.5 stars. This was just "meh" for me. It was a poor effort to be both romantic and suspenseful and fell a little short of the mark on both for me. The love angle was cheesy and a bit contrived. Maybe it's because I just didn't particularly like the characters. The suspense, psychic stuff aside, was a bit unbelievable. And some of the characterization and dialogue got repetitive, which is a story killer in a short book like this. It was a quick read, pulled me in pretty quickly but ultimately left me a bit annoyed and dissatisfied.
*********UPDATE********* New rating 1.5 stars 1/20/2015 I just finished reading "Tuesday's Child" by Dale Mayer, which has the same premise as this book. I kept thinking how much it had in common with this book: psychic woman with visions that manifest themselves physically on the MC, same trigger for visions (violence), burned by trying to help police in the past, sequesters herself in a remote cabin in the woods, tries to help one more time and then becomes the next intended victim of a serial killer. I had to go back and look at the publication dates and found that this book came after "Tuesday's Child." It seemed as if Ms Banks took the idea of Ms Mayer and changed it up enough that it wasn't blatant plagiarism and ran with it in an effort to do it better. Too bad it didn't work. Given that the other book was written better, with more likeable characters and the plot less contrived, I must say that I'm forced to remove a star from my original review of "Keep Me Safe."
On a random trip to B&N my best friend and I picked up book four of the slow burn series, and we were instantly hooked. After realizing all five books were on the shelf we bought the entire series and going to read the series together. I just finished the first book and I am hooked. I'm so glad we already bought all five books and I can't wait to blow through them.
I love maya banks but this book was awful. The main character had been through so much she was so damaged she couldn't function and the bad guy is way smarter than everyone. It's a supper irritating book.
I don’t know what her other books are like (I have heard some good things) but this one was awful. The power imbalance between the ‘love interests’ is incredibly problematic. Caleb claims he’s interested in Remy without really knowing her at all, basically pushes her into sex when she’s vulnerable, belittles her when she has a panic attack and tells her to ‘shut up’ when she’s caught on making a difficult decision. And this book is supposed to include a ‘romance.’ If this is what we tell people romance is, no wonder people today have to be taught about issues of consent. This is not romance, people. This is a hideously toxic relationship. I will not be rushing out to read any more of her books
Content Warnings
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping
2.5/5 stars. Little suspenseful, nice little plot twist but nothing too crazy. Sweet ending and the love the 2 main characters had for each other was sweet.
This is a wild ride and a little cliché and far fetched but that’s what I loved about it. There was action and romance. The only thing I wanted more of was the push and pull of the two main characters. I felt like they fell in love too fast.
I received a copy of Keep Me Safe courtesy of the publisher in exchange of a review.
Keep Me Safe is the first book by Maya Banks that I've read, and I enjoyed it enough, but I guess I was expecting to love it, based on all the hype the Breathless trilogy got. Ramie and Caleb were thrown together due to Caleb's sister being abducted by a serial killer. Ramie is a psychic, and Caleb was going to use her to find Tori. After Tori is safe, Caleb can't stop thinking about Ramie, and what she went thru in finding his sister, and vows to find Ramie after she goes into hiding. After they reconnect, they feel a connection and an attraction to each other. At times, I felt like I was reading the same pages over and over again, the dialogue was a little different, but the situation was too repetitive. Ramie kept stating how broken she was and Caleb kept trying to console and comfort her. I love a good thriller, and I liked the story enough to continue the 2nd one, but it was just a 3 star read for me.
Keep Me Safe is the first book in Bank's "Slow Burn" series, and its definitely been a long while since I have read this author and quite frankly I wasn't sure I wanted to read more of her ever since the whole fiasco with her and her PR team BUT I just realized I didn't want to keep that frustration for another series to keep me from some solid reads and I did see this on Libby and I just wanted to read it and as one of my main goals this year is to mood read I knew I wanted to try it out. So I grabbed this up and first impression was the narrator, I fell in love with his voice and the flow by which he narrated this novel and I do think his narration did increase my enjoyment of the story quite a bit, so I do love it when that narrator hits the spot and he just has this gruff sexy voice that just appealed to me and totally connects with the alpha vibes you get from this book.
So Keep Me Safe is a story that is focused on our hero, Caleb, who is on the hunt for his sister who has been kidnapped. He goes in search of a psychic woman who is known for finding serial killers and he will do anything to get his sister home and safe with them. So he forces Ramie to make a connection to get the location of his sister but when he sees the effects of the linking, Caleb realizes his mistake and what he put Ramie through and despite the horrible meeting, Caleb is drawn to Ramie and is determined to make it up to her no matter the cost. Ramie hasn't seen Caleb in six months and even though she has been furious with him, she needs him because she is being hunted and she knows that Caleb can help protect her from him. But Ramie never expected that upon calling Caleb for help, she would find herself in a fighting game with this psychic killer but also finding a love with Caleb she never thought possible for herself.
Keep Me Safe was quite different than I expected and yes it has been a while since I have read such a suspense thriller romance with a paranormal twist as this book was. I know there are a TON of mix thoughts on this one here. I am kinda on the fence on my true feelings to be honest. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but there was quite a bit of drama, so much that I almost felt like I was reading a new adult (which this is NOT new adult since the main characters are older and more experienced) I actually enjoyed seeing this romance form, I did think it had that insta love feel to it a bit. I mean, as a suspense novel, you definitely know that the plot will thicken and progress very quickly so you do need to take that aspect into account. But their romance was a bit too quick even for me and I adore the instant love trope. It just felt off and not quite right for the level of intensity that is found within the story.
The plot of the story is highly engaging and you definitely feel like you are on edge, not sure how I feel about reading audio romantic suspense because yeah my anxiety levels kinda went through the roof but then its been a while. Listening to this book was a good reminder that I have been lax on my romantic suspense reads because I realized (despite some of my issues with this one) that I miss these suspense, on the edge, vibes in a romance. I did adore many of the side characters that come into play with this book so you can count on me picking up the other books in the series for sure.
Overall I found Keep Me Safe to be a fantastic read that brought some unique elements together and I am highly intrigued to see where this author takes the series overall.
