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A review by nicolemhewitt
Keep Me Safe by Maya Banks
4.0
3.5/5 Stars
This review and many others can be found on my blog - Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Keep Me Safe is romantic suspense with a psychic twist! This book was different than anything I’d ever read before, so it was fresh and interesting to me. I really enjoyed the overall concept, but there were a few major points that kept me from truly loving it.
What I loved:
The concept.
The concept of this book really struck me and made me instantly empathize with Ramie. Ramie was a psychic who helped locate kidnapping victims – but when she was psychically linked to the victim, she would actually experience whatever the victim was going through. It was not as if she was just witnessing it, but actually going through whatever they were going through. She even exhibited the physical signs of the attacks (though I think she recovered from them more quickly than an actual victim – this wasn’t entirely clear). Obviously, this was horrendously traumatic for her, and she eventually went into hiding. This whole concept was incredibly unique to me (and somewhat horrifying, but in a “can’t look away” sort of way).
Ramie.
Ramie wasn’t always the strongest of characters, and some people might not like that about her, but I was actually okay with it. I don’t always need my female characters to be completely strong heroines. Because of the horrific things that Ramie had been through at the hands of many different perpetrators, she had a valid reason for being fragile and broken. In fact, I think it would have been unrealistic if she wasn’t. I honestly couldn’t imagine holding up half as well as she did under the circumstances. I could also see how Caleb would feel strongly protective of Ramie once he knew the truth and how he would feel not only pain and guilt over what he had done to her, but also respect her for everything she had been through in order to help other people.
The suspense.
This book in its essence was a suspense novel – you knew that someone evil was trying to get his hands on Ramie and that there was a high likelihood that there would be some collateral damage before everything was said and done. Well, that was definitely true. I was never sure exactly what was going to happen and, especially during the second half, I was glued to the book in order to find out how it would all play out. Banks did a fantastic job of building the suspense and giving hints about what would happen without spelling it all out for us. I was 100% engaged!
The negatives:
Insta-love (or something close to it).
Okay, to be fair, the actual L word isn’t brought up immediately – and by the time it is, I was actually mostly okay with it. But the two leads have a sort of instant connection that made me roll my eyes a bit. I wanted to see more build between them before they even started down the road to romance, but instead they headed in that direction pretty much instantly (at least after their very first meeting, which was anything but romantic).
I’d do it all again.
There was one aspect of this book that was actually really disturbing to me. This was the fact that Caleb repeatedly said that, even knowing the truth about what Ramie went through in order for him to get his sister back, he would do it all again. And Ramie accepts this. Understands it even. Um, no. I really had a hard time with this. Remember that Ramie essentially experienced Tori’s rape and torture along with her – not passively, but as if she were actually being tortured and raped along with her – she even showed the physical signs of what was happening to Tori. He didn’t realize this when he forced Ramie to have the vision of his sister, but he certainly understood it afterward. So for him to say that he would do it all again if he had to seemed absolutely horrific to me. I couldn’t help but think of this in real-world terms. Caleb is essentially saying that, in order to save his sister from being killed, he would hand over another woman to be raped and tortured along with her. And this is okay how? This, along with the insta-love really bothered me for the first half of the book, but I was able to get past it in the second half, when the action was in full swing and the characters had more of a real connection (and I put my distaste for this one issue aside).
I would definitely recommend this book if you enjoy romantic suspense and you don’t mind a heroine who is on the verge of breaking down (with good reason). Banks kept me interested and I’m curious to see what she’ll do with book #2 in this series. 3.5/5 stars.
***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
This review and many others can be found on my blog - Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Keep Me Safe is romantic suspense with a psychic twist! This book was different than anything I’d ever read before, so it was fresh and interesting to me. I really enjoyed the overall concept, but there were a few major points that kept me from truly loving it.
What I loved:
The concept.
The concept of this book really struck me and made me instantly empathize with Ramie. Ramie was a psychic who helped locate kidnapping victims – but when she was psychically linked to the victim, she would actually experience whatever the victim was going through. It was not as if she was just witnessing it, but actually going through whatever they were going through. She even exhibited the physical signs of the attacks (though I think she recovered from them more quickly than an actual victim – this wasn’t entirely clear). Obviously, this was horrendously traumatic for her, and she eventually went into hiding. This whole concept was incredibly unique to me (and somewhat horrifying, but in a “can’t look away” sort of way).
Ramie.
Ramie wasn’t always the strongest of characters, and some people might not like that about her, but I was actually okay with it. I don’t always need my female characters to be completely strong heroines. Because of the horrific things that Ramie had been through at the hands of many different perpetrators, she had a valid reason for being fragile and broken. In fact, I think it would have been unrealistic if she wasn’t. I honestly couldn’t imagine holding up half as well as she did under the circumstances. I could also see how Caleb would feel strongly protective of Ramie once he knew the truth and how he would feel not only pain and guilt over what he had done to her, but also respect her for everything she had been through in order to help other people.
The suspense.
This book in its essence was a suspense novel – you knew that someone evil was trying to get his hands on Ramie and that there was a high likelihood that there would be some collateral damage before everything was said and done. Well, that was definitely true. I was never sure exactly what was going to happen and, especially during the second half, I was glued to the book in order to find out how it would all play out. Banks did a fantastic job of building the suspense and giving hints about what would happen without spelling it all out for us. I was 100% engaged!
The negatives:
Insta-love (or something close to it).
Okay, to be fair, the actual L word isn’t brought up immediately – and by the time it is, I was actually mostly okay with it. But the two leads have a sort of instant connection that made me roll my eyes a bit. I wanted to see more build between them before they even started down the road to romance, but instead they headed in that direction pretty much instantly (at least after their very first meeting, which was anything but romantic).
I’d do it all again.
There was one aspect of this book that was actually really disturbing to me. This was the fact that Caleb repeatedly said that, even knowing the truth about what Ramie went through in order for him to get his sister back, he would do it all again. And Ramie accepts this. Understands it even. Um, no. I really had a hard time with this. Remember that Ramie essentially experienced Tori’s rape and torture along with her – not passively, but as if she were actually being tortured and raped along with her – she even showed the physical signs of what was happening to Tori. He didn’t realize this when he forced Ramie to have the vision of his sister, but he certainly understood it afterward. So for him to say that he would do it all again if he had to seemed absolutely horrific to me. I couldn’t help but think of this in real-world terms. Caleb is essentially saying that, in order to save his sister from being killed, he would hand over another woman to be raped and tortured along with her. And this is okay how? This, along with the insta-love really bothered me for the first half of the book, but I was able to get past it in the second half, when the action was in full swing and the characters had more of a real connection (and I put my distaste for this one issue aside).
I would definitely recommend this book if you enjoy romantic suspense and you don’t mind a heroine who is on the verge of breaking down (with good reason). Banks kept me interested and I’m curious to see what she’ll do with book #2 in this series. 3.5/5 stars.
***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***