Review: Safe with Me by Stephanie Rose (Kelly Lakes #4)


Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author.

Kelly Lakes is the fictional small town in New York that keeps on giving, and I'm all for it. Safe with Me is the fourth novel in the series that shares the same name as the town, and this is the first book about the next generation. If you guessed Mikey Russo as that member of the next generation, you would be oh-so-right! Mikey, who much prefers to go by the far more adult sounding "Mike", is now all grown up. At twenty-five, he's on his second year as a cop, and he's kept his close ties to his dad and stepmom, Jake and Peyton (An Unexpected Turn, book one in the Kelly Lake series), and his sister, Keely, as well as his relatives and friends who all call Kelly Lake home. So, when he spots Delilah (whose last name I don't recall being mentioned), he knows she's new in town. There's something about the beautiful thirty-two-year-old that more than piques his interest, but Lila being Russo's Construction's new accountant, the secrets that she's keeping, and her seemingly wanting to keep things platonic between them has Mike wondering if all they'll ever be is friends. The one thing he's sure of is that he'll do anything to keep her safe.

Stephanie Rose's Kelly Lakes series has consistently brought those small-town romance feels that I can't get enough of, but with her latest addition to the series, she's added a healthy dose of suspense to the romance. And did I mention that Lila and Mike's story is a reverse age gap romance as well? Talk about having me giddy with excitement going into the book, and this author, as always, did not disappoint. Having remembered Mike in An Unexpected Turn, I was rather delighted that he was getting his own romantic happily-ever-after in this new book, and that he was paired with someone who not only loved him in equal measure but never hesitated to show him that she had his back just as much as he did hers. It was fun catching up with the previous couples in the series, but this book truly kept the spotlight on the newest twosome to join those Kelly Lakes HEA ranks. One of my favorite things was the reveal of the villain, who wasn't even on my list of potential suspects in the first few chapters, but then there were those tidbits that made me begin to see them in a whole new (and dark) light. All in all, Safe with Me hit the spot, which is why it deserves five stars.

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Read my reviews for the Kelly Lakes series:


An Unexpected Turn (book one) - five stars - My Review

Starting Back (book two) - five stars - My Review

Raising the Bar (book three) - five stars - My Review

Safe with Me (book four) - five stars - My Review (posted above)

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Release Date: 18 October 2024

Date Read: 12 October 2024

Learn more about Stephanie Rose.

Pre-order Safe with Me on Amazon.

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