Keep Me by Sara Cate: My Book Review

Sara Cate keeps cranking out the spicy romance books with her latest new romance book, Keep Me. Check out my book review of Keep Me below to see what I thought of this marriage of convenience romance.

*Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Keep Me Summary:

All Killian Barclay wants is to be left the hell alone. He’s had enough heartache to last a lifetime, and he has no more need for love―earning him the reputation of a broody Scot and eventually turning his famous ancestral home into a den of iniquity.

It doesn’t take long for tales of his raunchy house parties to reach the rest of his family, though, inspiring them to hatch a plan to shake Killian out of his routine.

New Yorker Sylvie Devereaux is tough as nails―as the daughter of famous yet neglectful parents, she’s grown a hard shell and keeps everyone at arm’s length. So when she sneaks into Barclay Manor during a trip to Scotland to get a glimpse of a famous heirloom, she doesn’t anticipate facing off against the brutish, maddening highlander who lives there. And she certainly didn’t expect to ever see the bastard again.

Yet just weeks later, she’s approached by Killian’s family with a proposal―move to Scotland and marry Killian to improve his playboy reputation, and after one year, she’ll walk away with ten million dollars.

Sylvie agrees, even knowing that their plan is more deceptive than he realizes. But as she grows closer to Killian and the end of their year together, she has to decide: Is the love of a good man with a dark soul worth keeping, or is she willing to break Killian’s heart now that it’s well and truly hers?

Keep Me: My Book Review

I first came to know Sara Cate’s work through her Salacious Players series and loved how she unabashedly writes taboo and steamy romance. Knowing that she’s become a must-read author for erotic romance, I eagerly dove into Keep Me to see what she’d have in store for her latest romance book series.

Considering the first page was a content warning stating that this book was an explicit romance with elements of kink and BDSM, including exhibitionism, I was only all the more excited.

Overall I’ll say that there were elements that I really liked about this story with other elements that sort of missed the mark. If these were more fully developed I think the story would have been fantastic, but since they weren’t I found it to be enjoyable while also leaving me hoping for more.

What I Liked:

• The marriage of convenience story was a good hook
• Killian and Sylvie’s chemistry was pretty hot with them calling each other names and yet baring themselves to each other
• The love Killian’s family had for him though this was in the background but we are introduced to characters who I think we will see more of in the series

What Didn’t Quite Work:

• Killian was known for throwing raucous parties but we really didn’t see it. The aspect of his friends being swingers felt a bit off and the element of his relationship with his friend’s wife was sort of just thrown in there
• I wanted more of Sara’s signature steaminess. I think this was her tamest book yet despite the content warning which is totally fine but I was expecting more.
• Sylvie’s backstory about her parental neglect was compelling but the about-face at the end seems so out of character
• Neither Sylvie and Killian worked a day in their life. Must be nice to just have days to hang around a manor…and while they had some serious issues affecting their psyches, it was a bit hard to feel compassion for them beyond those issues.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, simply for a fun, forced proximity romance with a hot Scottish hero. It’s a fast read that is enjoyable. I just feel that if certain aspects of the story were further developed, it would have been fantastic.

*Thank you to Sourcebooks for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Related Book Lists:

• My Favorite Marriage of Convenience Romance Books
• Best Billionaire Romance Books
• Best Forced Proximity Romance Books

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