Entertaining, absorbing, and engaging!

As well as reading KEEP HER SAFE by K.A. TUCKER I also complimented it with the audiobook.

This was a fantastic romantic suspense novel that grabbed my attention immediately and held right to the very end. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed listening to this one.

Thank you so much to Atria Books and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with an eGalley.

I'm not sure this book knew what it wanted to be. Or it did and it just didn't do it to well.
The mystery/suspense wasn't all that suspenseful. I mean, I know who the main players in this game were from the beginning. It's pretty obvious who is dirty and lying.
The romance didn't wow me.
Honestly, I had the audio so I finished it because of that and really just to finish. It was alright.

RATING: 4 STARS
(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)
(Review Not on Blog)
Listened to on Audio

This is my first novel by Tucker as I usually do not read the New Adult genre. I don't shun the genre as much as the books don't usually have any mysteries in them. This novel changed that. I wasn't sure what Tucker wrote but the synopsis of this book was right up my alley. There was suspense and mystery! This novel reminded me a bit of Karin Slaughter's writing. This one is set in Texas and has a bit of grit, though no where near Slaughter's grittiness. There is also some romance in here, enough that I would label this more of a romantic-suspense than a straight up mystery thriller. I listened to this one on audio, and loved that it had different readers for the four characters narrating this story. I probably rated it one more star than I normally would for this genre, as I was impressed with Tucker's ability to tell a story and be engaging. I will definitely read another suspense novel by her.

Thought and Plot

Jackie Marshall was chief of police in Austin Texas. Before she got the position, however, she worked as a cop with her partner and best friend was Abe Wilkes. Their children Noah and Grace grew up together until the incident happened and Abe's wife Gina was also a good friend to Jackie.

The incident, you ask? Abe was killed when Grace was six in a drug bust and he is forever labeled as a bad cop as a result. Basically, they found out he was corrupt. But Jackie knows something. Something she has been keeping a secret for years. She takes her own life after talking to her son, Noah. When Noah meets with his mother's lawyer he is given a letter from his mother and this sets in motion events that reveal levels of corruption no one had anticipated.

I would say this one is more of a thriller then a mystery maybe? It's definitely not a "who done it" murder-wise. Maybe it's because you see all the twists coming... at least I felt like I saw most of them coming. Anyhow, it wasn't overly suspenseful seeing how you can figure out what's going to happen before it happens.

Another thing the didn't jive with me, the romance. The romance fell a bit flat for me. I mean, these kids haven't really been friends for years and suddenly their off on a not-so-merry adventure together and getting it on in a pantry? Heck, Grace mistook him for a drug dealer the first time they met! I don't know. I know other people really liked it so it may just be my overall mood while reading this book.

What I did quite like was the writing style of this book. I love getting more then one point of view and it was fairly well done in this book. I also loved the flashbacks!

In Conclusion

I would call this one a Suspense Romance... The writing is pretty solid, though I did see quite a few things coming. I loved the flashbacks and the alternating POV. Probably why I give it 3 stars

K.A Tucker never fails to disappoint! This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2018. The plot runs smoothly, there is great character development, and I agree with the general consesus that the romance portion was well done and out-shined the criminal components of the case.

One of the great book I've read this year. This is my 1st book from K.A. Tucker and I really loved it. Very entertaining and addictive!

My first K. A Tucker book and it was just amazing. Drama, suspense, twist and turns. I could not put the book down, loved loved it. Thank you Netgalley for this opportunity.

In a contemporary novel, I find characters to be a crucial element to my level of enjoyment. There isn’t a magic system or dystopian setting to build something unique, so memorable characters are so important. I didn’t fall head-over-heels for either of our main characters, but I did find Noah to be enjoyable enough to read. He was passionate, dedicated, educated, loveable, and of course very attractive. Grace on the other hand I found to be immature, rash in her decision making, and ignorant of the bigger picture. The novel bounces between their perspectives, but we also get small excerpts from Grace’s father, and Noah’s mother. I found this to be a great addition to the delivery of the novel, because it provided a clearer understanding, but it also took away the mystery of what happened.

My biggest issue with this novel was its predictable and repetitive plot. There were moments where I felt like they just kept going in circles and giving us (readers) the same information over and over again. I do understand that an investigation such as the one they were experiencing could have a “chasing tail” outcome, but it was way too exaggerated for my taste. I am not one to surprise easy with plot twists, as I read so much, and this novel was no different. From the beginning I had an idea who was involved and how it would unfold, but there was a shock at the end that got me. That twist that tied it all together was clever, but I did begin to piece it together before it was officially revealed.

Ever since I read my first KA Tucker novel (which happened to be the psychological suspense He Will Be My Ruin), I have been obsessed with her writing style. Her addictive prose, realistic characters and storylines always have me on the edge of my seat and completely entertained. So, I was thrilled when Keep Her Safe, her newest publication came out last week!

The perfect blend of romantic suspense and fast paced thriller, Keep Her Safe follows Noah Marshall, son of a police chief whose life is rocked when his mother passes away leaving him with the skeletons in her closet and a job to do. Meanwhile, Gracie is busy trying to survive and care for her drug-addicted mother and the ghost of her father. As their paths cross, they realize they are trying to solve a common puzzle and soon, they set out to uncover the truth about the Austin Police Department.

Now, don’t be deterred by the romantic suspense aspect of this novel. It is not overbearing or cringe worthy cheesy, instead, Tucker is able to combine gritty, police procedural components with a few “feel good” elements of a romance to create more of JD Robb or Karen Rose type vibe. And, if I am being completely truthful, I was more drawn into the budding romance of our protagonists than that of the actual case. Tucker did a brilliant job at developing such complex and damaged characters; I was desperate for them to succeed.

As the novel develops, Tucker delivers a plethora of twists and turns and I found myself glued to my seat. There were several moments that were unexpected for me, including the resolution. The final twist at the end came completely out of left field!

Described as Making a Murderer meets Scandal, Keep Her Safe packs just the right amount of punch! I feel like crime fiction fans and fans of the new adult genre (think Colleen Hoover) will really enjoy this novel, I know I did!

This is an amazing thriller!

There are so many emotions in this story. I was rooting for Noah and Grace. But I had sympathy for their situation. And the corrupt officials were so frustrating. I was emotionally invested in this story.

K.A. Tucker did a fantastic job with this narrative! It switches between Noah and Grace, and occasionally returns to Abe and Jackie from fourteen years ago. It was fast paced so I was never bored. I loved the way the story unraveled through these different narrators.

The mystery was great. There were twists and turns throughout the book. It was difficult to know where it would head next. The ending became very complex and unpredictable. Though I did suspect one person who was involved in the plot, I was surprised at the ending.

I absolutely loved this book. If you’re looking for a gripping, thrilling mystery, this is the book for you!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

If I’m being honest, this is not the book I wanted to read. I am a fan of contemporary romance and I know that K.A. Tucker is capable of writing great stories in that genre. Truthfully, that’s what I was hoping to read. Instead, I read a story of families, deception, corruption and betrayal. Not exactly the witty, light-hearted stuff I usually gravitate to. But the good news is that once I resigned myself to the fact that this was going in a different direction, I settled in and was able to appreciate the mystery.

My romantic heart was teased with the romance that blossomed between Noah and Gracie but it wasn’t the focus of the story, nor do I feel that it should have had more prominence. I felt the romance had a natural place in the story and to have played it up more would have taken away from the essence of what this book was about.

Once I got into this story, I found I was truly intrigued by finding out what happened and as the story was coming to its conclusion, I was binge reading to find out how the events unfolded.

This book just proves that Tucker has quite a diverse writing range and that she is capable of writing stories with the right balance of tension, mystery and romance. She remains a go-to author for me regardless of the genre, though I’m secretly hoping for more contemporary romances in her future.

Keep Her Safe, a new suspense novel by best selling author K.A. Tucker came out today! As many of you know, I love this author. The talent she exudes in her work is amazing. (Ten Tiny Breaths series will prove this). So obviously, I was happy to get the ARC of Keep Her Safe and provide a review for you all.

Noah Marshall has had an easy life. His mother is the chief of the police department and they live a pretty normal life in Austin. Friends, sports and school are life for him. He is a polite, handsome Texan with a good head on his shoulders. One night Noah's mom, Jackie, in a drunken state reveals some things to Noah that he doesn't quite understand and brushes off but in a flash his life is turned upside down and he comes to realize that it wasn't all just gibberish.

Gracie on the other hand lives in a trailer park where she doesn't know if her mom will make it day to day, or even hour to hour sometimes. Life has been harder for the both of them since Abe, a loving father and husband was murdered on the job on the Austin PD. Gracie is tough and sassy (she has to be to keep her neighbours honest). She takes care of her mom, herself and a stray one-eyed dog. So on the day Noah arrives on her doorstep, all guards go up and Gracie reverts to her protective self. Little do they know that their lives are about to change forever. From that moment, it will bring Noah and Gracie together in ways they never thought possible and will reveal answers to questions neither of them ever thought the need to ask.

Keep Her Safe is written through many POV's. We get Noah, Gracie, Abe and Sheriff Marshall. I love when authors do this, and can pull it off. I love how we get a full 360' view of the story being told. I did find a few of the parts of the book to be predictable early on, but it didn't ruin it for me. I still felt it when K.A. Tucker confirmed in writing what was going through my head.

Keep Her Safe has been listed as a romantic suspense, and yes, there is romance but it doesn't overpower the book. And it's not super gushy romance either. It's a mature, ever developing kind between some pretty awesome characters. There was enough to remind you that you are reading K.A. Tucker. (Again, read Ten Tiny Breaths series!)

While I wasn't a huge fan of K.A. Tuckers thriller, He Will Be My Ruin, I was a tad worried Keep Her Safe wouldn't live up (being it was a suspense novel) but I was wrong. Keep Her Safe was written with more finesse, more"umpf" and way more wow factor in my opinion. And I would happily recommend Keep Her Safe for any fan of K.A. Tucker, any fan of suspense or romantic suspense.

Keep Her Safe by K.A. Tucker is the first book of Tucker's that I have read. It is a great romantic suspense novel.

Noah Marshall is a young man whose life is turned upside down. His mother, the police chief of Austin, Texas, kills herself. Noah is left with a puzzle on his hands. He needs to find the daughter of his mother's old partner and bring her a package...with $98,000 in it.

Noah finds Gracie in dire need of the money. Her mother is a heroin addict who is always one hit away from death. Why are the FBI involved? And is the City of Austin ready to deal with the mess that has been revealed.

There are lots of twists in Keep Her Safe. I had a hard time putting it down.

Highly recommend Keep Her Safe.

Over the years I have become a huge K.A. Tucker fan. First stumbling across her Ten Tiny Breaths Series I have devoured each and every book she has released since. Keep Her Safe was no exception. While this isn’t the first time Tucker has written a Romantic Suspense it felt as though she cranked up the intensity in this one. I found Keep Her Safe to be a little darker than her previous books and I loved every minute of it.

Tucker draws us in to this stand-alone novel with characters Noah and Grace. Noah and Grace are both bound to the same web of lies and deceit. As they go down the rabbit hole to find the truth they uncover things that have the power to tear them apart forever or bring them closer. Both were such dimensional characters that showed true growth over the course of the story. I loved Grace, she was such an independent and strong character. Noah and Grace complimented each other in a way that made the relationship between them feel authentic.

Tucker plays on every emotion throughout this story. You can feel the struggle the characters each face as they uncover the truth. This novel had a bit of everything. The story line was well thought out and throughout the book I second guessed myself multiple times trying to figure out how everything was connected and who was involved. I find that a lot of Romantic Suspense novels have a difficult time balancing both the romance and the suspense aspects. Tucker did an amazing job of keeping this balance. I never felt like one outweighed the other and it made for such an addictive and enjoyable read. Keep Her Safe has so many little details that draw the reader in. I would have loved to have seen Tuckers Google history while researching for this book!! After finishing this one I can’t wait to see what she has in store for readers next.

I can't believe this is the first book I have ever read by K.A.Tucker!
I read this book last week and omg I loved this book. I don't often read romantic suspense novels but I now want to read more books by K.A. Tucker .

If you are looking for a good romantic suspense book that you won't want to put down I do highly recommend you read this book.

I give this 4 out of 5.

I started Keep Her Safe by K.A. Tucker the same way I start most books, a little hopeful but mostly cautiously optimistic. This was marketed as a romantic suspense, and the romance part made me a little hesitant. I’ve made this mistake before and ended up reading more erotica than anything else, but the further I read with this, the further drawn into this story I was.

Corrupt cops, a supposed set up, a huge sum of money showing up out of nowhere, this had every element of an action read and I whipped through it at a rapid pace.

I loved how this worked, told between timelines of what happened in the past and then what was happening in the present, where we followed Noah and Grace as they tried to uncover the truth. I really came to care a lot about these characters, Tucker did a great job of bringing them to life and uncovering a backstory that hits deep and makes you care about the outcome.

The author straight up says she was trying for a romance story written in among this corrupt crime book, so there is no surprise that Noah and Grace gravitate towards each other while they work closely with each other. It compliments the story well enough and adds that second layer that she was going for.  I didn’t find it too overbearing or overly gratuitous, though sometimes it came close. But I really liked their chemistry and it felt like a natural romantic progression, nothing forced or written just to be graphically sexual.

I was pretty much kept on my toes this whole book. Some aspects you could kind of assume, but for the most part I was as in the dark and Noah and Grace and eager to find the truth. However, I did predict the twist in the end about half way through, so that was too bad, but that didn’t take away from what that twist meant and how it cemented all the pieces together.

I really quite enjoyed this book and the direction it took. It wasn’t light-hearted and definitely had some awful moments, but it was well written and well thought out and made for a really fast paced and interesting read.

Keep Her Safe was a bit of a disappointment. At first glance, it seems like the kind of book I would absolutely love -- romance, mystery and thriller all wrapped up in one. But the characters never quite grabbed me, and the story started off really slow, and it was only about halfway through that I finally started to get into the story.

When Noah's mother, a celebrated police chief, is found dead of an apparent suicide, she leaves behind a message for Noah to track down the family of her former partner and give them a bag full of money to "make things right." A few cities away, in a trailer park, is the family Noah has to track down: Gracie and her mother, who has an addiction to drugs. Gracie barely remembers her father; she was a very young child when he died in disgrace, a police officer convicted of a serious crime. 

After a bit of a rocky start, Noah and Gracie become friends and slowly realize their attraction to each other. They also realize there are suspicious circumstances around the crime that Grace's father was accused of, and that Noah's mother may have played a role in a grave injustice. Accompanied by a stray dog they informally adopt, they set off on a road trip to investigate the truth behind Grace's father's death.

It's a compelling premise, and once the pieces begin falling together and Gracie and Noah realize they need to head back to Noah's hometown, the story picks up and catches my interest. But the build up felt really slow, and even as I became curious about how the story turns out, I never really quite became invested in the characters or their lives. They weren't unlikeable so much as just okay, and while Tucker does give them both personalities, they just seemed somewhat bland. There is a romance subplot, but the chemistry fizzled and the characters' frenemies-turned-lovers banter fell flat. The mystery angle was the strongest part of the story, and while it took a while to hit its groove, I thought the story ended on a high note.

+

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Noah is in his early twenties and living with his divorced mother, Jackie, who is the Chief of Police in Austin. She has been drinking a lot lately and rambles some crazy story to him one night about how her ex-partner, Abe, was actually innocent and she was a party to bringing him down. Abe had been a respected police officer but fourteen years ago his image was tarnished forever when he was implicated and killed during a drug deal gone bad. That night Jackie kills herself and leaves Noah with instructions to make things right and deliver something to Abe's widow, Dina, and his daughter, Gracie.

Noah follows his mother's last wish and finds Dina and Gracie. Life hasn't been kind to them ... they have been living in poverty in a shabby trailer park in Arizona. Noah and Gracie band together and head back to Austin to find out the truth about Abe and possibly clear his name.

I've read a few books by this author. I liked this story and the writing style. It's written in first person perspective from Noah's, Grace's, Jackie's and Abe's point of view (the chapters are labeled so you know whose voice it is). The story jumps back and forth in time from today to the spring of 2003 (also labelled in the chapter heading). As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.

I liked the characters. I thought Noah was a nice fella. Though he is grieving and is shocked by the death of his mother, he still feels honour-bound to fulfill his mother's last wish. Plus he has wonderful memories of Abe. I found Gracie a bit annoying at times, though, because she was so impulsive and wouldn't listen. But she was young (about 20ish) and didn't have the maturity at times, I guess.

Menacing, adrenaline-pumping, and well crafted!

Keep Her Safe is a steamy thrill ride that takes us into the lives of Noah and Gracie as they investigate and unravel all the lies, secrets, deception, and corruption that has tainted their past and present and try to vindicate their loved ones once and for all.

The writing is taut and edgy. The characters are complex, secretive, scarred, and genuine. And the plot told from multiple perspectives is an intense, suspenseful love story filled with police politics, familial drama, palpable chemistry, coercion, manipulation, violence, and murder.

Overall, Keep Her Safe is another absorbing, touching page-turner by Tucker that has just the right amount of romance and mystery to keep you invested, engaged, and guessing until the very last page.