Member Reviews

Keep me. An adult romance of fake marriage. I did not care for the female. She was spoiled and wanted to take. The content is very adult

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The branding for this title gives the same vibe as the Salacious Players Club, which leads to a bit of disappointment when the story is far less salacious.

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I loved this book so much! It’s a classic Sara Cate age-gap with the perfect blend of sweet and spicy.

We’ve got a grumpy Scottish man, a young and bold American woman, and chemistry that sets the page on fire. What more could you want?

Oh. Angst? You want a little angst? Copy that. Family tension? Sure thing. Character growth? YES. Sylvie and Killian both go through a ton before the end of the book and it makes them fantastic characters you feel compelled to root for.

If you’re a Sara Cate fan already, you’re likely going to love this book. If you’re new to Sara Cate, I think it’s an excellent first book to read by her!! It’s full of heart - made me both laugh and tear up a few times. Super excited for the next book in the series!!

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It all starts with Sylvie going to where Killian lives in Scotland with her boyfriend. Wait til you find out why! Sylvie gets caught by him and you may think that’s the end of their story. Wrong! Sylvie winds up not long later breaking up with her boyfriend. What he does and with whom is mind blowing. All the while Sylvie is just shocked at what her eyes reveal. This is just not what she needs. You see her relationship with her parents isn’t all that great either. Wait til you see why.

Somehow with everything going on, Killian’s sister approaches her with a proposal. A fake marriage for a year and some money at the end if she does something with the home Killian lives in. At first this seems too good to be true. Killian and Sylvie are definitely enemies at first. Fussing and arguing. How could this marriage even last a year with the two at odds all the time. As time goes on, to me a spark forms. It is clear to Sylvie that Killian has a lot bottled ip inside. Will he open up to her? Will a bond start to form? Will Killian find out what Sylvie is up to? If he does, how will he react? So many questions, but the end will definitely shocked you. Two people from different worlds, but both going through a lot in their lives.

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In Keep Me by Sara Cate, Killian Barclay, a brooding Scotsman with a reputation for raunchy house parties, wants nothing more than to be left alone. After suffering too much heartache, he’s turned his ancestral home into a den of indulgence. His family, concerned about his behavior, hatches a plan to change his ways, roping in Sylvie Devereaux, a tough New Yorker with her own emotional walls. When Sylvie sneaks into Barclay Manor on a trip to Scotland, she clashes with the surly Killian, but she doesn’t expect to see him again—until his family offers her a proposition: marry Killian to improve his reputation, stay for a year, and walk away with ten million dollars. As Sylvie gets to know the real Killian, she has to decide if his love is worth keeping or if she will leave him heartbroken when their arrangement ends.

I absolutely loved this book! It had been a while since I’d read a steamy romance, and Keep Me did not disappoint. The age gap, the enemies-to-lovers trope, and the unique premise all pulled me in, and I flew through the pages. The chemistry between Killian and Sylvie was electric. The setting—split between the rugged beauty of Scotland and the bustling streets of NYC and being my two favorite places to travel to made me love the book even more. If you’re a fan of sizzling romance with a good dose of drama, this one is a must-read!

Thank you to @hambright_pr, @saracatebooks and @sourcebookscasa for a copy of this arc!

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This was cute and not what I was expecting in a Sara Cate book because of how tame it felt lol. This is a dislike to lovers because both the fmc and mmc were annoying and a bit rude at the beginning of this. They have a marriage of convenience that benefits both financially there is forced proximity as they are forced to live with each other in the mmc's manor. As we get to know the main characters we see more of them and their pasts and what made them the way they are and it made me empathize a lot with the mmc even though he's an asshole for some of the book. There are spicy scenes but not as much as I thought it would be and I loved the tender scenes between the main characters. Im excited to read more books by this author. Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Hambright Pr for this arc!

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"𝗛𝗶𝘀 𝗸𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆. 𝗜𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗹 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗲. 𝗜𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲."

Killian and Sylvie...hate each other. They are in a fake marriage that neither want but both need, and it pisses them off. They are constantly yelling and fighting and calling each other names, all while slowly falling in love. Man, Killian fell 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 for Slyvie and we love to see it! Sylvie was able to really come into her own with Killian and realize that she was dealt shit parents and that wasn't her fault. She needed someone to treat her like she was the only thing that mattered, and that person was Killian.
At this point we will read anything Sara writes and we were so lucky to receive an arc from NetGalley!

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Reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast, spicy and sweet. A love story tangled in family drama and secrets. Sylvie is a no nonsense, stubborn girl that gets swept up into a romance out of necessity. Killian Barclay, a brooding Scotsman with family secrets hates her. Enjoyable & and undeniably spicy, this story grabs your attention and keeps you wanting more.

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Holy hotness, Killian Barclay is an alpha hole to end all alpha holes! Enemies to lovers, forced proximity and a bit of light k!nk makes this one of my favorite tropes!

I love Sylvie and how even though she has been beaten down by everyone in her life, she never loses her fight or her spirit.

I started out absolutely despising Killian and as the story progressed we got to see how demons and how he’s battled them. Sylvie has her own but she helps him battle his while never losing herself. Watching them fall in love for real was amazing.

The chemistry between these two was off the charts and nobody writes a romance like Sara Cate, and I could practically see the hills of Scotland from her writing.

Honestly these are couple goals and I loved the ending.

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Sara Cate giving us the Grumpy Scotsman in a Kilt is perfection!

I adored Killian and Sylvie right from the start. Their “meet cute” was hilarious and I was totally living for it! These 2 grumpy perfectly broken people growing and helping each other along the way to love and healing was adorable heartwarming.

The secrets, the jealousy, the trauma, the laughs, name calling and heartbreak are all here in this book. But as always there’s some kindy side notes to keep us guessing as well as some hilarious side characters.

My only wish was the story was longer! I was not ready to leave them behind already. I am praying for the series to continue with the brothers or some of the side characters we met along the way.

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Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy for a honest review.
Marriage of convenience of 2 stubborn characters. A Scottish man and an American girl.
The plot of the book was strong and I kept turning the pages to see where this marriage will take me.
The book allows to see why the 2 main characters were misunderstood and how little by little you discover all their lawyers and the changes they go through the year of marriage. How they support each other when they are together or separately.
The book involves pas traumas, family issues and mental health challenges treated well.

It is a romance book with loads of sex that was inevitable. Spice all the time and a good read if you are looking for something easy to read.

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This story is definitely different than any other I’ve read from this author. Overall, I enjoyed it but I spent the majority of this book trying to find anything to consider a redeeming quality in either MC. There were several time jumps after their relationship started and some of them didn’t make sense. I feel we lost some quality time with the couple that would have helped considerably in the progression of their relationship. The whole book felt a bit rushed and lacked some of the depth I’ve enjoyed in her previous stories. Toward the end of the book some of the “reasons why” came out. I just wish it had happened sooner so I could have connected a bit better with the characters.
3.5 stars

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Killian Barclay has turned his family Manor in Scotland into an adult playground you could say. After heartbreak all he wants to do is have fun and stay hidden. His family is not happy with him turning the family dynasty into, well what it is now. Enter Sylvie Devereaux, she is a sassy woman from NY and hired to get Killian in line with the family name. One issue, she met him once and this may be a more difficult task than first planned. When plans don’t go as you first think, can either go through with what needs to be done? Get ready for a slow burn STEAMY and exciting enemies to lovers romance of epic proportions. Can this city girl truly calm the Scottish playboy and also keep her word to his sister? Be prepared as this does have some TW’s so check that out if needed. Both have family issues and quite possibly are perfect for each other. I could not put this down once started. The story, the characters, they all entice you into this wonderful story. The banter is perfection. My heart truly breaks for Killian once you understand where he is coming from. Get ready to fall in love with grumpy Scot! A top read of 2024. Told in first person and dual POV

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Great premise. Promising in places. Lacked depth and character development and believability. Finished the book but wouldn't recommend.

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Absolutely loved this ARC! Grumpy-grump fake marriage plot set in the scottish highlands? Take me there! Great mental health subplot although it couldve had more of that, but the love was good, spice was good, what more could you want?

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Having read some of the books in the Salacious Players' Club, I went into "Keep Me" thinking it was along the same lines. There were a few things that surprised me about - while it wasn't as spicy as the previous books I read by the author in my opinion - it was full of emotion, well-rounded backstories, and two characters you can't help but not cheer on.

I will say though, this wasn’t one of my favorites that have been written by the author and felt like there were some things that could have been left out.

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Thank you, NetGalley, for my advance copy of this book! I read the synopsis and didn’t truly get that this was going to be a spicy book, so when I opened up the page to a content warning I was really unsure if I even wanted to read it. I appreciated the touch so much, and think I went into the novel with a much higher threshold of spice because I’ve NEVER seen that before!

That said, it was *pretty* tame. I wouldn’t say nothing happened, but it’s all kind of glossed over and the romance is actually quite cute. It feels rushed, at times, and I wish we would know more about our handsome Scot’s background earlier on. I love that he and Sylvie are paired up and that they havre such a tumultuous relationship, and the author does a wonderful job of inviting the reader into a relationship that requires work, care, patience and kindness.

I read this book in like three hours so it’s’ not a hefty read at all. Pick it up if there’s like….very little else to read and you want a shameless sex story.

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A sexy, fun, beautiful romance set on an estate in the Scottish countryside. The story includes several tropes, including: marriage of convenience, age gap, dislike to lovers, grumpy billionaire, BDSM/kink, and more! After finding out her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend, the FMC Sylvie enters into a temporary marriage with the wealthy Scottish MMC Killian. Both Sylvie and Killian have a lot of trauma and pain to work through, and seeing them help each other heal was beautiful. Killian is a sexy, dangerous, “touch her and die” type of MMC who really feels like a deeply fleshed out character and comes into his own as the story progresses. Similarly Sylvie also experiences a lot of growth that I enjoyed reading, however there were moments when her sassy/angry mentality kind of started to annoy me, and I felt this wasn’t as well fleshed out and justified as Killian’s demeanor was. In any case, I really enjoyed this romance, which was also filled with smoldering spice, and the way that the two MCs came together, opened up to each other, accepted each other, and found peace in each other. Would definitely recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Casablanca, and Sara Cate for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are wholly my own.

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Rounded up from 1.5. The characters were one-dimensional and the plot made no sense at all. The "BDSM" parts felt very Wattpad, in that it didn't actually matter at all in the story or romance and never really came up on the page. Also, the hero was just a big jerk, and I don't understand why the heroine could see past being called a cow all the time.

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Keep Me, had me entertained from the start. Killian and Sylvie are the perfect couple. I loved that Killian was from Scotland, I could hear the accent as I read. Thanks NetGalley for an opportunity to read this brilliant romance.

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