Review: Too Safe by Abby Millsaps

Too Safe by Abby Millsaps

Series: Boys of Lake Chapel #1

Publication date: July 21st, 2023

Pages: 317

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Never let them get you to the second location.

Even if that location happen sot be a lakeside mansion home to four hot-as-sin men.

After years of living in survival mode, I'm finally hitting rewind on the story of my life. There's nothing standing in the way of my bright future at Lake Chapel University.

Or so I thought.

Being ambushed by four devastatingly attractive football players wasn't on my bingo card. Ironically, they seem just as stupefied by me as I am of them.

There's the brooding, scowling leader. Then the iPad-wielding nerd. Net is the gruff, gorgeous jock. And finally, the huge, tattooed emo boy.

It's the last one that catches my eye.

As the recipient of the Crusade Scholarship, I'm here on a full ride, and I intend to make the most of my education. But a girl's allowed to have a little fun, right?

That's how I find myself hooking up with the right guard of the Lake Chapel Crusaders at the first part of the school year.

My plan for a casual fling is derailed a few days later when I unexpectedly run in to a couple of the guys outside of school.

Now Decker Crusade thinks I saw something I shouldn't have, and he's decided the only way to control the narrative is to control me.

There's nowhere to run, considering Decker and his boys live in a lakeside mansion that can only be accessed by boat.

Apparently, I live here now, too.

They think they can keep me captive indefinitely, but there's something about me they're sorely underestimating: my will to finally live.

TOO SAFE is the first book in the Boys of Lake Chapel series. It is a full-length why choose sports romance featuring darker themes and high heat. For a full list of tropes and CWs, see the author's website.

Available at:

Review:

When your 96-year-old best friend tells you that her major regret was that she didn't live her life to the fullest and makes you promise, on her deathbed, that you will not make the same mistake, you listen. That is how Josephine Meyer finds herself enrolled in Lake Chapel University while she lives with her uncle at his junkyard. As far as living conditions go, she has been through worse and so she welcomes the change in scenery as well as the upswing of her life. But when she arrives at school the first day she has a run in with the local heartthrobs of the town and it was less than friendly. However one of the guys seemed decent enough so when she attends a party with her new friend she seeks him out immediately. After some heated exchanges he is pulled away and she is left smitten with her new love interest. All of that goes to hell when she sees him and one of his friends outside of her work. For some reason them seeing her there freaks them out to the point where she finds herself awoken that night in the captive sight of their leader. She is to stay with them until they are sure that she didn't see anything that night and until they can trust her. Their reputations are everything and she could destroy everything they worked for. She might be their captive but for how long?

I had been so close to DNFing the book based on something I thought was an addition by way of the author's viewpoints instead of the character. As far as politics go, I tend to avoid siding with either extremist views and reside carefully in the middle. I don't like politics, cancel culture, or anything of the sort being within the books I read. It feels too much like the author is trying to push their audience into believing their way. Even when I may agree with the views, I don't like them being present within fiction books I'd like to just lose myself in. There was one instance where the FMC made a statement that was swaying one way or the other and it just made me grimace in the fact it was even there. But I wanted to see where the story went so I trudged on. There were a few more... persuasive political statements in the book but I tried to just ignore them and focus on the characters and story. I found out later that it may have just been a character trait and not the author's own views that were interjected and it was meant to show the character in a certain light. After that I was perfectly fine and started to enjoy the book.

There were times in the book where I felt like the language was a little juvenile even for college students. The fact that 'fuck yeah' was said various times in sexual scenes gave me a bit of an ick. But overall I was intrigued by the book. I am curious about Joey's past and how it can possibly tie into her future with the guys. I absolutely LOVED that they had one of the male characters be autistic. I have never read a book where the love interest was openly autistic and had it displayed so well in his mannerisms. That was what completely saved this book for me. I am anxious to see what the next books hold for Joey and the Crusaders.