Protecting You by Claire Kingsley

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As I've mentioned before, the October book for the Patreon Exclusive Review for the Smart Women Read Romance Podcast was Unraveling Him by Claire Kingsley. It's the third book in the Bailey Brothers series. I usually try to read things in order, so I had to pick up the first book in the series, Protecting You. I was able to apply this to the prompt starts with P for the second Fall in Love board. This can also cover the prompts PSL vibes and #squadgoals for the Bang in the Night Bingo.

Grace is home for the summer. She grew up and is best friends with the Bailey brothers next door. There's a special connection between her the oldest brother, Asher. They used to be the closest of friends but have grown apart over the past few years. Now, things are about to change as they find themselves ready to reconnect and maybe move past the friend zone into something more.

This was a really sweet shorter book. Now, I didn't look too much at the blurbs before jumping in, just enough to see that Unraveling Him was book three and that Protecting You had a note that they need to be read in order. So, in case you didn't know, the first two books are a duet, but I believe the rest of series will focus on a different brother each book. Also, this series is connected to her Miles Family series. I've had that on my tbr for a while, but have moved it up my contemporary ideas after Smart Woman Read Romance did a episode on one of the books and Jessen binged the series recently.

So, I'm not the biggest fan of duets, but it made sense here. We get to see the connection grow from friends to lover between Grace and Asher. Not knowing it was a duet, I kept noticing things that were mentioned and thought that they had to be a hint for what's to come. Also, I should say there is a big trigger for assault and attempted rape in this book. I don't usually do trigger or content warnings too much, but I was surprised that it was mostly in 1st person POV. That was a little tough to read.

Before we got to that point though this was such a sweet read. I loved getting to know the brothers and the dynamic between everybody. So this is a little bit of a spoiler, but since it's part of the blurb for the next book I want to chat about it. Asher ends up harming the person assaulting Grace and when things come down he ends up going to prison. There's a lot of discussion about how he got in trouble for fighting in highschool and that made his current charges that much worse. You could totally see how even though it was in defense of Grace how things just spiraled out of control for them both. Of course Asher "tries" to break up with Grace when he goes to prison.

Oh boy, did this book take a dark and angsty turn. I have to say, I'm nervous on how angsty the next book is going to be. I trust Claire's writing and have enjoyed previous books I read from her, but I don't do well with angst, especially in contemporaries. Based on the author's note she had this idea before either series but didn't have Grace's full backstory until she realized she is related to the Miles Family. I definitely want to pick up that other series and will probably jump back it after reading Unraveling Him before continuing on in this series. We do see a little epilogue that has what I'm assuming is all the couples from that series, so it was a little info dumpy since I didn't know who any of them were (except Cooper). I can't wait to read more from Claire Kingsley! Also, I remember that Jessen picked up the Miles series when Claire's husband suddenly passed away as a way to support her. If you are into small town and/or contemporary romances, certainly give these a try.

Have you read Protecting You?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Protecting You, Claire Kingsley, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 186 pages, published in 2020