A Safe Place (The Devereux Family: Book 1) by Margaret Watson

4 Stars

Publisher: Dragonfly Press

Date of publication date: February 19th, 2019

Genre: Romance

Series: The Devereux Family

A Safe Place—Book 1

The Woman He Knows—Book 2

Bending the Rules—Book 3

Where you can find A Safe Place: Barnes and Noble | Amazon | BookBub

Book synopsis:

Tough, tender-hearted Frankie Devereux doesn’t have time to babysit a smooth-talking football player who’s supposed to be doing community service at her after-school center for troubled teens. She’s dealing with serious stuff – gang problems, a homeless pregnant girl and scraping together enough money to keep her center open.

But when a dark secret from her past threatens Frankie and the existence of her program, Cal tries to step up and help. But with his career on the line, which will he choose? Football? Or Frankie and her vulnerable kids?–

---

My Review:

When I read the blurb for A Safe Place, my attention was caught. A football player was doing community service. A woman was running a center for troubled teens. That was enough for me to agree to review it. I am glad I did. A Safe Place was a fantastic read.

The plotline with Frankie, FreeZone, and the head of DCF was troubling but well written. I was troubled because I had no issue seeing what happened to Frankie in her teens happening to a girl in real life. I am not going to go off on a tangent but sometimes people in positions of power like that prey upon the very people they are supposed to protect. I cheered when Frankie took the power that man had over her and owned it. I also cheered when Frankie delivered on her promise.

Cal’s plotline wasn’t as extreme as Frankie’s, but he did have issues. He was dealing with a possible career ending injury and doing community service. His plotline didn’t go into his issues as deep as it did with Frankie, but they were there.

I didn’t like Cal. He was a self-absorbed jerk for about 90% of the book. Everything about that man irked me. The way he treated Frankie. The way he treated the kids, Ramon especially. He turned everything into about him or sex. He did get better as the book went on but still. I couldn’t bring myself to like him.

I thought that Frankie was a strong woman. She overcame some horrific things in her early teens. She turned that pain into something positive. Her determination to help the teens in her center was admirable. I also liked the strength that it took to confront the man that hurt her. Like I said above, she owned it.

As much as I didn’t like Cal, he and Frankie had some serious heat together. Their sexual chemistry was off the wall. When they finally did have sex, it was hot.

I didn’t get much of a romance vibe from Cal and Frankie. It was more of a sex thing for me. So what happened at the end of the book didn’t jive with me. Don’t get me wrong; I was happy about it. But it was something that I couldn’t even picture.

The end of A Safe Place was satisfying. I can’t get into why but I ended the book with a huge grin on my face. I can’t wait to read book 2!!

---

I would give A Safe Place an Adult rating. There is explicit sex. There is language. There is violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread A Safe Place. I would also recommend this book to family and friends

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**

---

Have you read A Safe Place?

What are your thoughts on it?

Let me know!!