Series Review: Keep Me Still by Caisey Quinn

SERIESous’ Top Book Series: Favourite New Adult Read of 2014
Series: Keep me Still
Author: Caisey Quinn
# of Books: 3 (Let You Leave, Keep me Still, Hold us Close)

Technically, Let You leave and Hold Us Close are novellas, but they are essential to the story of Keep me Still

Book Order: Chronological
Complete?: Yes
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Drama
Heat Rating: warm, then hot
Point of View: First Person, Alternating

Thoughts:

WOW…simply WOW! These books blew my socks away. I devoured them in a matter of hours because I couldn’t put them down!

I’ll start with If You Leave. I didn’t go into this book with high expectations. I figure it would just be another prequel novella that gives us a little insight into a character we get in the main event–boy was I wrong! It can get a little confusing with how this series works because the novellas (Let You Leave and Hold Us Close) play a HUGE role in the series. I would say that they are practically novels in themselves to make this series a trilogy and it is absolutely required that you read Let You Leave before Keep Me Still! If I had read Keep Me Still and then Let You Leave, I would have been very disappointed in Keep Me Still because so much of what happens in Keep Me Still requires the knowledge of what happens in Let You Leave–without Let You Leave, you only get half of the story and the missing half is totally worth it!

When I read the synopsis for Keep Me Still, it gave me the impression that Landon and Layla meet in college when in actually fact they meet first in high school, which is where Let You Leave starts. All I can say is that Let You Leave tugged on my heart-strings and I shed a few tears–it was a beautiful story and made me so excited to read Keep Me Still.

Keep me Still was great, but as I said before, I really only felt that way because I had been exposed to the story beforehand and didn’t feel like I was missing pieces. Keep Me Still felt really short because I truly did devour it. I just love Landon and Layla and their entire relationship so I loved getting to see more of that. Again, I shed a few tears and I always take that as a sign of great a book is. While the ending is a bit abrupt, I didn’t mind it so much and I loved that we essentially get an extended epilogue with Hold Us Close.

Hold Us Close was a great way to end the series. I loved the maturity of the characters and the plot development. I always enjoy books that focus on character development–a good plot doesn’t always have to have very dramatic events: sometimes it can have strong characters that we see grow before our eyes and that is enough to keep the reader interested. I loved watching the journey between Layla and Landon in this novella and the little plot twists we get along the way. Just a fantastic way to end a series!

I also have to write a bit of a plea to Ms Quinn in the hopes that she will publish Skylar and Corin’s novella–I would love to read it and I’m sure that I am not alone!

Conclusion:

You’ll see that I said the word “loved” about a gazillion times in this review: but there is simply no other way to express how much I enjoyed reading this series. It’s everything I love in a New Adult read: strong characters, great supporting characters, fantastic character development and a heart-melting romance. It doesn’t feature petty dramatic events but instead focuses on the growth of two people and the love that they share–cheesy but what I’m trying to say is that the maturity of this series is what really impressed me and I love that that is the focus of these books. A must read for fans of this genre! I will definitely be looking at more books from this author in the near future!

Rating: 5/5

Similar Reads: A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks and Wait for You by J. Lynn (Wait for You #1)

Synopsis for Let You Leave (from Goodreads):
Layla Flaherty had the perfect life, or close to it. Until a stranger gunned her parents down right in front of her, leaving her with seizure inducing PTSD. After years of trying to pass as normal and failing miserably, she resigns herself to being invisible. But new to town Landen O’Brien sees her, and he likes what he sees. Much to Layla’s surprise, he doesn’t freak out when she has a seizure in front of him. He does the exact opposite, calming her until the tremors subside. But Landen has secrets of his own. Secrets that will either bind them together or tear them apart.