Review: Love Me If You Dare – Kate Laurens

From the author of Love Me For Me… Some things change… It’s been three years since Kaylee Sawyer has been home–home to the alcoholic mother she can’t handle, home to the painful memories of her sister Ella… and home to the guilt she’s carried for years. About to enter her final year of college, she is determined to come to terms with the mess of her past–and to ignore the guy whose single kiss has been tattooed into her mind forever. Some things stay the same… Dylan McKay is still golden haired and dangerous, the flame Kaylee was always afraid to touch for fear of getting burnt. But despite the damage that’s been done, she finds that she still can’t stay away from the one person who accepted her the way she was. Some things are meant to be. Kaylee is no longer the innocent girl she once was. Though tragedy ripped them apart before, one look from Dylan brings all of the old feelings rushing back. Torn between her past and her future, she’s not sure if a person can ever truly go home again. But Dylan doesn’t plan to let her go without a fight. Recommended for mature readers aged 17+ due to language and sexual content.

Series: Safe Haven #2
Release Date: June 29, 2013
Publisher: Createspace
Source: Reading Addiction Tours
Reviewer: Shannon
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

I really liked the premise of this book.  Kaylee Sawyer returns home the summer before her senior year and is forced to not only face her alcoholic mother, but also the death of her sister.  I liked how Kaylee became a mixture of her sister and her old self as she dealt (or not really dealt) with her sister being gone.  It wasn’t necessarily the healthiest way to go about living her life, but she was doing the best she could as she dealt with what she felt were her actions that sent her sister over the edge.

But then she comes home and sees her sister’s best friend and the guy she always had a huge crush on…Dylan McKay.  Yep.  Dylan freaking McKay.

For those of us that grew up watching the original Beverly Hills, 90210, Dylan McKay was the ulimate bad boy.  Broody, rich, with that James Dean hair.  So to have the male lead in this book have his name, it felt wrong.  This Dylan McKay turned his life around after his best friend died.  He stopped his partying ways, becoming a smoke jumper, buying a house, adopting a dog and becoming a man who can be depended upon and willing to do what he needs to for the people he loves.  This Dylan was the ultimate alpha with the squishy center.  But in my mind, every time his name was mentioned, Luke Perry would pop into my head…which was a complete distraction.

Dylan and Kaylee have a lot of issues to work through, but Dylan manages to have Kaylee face what happened with her sister, her relationship with her mother and realize that she doesn’t have to be anyone but herself.

Name of the male character aside, this was an entertaining read.  Kaylee and Dylan kept readers interested and made us wish for their happily ever after.  The ending was a bit abrupt, but ultimately readers got what they were looking for.