As a Sara Shepard fan myself, I knew this book would be nothing short of amazing. This felt like a departure from some of her typical YA work, yet still had elements of the author we all know and love. I cannot say enough good things about her or this book. It's such a gem that I hope receives recognition.

I think it's time for Sara Shepard to abandon her rich-women-with-secrets formula and to bring us something brand-new. This book takes a long time to start, and when it does, you see the ending twist coming. 0 surprising. The flat characters plus the same storylines from her other books made this one a big NO for me.

I was so reading for something new and exciting from Sara Shepard!

Very along the lines of PLL, but more of an adult take - thriller and mysterious....

Taking place in a private school setting.

Everyone has something to hide, especially Lauren, Ronnie and Andrea.

This story is told by each of the ladies, dealing with their own secret, postpartum, past mistakes on the East coast, and abusive family members.

Piper runs the school, who also has her own secrets and eventually "gets" hers.

She has a past, that's heartbreaking and she just couldn't get over it and it made her the way she is today

I really would like this to be a series, fingers crossed, because I just loved PLL so much, we will see!!

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this. All opinions are my own..

#SafeinMyArms #NetGalley

Andrea, Lauren and Ronnie are all good moms, with some secrets with their children at an elite preschool. Each for their own reasons, can’t figure out how their child got in. They are trying to play this elite game.. but are always worried they are making mistakes. On the first day notes are left in their children’s belongings.. Letting each know, someone knows their deepest secrets.. They all freak out and when they speak to each other realize they are all in the same boat. They must work together to see who at the school is sending the notes? Silver Swans is this exclusive school and yet their secrets got out. Is it the owner? They take on this challenge together and they make some headway.. This is a good story.. a little slow and a lot of moving parts. But overall I did like it.. it had me guessing at times and that is exactly the point of these types of stories.

Ronnie, Andrea, and Lauren gravitate toward each other at the welcome reception for the Silver Swan preschool because they all feel out of place. When they end up at the school when the director of the preschool attack they worry about their safety and also if their secrets will be revealed. Can they figure out what happened before it is too late?

Safe in My Arms is the Gone Girl of the mom world. The cast of characters is inclusive and diverse (in a genuine, not patronizing way), and they are all so very human.

The mom world is one where everything is judged. Everything. How you look, what you drive, where you live, how cute your kids are, where they are developmentally compared to their peers... the list never stops. Silver Swans preys on that vulnerability and created *the* preschool - they are as flawless as the glossy brochures would lead to you believe, and they expect everyone else to be as well.

Living on the edge, being terrified of being found out for being a fraud - having it known that you don't belong... that is an exhausting place to be. Terrifying when the secrets start coming out... who is causing it? who will be next? And what will happen when they find out yours?

Dark, twisted, unexpected. Worth it.

I've been so impressed with Sara Shepard's adult novels! They have been SO well written and the characters so real. I loved reading this and couldn't put it down.

Not quite what I was expecting but still somehow hit the mark. Sara Shepard is very talented indeed.

Amazing book! I would highly recommend this book to my customers and patrons. I would recommend other books by the same author as well.

I think Shepard's strong point might be YA. Her adult work so far is a little flat and this is no exception. I just don't care about these women at all and for a book for adults, I expect more depth and characterization. The idea is solid but you don't care enough to want to slog through it all.

I tried to get into this book but for some reason I just couldn’t. This book follows moms who have their kids enrolled in an elite preschool. Someone claims to know are their secrets,
I felt there was so much going on with so many characters it was hard to follow along with, I can see how some would absolutely love this book!

Not going to lie, it look me a while to get into this story. At first, I did not like any of the characters, but after a while, they grew on me.

I loved the diversity of the mothers and how the author was able to show three very different lifestyles/life paths. They were completely different then the typical “not-so-perfect mother” we usually get in books.

The ending was kind of eh to me. It made sense but I didn’t love it. There was a huge build up and not a huge surprise/twist.

I’m usually a fan of Shepard’s book, so this one was kind of a disappointment. I was hoping to be shocked with a super sneaky twist and it never came.

Thank you Netgalley and Dutton for the gifted copy.

overall, i think that this book was not that good. like, i feel like there was just so much happening and that i think it was just kind of boring and that nothing really happened in here that really caught my interest. and i feel like there was again, so much happening in here that i just didn't really like it so much.

Safe in My Arms is a new psychological thriller by Sara Shepard. Three women with secrets have children enrolled at an elite preschool. Someone claims to know these mother’s secrets, and expose them. The women are all new to the small community, and struggling to find their places. Now, it seems someone doesn’t want them there at all.

Safe in My Arms is told using multiple points of view. Each woman has a distinct voice, and her own challenges to overcome. However, they were not the most sympathetic of characters.

The deceit and drama in Safe in My Arms makes it an enjoyable beach read. Good for fans of domestic thrillers and women’s fiction.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series and actually remember reading them when I was younger, so I was really excited to try one of her adult novels. Safe In My Arms has some drama but is so much more than that, and I enjoyed every single second of it! I liked all of the different viewpoints even if it did take me a bit to remember who everyone was, and I am not a mother myself, but I always love a good school setting. And what school setting wouldn't be complete without parents full of secrets? I loved the group of moms that are Andrea, Lauren, and Ronnie, and I thought they were very relatable and real characters even if you aren't a mom yourself. The notes they start finding in their kid's backpacks are exceptionally creepy, and while the big reveal for those didn't end up surprising me too much as the book went on, there is a lot that did. I basically just loved throwing myself into this world and these characters and I had a lot of fun reading it. Shepard's writing was very engaging and conversational, and I also loved the humor she threw in.

I really enjoyed the audiobook for Safe In My Arms which is narrated by Eileen Stevens. In the case of this book, I think more narrators would have been really helpful, but I appreciated Stevens' narration just the same. She was a pleasure to listen to and given how many characters she had to voice; I think she pulled them off quite nicely. There are definitely a few surprises throughout the book, and just when I thought they were over, I got some more. I love when twists come out of left field, but I also REALLY love when they are plausible while surprising, and that is exactly what you get here. I also enjoyed how the ending wrapped up, and while it wasn't anything crazy it was satisfying all the same. I really want to do a reread of Shepard's PLL series, but in the meantime, I am already looking forward to reading more of her standalones!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I enjoyed reading this book. It has Little Big Lie vibes with the seemingly perfect community not open to outsiders storyline. The main characters are likable and their slowly revealed past lives’ secrets were fun to uncover. If you’re a domestic thriller fan this would be right up your alley. If you’re looking for something more in the crime or detective genre I’d skip it.

This is the first time I've read a Sara Shepard novel, although I was a fan of the early days of the Pretty Little Liars show, which is why I was intrigued. The premise sounded intriguing and reminded me a little bit of Big Little Lies...

Except not as good. I did really like the main characters and the secrets they were hiding. I LOVE that this book has a transgender main character, which you don't see nearly enough of in novels yet. I love the friendship between these three women, although sometimes each one of them acted a little ridiculous.

However, there were some tropes in this book that made it hard to love. It was pretty predictable and I just feel like if Shepard had put a little bit more work into it, maybe I could give it more than 3 stars.

As I said, I've never read one of Shepard's books, and I have to hope they aren't as all over the place as this one was. Nonetheless, it is readable, and possibly someone else would be more entertained by it than I was. Maybe that person is you?

Unfortunately I did not finish this one. I simply did not care for any of the characters. Writing was fine, but I got bored.

3 women + 1 elite preschool = a setting ripe for drama.

Andrea, Lauren, and Ronnie are all excited, but appropriately apprehensive, for thier children to enroll at Silver Swans preschool. After bonding at the annual welcome breakfast, the ladies form a friendship. What they don't know, is that each of them holds their own secrets. Andrea is transitioning and hiding the process from her elite East Coast family. Lauren's days are filled with postpartum rage- and sometimes she can barely hold herself together. Ronnie lives in fear; in a situation too scary, too complete to explain.

When the principal of Silver Swans is attacked, suddenly the secrets of the mothers are getting closer and closer to being exposed. What starts out as a basic who done it, kept me guessing until the very end. Vivacious characters, real complex problems, and an anxiousness any mother can relate to, Safe in My Arms was a winner in my eyes!

At some point in the beginning I started wondering if this was just a mommy version of Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series. It's not, but it does start with anonymous notes, so you can't blame me for jumping to that conclusion.

It felt like what should have been three different stories all mashed up into one. Yes, these troubled moms did blend well together, but in the overall plot they also seemed randomly thrown in. Everything seemed all over the place, from each characters personal problems to the overall mystery.