1.5
I just could not get on board with this relationship. I was just so uncomfortable that I ended up skimming the last half of the book.
I also wasn't a fan of the way the brain injury was represented.
I don't know...maybe just not for me.

Safety in Numbers is hard to rate for me... the first half was quite good but the second just fell flat and I had a hard time making my way through it. Seraphina has a brain injury and her self-esteem is really low. Comes in Milo, a rich physician and CEO who really sees her. This book started as a workplace romance but in the end, it's really not because they weren't really never at work lol! This is a book that I will sadly probably forget its story soon.

TW: brain injury, death of a loved one, bullying

Thank you NetGalley for the free ebook copy.

Thank you, author, for the advance reading copy.

It's a fun read for me. However, I feel there's a lack of communication between the main characters.

I find the writing really fun and engaging.

A dramatic romance read for a long weekend.

Seraphina is trying to move forward with her life after a tragic accident left her with a brain injury and a mild case of aphasia. She interviews for a job at Grant enterprises for a research assistant position and when the interview goes wrong. Seraphina find herself spending her work days hiding in a cubicle and hiding her disability, in a position that she is over qualified for. After a chance encounter with Milo Grant in the elevator, it leads to her landing the job that she originally applied for. A budding friendship is formed between the two which quickly turns into more between Milo and Serphina…….

Fun quick read interesting story as well , I like the characters, ill have to give some others a read as well

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of “Safety in Numbers” by Sophie Penhaligon. All opinions are my own.

I honestly don’t know how to feel about this book. It was a quick read and it had so much potential! I do love to see disability representation and women in STEM so those aspects drew me to this book.

But if I’m being honest, I feel kind of iffy about the way the main characters disability is represented, and from looking at other reviews I am not alone. The execution just didn’t work.

This man really needed therapy. He had serious childhood trauma and that somehow just went away… what?

The power dynamics between the two main characters were a bit off as well so I wasn’t really wanting them to get together. I felt like their love was rushed and I just didn’t care as much about them ending up together.

I don’t know. I didn’t hate it but I’m not sure I’d recommend it. I think this author has a fine writing style, just some of the storyline rubbed me the wrong way so I would be open to reading something else by them.

I have absolutely LOVED Sophie Penhaligon's previous books and I was really excited when I was offered a sneak peek into Safety in Numbers. Despite her TBI, Seraphina is a fiery spirit (just like her name suggests!) when it comes to her job and Milo was just up her alley. While I love a good steamy love scene, I honestly wish there had been more STEM/job scenes than sex scenes in this book.

Really enjoyed this Romance. It’s not your typical romance, one of the main characters has a brain injury. It showed realness while still being light. Thank you for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It gives a great insight into brain injuries. I never knew what side effects people went through with them. It was very inspiring to see the main characters grow and overcome obstacles.

I love this book!! Seraphina is a gem! And so is Milo and they are so perfect togather.
Disability reads with romance is perfectly depicted in this novel. Seraphina deals with a traumatic brain injury and that has affected her speech but has increased her mathematical skills, according to her.
She has her days planned out and her life, basically and the way she maneuvers through her life flawlessly despite her disability is just brilliantly represented. I fell in love with her immediately and she is so cute to read about. I related with her deeply. The romance between the protagonists is just amazing and blissful and breezy. The book was a delight to read. One of my favourite reads for sure!

A fun interesting read, unique that heroine had a disability great dialogue fun quick read. I will like to read more from this author.

2.5 stars. This book had a lot of potential- a woman in STEM with neurological damage from a traumatic accident. It sounded super interesting. With a different writer it could have been great. The writing in this book just wasn’t. It wasn’t immersive and was just cheesy at times. The MMC had serious red flags (he wasn’t just grumpy, he was a real jerk with weird jealousy issues). The FMC says she plans on “saving” him and magically does so without any therapy at all.
He decides it’s his job to push her out of her comfort zone even though he has no kind of expertise in the matter. She is later told by her therapist that it’s essentially her fault she’s talked about cruelly behind her back because she didn’t want to just tell everyone about her disability.
One of the most annoying things was that it was clear the author is British as there were several times distinctly British words and phrases were used, even though the story takes place in the U.S. Shouldn’t a good editor catch these kind of mistakes?
Overall, this book was just kind of silly and disappointing. I don’t think I’d even bother to check out any other books by this author.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me access to this eARC for my honest opinion!

Well…the cover is cute!

I really wanted to like this one, and was excited to read a romance novel featuring a disabled protagonist. Unfortunately, the writing style just wasn’t for me and I felt like both main characters, not to mention the minor characters around them, were flat and underdeveloped. I found it hard to feel invested in Seraphina, Milo, or their relationship. There was a lot of telling and not much showing. I didn’t think Seraphina’s disability was handled all that well either. A lot of it was paint by the numbers romance, with very little to set it apart from other novels. I wish I had more nice things to say about this book, but ultimately there wasn’t much that stood out to me in a good way.

✨𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄✨
📚 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀
📝 𝗦𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗼𝗻
⭐️⭐️/5
235 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀

✨ Thank you @netgalley for my gifted ARC in exchange for my very honest review I’m about to give you ✨
#gifted #giftedarc #arcreader

📚 This book was published on January 3rd, 2022 📚

⛔️ Honest review ahead - a reminder - I respect all authors & their ability to write whole ass books - this does not alter my respect for this author in any way shape or form ⛔️

{ I do not believe in sugar coating reviews, honesty is the best policy on my page. }

𝗠𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗦:
Oof 🥴 For around 35% I was enjoying this easy, quick read! It started tanking quickly when I started getting pervy/creepy old man vibes from one of the MC’s. Why was it so physical between them? I understand, they liked to have sE❌ in about every place they could. But why do we need every interaction to be involved around it?
I was 👌🏻 close to DNF’ing this one because Milo kept calling Seraphina “sweetheart” and I just…yuck. Cringy af. I was really looking forward to this one & hoped it was going to give me some LH vibes - it did not do that. I would probably say pass to this one but I of course am willing to give any author another shot! Growth is important (unlike the characters in this book)

Thank you to @ashleylardy who buddy read this with me by accident, yet again. Lol I am so glad we could go back and forth on our thoughts.

𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗜𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘:
👨🏻‍💼 age gap trope
🧠 disability recognition
🥼 science
💼 work place romance trope
💪🏻 protective trope
😾 Grumpy/sunshine trope

⚠️ trigger warning: parental loss

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Seraphina Ellis is adjusting to her new life after a tragic accident leaves her with a brain injury. After starting a new job, she is determined to keep her disability a secret, focusing on her work and avoiding any social situations.

After a run-in with the CEO of her company, Milo Grant, she is moved to her dream job and some one-on-one time with the man himself.

Note: I cannot comment on the representation in this book as I have no experience with a traumatic brain injury.

3.5 Stars

I really enjoyed the STEM component of this book. I was invested in the development of the relationship between our main characters and how they pushed each other to be comfortable in who they are and not to change themselves for others. The journey Saraphina goes on to begin to accept her brain injury and not be ashamed of it was my favorite part of this book.

Saraphina was constantly thinking "because I have a brain injury" on the page and sometimes I felt that this was pulling me out of the story. I was also angry that it was referring to her as broken.

Overall this was good, not great but a quick and easy read.

I love me some grump/sunshine trope especially when it also involves science. This book really left me wanting more because the main characters were realistic and relatable. Make sure to have some tissues on hand too.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fast read, that's for sure. And yes pls to more women in Stem books, romance or any other genre. That said, I read this and all while reading I didn't like either protagonist, they have issues. I really didn't enjoy the explosive and possessive personality of MIlo, broody and annoying... And the insta love, not for me. For a rom-com, sure, it all works. Just not my cup of tea.

There's a tragically low number of books about women in STEM, which is what drew me toward this book in the first place. I love seeing this kind of representation, and especially the added intrigue of Seraphina's brain injury and how that contributes to her ability to work. She deals with aphasia and struggles with her speech, which makes her life more difficult than others. Seraphina is a really sweet main character who finds joy in her accomplishments and is very talented.

I loved how Milo gave her the opportunity to work in his lab and gave her a chance. Despite being rude and difficult to literally everyone else, he was so soft for his fallen angel, and that made my heart happier than I could ever explain. I absolutely love it when the guy is soft on her and her only, and Milo is a perfect example of that.

Personally, I thought the first part of the book dragged a little bit, but once the main characters met (in Chapter 7), I found it a lot more enjoyable. There's also a time jump where she ends up working for him for a couple months in Chapter 8, which kind of took me by surprise because I like to see relationships build and grow. As their friendship and connection grow, it's really tangible. From their slow growth to some fire, all the way to the genuine bond that forms between the two. It's very sweet and satisfying to see.

I requested this ARC from NetGalley because the description hooked me from the start. Female mathematician, disability rep, romance… it had all the makings of being a story that I couldn’t put down. Unfortunately, that was far from how this book turned out for me.

There are so many things that I want to point out about this book, but I’m going to hit some of the major points. I’d recommend seeking out some of the Own Voices reviews that are posted on Goodreads for this one.

The whole story/plot ended up being more cringey to me than sweet. Seraphina, our main character with a brain disability from an accident, accepts a job at a new company. In a relatively short time, she’s moved to a different position to work directly for the CEO of the company in his lab. That’s great, except for the CEO happens to be the love interest in this book. I think the intention was for him to come off as moody and gruff and haunted, but I didn’t feel that about him. The author tries to explain that it isn’t the case, but I felt there were so many times when it seemed like he was taking advantage of Seraphina in their relationship tying back to the positions that they have at the company. Keeping their relationship a secret for a large section of the book didn’t help the cringe factor.

I’m not going to go too much into the disability rep, since I think other reviews covered it well. I will say that I was disappointed in the execution, much like other reviewers have mentioned. The writing was very monologue-style to me, and I had trouble connecting to the characters because of it.

Warning: This book discusses some sensitive topics that may be triggering for some readers including death of a loved one, traumatic injury, disability, and ableist language.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

From the description of this book on NetGalley I knew I was going to be in for a treat and I was completely right! Safety In Numbers was a great read and one that I will definitely be purchasing properly once it is is published!

Straight away I loved the layout of this story, the chapters were split between Milo and Seraphina (our two leading characters) which allowed the author to bounce backwards and forwards between the two and give us an insight into their thoughts and feelings.

My only minor disappointment with the two leading characters is that it took a while for us to learn things about them, they weren't really developed until later in the book which meant that some things mentioned early in the story didn't make sense until much later.

That being said, I LOVED reading these two characters, they really were interesting and brought the whole story to life!

The whole book itself was incredibly entertaining too, everything from the plot to the atmosphere just made Safety In Numbers into what it was.

The plot wasn't too much different to other romance novels I have read, but the way the author incorporated women in science (BIG SHOUT OUT TO WOMEN IN SCIENCE!!!) and took the time to craft the science setting, it really gave this story a modern feel. It just had that something a little bit different.

I also couldn't fault the writing, the author has worked and created this story that was so easy to read and get drawn into, it left me feeling warm and fuzzy inside, with a few happy tears streaming down my face at the ending! It was so perfectly done.

And, the way the author included details of Seraphina's memory loss and her the subsequent difficulties she faces in life and how she overcomes them was done wonderfully. It was handled with real care and sensitivity.

I don't think I could have enjoyed this book anymore than I did, Safety In Numbers was truly worth the read!