Nothing surprising. I found it fairly predictable but a cute read. I found the main character fun and relatable

I really wanted to like this one but I sadly could not connect with it. Which I’m shocked by since it was stem and I’m literally all about stem. I found it hard to find the characters believable as their personalities seemed to change too much from chapter to chapter. I will however be picking up earlier work of the author to see if I enjoy that more.

Es una versionde The love hypotesis peero mas corta y con representación de gente cn discapacidades.
Me gustó porque, aunque fuese insta love, fue una buena comedia romántica.
El crecimiento de Seraphina fue lo que más me sorprendió, gracias a Milo pudo superar varias cosas, pero como que tenía que darse ese stop.
Milo me pareció un personaje medio raro pero que complementaba bien con Seraphina, la ayudaba bastante con todos sus problemas.
Si la historia podía desarrollarse un toque más y ser más dramática? Claramente. Aunque no creo que sea de esos que decis: fua no puedo dejar de leer.

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the first book I have read by Sophie Penhaligon and I really enjoyed it!

Safety in Numbers is the story of Seraphina Ellis and Milo Grant and it includes women in STEM as well as brain injury representation.
This is a workplace romance and has some steamy love scenes within.

Seraphina is living day by day with her very thought out routine, which helps her navigate her life and recovery from a traumatic brain injury, after being in a motor vehicle accident.
A mathematician, Seraphina is ready to return to the workforce and during her interview meets the brash CEO Milo Grant. There is definitely something brewing, however Seraphina takes on another position within the company allowing her a smoother transition back into paid employment.
Seraphina’s brain injury has left her speech impaired and this is something Seraphina really struggles with. She cannot remember the names of things and conversations with others can prove to be a challenge.

Milo Grant is getting frustrated not being able to find a competent research assistant so when he discovers Seraphina has all the qualifications he requires, he wastes no time in recruiting her as his assistant.

Milo is grumpy, he is loud and outspoken and says what he thinks with little thought for others. He is a perfectionist, and yet we see a gentle and loving side when he is with Seraphina, you just know he is holding back from forming relationships due to his past. I loved seeing these layers revealed.

Seraphina grows in confidence throughout this book and by the end I was feeling so proud of her, she delved deep within and battled with some truths that she was determined to keep hidden.

The author, I believe, wrote Seraphina’s brain injury and her ongoing recovery with care and sensitivity, and it made for a thoughtful and insightful romance read.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for the early copy I received. This is my honest review.

A story about a very smart mathematics physist that has a brain injury and is trying to make it on her own and not have anyone know she suffers from the injury. Overall the story did not draw me in. I liked the characters ok but never really felt attached to them. The story is unrealistic, it goes from her being very shy and never going out to all of a sudden jumping in bed with him? He is a jerk to everyone and yet all of a sudden is spoiling her and treating her like a princess? Also, the story moves too quick thru the relationship from not even knowing eachother to in love in a few chapters? There needs to be more development thruout and less focus on her not knowing words. Her character's actions do not fit the character and her words.

give me anything with STEM-based romance, and i'll devour it instantly. this book was such a feel good romance and though i honestly have no idea how to rate it, i'm giving it a solid 4 because i enjoy reading STEM-related romances, and for the fact that i can't stop smiling and gushing about the characters' dynamic.

I got some grumpy/sunshine-esqe vibes and I’m for it. We start off with Milo, “a notoriously cantankerous asshole” ( his words, not mine), and Seraphina who melted him like butter. He shows her there is life after loss and she teaches him that he deserves love.

I found this a heartwarming read and have already added Penhaligon’s other works to my “to-read” list.

I enjoyed this story. While it wasn’t one that I couldn’t put down, I did find it fascinating. Having both Seraphina and Milo have to work through problems, both physical and mental, added growth to both characters. I loved the science/mathematics involved as well in this story.

I can't decide how many stars I want to give to this one. There were some things I really liked and some others that I didn't. Overall it was a cute read, the relationship was easy without much drama and I found it sweet. But something was missing for me, and I don't know exactly what.

Milo was caring and protective, but I felt like his personality changed a lot even when we were reading his own pov. It didn't make sense. I mean, I get the whole point of "he hates everyone but her" and I LOVE that kind of narrative, but in this one it just didn't feel right. And it felt a little like an insta love, even though it took some time for them to be together. I prefer the show instead of the tell, and the story told us that time was passing but we didn't get to see it. And Seraphina was a likeable character. She was strong despite all that she went through, and I really liked the way she could face the adversity. But again, there was something that didn't click with them.

4/5 Safety in Numbers. STEM based romance, about two broken people, one quite literally as the heroine deals with her new normal of life after traumatic brain injury. A breezy read and surprising adorable. His support of Seraphina was touching in a world that doesn’t want to support anyone who is different.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYkawcfuDxT/?utm_medium=copy_link

This book started strong and I was excited to see where it went. I thought the author did a good job of describing life with an (often) invisible disability and the way it affects ever aspect of someone's life.

However, once the romance part of the book started, the book took a bad turn. I got gross and creepy vibes from Milo. There were some parts of the book that felt repetitive -- like the author literally just copy and paste thoughts / dialogue from pages earlier. And I hated how Milo was able to "fix" Seraphina as the book went on and that was his goal in the relationship. Disability does not equal broken but that'e the direction the book took. It felt like he loved her because he could "fix" her, not for who she was.

It was a quick and easy read but I would not recommend it. There are plenty of other romances out there that do 100x better describing life with disability and featured disabled characters who are not seen as broken but rather are creators of their own lives and destinies.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Seraphina is a woman who is dealing with a brain injury after a traumatic car accident, and the concept of a romance with main character dealing with a disability interested me. I like how we saw into her life, the struggles she faces in her day to day life. And we meet Milo, the boss and someone dealing with his own problems. Milo comes across as protective, to the point of possessive as even speaking to other men angers him. There were definately red flags when reading this book and I wish they dove into Milo getting help for his abandonment issues, rather than dismiss therapy saying it would "take years to unload his problems."
I liked the side characters like Mr Bentley, Lara and Emmy.
A shocking part for me was during the scene where seraphina was told that her "meltdown" was her fault for not telling her co-workers about her disability and therefore it was natural that they would call her an imbecile! I also found it disappointing that the "solution" was for her to announce her disability and then all her troubles would be over- whilst I understand it shows her acceptance of her disability, it felt like more should have happened.
Ultimately I wish there was 50-100 more pages after the climax of the book to show how their relationship changed after the incident instead it just skips to three months later and they're married!! What!?!
The writing style was a bit weird, can't put my finger on what was different. Although I liked the two povs we were given throughout to show what seraphina and Milo were thinking!

I was excited to dive into what seemed like it would be a quirky, touching, nerdy romance (let’s keep these coming, am I right??). Unfortunately, the promising synopsis didn’t quite deliver for me. Milo’s paternalistic vibe was downright cringey, and Seraphina didn’t develop as a character like I hoped her to. Overall, there was a lot of untapped potential with this story, something that was surprising to me after enjoying other work from this author.

Unrelated to the story itself, the e-ARC had so many typos it became distracting.

Many thanks to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of this work.

Classic Penhaligon Book!
When I say classic I mean it delivers everything you can expect from her...realistic characters, touching emotions, feeling, and journeys

In this story I followed 2 POV the main characters each becoming their own present flawed self through trials and fights of life..oh my!! How much I enjoyed watching them overcome their disabilities, challenges and coming stronger than ever to fight and Win

The Romance was great, the angst showed it power but what I mainly liked is how they both fell in love with each other souls rather than for their bodies alone...they came to know each other, understand and love each other 💗
This is what always draws me to Sophie's books...the realness and rawness of characters, their growth and the decipction of how much 2 souls can love each other without too much of depth just perfect lightness

I'm writing this review after a couple of days and I can still feel it.

I really wished I liked this book more than I did. I thought the synopsis sounded promising, but the execution fell flat for me. This is a romance between Seraphina, who is learning to live with a traumatic brain injury and working a new job, and Milo, the CEO of the company. The chapters alternate between Seraphina and Milo's two perspectives. Unfortunately, I felt like a lot of the language from both sides was quite problematic and didn't represent Seraphina's disability in the best light. For example, Milo says, "So, what was I doing here, getting involved with a fragile young woman with more baggage than United Airlines" and compares her to a mouse more than once. We hear Seraphina's colleagues belittle her and call her "imbecile," only for the resolution to be that Seraphina should just open up about her disability more and others would surely understand better. Some of Milo's behavior and thoughts make a poor attempt at being justified due to his "caveman tendencies." There were parts of this story that I did enjoy, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough to outweigh the negatives.

I adored this story. Milo and Saraphina are flawed but very lovable characters. To the outside world, they are unapproachable, standoffish and in Milo's case, bad-tempered and rude. But in each other, they recognise a kindred spirit and so an unlikely yet completely charming romance develops. I was completely glued to this book for two days. I thought it was cute that the successful CEO, Milo Grant would be so insecure with Seraphina that he got jealous and overprotective. He was very sweet in the ways he took care of her and in return, Seraphina knew just what to do to calm down his cranky temper.
I loved that the author's heroine has a disability. I got a real sense of the difficulties Seraphina faced in her daily life even with the most simple of tasks. I could understand her not wanting people to know about it and treating her differently as a result. It was lovely watching her come out of her shell the more time she spent with Milo
Safety in Numbers is a rather wonderful story that sent me scurrying to search for more books by the author.

I could NOT put this book down. I loved every single moment. Starting off with Seraphina, her background left me in tears and bitterness has she learns how to live her new life. The fire in her never goes out as she pushes from one obstacle to the next! CEO Milo Grant, definitely book boyfriend material, is the opposite. While he has his own story he pushes Seraphina in the best ways. Chapter 6 I absolutely fell in love with Milo and was definitely on his side. I loved how everything ended and want more of their story. I just needed a little bit more spice!

Many thanks to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and the author for this e-arc to review.

SAFETY IN NUMBERS follows two perspectives: Seraphina Ellis, a woman that has suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of a car crash and has recently applied for a new job as a personal research assistant at a tech company. Unfortunately, she doesn't get the position but is offered another one with the company. Months later, the CEO of the company, Milo Grant, is desperately searching for someone that's already employed with the qualifications needed for the personal research assistant position. When Seraphina is brought into the office, he's shocked by how qualified she is and how attracted to her he is... and how he might have been a jerk to her in the past. As the two begin working closely together, a mix of friendship and romantic feelings quickly blossom but conflict is bubbling underneath the surface when Seraphina struggles with allowing her to be herself in front of others and believing that Milo can love her/be with her no matter what.

Seraphina is a great character. I really enjoyed reading about her and watching her grow overtime, watching her grow to love and accept herself regardless of her injury. The representation of Seraphina's brain injury and recovery throughout the story felt a bit iffy. I do not have a brain injury nor do I know anything about them so my comments on this subject could be incorrect. However, I did feel that the repetitive reminders of the injury were a little bit annoying and I wasn't too found of how the injury was made to make Seraphina 'broken' majority of the book. The main issue that caused the rift between Milo and Seraphina didn't feel fully solved. It was one of those moments where it felt told to you rather than shown to you and then tied up nicely in the epilogue. Also, if there was another 50-150 pages, I feel that Seraphina would have had more time to grow and her relationship with Milo would've been more fleshed out.

With that being said, SAFETY IN NUMBERS is not perfect or something mind-blowing that would be recommended and enjoyed by many. If you're looking for a read that is similar or compares to titles like THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS and THE KISS QUOTIENT, this may not be the one. Even though it shares various themes to those titles, the representation and overall writing of the story didn't mesh well making it difficult to thoroughly enjoy.

CW + TW: bullying, car crash mentioned, child abandonment and trauma discussed
Rep: women in STEM, brain injuries and disabilities, mental health, aphasia,
3.5 stars

I decided to read this book because the main character Seraphina was a female mathematician with a brain injury. I expected some disability and woman in STEM representation, however… this book was quite uncomfortable to read.

Seraphina was working as a research assistant in a lab and fell for millionaire Dr Grant, the intimidating boss of the lab. She reveals her disability to him which develops into a whirlwind relationship.

Seraphina was presented as a broken woman, undeserving of love because of her traumatic brain injury - which seemed like more of a plot device to serve the storyline rather than being accurate representation. There’s a scene with her therapist telling her that her failing relationships with partners and colleagues is her fault for not informing them of her disability?! So disrespectful and I was in disbelief reading it. She falls for the overprotective, jealous Dr Grant and that’s it, that’s her whole personality and the story ends as she found the man who could ‘fix’ her.

There was no character growth and the book lacked substance, with many components being cliché and even cringe (think 2012 Wattpad fanfiction).

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

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was nice to read a romance novel that still had some depth to it and dealt with some deeper topics.