Book Review: Keep Me In Your Heart

I love the Lancaster world and books by Monica Murphy. I’ve been enjoying the second generation books and I just finished Keep Me In Your Heart a few days ago.

Keep Me In Your Heart follows Rowan Lancaster and Arabella Hartley Thomas. Rowan is the oldest son of Crew and Wren Lancaster (A Million Kisses In Your Lifetime) and a senior at Lancaster Prep. He has known Arabella since freshman year and while he used to be annoyed by her early on in high school, he’s secretly liked her for a while now. Arabella is the only child of wealthy parents who are pretty absent. They never prioritize her and don’t even remember her birthday, which is right after Thanksgiving. Resigned to spend yet another holiday alone at school, Rowan invites her to go back home with him and spend it with his big family. Not wanting to spend the holiday alone and also wanting to spend more time with Rowan, whom she’s had a huge crush on for years, she goes.

We follow along as Rowan and Arabella navigate their feelings for one another while Arabella also tries to figure out what she wants to do with her life – stay at Lancaster Prep with Rowan to finish her senior year or move to Paris for an opportunity her mother secured for her as an apprentice for a famous jeweler. She isn’t sure she wants to graduate early or work in jewelry, but she’s been wanting her mother’s attention her whole life. Can she pass up an opportunity to possibly get her mother’s approval? Can she leave Rowan just when it seems like they’re being honest with each other about their feelings?

I really enjoyed this book and I always love being back in the Lancaster world. I loved Arabella and Rowan, but the way Monica Murphy writes dialogue for a lot of her female characters – Arabella included – sometimes annoys me. It’s hard to describe it, but it’s almost like how you’d think a little girl or a pre-teen girl would talk if they were pretending to be an older, fancier, person. I almost imagine them talking in a very breathy way too. And Arabella is such a good character too, but just the way she talks takes me out of it sometimes.

There is one more Lancaster book for me to read and I believe Monica Murphy has said it will be the last one sadly!

Read this if you want a spicy billionaire prep school romance with the grumpy sunshine trope.

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