*contains minor spoilers*

In the sequel to Nell Grey’s novel Trust Me, Find Me follows Sion Edwards, now Shaun Cobain, to New Zealand where he begins his new life in witness protection. Claire Williams embarks on her journey around the world to find her long lost father, wondering what could have been if she’d gone with Sion. As Sion thinks of ways to reach out to Claire and bring her back to him, Claire is put in a dangerous situation when Sion’s enemies plot to use her to bring him out of hiding.

Like Trust Me, I found the writing style to be more believable than most stories. And while I personally love it when it’s real, I understand that some might find it boring (just a heads if that’s you). I particularly liked when Claire kissed Sion during an inconvenient time and he responded with, “What are you doing? We have to go.” Was it a romantic response? No. Was it a good time to kiss him? Also no. I liked that she was trying to be cutesy, but I also liked that he knew it wasn’t a good time. Too many couples get caught up in the moment and end up wasting precious time. One part of the writing style worth mentioning that was difficult to get used to was the use of perspectives. Claire’s POV is first person present, while everyone else’s is third person past tense. And those perspectives sometimes changed with no transition so it was a bit hard to adjust.

The plot didn’t turn out as I expected. Not in a bad way, to be clear. I was surprised at how quickly Claire made her way to NZ, and how easy it was for Sion to get her there without her knowing. There was a plot twist here and there, but the main one, I had hoped for a bit more foreshadowing. I also noticed how in Trust Me, the love scene was vague and glossed over, but here, it was more descriptive. And seeing how Sion and Claire were a major part of book one had me thinking Find Me was the real story the author wanted to tell, and Trust Me was more of a prologue.

I especially loved how different Claire and Sion were from Annie and Jac. It shows that Nell Grey has variety in her work and makes me want to read more from her. They had that fun teasing banter and, unlike Annie and Jac, they didn’t fight all the time. They were apart, and simply wanted to be together. And Sion’s obsession with seeing her again made him a bit careless with his witness protection. I kind of expected more from someone who used to be in the special forces. But he was also so much more human than all those macho-men leads. At one point, he received some distressing news and actually vomited. Sorry if it’s gross to say, but it’s a common reaction that I never read about, and I appreciated it here.

So, Nell Grey gets another four stars from me! I loved the story and characters and would gladly read more from her. There were a few grammatical errors that slipped through, a couple minor plot holes, and one particular plot element that had me thinking, “well that de-escalated quickly.” The story wrapped up nicely, including a major concern of mine that was tastefully resolved in a single sentence. Thank you, Nell Grey, for this book! ( )