Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Find Me Worthy
SERIES: Safe Harbor (Book 3)
AUTHOR: Annabeth Albert
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 285 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 28, 2023
BLURB:
I thought I’d lost myself…
Until Sam found me. I’m back in Safe Harbor, where I haven’t belonged in over twenty years. I’m unsure how I ended up here, yet I’m certain Sam is the key to finally healing.
But it’s complicated.
Sam’s had a crush on me since we were younger. To me, however, he was always the annoying kid tagging along. Now he’s all grown-up and delightfully bossy—and sexy—as he encourages me to reclaim my health.
I enjoy pushing Sam’s buttons, but one button too many leads to a scorching kiss. Soon, we’re using Sam’s cushy bed for way more than sleeping. But I can’t imagine staying in Safe Harbor forever, and no way is Sam leaving.
Sam’s given me a place to stay, a job at his nonprofit coffee shop, and a sense of purpose when I had none. But can I give him my heart? And more importantly, can I overcome my past to make Safe Harbor my future?
FIND ME WORTHY is a hurt/comfort childhood crush-to-lovers MM romance. This unexpected roommate arrangement stars two mature heroes with a minor age gap, mental health representation, and plenty of first times and sexy discoveries for everyone. Deep feels, dual point-of-view, and big fluffy HEA guaranteed.
FIND ME WORTHY is book three and the thrilling conclusion to the Safe Harbor series from acclaimed author Annabeth Albert. This small historic Oregon town has a tight friend group, memorable secondary characters, quirky businesses, and long-held secrets. Each book stands alone with a fresh couple, but the background mystery of the town’s secrets ties the series together, making reading in order more fun!
REVIEW:
This is the book that the other two were building towards. Finally Sam gets his well deserved story and it was Worth the wait.
Sam knows that everybody thinks of him as the goody-goody choir boy. The pastor’s son. The young man with candy-apple red hair that had the huge crush on Worth Stapleton in high school. They know he is doing non-profit to work with at-risk young adults. .But they never tend to look outside that box. When he discovers Worth sitting under his tree on the evening of 4th of July he’s more than shocked. Worth didn’t even come home for the memorial service for his Mom when her remains were discovered.
Worth has lost everything! His career he worked so hard to build. His condo. Even his fancy coffee machine. With only his car left he gets in and drives. He had no idea he would wind up back in his home town of Safe Harbor, Oregon sitting under his childhood tree. Or that Sam Bookman, the boy that followed Holden, Monroe and him around in high school with the obvious crush on him, now owned his childhood home and was staring at him in his yard. Sam immediately recognizes that Worth is in a bad way and needs immediate medical attention and mental health help. To the point that he puts Worth in his own bed to keep an eye on him until he can get him in the urgent care clinic the next morning. But the biggest hurdle Sam faces is that if can he convince Worth that he is Worthy of his concern and care.
This book ties up the final pieces of Worth’s Mom cold case and the discovery of her remains and who was the murderer. I had found it odd that Worth didn’t come to his Mom’s memorial the town organized for her. She had been an active member of the community and her tragic story needed closure. Discovering the why he didn’t come was horrible. That man had been put through the wringer for years with the speculation of what happened. The destruction of his remaining family. Then the discovery of the real truth was even harder to stomach. But the betrayal of his bosses, whom he had worked so hard for, and the abandonment of his so-called friends, when that story hit, lead to the fractured and desperate man that arrived at Sam’s doorstep. Depressed and obviously physically ill had put Sam on immediate alert. He’d seen it enough times with the young adults he’d helped over the years. Worth needed help ASAP and Sam had it in his wheelhouse to make things happen.
An interesting, but not surprising, part of the story was bringing in the needed dominance factor to get Worth’s brain to shut off. And having virginal Sam, whose only experience with the kink being his secret stories he read, was questionable. Any total power surrender activities need to not only be consensual, which these were, but also with a trained Dom. Reading about a fictional kink and being able to preform it are two very different scenarios. I caution readers that thinking that they read it so now they can preform it is a very slippery slope to tread on. Having a social work degree with an emphasis on at-risk young adults does not make you qualified to Dom, especially with a person that is possibly suicidal and needs serious mental health help.
I have really enjoyed this series and I am sad to see it ending. Safe Harbor has become a connection to my native Oregon for me. I could imagine the town and the area. I know how small-town costal community life goes. I’ve lived it. And the author got it spot on. Everyone is always up in your business but would drop what they are doing in a instant to help out a neighbor in need. Sam’s townspeople, and former baristas he helped turn their lives around, came when he needed them most and this story drove home that point perfectly.
RATING: 
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