She's a Keeper

Prickle Island Zoo #1

by Ali K. Mulford

They’re both used to temporary. Have they unexpectedly found forever?Lark Lachlan has her life under control. Although she enjoys the occasional summer fling with women, the devoted-to-her-career, bisexual zookeeper has no trouble keeping her heart in its cage. So she’s a little surprised to feel an instant, all-consuming attraction to the handsome new volunteer, Logan.The last thing Logan Anderson needs is another failed romance. Looking for a final adventure before heading home to take over the family business, the outgoing New Zealander is intrigued by the hottie . . . with her hand down a monkey sewage pipe. But he runs up against her no-sleeping-with-volunteers rule, even when she drunkenly locks lips with him in a red-hot kiss.Lark is tempted to let passion run free with the fun-seeking Kiwi, but animal antics and a dwindling timeline threaten to keep them strictly platonic…Will Lark and Logan let nature take its naughty course?She's A Keeper is the laugh-out-loud first book in the Prickle Island Zoo romantic comedy series. If you like relatable characters, light-hearted humor, and steamy romance, then you’ll adore Ali K. Mulford’s feel-good tale.Buy She's A Keeper to satisfy your untamed desires today!

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Adult, LGBT, Rom Com, Contemporary Romance, Ebooks

452 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2024

About the author

Also writes as A.K. Mulford

Ali K. Mulford (also known by their bestselling fantasy pen name A.K. Mulford) is a rom-com author and former wildlife biologist who swapped rehabilitating monkeys for writing novels. A US and NZ citizen, Mulford now lives in Australia rearing two human primates, writing lovable characters, and making ridiculous TikToks (@akmulfordauthor).

Reviews

[A.K. Mulford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy book birthday to She’s A Keeper!! 🥰🎉🙈

This story was created out of a desire to write a lighthearted, feel-good, warm hug of a book! (While still having some steamy scenes 😉🔥).

I hope She’s A Keeper is a story that brings a few smiles to your day and feels like a joyful escape into a zany other world! I hope you laugh and cry and fall in love… and want to run away to Prickle Island and become a zookeeper! 😂🥰

So many stories from this book are pulled from my real life as a wildlife biologist and I hope you get a real peek into the world of wildlife husbandry too! I can’t wait to share more of the Lachlan siblings’ stories at the Prickle Island Zoo with you!! 🥰🫶

[Andrea ☾ [is inconsistently consistant] · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 ⭐️ We all need a Logan to our Lark!

RTC but wow I was so pleasantly surprised by this book.

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5
My favorite thing about this book is all the positive relationships. All the family dynamics, all the friends, and the romance portion are all A+.

Logan is a dreamboat. He’s the best book boyfriend. He never manipulated Lark into doing anything or saying anything she wasn’t ready to. He saw through her hard exterior and brought out her gooey softness.

I loved the uniqueness of the zoo setting. All the animals were a fun addition.

This was a wonderful book! Don’t judge the book by its cover. It looks sweet and innocent but it has a lot more going on. It’s funny and it’s spicy too!
I need a book about Hawk 🖤

Also, I want to give a shoutout to my appreciation of short chapters 😂 each chapter was around 5 pages long. I loved it!

I was given an ARC by the publisher. I’m leaving this review voluntarily.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very lucky to receive a copy of this book from the publisher. As a zookeeper in real life, I was so excited to hear that A.K. was writing a zookeeper romance series. To me, this book is perfection. It is so comfy and cozy and just makes me giggle and smile for most of the book.

The animal side of things and zookeeping was so realistic, and I love the entire cast of family in this book, and I can't wait to read more of their stories. She's a Keeper has a grumpy/sunshine romance where the FMC is the grump and the MMC is a whole lot of New Zealander sexy sunshine. Lark is definitely a creature of rules and habit trying to hold her family's zoo together, but when Logan comes on the scene, he tests this lifestyle and gets her to hope for bigger dreams.

A.K. Mulford is one of my favorite authors, and I tend to instant buy her books. She's a Keeper is no exception, and she blew this book right out of the water. I can't wait for the next one!

[Erin Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

She’s a Keeper is a quick, fun, contemporary grumpy/sunshine romance where the FMC is the grumpy and the MMC is the sunshine. I love the script flip with the FMC being the one to chase. We follow Lark and Logan while they battle feelings, bugs, monkeys, and rainforests.

It’s refreshing to see representation for NZ (and by association AU) and I love that. I love the NZ glossary and I can’t believe I never knew that NZ HAS NO SNAKES. Immediately moving.

The spice level is 🌶️🌶️🌶️ for me when it is on page. I loved the speed of the plot, I loved all the characters, I loved the banter and the frustrations I felt for our FMC not admitting what she wanted.

If you’re looking for something cute and fun to read, She’s A Keeper is that for you.

[Gigi Ropp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Within a few pages, there were animals pooping and lesbians and that about sums up the book 😂 I LOVE every single character in this story and absolute adore the way the author explains gender identity and makes it relatable and really quite simple. Perfectly spicy and also hilarious, She’s a Keeper is perfection!

[Brittany Hastings-Kutty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a cute lil read - it was cool to read about Aotearoa as it’s not a common place to be mentioned. A lot spicier than I anticipated which ya girl isn’t complaining about. 3.5 stars!!

[Kei ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

She's a Keeper promised a lighthearted, feel-good, warm hug of a book and golly, did it deliver that! I loved the animal side of things and Ali's background has really been able to shine here. Giving us a flipped grumpy/sunshine where our FMC is Ms Grumpy, extra organised and very by the book. Then on the other side we have bright book boyfriend Logan as our sunshine and the epitome of green flag! The spice was excellent, but didn't take away from the main story and all of our other characters were introduced well enough that I am super excited to get into the rest of the Prickle Island Zoo series. It's truly wonderful to read a nice, clean and happy rom-com, with no miscommunication, full of realistic outcomes and excellent Kiwi (and by proxy - Aussie) banter.

I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of She's a Keeper from Ali, this one is definitely one for your list if you are a fan of;
- One bed
- Forced Proximity
- LGBTQIA + rep.
- Grumpy/Sunshine
- Burning spice
- Animal facts

She's A Keeper is available now!

[Ashley Paige · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a bisexual wildlife biologist, I could not wait for this book and had such high hopes. This book reminded me that I need to keep my expectations for romance books low.

The writing left a LOT to be desired - I highlighted some and made them visible if you’d like to cringe along with me. But this book didn’t get interesting for me until I was 70% done, and the ending was just meh to me, it felt rushed and anticlimactic to me.

Also, can we stop with the whole “I’m bisexual but no really, I never date men!” thing? Bisexual women don’t have to justify dating men, so it was really annoying to me to have the main character constantly remind us that she normally dates women and is normally ~never~ into men.

[Kristie Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so funny, and so heartwarming! I've always loved her romantasy books, but this was even better! I seriously could not stop laughing, and I even cried a couple of times!

Lark is very rigid in her schedules at the zoo, and takes great pride in her efficiency as a zookeeper to her monkeys. Logan is off on one more adventure before facing the reality of life back home, and finds himself volunteering at the Prickle Island Zoo for the summer.

Lark doesn't date men...she dates women. She likes women. But for some reason Logan is really doing it for her in all the right ways, despite her strong desire to do literally anything but want him. Logan is completely fascinated by this strong, kind, and caring woman who he would love nothing more than to let boss him around for the next 3 months.

When they end up going to Guatemala together for research with the zoo, they realize just how silly they're being by avoiding what's clearly between them. Watching them fall so hard while trying to deny it was the best kind of torture.

Lark just needs to figure out whether or not she wants to live up to her expectations for herself that are set by Lark, or someone she imagines she's trying to make proud that isn't there anymore. Easy peasy, right?

[Katie Southby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every second!! I was kicked my feet giggling over this book, in love with everything!

[mattea · Rating 2 out of 5]

every time i give contemporary romance a chance i am reminded why i don’t like contemporary romance

[Jessica M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so easy to love. A book full of heart ❤️

[ems_booknook · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 rating
🌶️🌶️/5 spice rating

I had the absolute privilege of being able to arc read this book, thank you to the author for sending me an early copy!

Sometimes, you find books that feel like a big warm hug, that feel like home.

This was that book for me. I connected so well to this book, because of the fact that the MMC is a Kiwi. And yes, I am not, but I AM Australian and it was so refreshing to see OUR turns of phrases and ways of life shining through instead of an American one. Not to say there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s nice to have a change and be represented too.

But it’s more than that. Everything was so well balanced. There isn’t too much or too little of any one thing. The plot is extremely well thought out. The characters all have their own personalities that all peaked through throughout the book. It is inclusive to the LGBTQI+ community. And the way that the author describes and informs about these characters was such a breath of fresh air as someone who isn’t as knowledgeable about this community.

The spice was great, but not so much of it that it totally took over the book, it was just right.

And to top it all off… there’s a monkey that shares my name 🤭 so cute.

A fantastic read and I honestly cannot wait to meet more of the siblings of Prickle Island Zoo and the animals too! I’m assuming the series will be all interconnected and I cannot wait to see how the Lachlan family fares in the future.

Highly recommend, 4.5 stars!

[Jenni]

When one of your favorite fantasy authors announces that they’re starting a contemporary romance series, you race to read it! She’s a Keeper is the most magnificently fun, contemporary romance I’ve read in a while. It’s centered around a family of zookeepers on this tiny island that is only busy during the summer months. The animals were all so much fun!! The atmosphere was ripe with descriptions and lived in knowledge. It made me want to pack my bags and go on a trip.

Lark, my little, grumpy, chronically organized, bisexual queen, I freaking loved her!! She carries the weight of her own expectations on her shoulders and she’s so real for that! I truly think Logan was her match because of how much they balanced each other out. The build up and tension was just so hot imho. It made the spicy scenes that much hotter too.

As always, Ali K. Mulford packs all the LGBTQ+ rep in. It’s really one of those everyone’s queer situations, and it feels like a warm hug. Looking forward to all the siblings getting their romances (especially Finch and Heron!!!).

[Heather G . · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note to self: ask Lark for more animal fun facts”
🐒✨
I’m so obsessed with this story - not just because it’s a romcom filled with amazing queer characters but also because there’s so many animal fun facts. 😂 I just discovered so many random little pieces of information that I never knew about animals and I don’t know if I stopped smiling once while reading this story. 🫶🏻
✨🐒
The way Ali K (AK) Mulford writes their characters feels so real and raw, especially when they’re siblings randomly threatening to torture each other because they’re arch nemesis 😂. The queer-normative worlds they creates within their stories feel so homey and sacred to me, I can’t help but feel safe and bubbly-happy inside every time I open one of their books.
🐒✨
If you’re needing a laugh and love animals, I would highly recommend. (If you’re scared of 🐒💩 jokes, reader be warned now 😂😂😂).
✨🐒
For those wondering about representation, the relationship presented is M/F, but our FMC is queer (bisexual).

[Madelynn Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a great weakness for books with adorable sibling relationship dynamics. Add on to that a man head over heels obsessed and animals everywhere you turn and I am a happy gal.
To be fair Lark drove me a little bit crazy, but definitely in a loving annoying overly tri-hard older sister kind of way (I am the youngest of 5... overbearing older sisters will always annoy me) nevertheless, I did lover her and i think her trauma was handled beautifully. I enjoyed how the romance developed and as always with this author the spice was perfectly on point.

This book was a good starting off point for the over arching story and I am very ready to get into the heads of the rest of the family and to see how the zoo ownership debacle plays out

(I have all fingers crossed for some kind of enemy to lovers/star crossed lovers between one Lachlan and a Madigan)

[Katrin (devouringstories) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given a copy by the publisher, all of my opinions are my own.

I’ve been following A.K. Mulford on TikTok and Instagram for a while (a couple of years). And they are just one of those people you want to support- they write inclusive queer books and just seems like a lovely person. They are also really funny!
I have read The High Mountain Court by them, which I loved and I have been meaning to get back to and finish the other books the series (but as you know I have struggled with fantasy for a while).

When Ali announced that they wrote a rom-com about a family of zookeepers? I got excited to say the least!

She’s a keeper is the first book in the series, and Ali was born to write rom-coms! This book is hilariously funny, surprisingly sweet and the spice? Is SPICY 🌶️ 🌶️

I loved the family dynamics- and I fell in love with all of the siblings (can’t wait to read all of their books!) The main character Lark felt so real, and I’m thinking a lot of us can see ourselves in her strive for perfection and for her tendency to take to much on to herself.
And omg Logan 😍. I feel like we haven’t seen enough kiwi love interests in romance. He was such a steady, warm and supportive presence and the perfect partner for our grumpy Lark.

And of course I can’t end this review without mentioning the animals and how perfectly Ali captured the zoo and its inhabitants! You could absolutely tell that some things were based on her experiences!

[Layna allbookedup23 · Rating 4 out of 5]

i would like to give a massive thank you to Ali for providing me with an Advanced Copy of this book!!

i really loved this book, it had me kicking my feet and squealing!!

i loved the uniqueness of this story particularly the fact it was set in a zoo, never did i think i would be into zoo romance… spoiler i officially am 🥵

although the cover of this book looks innocent and cute, the story is sweet but definitely spicy!! the spice in this book was tastefully written and wasn’t overpowering to the plot. i also ADORED the LGBTQIA+ representation in this book 🏳️‍🌈

i also LOVED the fact that the chapters in this book were so short i didn’t feel like anything dragged on at all!!

i cannot wait to meet the rest of the Lachlan family and see what else Prickle Island Zoo has in store for me 🙈

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Nobody’s taking your rainbow card, Lars. Queerness isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing,” Finch said in that sing-song older sister way she always did when she was telling me off.
“Bisexuality doesn’t have to be a fifty-fifty split.”
“It’s not fifty-fifty at all! I’m ninety-five percent attracted to women, five percent Lee Pace, G Flip, and Vico Ortiz, which leaves exactly zero percent for Logan Anderson, and yet there he was all hot and sweet and muscly, and I’m not handling it well.”

Other than Lark being the middle sister when EVERYTHING she does is eldest daughter syndrome this was everything I could have asked for?!

Bi panic ✔️
Only one hammock✔️
Baby monkey appearances✔️
Finale in the RAIN✔️✔️✔️✔️

I haven't had the pleasure to pick up Mulfords other novels but will for sure do that soon!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Pandora · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for an adorable rom-com filled with hilarious moments and cute animals, look no further.
I adored this story. Lark was incredibly relatable and down to earth. Logan was the best kind of caring, funny MMC.
I had a giggle at the start at the guide to NZ slang included (as an Australian I'm very used to having to explain some of the whacky things we say). I could hear the Kiwi accent every time Logan spoke and it made it that much more relatable. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next with Prickle Island Zoo.

[Mina Ramon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars Hi yes. It's me. I don't enjoy alot of contemporary romance, but if Ali K Mulford writes it. IM GOING TO READ IT. I was not disappointed. This book is so wholesome, adorable, and funny. I fell in love with Logan and omg the zoo animals. They have meaning in story, and we learn cute random facts about them. I usually hate this genre because I don't get alot of substance from the words on the page. But this. I loved. Also, it has LGBTQ representation. Thank you to the publisher for the copy of the book. I'm getting this when it comes out to add to my shelf.

[Carmen Zadnichek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute read! The biggest draw for me was the animal care setting because of my own interest/background but even without that I think those who enjoy rom-coms would really enjoy this book. The characters were likable, the setting and story was interesting, and the pace was great. The chapters were short and that’s ALWAYS a plus for me. I tend to get a bit bored with regular romance reads so that’s why I only gave 4 stars. I crave the magic and world building of fantasy. Thank you for the ARC! I’ll definitely recommend to all of my animal care friends!

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

A super fun zookeeper romance! I absolutely loved this and can already tell that this is going to be a new fav romance series 😍 Lark & Logan’s romance was super sweet, and I loved all the kiwi jokes and references 😅 But my favourite thing was the introduction of all of Lark’s siblings and the zoo itself. I have 3 brothers and 3 sisters and loved reading about a big, chaotic family like my own! It was so nostalgic for me and I loved the little glimpses we got of each sibling. I can’t wait to read more of the series and get to know the family better. Prickle Island Zoo officially has a piece of my heart 🩷

[Taylor Kitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Zookeeper and avid bookworm, THANK YOU! It was so incredibly nice to read about things I experience every single day, like the sweaty summers, the gross clogged drains, smelling like random animals/poop, random bleach stains, etc. and be admired for it. I loved how Lark was beautiful with her strong legs, ponytail, and khaki clothes. This field isn’t for the weak and it’s definitely not one to exactly make you feel beautiful or exactly desired, so this was a fun change. Plus who doesn’t love a great feel good romance!? Excited to see what the rest of the Lachlan family is up too!

[Nikki - Nikki's Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lark is a bisexual zoo keeper who loves her job and her routine and is devoted to her career.
She locks up her heart but is surprised when a handsome new volunteer, Logan, catches her eye.

This book had lovable characters who I look forward to getting to know in future books. There were plenty of laughs and monkey business.

Great romance, great spice, and a fantastic 1st romcom from Ali.

I was given a copy by the publisher, but all opinions are my own.

[Aaliyahsbookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one! Logan and Lark were so cute together, the chemistry they had right from the start was insane😩 It was grumpy girl x sunshine boy and it just worked perfectly, he really brought her out of her shell🥹. The family dynamic was brilliant too, they had so many representations! Don't even get me started on the spicy scenes 😍🌶️Overall a great read and i will definitely be reading the next one!

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know what’s so refreshing? I did not have to sit here and wonder how they managed hygiene and personal care for one second in this book- Mulford made sure I knew. And I seriously appreciated that.
This is such a sweet story that I suspect may be somewhat autobiographical for the author which is completely fascinating. You can tell how much she cares about the animals and it lends so well to such a loveable main character. Was a little difficult to imagine a kiwi accent on the main male character since the accent is so similar to aussie in many ways and, being an aussie, my internal monologue reads everyone’s accents as aussie unless clearly otherwise. But that’s a me problem.
Hiiiiiiighly recommend for anyone who likes quirky characters and soft men.

[Heather Ritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun read, I loved the lgbtqia+ representation and all of the characters unique personalities. As a zookeeper it’s always fun to have relatable media and I can’t wait to read the next book and learn more about other characters!

[Aoife - Bookish_Babbling]

*******

Pre-review - picked up for FREE alongside book2 from amazon.com on 24/1/25. Thanks to the Fussy Librarian email blast putting it on my radar 🤩

A Kiwi volunteer & a zoo setting...colour me curious 🦁🦍🦒🐅🦓🦧🐆🐒🐘