Always Protected: An Intimate Betrayal Psychological Thriller

by Paige Monroe

187 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 17, 2026

Reviews

[Tiana Vallejo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always Protected was a fast-paced and engaging read that pulled me in from the start. Paige Monroe does a great job building tension and keeping the stakes high, making it hard to put the book down. I read this book in just two days, which says a lot about how quickly it kept me turning the pages.

The characters were well written and easy to root for, especially as the danger escalated. The pacing was strong, with plenty of suspense and action throughout. I also appreciated the protective themes woven into the story, which added emotional weight without slowing things down.
While a few moments felt predictable, it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment.

Overall, this was an entertaining and solid read. If you enjoy suspenseful stories with strong characters and a steady buildup of tension, this one is worth checking out!

[Tina Lincoln · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blood-Sisters mean everything!
Sylvie and Sloane have been friends since they were 8, became blood sisters at 17, and that meant everything! Everything!
They never realized that one night at the lighthouse would change their lives forever.
When a person goes through something traumatic, there is no 'one way' that they will or might react, or even how they will react years later. This story is amazing in showing how one instance changed 2 women and the people they interacted with for years afterwards.
I commend the strength that this story has, the enlightenment of how things 'can' be taken care of, instead of just 'throwing the legal book' at a person.
Thank you, Paige Monroe, for a great story.
I received a complimentary copy of this book and this is my honest review.

[Candy Turk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first time reading this author, and I was hooked right away. It was a total page-turner!

I would definitely recommend this book—it was absolutely worth reading! I'll be adding Paige Monroe to my favorite authors list!

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one keeps you thinking and wondering who is responsible for all the weird happenings. It is full of excitement, best friends with secrets and the past coming back to haunt you. Enjoyable read that has you guessing until the end.

This is unbiased review on an ARC read.

[Tehmeena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Content Warnings; Gaslighting, psychological mind games. Mentioning of sa/violence/trauma, etc...

~I received a free copy of this book from the author and am voluntarily leaving a review.~ ✃

Tropes;
༺🕯️Fast-Paced
༺♟️𝑮𝒂𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈
༺🕯️𝑯𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍
༺♟️𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔
༺🕯️𝑩𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑭𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔
༺♟️𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒚𝒂𝒍 & 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆
༺🕯️𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑷𝒂𝒄𝒕
༺♟️𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑺𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔
༺🕯️𝑴𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝑮𝒂𝒑𝒔 & 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒔
༺♟️𝑨𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒚𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝑻𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒔
༺🕯️𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒆𝒓/𝑩𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅
༺♟️𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈
༺🕯️𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔
༺♟️𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒖𝒎𝒂 & 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈
༺🕯️𝑵𝒐 𝑪𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒇-𝑯𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓
༺♟️𝑯𝑭𝑵

Sylvie is distraught and baffled to hear her voice recording in her daughter's principal's office: drunk, hostile and not herself. The voice sounds exactly like hers, but she doesn't drink anymore, especially when she's heavily pregnant. And with her husband away on a business trip her childhood bestie, Sloan, comes to her aid, as always. But why can't Sylvie remember things not adding up anymore? Also, someone seems to know her every move, too, texting her. Is she losing her mind? Desperate, her brother Jamie comes over to help her. Together they try to uncover the gaps of her memory, of the red dress, and what happened all those years ago...

Sylvia is very vulnerable in her state but she doesn't give up even when the world is against her to get down to the bottom of things, eventually. It's not easy to put all the jigsaw puzzles in the right places when the people you trust the most are the ones who are deliberately misplacing them to lure you the wrong way, surreptitiously and intentionally making you question your sanity. I really do feel for her and rooted for her! I feel like I'm in her shoes, going through the motions.

Sloane is a very complex, multifaceted and intriguing character: she's got layers to her personality. Her background is heart-breaking, so much so, that I didn't expect it to be that dark. But strangely, I feel for her even more. The way Sylvie and Sloane's deep yet flawed friendship and sisterhood unravels over time is hauntingly brilliant. I appreciate how the mystery and suspense keeps me on the lookout with each discovery.

A f*cking page turner! I finished this book in one day. My heart is heavy and my eyes are hazy. Talk about plot twists (the knife twists a few times, let me warn you). I didn't expect so much emotion. So good! This genre is very out of my comfort zone but I want to branch out. It's new territory and exciting. I'm definitely going to continue going down this route. I'm pleasantly surprised how much I liked it. The characters are amazing, some amazing and some I wanna slap: Mia is absolutely adorable! Jamie is such a great brother, protective, a constant rock for his sister. JAMIE, MY LURVE, MARRY ME! ... And Tom. He irks me, and I wish he grovelled at least? The BS he put her through? Anyways.

If you're into psychological thrillers that are riddled with suspense and mystery, a fast-paced setting that doesn't drag, a deep plot about friendship and sisterhood, unexpected plot twists, betrayal and envy, trauma and healing, forgiveness and second chances, then this one is for you!

Out of Fives;
༺🕯️𝑪𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓:✨✨✨✨✨
༺♟️𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔:🖤🖤🖤🖤
༺🕯️𝑴𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚:🔎🔎🔎🔎
༺♟️𝑺𝒖𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆:⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️
༺🕯️𝑬𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍:🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲
༺♟️𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒔𝒕:❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹
༺🕯️𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌:💔💔💔💔💔
༺♟️𝑻𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏:🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
༺🕯️𝑻𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔:💧💧💧💧💧
༺♟️𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒚𝒂𝒍:🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
༺🕯️𝑯𝒐𝒑𝒆:🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️
༺♟️𝑺𝒚𝒍𝒗𝒊𝒆 𝑭𝑴𝑪:💛💛💛💛💛
༺🕯️𝑺𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒏𝒆 𝑭𝑴𝑪:💜💜💜💜💜
༺♟️𝑷𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆:🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬
༺🕯️𝑷𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈:⌛⏳⌛⏳⌛
༺♟️𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑫𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕:🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
༺🕯️𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝑩𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈:🌏🌎🌍🌏🌎
༺♟️𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅: 𝒆𝑨𝑹𝑪/𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒆.
༺🕯️𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔: 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆.
༺♟️𝑷𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔: 178.
༺🕯️𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔: 23 (𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 & 𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒖𝒆.)
༺♟️𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: 𝑭𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝑷𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓.
༺🕯️𝑬𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑷𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 20 𝑱𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒚 2026.
༺♟️𝑾𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝑰 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅: 𝒀𝒆𝒔.
༺🕯️𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[DianaRaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

"ALWAYS PROTECTED" is a standalone story by Paige Monroe. This is a formulaic thriller that I almost quit reading. I've recently read three thrillers with the same premise. Luckily, the storylines were different enough that I was glad I kept going. It wasn't hard to spot the bad guy, but the reason behind the troubles was a total surprise. It’s a quiet unraveling of the main character's life that will mess with your mind as much as hers.

Sylvie and Sloan have been best friends since they were eight and together shared deep trauma at eighteen. Now Sylvie's life is great: a great husband, a booming career, a daughter, and another baby on the way. Sloan is there to help in any way she can.

But then things go south when Sylvie sends disturbing emails and voicemails she doesn't remember, items moved, and appointments missed. Her husband and BFF tell her she's working too hard. Then someone starts dropping hints about a debt she owes, a debt that could cost her everything, even her sanity.

I really enjoyed this fast paced story from beginning to end.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Debra Tunnicliffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tense and emotional story following Sylvie who is fighting for her sanity when her daughters school receives a voicemail which Sylvie denies sending and then missed appointments and emails she cannot remember sending happen.

Her husband is worried especially as she is expecting a baby and asks her best friend to help.

A gripping psychological story which keeps you wondering what is happening.

Would highly recommend.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Nicole Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was good i will be reading more of this author they say keep your enemies close and your friends even closer this is why i was surprised that it end on a happy note thought for sure someone would get their butt kicked.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Sammye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great psychological thriller. The plot is well developed and intriguing. Full of drama and suspense that kept me hooked from beginning to end. A page turner!