Safe Place

Rainbow Place, Book 2

By: Jay Northcote

Narrated by: Hamish Long

Where do you go when your home is no longer a safe place?

Alex is about to turn 18 and is firmly in the closet. He’s been biding his time, waiting to escape to uni and finally come out away from the oppressive influence of his homophobic father. When he flunks his exams, he’s stuck in the small town of Porthladock - and what’s worse is that he’s working for his dad. The only thing that makes it bearable is Cam.

Cam’s comfortable with his bisexuality, but he doesn’t broadcast it. Young, free, and single, his social life revolves around playing rugby and hanging out with his mates. He’s attracted to Alex, but with the six-year age gap, Cam’s wary of getting involved. Plus, he thinks Alex needs a friend more than he needs a lover, and as their friendship grows, Cam decides he’s not willing to risk ruining it for casual sex.

When Alex’s dad finds out about his sexuality, Alex is suddenly both jobless and homeless. He finds work at Rainbow Place, the local LGBT-friendly café, and Cam lets Alex stay in his flat for a while. But Alex would rather be sleeping in Cam’s bed than on his sofa. With them both living under one roof, their feelings for each other grow stronger, and the sexual tension is hard to ignore. Will giving in to it ruin their friendship and complicate things for Alex even more?

Although this book is part of a linked series, it has a satisfying happy ending and can be enjoyed as a stand-alone.

©2018 Jay Northcote (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

Superb!

Worth the credits! Jay Northcote writing and Hamish Long narrations are superb! On to book 3.

✫✫ 5 Stars ✫✫

I knew when I finished book 1 that I was going to end up loving this series. Alex & Cam's love story is perfect. This is a sort of friends to lovers story with such a hard story line too. I loved that most of this book these two are friends, for me this really helped build the connection and made me really anticipate them coming together. The chemistry & attraction is there from the beginning but I felt like these two really needed to find themselves before they could be together and that made their HEA perfect. This book deals with hard situations, especially for a closeted gay teen with parents who are not open minded at all. The best part about this story for me was the character growth and the build up. Seriously when these two finally come together it was hot & sweet. Now the only bad part is having to wait for books 3 & 4 on Audio, thankfully the wait is very short.

I enjoyed Hamish Long again in this book and can't wait to listen to him narrate the rest of this series.

Beautiful!

This is my favorite of the Rainbow Place series! I adore these main characters and love their story so much! Hamish Long is such a talented narrator and did a great job with this one!

Another good story in the series

This is a sort of continuation from book one, but I really think it could be read/listened to as a standalone. Seb and Jason from book one are in this book and Cam and Alex met in book one but this book stands on its own just fine. I love that Rainbow Place is the ‘center of the universe’ for this series and Alex’s safe place when he needs one in this story.

I liked this story and Cam and Alex’s chemistry. At first, I understood Cam’s reluctance to be in a relationship with Alex but when that reason is eliminated, I didn’t fully get why he wouldn’t give in to his feelings.

When everything is stripped away and it’s the two of them, I like them together. Being friends first strengthened their relationship.

Mr. Long’s vocal performance is fantastic again. My first experience with this performer was the first book in this series, and I was impressed. He has distinctive voices for every character and his voices for the women were outstanding! I can honestly say I know I wouldn’t have enjoyed this story as much had I just read the book instead of listening.

Nice NA friends to lovers story.Love this series!

I really love friends to lovers stories, but I was a bit bummed by the slow, long-winding road this couple had to take to get to their HFN. Cam and Alex have noticed each other already in the first book in the series, with Alex crushing on the cute, slightly older guy who seems way out of his league. Cam's extremely reluctant to act on (or even admit to) his feelings for Alex, and even though he definitely has his reasons, it still made it a bit difficult for me as reader to believe in the strength of his love.

I did like that Cam and Alex became friends under difficult circumstances and I was completely charmed by the secondary characters... seeing Seb and Jason again was amazing and the others like Sophia, Amber, Hayden and Wicksy are a great bunch of friends and I'd love to see more of them in the following books.

I also would have liked to have seen more of Alex and Cam as an actual item. They only get together at the very end of the story, so we don't really see them grow as a couple.

Narration: This is the first audiobook by Hamish Long that I've listened to and I absolutely loved how he brought the characters to life. He has an amazing voice, very warm and pleasant to listen to, and the English accent is just so charming! I loved his interpretation of Cam and Alex's voices, making Alex sound slightly younger than Cam without making him sound juvenile. All in all, an excellent narration that really added to my enjoyment of this story.