Safe in His Arms

By: Renae Kaye

Narrated by: Randy Fuller

Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

In the late-night quiet of the caravan park shower room, Lon Taylor washes away the filth of the Western Australian mines. He's not looking for anyone, but when Casey offers, Lon doesn't turn him down.

Welcoming the young man in his big, hairy arms, Lon provides a safety to Casey that he has never known, and Casey wants to stay forever. Still reeling from the breakup of his family years ago, Lon's not sure he's ready for the responsibility of the comfort and security Casey craves.

Perhaps Lon can risk opening his heart again and hoping for a brighter future. Casey has some pretty big skeletons in his past to deal with. Lon wonders what Casey will do when he finds out how badly Lon failed at protecting the ones he loved eight years ago.

©2014 Renae Kaye (P)2015 Dreamspinner Press

Loved!

You wanna know what I loved about this story? It was real. It was raw and crude at times. But it felt so real, there was no perfection, no complete fairytale, but a true lost souls finding each other and living happily ever after. I loved it! Lon, heartbroken, guilty and lonely. Casey, sad, scared, broken, but willing to put himself out there.
How they came together, the beginning of their relationship, how it grew and progressed. It was perfect. I just adored them together. Loved it.

Not my favorite from this author

What did you like best about Safe in His Arms? What did you like least?

I loved the main side characters Devon, Ash, and Paul. I didn't particularly like the huge age difference (its just not my preference).

If you’ve listened to books by Renae Kaye before, how does this one compare?

Renae Kaye is one of my favorite authors of this genre. The Blinding Light by her is one of my all time favorite romance novels. Both Shawn's Law and Loving Jay are amazing as well. I would recommend those three before this one.

Did Randy Fuller do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Not really, they all sounded about the same to me, or at least they all blurred together. I wasn't a fan of the narrator's voice in general, but I do think his voice was a good fit for the story.

A bit startling and raw but...

Writing is excellent, as i said a bit raw, but Lon and Casey resonate - another couple in unusual circumstances - that seems to work to find their way out...and one of Kaye's better books. I like as well as the Blinding Light and the Shearing Gun - and so I'm buying the next in the series - I'm not quite to the end - so I'm hoping it's not abrupt - but she has me unable to put this down - so I'm assuming she does right by these two! Randy Fuller does a good job narrating.

Nice Story. Dodgy Narration.

While the narrator, Randy Fuller does voices well, I had to give this performance 2.5 stars because of his random and poor attempts at an Australian accent. While it wasn't often enough to make listening a chore, it was a bit distracting.

The story itself is straightforward and sweet. Although the MCs have horrible pasts that could have introduced A LOT of reasonable angst into their personalities, both men are pretty upbeat and trying to live simple, happy lives without their demons dictating their future.

Great start to a new series

I really enjoyed this book. The only reason this was not a 5 star read is because the ending was wrapped up way to fast. It is a sweet, fairly low angst story. There is mention of sexual abuse of a child but nothing no current abuse. I will not be reading the next story as I do not do cheating. I understand why Andrew is keeping his orientation hidden but, divorce your wife before you start a relationship with someone else.

Aussie love.

I was able to identify with all the characters. It ended too neatly, and so seemed a little juvenile, but that was OK, because I was still entertained.

Amazing story, disappointing narration

Lon comes home from working in the mines, hot, sweaty, exhausted. After a nice shower and shave he catches the eye of a hot, young, twink staring at him in the public showers. He asks him to either suck his cock or quit staring. Figuring that will make the little guy scamper away, he turns back to his shaving. But what does he hear instead of the pattering of feet? “I’ll take option A.”

Renae Kaye’s book starts off with a bang right from page one and never lets up.

The story is both simple and complex. It’s simple in that Lon and Casey meet and immediately want each other. It’s complex in that both men have a past that is heavily influencing their todays.

Casey has been abused in his past. Badly. Really, really badly. But he’s strong and resilient, and despite receiving some amazingly bad therapy (not abuse, just wrong advice) he’s on the road to recovery. But he still has moments of weakness, of panic and it’s those moments that drive him into Lon’s giant arms.

Lon is a big guy, always has been. In addition to being physically immense, his heart is of equal size. He’s always been the caretaker. That back-fired once and now he’s gun-shy. Casey fits him perfectly, but Lon’s afraid he might let him down, and afraid he might not want him when he knows more about Lon’s past.

Despite their issues, (Lon’s past, Casey’s past, their age difference, family opinion, Lon’s work schedule ) they begin their affair and it burns brightly. Little by little they get to know each other and to cross the hurdles. Fortunately they have great friends with great advice and Casey has a wonderful therapist who helps them to see things clearly.

In just a few months it becomes clear that the couple are more to each other than a casual fling and things really heat up. But the past resurfaces in a couple of different ways, forcing the lovers to face things they hadn’t wanted to bring to light. It seems like things might not ever be smooth sailing, but when pushed, the truth, as always, sets them free.

**
Again, I was delighted with Kaye’s writing. Though her books are both funny and touching, Safe in his Arms is also deeply emotional. It is clear she did some research because the subject matter here is not an easy one. I applaud how thoroughly she addresses the issues of intimacy between partners when one has been abused. There was no quick solution or “magic wand waving” to fix the problem. The couple had to address the very real concerns each had, and face them directly. I also thought it was hilarious how the hurdle manifested for Casey, such a simplistic problem for a nineteen year old but when viewed through the eyes of the therapist it was really a very complex issue.

I also really appreciated the fact that Kaye’s secondary characters were real people, too. They had flaws and talents, none being all good nor all bad. I loved that Casey’s grandma suddenly took a different tack in the middle of the book when faced with Lon as a boyfriend for her grandson. It made her very real. I also loved the intriguing side story about Lon’s brother and sisters. Every bit of the story was important and fascinating and kept me turning pages to see what would happen.

I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it.

Audio

I was so, so, so disappointed that they didn’t choose someone with an Australian accent to do this narration. Normally Randy Fuller is hit or miss for me. I have enjoyed some of his narrations immensely, others less so.

In this case he did an okay job. He tried to give some voice differentiation to the characters, didn’t attempt any accent at all, and did a fair job with the intense emotions.

Overall, I wasn’t impressed and was still disappointed with this choice in narrator. If it hadn’t been set in Australia and if I hadn’t heard wonderful narrators (Like the narrator for Blinding Light) I wouldn’t have been put off by Randy Fuller’s narration, it just didn’t “wow” me.

Sweet romance

4.5 Stars

There is a lot of emotions in this book. It starts off quite hot, but then we get to learn more about each characters and really get to see what makes them tick. I will say my favorite thing about this book was how the characters supported each other through the various situations that they go through as a couple, and past issues.

There was some humor and really witty parts that made me laugh and connect with the characters.

I didn't care for the abrupt introduction of one of the characters and how big of a part she played in certain things, but other than that I liked the messy, stressful, complicated relationship that was built between the men even with the large age gap between them.

Since this was my first book by this author, I'll have to say that I am totally on board with reading more from her.

I will note that the audiobook was quite airy sounding at times and I felt like that really took away from the story at times as it was distracting, but the narrator himself, did an excellent job.

I received a free copy of this book to read and review for Inked Rainbow Reads.

Love this story

I've read this book before, and it's one of my comfort reads. It's a cuddly read - even though it deals with some awful topics. It's a book that I keep coming back to - so I figured I needed to try the audio and see if I'd enjoy it as much. And for the most part, I did.

Dead tired, dirty and more than a little scruffy after four weeks in the mines in Western Australia, Lon is in the caravan park shower room cleaning up before passing out. Only he catches a young man eying him. With no patience for games, he orders the guy to make a choice - a choice that will set events in motion neither of them predicted.

After the encounter in the shower rooms, Casey follows Lon back to his caravan. For the first time in years he feels safe. Safe from nightmares, from memories and the past. And after that night he never wants to leave Lon's arms again.

In a way, Casey and Lon are polar opposites, in looks, age, manners and the way they look at the world. But in other ways they are the same. Both having truly painful pasts that still affect them years later. Ghosts they haven't been able to excise. Together though, they make sense. They fit, they both bloom. Casey dealing with his past, and Lon finally opening up and starting to live and feel again. At a glance, they might seem like an odd fit, but they fit like puzzle pieces and make a while.

One thing was glaringly obvious while listening, there was too much on page sex for me. When reading, I tend to skim/skip these parts - please don't hang me, but long and plenty sex scenes bore me. A few, meaningful scenes is totally fine - and most likely enhances the story - but pages and pages and too much focus on it is not my thing.

So first things first; Randy Fuller narrated the whole book in an US accent. This being an all Aussie book – set in Australia and all Aussie characters - it wasn't what I'd prefer. There has got to be a good Aussie narrator out there, because narrating an audiobook in the correct accent is really important to get the feel of the setting and the characters. Truly it will make or break the book – and in this case it was the latter. Other than that, Fuller did a mostly okay narration of the book. There was some distinction between the characters; the voices didn’t always fit the character he was portraying, but that could be my own preconceived notion of what they sounded like.

This has been a day for Kaye audio's for me, and for the most part it's been a good one.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

Cheezy! wait...woa!...ok...ugh..really?

Any additional comments?

wait...hhhmmm...woa! ugh..cheezy...I'm getting my money back..oh goodness..wow!

I have a love/hate relationship with this book. I'm glad I got it...as much as at times it was cheezy as the day is long and I thought about returning it, it would suddently reach depths and expose the story of these characters that took me by surprise with the story unfolding and catching me when I least expected it. Get it? You can always return it...thank you Audible!...I didn't...return it that is.