Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Safe in His Arms
AUTHOR: Renae Kaye
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 208 Pages
BLURB:
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.
But 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. And Lon wonders what Casey will do when he finds out how badly Lon failed at protecting the ones he loved eight years ago.
REVIEW:
I finished reading this book, sat back and though, huh. But that wasn’t a bad “huh” it was a – I wasn’t really expecting that “huh”. This is Renae Kaye’s fourth full-length book and although I mentioned in my review of The Shearing Gun that this author writes books that stand out as distinctive from each other I was focusing on the plot and the characters when I said that. The tone of the books, however, always tends to stay light and non-angsty. Safe In His Arms was a little darker in tone than what I was expecting and I really enjoyed the contrast to the lightness I just assumed I would be reading. That’s not to say that her other books are fluff, or that this one is laden with angst, it’s not, and thank god because I’m not a fan of heavy angst. What could have easily been written as a very gloomy story was kept well above the angst line by a cast of memorable characters who were not going to allow their story to sink into sadness.
This is also the first book by Renae Kaye that has been written in third person with an alternating point of view rather than limiting it to one character in first person. The reasoning behind that is because unlike the MCs in her previous books, both of the main characters in Safe in His Arms experience life altering changes and growth that needs to be explored. Do I sound smart for having picked up on that? Nah, I can’t take credit! Renae Kaye actually explained that to me, but I thought it needed repeating.
Now I know that I’ve mentioned before that I’m a fan of this author but I’m not sure if I’ve explained why. One of the main reasons is that I love the characters she writes and in particular the families that she creates. Whether they’re dysfunctional, quirky, not related by blood – they feel real and so well written that you believe the bonds between them. The Shearing Gun and The Blinding Light looked at loving your family no matter what they’d done but Safe in His Arms really explores just how much you are willing to forgive for the love of family.
I realize that despite my love of this book there are going to be some things that other readers don’t like so I thought I should probably address those. Firstly, the age gap. There are thirteen years between Lon and Casey but it isn’t written in any creepy “be my daddy” way. From the very start Casey lies about his age to make himself older for Lon, so Lon has no idea that he is dating someone who isn’t even out of his teens yet. When he does discover the truth he’s not happy and it’s something that he needs to deal with but considering the two men are already in a relationship I wouldn’t have found it believable if it was seen as such a big deal they had to break up over it. It’s not like Casey is underage. The age difference seemed a tactic to believably provide Lon with enough maturity and life experience to deal with Casey’s problems. At no point did it feel as though the MCs were mismatched due to the age-gap but at the same time it’s not dismissed as unimportant. Some of the other characters do have an issue with the difference in their ages.
It’s evident pretty much from the start that Casey was abused as a child so I don’t feel as though it’s a spoiler to bring it up. I know that some readers avoid the subject of child abuse, and the author didn’t pull any punches when creating a terrible past for Casey. In general it’s not a topic that I avoid and I appreciated that Casey’s character was clearly shown as being damaged but not weak. He still has issues resulting from what happened to him in the past but he is aware of them, he knows how to deal with them and he is willing to ask for help when necessary. Casey doesn’t come across as a character that needs saving or protecting, he just needs a safe place every now and again.
As always the secondary characters are interesting and important to the story. And surely, please, we need these characters to have their own stories. There are two more messed up couples just waiting for their stories to be told. Tell me they won’t be left in limbo for ever after.
So in case I haven’t been clear enough to this point allow me to be blunt. Do I recommend this book? Hell yes I do! I know I intend on adding it to my reread pile.
RATING: 
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