Reviewed by Christian
TITLE: Saving Ren 
SERIES: Barretti Security Series, Volume 3
AUTHOR: Sloane Kennedy
NARRATOR: Michael Pauley
PUBLISHER: Sloane Kennedy
LENGTH: 6 hours, 44 minutes
RELEASE DATE: July 16, 2018
BLURB:
Three men brought together by circumstance who found something none of them knew they needed…
Ren Barretti has finally come home after a year of being held captive by the terrorists who slaughtered his entire Special Forces team. But he can’t escape the nightmares that torment him or the guilt that he was the only one to walk away. The life his older brothers have brought him home to doesn’t exist for him anymore, and to keep them and their loved ones safe from the rage and pain that consume him, Ren needs to disappear.
Police Detective Declan Hale has felt an undeniable pull toward the very straight Ren Barretti since the day Ren’s brother married Declan’s younger sister almost a dozen years earlier. But even though the Ren who has come home isn’t the one who left, all of Declan’s feelings come rushing back to the surface, and he steps in to help the only man he’s ever truly wanted. And even though there’s no future for them, keeping Ren safe is all that matters, and Declan will risk anything to make that happen.
Tough as nails former soldier and mercenary Jagger Varos has returned to Seattle after years of running from his past, and he’s hoping that joining Barretti Security Group will help him finally call the city he left behind home. But within weeks, his new beginning is tested after multiple run-ins with the gruff, infuriating Detective Hale. When he inadvertently discovers that Declan is hiding Ren from the very brothers offering Jagger a new start, Jagger finds himself torn between his newfound loyalty to Vin and Dom Barretti and the need to protect the young man he himself helped rescue from his captors.
For Declan and Jagger, it’s hate at first sight, but they soon realize that they will need each other if they have any hope of saving Ren from himself. And neither of them expects their mutual distrust in one another to grow into something else entirely or that Ren himself will find in both of them what he needs to rebuild his life and come to terms with who he really is.
Can the fierce attraction between three men become something more, or will the demands of the real world tear them apart?
REVIEW:
The moment Declan meets Jagger, he knows this type of criminal, gruff, won’t take any crap from nobody, and a troublemaker. Jagger knows Declan is the epitome of a police detective, straight, condescending, and thinks that Jagger is the scum of what’s wrong in the city these days. Little do they know that they both harbor secrets, both are over judging the other, and both have odd feelings towards one another. What other way to deal with feelings than to be at each other’s throats at every chance they can get?
Ren had finally been found and rescued from an awful fate. He came back to his brothers and his family. Then he goes off the rails, assaults someone and disappears yet again. When Jagger and Declan barge into his life, they each end up saving one another in different ways. Healing old wounds, being patient, listening to one another, and falling in love.
I can’t tell you how much i needed a threesome like these men. I love the m/m/m genre and haven’t read or heard something like this book in a very long time. Sloane showed her true abilities when writing this book. The three men’s lives intertwined together in such a perfect yet heart wrenching way. I held on to every word of this book, waiting for what would happen next, who’s story I would hear next, how these men fell in love with each other one painful, bittersweet moment at a time. You get the backgrounds of each men and it doesn’t seem like Sloane is trying to fit it into the story somewhere. Everything fits together like a well thought out puzzle piece. There were no holes in the stories, I wasn’t left questioning anything at the end.
Michael Pauley brings a new depth to each character he portrays. Whether it be a bad guy, a good guy, or someone in between. This book is no exception. He plays each of the main men so well that I know who is talking/thinking at the moment. Each person has their own voice, wonderfully portrayed feelings, and are oh so sexy. I feel like he has gotten even better with sex and sexy scenes over the last few books I have listened from him. I mean, he was always wonderful, but he has gotten even better! You man not want to be at work or around children when listening to these scenes… I know I had to stop and take myself somewhere else, or listen when I got home, lol. This is by far my new favorite Michael Pauley narration!
I didn’t want to go into too much detail about the story in my review because every minute of this audio book was like a gift. I smiled, I cried, and my heart progressively filled with love for each of these men that Sloane so intricately wrote. This is by far one of my most favorite m/m/m or lgbt books of all time.
RATING: 
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