Safe in His Arms (Renae Kaye)
3.5 stars
While I liked Renae Kaye's writing just fine ... I thought this story suffered from a tad too much drama: Casey's rape by his pedophile dad, Lon's family situation (parents and one sister died, one brother in jail, one sister on the run -- and oh, the BIG SECRET revealed in the end as well), Lon's best friend who is in secret relationship with a married man, Casey's two friends who are in a "are they or aren't they" relationship ... to be honest, at one point, I wondered whom am I supposed to be focus on!
The thing is, I could see that Lon and Casey have "it" ... combination of chemistry and something that clicks between them, that I knew they would make it just fine. Since early on, it's clear that Lon provides Casey with a safe haven, someone that chases away Casey's nightmares and makes him feel protected. Despite the age-gap, with Lon freaking out over Casey's barely legal status, there wasn't a moment in which I thought they wasn't good for each other.
Thus, the end-point of Casey and Lon's relationship seems to be for them to finally do "full anal sex" -- one that Lon avoids early on, after he found out about Casey's past, for fear that it will make Casey relive those horrific moments. Because of that, the story bored me after a while because the conflict was just ... blah ... you know? In between, we had a number of sex scenes: blow jobs, hand jobs, etc., etc. (just not anal) as well as the side-stories from Lon's and Casey's friend, which became repetitive.
Apart from that, I did like Casey and Lon as characters. Casey might came a bit needy and whiny sometimes and the fact that Casey seemed to know so little about Lon even after being together for a month made me thinking that he might be the more selfish one in this relationship. Then again, Casey is young, and is not like Lon contributes any information about him voluntarily -- probably has to do with Lon seeing himself as the caretaker for Casey thus not wanting to burden his young lover about his past. I also liked the secondary characters -- I would love it if there are follow-up stories about Paul (and his secret married lover) or Devon and Ash.
Essentially, it is a good read, just not a favorite of mine ... but definitely a confirmation that Renae Kaye is an author that I should keep my eyes upon.
While I liked Renae Kaye's writing just fine ... I thought this story suffered from a tad too much drama: Casey's rape by his pedophile dad, Lon's family situation (parents and one sister died, one brother in jail, one sister on the run -- and oh, the BIG SECRET revealed in the end as well), Lon's best friend who is in secret relationship with a married man, Casey's two friends who are in a "are they or aren't they" relationship ... to be honest, at one point, I wondered whom am I supposed to be focus on!
The thing is, I could see that Lon and Casey have "it" ... combination of chemistry and something that clicks between them, that I knew they would make it just fine. Since early on, it's clear that Lon provides Casey with a safe haven, someone that chases away Casey's nightmares and makes him feel protected. Despite the age-gap, with Lon freaking out over Casey's barely legal status, there wasn't a moment in which I thought they wasn't good for each other.
Thus, the end-point of Casey and Lon's relationship seems to be for them to finally do "full anal sex" -- one that Lon avoids early on, after he found out about Casey's past, for fear that it will make Casey relive those horrific moments. Because of that, the story bored me after a while because the conflict was just ... blah ... you know? In between, we had a number of sex scenes: blow jobs, hand jobs, etc., etc. (just not anal) as well as the side-stories from Lon's and Casey's friend, which became repetitive.
Apart from that, I did like Casey and Lon as characters. Casey might came a bit needy and whiny sometimes and the fact that Casey seemed to know so little about Lon even after being together for a month made me thinking that he might be the more selfish one in this relationship. Then again, Casey is young, and is not like Lon contributes any information about him voluntarily -- probably has to do with Lon seeing himself as the caretaker for Casey thus not wanting to burden his young lover about his past. I also liked the secondary characters -- I would love it if there are follow-up stories about Paul (and his secret married lover) or Devon and Ash.
Essentially, it is a good read, just not a favorite of mine ... but definitely a confirmation that Renae Kaye is an author that I should keep my eyes upon.
3