Safe in His Arms

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.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

ENTERTAINING!

What about Randy Fuller’s performance did you like?

The audio book is wonderfully narrated by Randy Fuller and, while he does an excellent job, please note that he's very American sounding accent-wise.

Any additional comments?

*sighs* I just don't understand why they can't get a good Aussie narrator.

I'll admit the cover totally pulled me in. Because, I mean, look at it! That cover model is absolutely mouth watering. So I probably would have bought it regardless of author or storyline, but then it turned out to be the same author of The Shearing Gun, which I LOVED, so this was a no brainer for me.

Bottom line: Renae Kaye writes another entertaining, quick, low angst (especially considering some of the storyline) page turner.

This is the love story of Lon and Casey, who both have absolutely horrific pasts (and make no mistake, there's a lot of damage for both Lon and Casey), but have managed to overcome what's happened to them and are now determined to be happy together. It's quite uplifting at times.

I liked both of the characters, was definitely rooting for them the whole time, and I really loved the story.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great story, meh narration.

Couldn't get into this narrator's style, every character sounded like an old man to me.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

So-so writing, dreadful narration

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The narration was appalling, Why have American narrators for non-American books? The writing had potential, but was in serious need of an editor to wrestle a good book from it. The bones of the story were good, and I only listened to the end to see how it ended. I would have been just as happy with a story outline to be honest.

The author persisted in shouting the inner emotions and motivations of the characters at us instead of showing them to us. It makes for a cringing experience. The characters' dialogue was often used to impart this information, instead of what should be inferred by the readers. This means that the book, which is full of male characters, is unconvincing because men, particularly the sort of men that are in this book, do not voice their every thought and emotion. It also makes the book so much more predictable. A good editor could have fixed that.

Another particularly jarring thing is the way that one of the MCs, a supposedly rough miner who can't confess his love, constantly calls his boyfriend 'love'. I have you never heard an Australian man use this as a pet name for his male lover, much less a guarded, butch, taciturn miner. This character also vocalises a lot of things that an Aussie man, no matter how effeminate, would never say regarding his care for the boyfriend during sex. He would do it, not say it. This is all the more bizarre because one of the main themes in the book is his unexplained refusal to f#$% him. He goes into detail explaining and vocalising every other thought, but for some reason not the main issue.

There are other strange oddities in the text. Casey is supposed to be from Sydney having recently arrived in Perth. Yet he seems to have a thorough knowledge of the geography of Western Australian, including obscure outback towns. I also suspect that, although the author clearly knows Perth well, is British. Some of the idiom is incorrect and sounds more English than Aussie. For example, young Australians don't use the word "shan't". These small details are a bit jarring and take you out of the story. The fact that I noticed all of these things is an indication that the writing was not sufficiently gripping.

Would you recommend Safe in His Arms to your friends? Why or why not?

No. Because it reads like an early draft of is an unfinished story waiting for the editor to take a pencil to it, and the narration is completely inappropriate.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Randy Fuller?

Possibly the worst narration I have heard. It's hard to think of a less appropriate narrator. First of all, the thick American accent is off-putting for a very Australian story. The mispronunciation of place names, including major cities, is terrible, but the awkwardness of common Australian words and phrases like mate are really distracting. It takes you out of the story completely.

Secondly, he sounds far too old for the characters. There is little distinction between the voices of different characters - there were only two voice really. A universal camp twink and a universal butch daddy. Neither seemed to match the description of most characters.

Who would I cast? Any Australian with a younger sounding voice would be a vast improvement, regardless of acting ability. Even a woman's voice would have been less distracting.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Cringing mostly. Frustration at the writing and the narration.

Any additional comments?

Audible should put a ban on any non-American books being narrated by Americans. This seems to be a constant problem in the MM genre. The British Sue Brown books being butchered by Max Lehnen is a good example. I don't understand why you would go the expense of producing an audio book and ignore this most basic element of the narration.

It's a shame that the publishing industry is so stripped bare that genre novels are published without any editing. This book had potential, but was served half-cooked.

7 of 11 people found this review helpful

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.

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.

sweet

l really this story of two men help eavh other and working threw there problem

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.

Not impressed with the narration

I was disappointed that the narration wasn't in Australian. I liked the story but the narrator wasn't my favorite.